Backup to BACPAC file

TonyJK 876 Reputation points
2022-04-25T02:39:11.677+00:00

We are going to migrate our on-premise application to cloud (Azure).

Consultant asks us to backup the current database in BACPAC format instead of BAK.

May I ask

  1. Is there any reason we use BACPAC instead of BAK ?
  2. It appears that it will take longer to create BACPAC file than BAK though the size of BACPAC file is much smaller than BAK file. Is it correct ?
  3. Do we need to resolve all errors when we export current on-premise database to BACPAC file ?

Thanks

Azure SQL Database
SQL Server
SQL Server
A family of Microsoft relational database management and analysis systems for e-commerce, line-of-business, and data warehousing solutions.
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  1. Alberto Morillo 32,886 Reputation points MVP
    2022-04-25T04:25:10.21+00:00

    1) Bacpacs are smaller to transfer to Azure than BAKs as BAKs are a page by page copy of a database.
    2) I would say time to create a native backup vs a bacpac is not the issue, the issue is the time it takes to transfer a native backup file to the cloud. Consider a 700 MB database that creates a BAK file with a Full + TLog and a size of 400 GB vs a bacpac of 23 GB of the same database.
    3) I would say that is the part I like the most about bacpacs, you need to resolve errors / restrictions or remove problematic objects to be able to create a bacpac. For example, you may need to remove Windows logins.

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  1. AmeliaGu-MSFT 13,961 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2022-04-25T05:42:25.707+00:00

    Hi TonyJK-1323,

    In addition, SQL Server native backup are not supported on Azure SQL Database. Please refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/features-comparison for more details.
    And you can use the tools for this doc to help you migrate SQL Server databases to Azure SQL Database.

    Best Regards,
    Amelia

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