Question: I am working on a project where I will be provisioned a SQL Server 2017 database server. However, the only version of SQL Server Management Studio available to me is 2008R2. I could request a newer version but this may take 1-2 months before it is finally installed on my machine.

Am I going to run into compatibility issues? Are there any database settings in SQL Server 2017 I would need to set in order to use this?

I am pretty unfamiliar with the MS suite of database tools so sorry for my ignorance in this! Thanks

**In response to comments:**

I have a managed system so I am not able to install or run software that has not been "approved". I have tried the portable version of VS Code but that did not work for me. I am going through the process of requests SSMS 2017 but like I said in the question this will not be available for 1-2 months. In the meantime will SSMS 2008 work?

Answer: 
As unlikely as this may be, I happen to have two, and only two, versions of SSMS installed on my machine; 2008R2 and 2017. I'm in the midst of an upgrade project.

I opened SSMS 2008R2 and was to connect to and generally poke around on a SQL Server 2017 server and the related databases. I didn't do anything too complicated (a few `SELECT` statments & an `UPDATE`), but they worked. The objects I expected to be visible were visible. And I didn't have to do anything to make it work. It just worked.

Mostly.

Except that every time I right clicked on a table, an error box opened with this message:

> 
> Index was outside the bounds of the array. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)
> 
> 
> 

But if I hit the `OK` button, the box cleared and the desired right click menu opened and functioned. That will get irritating, but if you poke around in the Options menu, there might be a way to make it stop. I invested no minutes trying to do that.

At the very least, you should be able to work while you're waiting for your upgrade.

For what it's worth, I work for a government contractor and have the same level of security constraints you do, so I feel your pain.
Another approach is to run sqlcmd, which would have been installed with SQL Server 2008R2. I was able to connect from sqlcmd to a SQL Server 2017 Docker container (external/internal ports 1433). I did not encounter any errors/warnings when creating a database and table, and running some light queries.

Interestingly, I was **unable** to connect to the same server using SSMS 2008R2. Perhaps the protocol used or the security required (e.g., TLS 1.2) for the underlying connection was different. Clearly it works based on Eric Brandt's results.