Was recently reviewing the SharePoint 2019 requirements when I noticed a change in the requirements compared to previous versions of SharePoint.
The change is that as long as SQL Server version supports the Database Compatibility Level 130, then you can use whatever version you require.
Source – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/install/hardware-and-software-requirements-2019
This helps with migrations and upgrades when certain versions of SQL Server go end of life.
This is perfect for people like my client who are running SharePoint 2010 on SQL Server 2008 R2. SQL Server 2008 R2 has gone end of life from extended support back in July 2019, so when we migrate to SharePoint 2019 we can provide rolling SQL Server upgrades without having to perform a complete SharePoint migration just because SQL Server is end of life.
1 Giant Nerd 