It has been requested of me to dump an entire database hosted on MS SQL Server 2005 with multiple tables for a third party to then import/use.
- My first thought was to find something like mysqld_dump that would give them import commands, which lead me to the “generate scripts” with schema and data, which should work.
- one concern with this option is data that has primary/foreign key requirements, does the script it creates keep this in mind, should it be no problem? I am doing a test import now to attempt to verify this; thought I would mention it.
- It was suggested for quicker resolution to just dismount the database and give them the MDF file. I am not sure I like this idea, as I am not so familiar with everything that gets stored in this file. Is it a security risk to our server at all? is there references stored in this file that specifically relate to our server that may allow for damages?
My main concern is security here, as long as they get the data everyone will be happy.
Any advise or even better alternatives that i have not thought of would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Why don’t you just backup and restore the database to a server that the 3rd party has access to, or deploy it on a server for them and restrict their access and only give them ability to run scripts and other basic permissions?