How to restore a SQL Backup .bak file on a different (new) server? SQL 2012

Question

I remember myself restoring a db on linux side. I used mysql dump and before I could restore this backup on the other server I had to create a DB with the same name.

Now I am going to switch the server on windows side using SQL 2012. I am backupping many SQL DB's and call them for now db1.bak , db2.bak...

When I now want to restore them on the new server, do I need to create a "structure" first with the same DB names or can I simply restore my DB's with the restore command one by one.

Is there anything else I should prepare? Thanks

Answer 1

A SQL Server database backup contains the structure and the data, so if you have run a full backup on one SQL Server 2012 server, you can restore this onto another SQL Server 2012 + server instance without having to create an empty database first.