SQL Server command line backup and restore through pipes using stdin and stdout!

Download direct for Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10!

• Familiar T-SQL-like syntax.
• If piping to a non-elevated process, a new elevated process is spawned automatically, redirecting input and output of the original process!
• Automatically renames and moves database files to a specified path.
• Low-level pipe command for complex or customized usage.
• Easily scriptable and automatable backup and restore; errorlevel is set appropriately on process exit.
• Single file with no dependencies or install necessary!

Syntax is intended to be similar to T-SQL syntax that users of this tool are likely already familiar with.

mssqlPipe [instance] [as username[:password]] (backup|restore|pipe) ... 

The options instance and as username[:password] are common to all verbs. Windows authentication (SSPI) will be used if a username is not supplied.

mssqlPipe backup [database] dbname [to filename]

mssqlPipe restore [database] dbname [from filename] [to filepath] [with replace]
mssqlPipe restore filelistonly [from filename]

If you need to do anything special, pipe will simply create the virtual device on the SQL server. Use to to pipe stdin to the virtual device, or from to pipe the virtual device to stdout.

mssqlPipe pipe to devicename
mssqlPipe pipe from devicename
mssqlPipe pipe to devicename from filename
mssqlPipe pipe from devicename to filename

You can optionally use the word database after backup and restore, like T-SQL BACKUP command. Unless your database is literally named 'database'.

stdin or stdout will be used if no filenames specified.

[as username[:password]] can be omitted. Windows authentication (SSPI) will be used instead.

When restoring, default database and log path will be determined for SQL 2012+, otherwise will guess based on existing databases if filepath not specified. Files will be renamed like database_dat.mdf and database_log.ldf. Existing databases will not be overwritten unless you use with replace!

mssqlPipe myinstance backup AdventureWorks to AdventureWorks.bak
mssqlPipe myinstance as sa:hunter2 backup AdventureWorks > AdventureWorks.bak
mssqlPipe backup database AdventureWorks | 7za a AdventureWorks.xz -txz -si
7za e AdventureWorks.xz -so | mssqlPipe restore AdventureWorks to c:/db/
mssqlPipe restore AdventureWorks from AdventureWorks.bak with replace
mssqlPipe pipe from VirtualDevice42 > output.bak
mssqlPipe pipe to VirtualDevice42 < input.bak
mssqlPipe pipe to VirtualDevice42 from input.bak
mssqlPipe sql2008 backup AdventureWorksOld | mssqlPipe sql2012 restore AdventureWorksOld
curl -u adzm:hunter2 sftp:https://adzm.net/backup.xz | 7za e -txz -so -si nul | mssqlPipe restore AdventureWorks

If you need to do anything fancy, use the pipe verb with a devicename of your choosing and run a query manually.

Please report and issues and feature requests!

I was inspired by the VDI sample; and apparently so was sqlpipe

Happy piping! 🌈