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sql-servergithubvscode-devcontainercodespaces

How to restore a SQL Server backup in GitHub Codespaces container?

I have setup a GitHub Codespaces environment that includes a SQL Server container.

Inside /.devcontainer/docker-compose.yml i have something like this;

# ... other containers configururation
  db:
    image: mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      ACCEPT_EULA: Y

The SQL Server spins-up, but I don't know how can I restore a database on that server. When I run a VS Code DevContainer locally on docker I can just copy the file to the SQL Server container with the docker cp command, and then run the script to restore the database from there. But I don't know how to approach this task with Codespaces.

Any ideas appreciated.

Solution

  • One option would be to use Spawn (disclaimer - I'm one of the devs working on it).

    Spawn lets you create "data images" which represent readonly snapshots of a database at a point in time. These can be created from backups (including SQL Server backups - check out the docs).

    Once done, you can create "data containers" which are instantly provisioned cloud-hosted copies of Spawn data images that can be consumed in any environment - including GitHub codespaces.

    We've written about how to use Spawn data containers in GitHub Codespaces here.