The best mechanism for alter columns of system versioning tables (Temporal Table)?

Question

I have a system-versioning table with history table related as follows:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[ExpenseCenter_Archive](
    [ExpenseCenterId] [tinyint] NOT NULL,
    [Name] [nvarchar](200) NOT NULL,
    [LineCode] [smallint] NOT NULL,
    [SysStartTime] [datetime2](2) NOT NULL,
    [SysEndTime] [datetime2](2) NOT NULL
) ON [FG_HISTORY]
GO
-------
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[ExpenseCenter](
    [ExpenseCenterId] [tinyint] NOT NULL,
    [Name] [nvarchar](200) NOT NULL,
    [LineCode] [smallint] NOT NULL,
    [SysStartTime] [datetime2](2) GENERATED ALWAYS AS ROW START NOT NULL,
    [SysEndTime] [datetime2](2) GENERATED ALWAYS AS ROW END NOT NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_ExpenseCenter] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [ExpenseCenterId] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON, FILLFACTOR = 90) ON [FG_DATA],
CONSTRAINT [UK_ExpenseCenterName] UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED 
(
    [Name] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON, FILLFACTOR = 90) ON [FG_INDEX],
    PERIOD FOR SYSTEM_TIME ([SysStartTime], [SysEndTime])
) ON [FG_DATA]
WITH
(
SYSTEM_VERSIONING = ON (HISTORY_TABLE = [dbo].[ExpenseCenter_Archive] , DATA_CONSISTENCY_CHECK = ON )
)
GO

Now, I want alter data type of 'LineCode' in system-version table and history. After changes once again enabling it as follows:

--- Before edit column
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[ExpenseCenter] SET (SYSTEM_VERSIONING = OFF);  
-- ## Edit column in ssms ##

--- After edit column
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[ExpenseCenter] 
SET    
(   
SYSTEM_VERSIONING = ON (HISTORY_TABLE = [dbo].[ExpenseCenter_Archive])   
);   

But I get the following error:

Cannot set SYSTEM_VERSIONING to ON when SYSTEM_TIME period is not defined.

How do I solve this issue.

Answer 1

for alter system versioning table you don't need set SYSTEM_VERSIONING = OFF, but directly use ALTER TABLE ...