Cross Subscription Copying of Databases on Windows Azure SQL Database

Question

We are about to split our testing and production instances in Windows Azure into two separate subscriptions. Currently we have 3 Windows Azure SQL Database instances that r

Answer 1

There is a more simple solution, which maybe wasn't available when this question was answered. No SMSS or PowerShell needed. It can all be done in the portal. Go to the source SQL Database and click Export. This will create a .bacpac file in Azure Storage. Go to the target SQL Server and click Import. Done.

Note 1: if the target SQL Sever is in a different account/subscription that cannot access the source account's Azure Storage, just manually download the file from the source Azure Storage and upload it to an Azure Storage instance that the target can access.

Note 2: the imported database will have a name that includes the export date. You can change the name by running ALTER DATABASE [dbname] MODIFY NAME = [newdbname] on the target database. You can even do this in the portal using the new Query Editor.