Customer Question:

How do I get my MSSQL database onto 3Essentials MSSQL database servers?

Answer:

1. First, use MSSQL Enterprise Manager or MSSQL 2005 Management Studio to create a MSSQL complete backup of your database on your system.  Consult Microsoft's MSSQL documentation if you need assistance with this.   It doesn't matter what you call the backup file, though for easy reference you might consider "mydatabase.bak" where "mydatabase" = the name of your database.
   • Full Text Indexing is not supported on 3Essentials shared hosting plans due to resource consumption associated with this function.
   • Shared hosting customers who provide 3Essentials with a database backup from their system to restore to their database hosted on our system, which includes a full text catalog, that catalog will be removed during the process of our restore.
2. Now upload the backup file you just created to your website hosted with 3Essentials.  You can do this via FTP or via the Control Panel File Manager's file upload features.  You can place the file anywhere, just make note of where you placed it. For our example here, let's say we uploaded it to the httpdocs folder, and we called it mydatabase.bak
3. Next, the customer should use the control panel to create an new, blank MSSQL database for their domain in the control panel.
   • log into the control panel, click on your domain, click on DATABASES, click ADD NEW DATABASE, and complete the fields as appropriate.  For o
   • The name of the database does not have to be the same name as the database on your system. 
   • Do NOT create any database users at this time.  They will be removed as a result of the restore process.
4. Now submit a support request to us with the following details (be sure to replace our sample information with your real information):

Please restore the following MSSQL database from the backup I have provided:
 Domain name: mydomain.com
 Backup file and location: httpdocs/mydatabase.bak
 New Database name to restore to: mynewdatabase

• Once you've submitted this request, the support team will perform the restore and notify you once complete.  Please note the following imporant items:
  • Once we've notified you that we've restored your db, you can proceed with creating a db user for your code to use to connect to the database.
    • To do so, log into your control panel, click your domain, click DATABASES, click the database you just created, click ADD NEW DATABASE USER and complete the relevant fields.
    • You CANNOT create a database user which already exists in your database's db users.
    • The db user you create will be granted DBO permissions, so it should have full and complete access to all database objects.
  • We host both MSSQL 2000 and MSSQL 2005 (depending on your plan version). 
  • We can restore an MSSQL 2000 backup to our MSSQL 2005 database server.
  • We cannot restore an MSSQL 2005 backup to our MSSQL 2000 database server. See KB article 163 for more details.