How can I copy data records between two instances of an SQLServer database

Question

I need to copy some records from our SQLServer 2005 test server to our live server. It's a flat lookup table, so no foreign keys or other referential integrity to worry about.

I could key-in the records again on the live server, but this is tiresome. I could export the test server records and table data in its entirety into an SQL script and run that, but I don't want to overwrite the records present on the live system, only add to them.

How can I select just the records I want and get them transferred or otherwise into the live server? We don't have Sharepoint, which I understand would allow me to copy them directly between the two instances.

Answer 1

If your production SQL server and test SQL server can talk, you could just do in with a SQL insert statement.

first run the following on your test server:

Execute sp_addlinkedserver PRODUCTION_SERVER_NAME

Then just create the insert statement:

INSERT INTO [PRODUCTION_SERVER_NAME].DATABASE_NAME.dbo.TABLE_NAME   (Names_of_Columns_to_be_inserted)
SELECT Names_of_Columns_to_be_inserted
FROM TABLE_NAME

Answer 2

I use SQL Server Management Studio and do an Export Task by right-clicking the database and going to Task>Export. I think it works across servers as well as databases but I'm not sure.

Answer 3

An SSIS package would be best suited to do the transfer, it would take literally seconds to setup!

Answer 4

I would just script to sql and run on the other server for quick and dirty transferring. If this is something that you will be doing often and you need to set up a mechanism, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) which is similar to the older Data Transformation Services (DTS) are designed for this sort of thing. You develop the solution in a mini-Visual Studio environment and can build very complex solutions for moving and transforming data.