Database upgrade fails with error: SQL error(2716): Column, parameter, or variable #3: Cannot specify a column width on data type ntext.; (4344414)

Database upgrade fails with error: SQL error(2716): Column, parameter, or variable #3: Cannot specify a column width on data type ntext.;

Database upgrade fails with the following message:

SQL error(2716): Column, parameter, or variable #3: Cannot specify a column width on data type ntext.;

This is due to a change in SQL behavior in versions 2012 and 2014, where the text data type can no longer have a length specified.

Workaround:

1. Take the database out of single user mode if you haven't already done so.
2. If you haven't already taken a full database backup of your change auditor database, do so now.
3. Update the data type of the column to be nvarchar(max) in SSMS: ALTER TABLE [dbo].[$MyTableName] ALTER COLUMN "Description" nvarchar(MAX) NULL;
4. Once the column has been successfully updated in the database, close all connections to the database and restart the coordinator service and see if the upgrade proceeds past the point where it failed last time.