Using SMO to copy a database and data

Question

I am trying to make a copy of a database to a new database on the same server. The server is my local computer running SQL 2008 Express under Windows XP. Doing this should be quite easy using the SMO.Transfer class and it almost works!

My code is as follows (somewhat simplified):

Server server = new Server("server");
Database sourceDatabase = server.Databases["source database"];

Database newDatbase = new Database(server, "new name");
newDatbase.Create();

Transfer transfer = new Transfer(sourceDatabase);
transfer.CopyAllObjects = true;
transfer.Options.WithDependencies = true;
transfer.DestinationDatabase = newDatbase.Name;
transfer.CopySchema = true;
transfer.CopyData = true;
StringCollection transferScript = transfer.ScriptTransfer();

using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
    conn.Open();
    using (SqlCommand switchDatabase = new SqlCommand("USE " + newDatbase.Name, conn))
    {
     switchDatabase.ExecuteNonQuery();
    }

    foreach (string scriptLine in transferScript)
    {
     using (SqlCommand scriptCmd = new SqlCommand(scriptLine, conn, transaction))
     {
      int res = scriptCmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
     }
    }
}

What I do here is to first create a new database, then generate a copy script using the Transfer class and finally running the script in the new database.

This works fine for copying the structure, but the CopyData option doesn't work!

Are there any undocumented limits to the CopyData option? The documentation only says that the option specifies whether data is copied.

I tried using the TransferData() method to copy the databse without using a script but then I get an exception that says "Failed to connect to server" with an inner exception that says "A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)"

I also tried to enable Named Pipes on the server, but that doesn't help.

Edit: I found a solution that works by making a backup and then restoring it to a new database. It's quite clumsy though, and slower than it should be, so I'm still looking for a better solution.

Answer 1

Well, after contacting Microsft Support I got it working properly, but it is slow and more or less useless. Doing a backup and then a restore is much faster and I will be using it as long as the new copy should live on the same server as the original.

The working code is as follows:

ServerConnection conn = new ServerConnection("rune\\sql2008");
Server server = new Server(conn);

Database newdb = new Database(server, "new database");
newdb.Create();

Transfer transfer = new Transfer(server.Databases["source database"]);
transfer.CopyAllObjects = true;
transfer.CopyAllUsers = true;
transfer.Options.WithDependencies = true;
transfer.DestinationDatabase = newdb.Name;
transfer.DestinationServer = server.Name;
transfer.DestinationLoginSecure = true;
transfer.CopySchema = true;
transfer.CopyData = true;
transfer.Options.ContinueScriptingOnError = true;
transfer.TransferData();

The trick was to set the DestinationDatabase property. This must be set even if the target is that same as the source. In addition I had to connect to the server as a named instance instead of using the other connection options.

Answer 2

Try setting SetDefaultInitFields to true on the Server object.

I had the same issue with the SMO database object running slowly. I guess this is because sql server doesn't like to retrieve entire objects and collections at once, instead lazy loading everything, causing a round-trip for each field, which for an entire database is pretty inefficient.