Having a “compatibility range mismatch between the Web server and database” you need to run the PSConfig upgrade command to get the content database at the same level as config database. And you typically run:
PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait
The –inplace parameter specify whether to use version to version (v2v) upgrade or build to build (b2b. This can be quite confusing since when we look at our Configuration database version in the Servers in Farm page in Central administration (/_admin/FarmServers.aspx) it specifies a build number.
From the article Software updates overview for SharePoint 2013 one can read:
In SharePoint 2013, for build-to-build upgrades, you can use either in-place or database-attach methods. For version-to-version upgrade, only database-attach is supported. For more information about version-to-version upgrade, see Overview of the upgrade process to SharePoint 2013. For an overview of the steps for in-place and database-attach upgrade for build-to-build upgrades, see Install a software update (SharePoint 2013)
So my guess is that –inplace b2b
is the only option you have in an existing farm where you haven’t used a database attach method. Still I’m confused of the terminology used. Is a version the same as build numbers, or what is the difference?