Here's my current dilemma: I need to migrate the database, including the data, from SQL server version 13 to version 12. The source is on an Azure box and the destination is on my local box. I can't install SQL server 2016 on my local box; that isn't an option. How do I do this?
I would recommend you to use SQL Database Migration Wizard
Can you try using SqlPackage to Export the Azure database?
I've recently done the opposite of you, exporting SQL Server 2012 databases to Azure SQL V12. I used a combination of SqlPackage and Visual Studio with SQL Server Data Tools.
Basically I made a SQL Project based on the source databases (SQL Server 2012 hosted), set the target platform to Microsoft Azure SQL V12 and fixed any errors and warnings that wasn't supported in Azure SQL V12.
I then did a schema compare between the source database and the SQL Project. With this I generated a script which I ran against a copy of the source database.
Lastly I used SqlPackage to make a .bacpac from the database I ran the script against, which I could then deploy to Azure.
If you do the opposite maybe it'll work. It is important that when working with Azure SQL that you have updated software.
It seems that the answer is in insert scripts, which I didn't realize was a thing. There's good information at How to generate an INSERT script for an existing SQL Server table that includes all stored rows?
Edit: Another answer says NOT to generate INSERT scripts to copy all the data from a DB. I tried it and it seemed to fail because of some truncation in the script itself (it ended up being over 11 GB). A developer I'm working with suggested the bcp utility (documentation at this link), which I have not yet tried.
Related
I'm trying to port my system to SQL Database (Azure instance) from SQL Server 2012.
I'm using Visual Studio 2013 and I have my .sqlproj with all the definition of my database inside.
Given that a number of SQL statements are not available in SQL Database (like "ON [PRIMARY]", filegroups, etc.), I should change a huge number of *.index.sql , *.pkey.sql, *.table.sql files.
Unfortunately I still need to cope with SQL Server 2012 installations (some customers are still on that infrastructure), so I would like to have instead a simple way to switch between the "SQLAzure" vs. "OLD-2012" syntax.
E.g. something like Compilation Symbols would be useful, or similar tricks.
Anyone has a brilliant idea on how to manage such an issue?
Thank you very much!
cghersi
You could use a migration tool like Sql Azure Migration Wizard (not an official tool, but really good) and then generate the *.sql scripts that are used on SQL Database (SQL Azure). Then you can create a new project that only has those files when you target SQL Database (SQL Azure).
I know that you can't (at least not easily) restore a SQL Server 2012 backup on SQL Server 2008. But how does it work for SQL Server 2014 to SQL Server 2012 ?
On database level there is the property to adjust the compatibility mode to any other SQL Server version.
How does this helps or work ? Will it only disallow the features from 2014?
To be honest I already tried to restore a backup, but 2012 didn't recognize the datafile, so I couldn't click ok Button to start the restore procedure.
Did I miss some important option ?
You CANNOT do this - you cannot attach/detach or backup/restore a database from a newer version of SQL Server down to an older version - the internal file structures are just too different to support backwards compatibility. This is still true in SQL Server 2014 - you cannot restore a 2014 backup on anything other than another 2014 box (or something newer).
You can either get around this problem by
using the same version of SQL Server on all your machines - then you can easily backup/restore databases between instances
otherwise you can create the database scripts for both structure (tables, view, stored procedures etc.) and for contents (the actual data contained in the tables) either in SQL Server Management Studio (Tasks > Generate Scripts) or using a third-party tool
or you can use a third-party tool like Red-Gate's SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare to do "diffing" between your source and target, generate update scripts from those differences, and then execute those scripts on the target platform; this works across different SQL Server versions.
The compatibility mode setting just controls what T-SQL features are available to you - which can help to prevent accidentally using new features not available in other servers. But it does NOT change the internal file format for the .mdf files - this is NOT a solution for that particular problem - there is no solution for restoring a backup from a newer version of SQL Server on an older instance.
Sure it's possible... use Export Wizard in source option use SQL SERVER NATIVE CLIENT 11, later your source server ex.192.168.100.65\SQLEXPRESS next step select your new destination server ex.192.168.100.65\SQL2014
Just be sure to be using correct instance and connect each other
Just pay attention in Stored procs must be recompiled
A database that was originally from SQL Server 2008, was restored into SQL Server 2012. A backup from SQL Server 2012 was made and I am trying to restore it on my local SQL Server 2008 Express. However I get an error 'Specified cast is not valid' (SQLManagerUI).
I have generated an SQL Script from 2012 and set it so that it will generate with compatibility to SQL Server 2008. However it is a large sql file, around 700mb.
I recall before that I had tried to run a script of that size before on my local SQLExpress and also got an error.
Is there a way I can get a "large" database from SQL Server 2012 into SQL Server 2008 Express?
Thanks to Marc and Aaron for providing the answers.
The quick answer is no, it's not possible to restore a backup file from a higher version to a lower version of SQL Server.
A work around would be to generate the scripts to create the database.
You can target the script generation to a lower version.
Please see comments above for more information.
Links:
Why an SQL Server Database from a higher version cannot be restored onto a lower version of SQL Server?
Create Database in SQL Server 2012, Script and Use in 2008?
Couple things to add that might be helpful to folks
When scripting large databases using scripting wizard in SSMS it’s really important to check the execution order and be willing to re arrange it manually. Older versions of SSMS had this problem because they (probably) relied on sp_depends that has a bug.
What I’ve found really useful in such cases are tools like ApexSQL Diff that you can use to read database backups and generate scripts that are in correct execution order.
SQL Server database backup restore on lower version
One thing that none of the methods will catch is the thing Aaron mentioned about using functions specific to higher version.
