Overview of Compatibility between Earlier Servers and SPD Server 5.3

SPD Server 5.3 can read earlier SPD Server 5.x tables and 4.x tables. If SPD Server 5.3 modifies an earlier 5.1 or 4.x table, that table is no longer usable by a version older than SPD Server 5.2. SPD Server 5.2 introduced table modifications in support of Hadoop. Any tables updated by a 5.2 or 5.3 server will include these metadata modifications. Table data is not affected by the format upgrade.

SPD Server 5.3 cannot read 32-bit Windows tables. They must be converted as described in Converting SPD Server 4.x 32-Bit Windows Tables to SPD Server 5.3 64-Bit Windows Tables.

The SASSPDS 5.3 engine can connect to any earlier 5.x or 4.x SPD Server. The 5.3 client supports all features of the earlier server. However, the earlier server does not have access to 5.3 client features, such as strong encryption for data at rest.