Question

I have been using SMO for a while for transfering databases. It was pretty easy to handle from c# by using the TransferDatabase task.

For my current project this gets to slow. I have to switch to offline mode, where the database is detached and atached.

What is the least troublesome way to start such a process from c#? I know that there is SSIS, but if possible I would not like to use it. Installing SSIS on my machine is a bit painfull.

Answer 1

Just issue the SQL Server Detach and Attach command from c#

Something like this…

var sourceConnectionString = "Data Source=sourceServer;Initial Catalog=MyDB;Integrated Security=True;";
var destinationConnectionString = "Data Source=destinationServer;Initial Catalog=MyDB;Integrated Security=True;";

var sourceLocalPath = @"C:\MSSQL\DATA\MyDB.mdf";
var destinationLocalPath = @"C:\MSSQL\DATA\MyDB.mdf";

var sourceRemotePath = @"\\ServerNameA\ShareName\MyDB.mdf";
var destinationRemotePath = @"\\ServerNameB\ShareName\MyDB.mdf";

// Make connections
var sourceConnection = new SqlConnection(sourceConnectionString);
sourceConnection.Open();
var destinationConnection = new SqlConnection(destinationConnectionString);
destinationConnection.Open();

// Detach source database
var sourceCommand = new SqlCommand("sp_detach_db MyDB", sourceConnection);
sourceCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();

// Detach destination database
var destinationCommand = new SqlCommand("sp_detach_db MyDB", destinationConnection);
destinationCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();

// Copy database file
File.Copy(sourceRemotePath, destinationRemotePath);

// Re-attach source database
sourceCommand = new SqlCommand("CREATE DATABASE MyDbName ON (FILENAME = '" + sourceLocalPath + "') FOR ATTACH", sourceConnection);
sourceCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();

// Re-attach destination database
destinationCommand = new SqlCommand("CREATE DATABASE MyDbName ON (FILENAME = '" + destinationLocalPath + "') FOR ATTACH", destinationConnection);
destinationCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();