Our customer provides us an dump file of an SQL Server Compact Edition.
The database is password-encrypted (probably by the team of the original project).
The file extension is : database.sdf
Is there a way to extract data from the dump file ? Or is there any password recovery tool for SQL Server Compact ?
Any hints would be helpful.
In order open an encrSQL Server Compact edition file, you must know the password and add that to the connection string:
Data Source=C:\temp\database.sdf;Password=mypassword
I do not know of any password recovery tool for SQL Server Compact
Related
I was given a SQL Server bacpac file to restore a database on a Ubuntu 20.x instance.
I thought I would use this command to restore the file:
/opt/mssql-tools/bin/sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P "Password123!" -Q "RESTORE DATABASE [demodb] FROM DISK = N'/var/opt/mssql/backup/mssql-latest.bacpac' WITH FILE = 1, NOUNLOAD, REPLACE, NORECOVERY, STATS = 5"
Though the error it fed me was:
Msg 3241, Level 16, State 1, Server 6f604ce9f741, Line 1
The media family on device '/var/opt/mssql/backup/mssql-latest.bacpac' is incorrectly formed. SQL Server cannot process this media family.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Server 6f604ce9f741, Line 1
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
And when looking into this more via google searches it seems to be related to an older version of SQL Server bacpac being used with a newer version of SQL Server.
I am currently running SQL Server 2019 Express, thinking that this would work.
How can I find out which version I need to use without downloading every version of SQL Server? Similarly, How do I know if I need to use Express or Developer, or any of the other versions of SQL Server. I thought Express would be ideal because I think it is lightweight.
Real issue here is, you are trying to restore a .BACPAC file using "RESTORE DATABASE" command which will obviously fail as "RESTORE DATABASE" command is used to restore .BAK file not .BACPAC file.
You got to use SQLPackage utility to restore a BACPAC file. Details are provided here.
BACPAC is basically ZIP file. You can change the extension of file to zip file and extract it. You can see the version of the SQL Server.
Reference article on editing bacpac file
You can open the Origin.xml for the SQL Server version of the BACPAC.
Also, to answer your question of SQL Server Express Vs SQL Server Developer. SQL Server Express is limited feature set and SQL Server Developer is with full feature set as SQL Server Enterprise edition. But, you can use SQL Server Developer only for the development purposes and not in production. Express edition is having some limitation on storage and features. If it is not satisfying, you can go for Developer edition and later upgrade, when you go for production.
The different editions of SQL Server and differences among them
I want to get the schema of tables from a remote database. I only have the username and password of remote SQL Server. It doesn't provide any tools like in SQL Server Management Studio. What is the proper way for getting schema of tables from this remote sql server? please help
The 2012 SP1 version of Management Studio Express is fully functional and free. Go download it instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.
Database encryption using TDE (Transparent data encryption) is available only for Enterprise edition and developer edition.
Is there any way to implement encryption mechanism for SQL Server 2008 Express database with out changing underlying schema of the database?
You can use good old encrypted file system (EFS) and storing your database files on encrypted folder
I have a feature in visual studio which I have never really understood.
I am able to 'right-click' on the App_Data folder and then I am able to select 'Sql Server Database'. I dont really understand how I can create a db using just an mdf file? I thought the sql service was responsible for manipulating these files? And that you have to create the db using the 'sql management studio' interface?
Im confised as to how we can essentially just have a lone file and run a db from it for a website?
You're application is still connecting through the SQL Server service but it can instruct the service to attach to a specific mdf file at runtime through a connection string. e.g.:
"Server=.\SQLExpress;AttachDbFilename=c:\mydbfile.mdf;Database=dbname; Trusted_Connection=Yes;"
All SQL Server databases are represented as one (or more) .mdf files and usually .ldf files as well (ldf is the log file, mdf is the data file.) An .mdf file is a file but it is highly structured and maintained by SQL Server. The way SQL Server uses this file is very different from serving up CSV data, as a simple example. SQL Server breaks the file into pages and serves the requests for reads and writes via this paging system. It is indeed like a file system within a file system. If you think about it it does all make sense. The data has to get persisted to disk and that disk persistence has to come in the form of a file or files.
When you installed Visual Studio you also installed SQL Server Express. This gives you the ability to create and use SQL Server databases.
If you were to deploy your application you would then also need to have a SQL Server (Express) install on the web-server you were using (at least because you don't want to use your development database server in production).
I have created program that uses SQL Server database to store data. After a while (and lots of stored data) I have realized I don't need database on the server, local database running without server could do the job.
Now I need some advice how to export, convert or whatever, SQL Server database to local (sdf) database? I'm using VS 2010 and SQL Server 2008, I also have SQL Server Management Studio.
Check out the SQL Server to SQL Server Compact Edition Copy Tool available on CodeProject in C# source code:
Should do just what you need: copy data from SQL Server to a SQL Server Compact Edition .sdf file.
Use the Export database tool? If you are using MS Windows OS then you can access is through the JET interface.
Use my Export2sqlce.exe command line utility: http://erikej.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-use-exportsqlce-to-migrate-from.html