A better option than using the SSMS scripting wizard is to use a similar tool available on Codeplex called SQL Database Migration Wizard - http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/releases/view/32334. You want the latest version v4.x to work with SQL Server 2012.
The tool is originally intended to be used for migrating databases between SQL Server and Azure. However the tool works just as well as between SQL Server and SQL Server. The trick is to set SQL Server rather than Azure as the target in the advanced options.
The reason this is a better option than the SSMS scripting wizard is that it uses BCP for the data transfer rather than TSQL and so is much more efficient.
i'm currently working on a asp.mvc application with entity framework as db backend which will be running on ms azure platform.
on my development machine i'm running a sqlexpress instance which hosts my development database (like i said may app connects via entity framework to it).
deploying the database schema from my local sqlexpress to sql azure is pretty easy via the entity framework database generation wizard (for whatever reasons the wizard always wants to create some clustered indexes which i correct manually in the generated sql file).
but i can't figure out a way to keep my data! the auto generated sql script always dumps all my tables and creates new ones...thats ok for initial setup, but not to upgrade a existing database.
there must be a nice way to perform a schema update without dataloss...please help! i have already tried sql management studio (r2) and SQLAzureMW (available on codeplex)...but they don't do the job :(
please don't tell me i have to code my own tool to do that!
looking for your help
thx
Edit: here's how i do it now
I use the SQL scripts created by the EF migration wizard for my local SQL Express and modify them myself to be compatible with SQL Azure. Is less work that one might think and works perfect :)
Have you tried to use BCP to export and then import your data? I believe you should be able to use BCP to export data from your SQL Express instance into a file, and then import data from the file into SQL Azure. The SQL Azure team has a blog posting that describes using BCP with SQL Azure - Link.
Additionally, in the future, the upcoming release of SQL Azure Data Sync CTP2 might be able to help you out.
Out of curiosity, what problems where you having with SQLAzureMW?
RedGate is famous for SQL server synchronization and data synchronization for deployment purposes.
They have a v9 beta out of their DataCompare and SchemaCompare products that are compatible with SQL Azure. I've been using both successfully and like them alot.
They are pricey when purchased, if you are a small business.
http://www.red-gate.com/Azure
This sounds vary similar to this question, the only answer to which is "wait for the next version of entity framework". I'll admit that I don't use EF, but I make my changes to tables the old school way with SQL Server Management Studio and scripts. ALTER TABLE FTW.
EDIT: If you don't have access to SQL Server Management studio, the new version of the SQL Azure portal includes a Silverlight based application that allows you to run queries and scripts
Got myself in a bit of a pickle here ... working on a CMS project, under the assumption that sql server 2008 was greenlighted as the db of choice. Well it wasn't, we now have to backport all of our content out SQL Server 2008 and into SQL Server 2005.
A simple backup/restore procedure yields: "RESTORE HEADERONLY is terminating abnormally. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 3241)".
Unfortunately, exporting the data to an excel spreadsheet yields multiple OLE errors which I believe is actually a problem in the db of the cms.
Does anyone out there have other approaches they would like to recommend for this task? Thanks in advance
Use RedGate:
tool for comparing and deploying SQL Server database contents.
You can work with live databases, backups, or SQL scripts in source control. Damaged or missing data can be restored to a single row, without the need for a full database recovery.
SQL Data Compare helps you compare and deploy changes quickly, simply, and with zero errors...
There is no way to do this by default. You can generate scripts for 2008 database on 2008 server and then execute these scripts on 2005 version. Note that you’ll have to manually review scripts and remove all parts that are unique to 2008 version.
Another way is to use third party tools such as Red Gate or ApexSQL Diff (move schema) and ApexSQL Data Diff (move data).
Use the Generate SCripts to create the database and schema and ensure you target SQL Server 2005 and script data.
Rather than do a backup and restore you might try using SQL 2005's Import/Export Data wizard.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314546
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms140052(SQL.90).aspx
I've just hit the same problem and here is how I worked around it.
The problem was to copy a database from an operational SQL Server 2008 database to a new SQL Server 2005 database.
I scripted the database using Management Studio on the 2008 server. I only scripted the database design, not the data. I should add also that the DB only has tables and indexes, so I haven't tried this with any cleverer objects although I can't think why they wouldn't work.
On the 2005 server I created a new database by hand and then ran the script to set up all the tables and indexes.
The in Management Studio back on the 2008 server I used the Export Data wizard to export the data from the 2008 server to the 2005 server. It's currently running and seems quite happy moving the data.
Once all the data is across I'll have a couple of small things left to do - create the users and set-up the security in the 2005 DB, but all-in-all it doesn't look like a bad way of doing it. It's not quite point-and-click but it's not too strenuous.
So it seems that the Copy Database wizard won't work (I think because the package ultimately runs on the 2005 server and 2005 Management Studio can't talk to 2008) but the Export Data wizard is quite happy moving data ... as long as the DB already exists on the target server.
Hope that's useful.
It's not possible to restore to previous versions in SQL Server
Is there no SQL 2005 backup around? Otherwise you really are limited to export the entire database in 2008, and re-import back into 2005, or the Import/Export wizard in 2008
Or rely on 3rd party tools. e.g. Red Gate Data Compare is able to sync. the DATA between 2 servers/databases
I only use mysql but can you export your data into sql statments, and then import then into sql2005? Just a thought..
I faced a similar problem (sql 2005 to sql 2000), and found that I happened to have a blank database at the older version. I used bcp.exe to copy all the data.
check this link click here
You can create the database script in sql server 2008 and you can use it sql server 2005 and lower version....