In the previous post, we’ve built a SQL Server 2025 sandbox in an OrbStack container in a Macbook. If you are like me who switched from a Windows laptop to MacBook, you are probably missing your SQL Server. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a sandbox that is separate from your all other instances for testing and learning. This is exactly what we’re trying to do here.
Download the Backup
For this exercise we want to download the full backup of Wide World Importers. Go ahead and download it from the github repo which you can find it here. And of course, take note of where you saved the .bak file.
Copy the Backup File into the Container
First, let’s create our backup directory in our cotainer. From your favorite terminal, run the following:
docker exec -it sql2025 mkdir -p /var/opt/mssql/backupThen copy over the file to the directory we just created above
docker cp /Users/marlonribunal/Downloads/WideWorldImporters-Full.bak sql2025:/var/opt/mssql/backup/You terminal should now say that the backup file was successfully copied.
Use VS Code to Restore the Database
Since Microsoft will never ever port SSMS to the macOS, I think VS Code with the mssql extension is a pretty much decent tool for doing work in a SQL Server.
Check the in-memory data, database, and log files contained in the backup, so we know what logical files to map to their physical paths in the container:
RESTORE FILELISTONLY
FROM DISK = N'/var/opt/mssql/backup/WideWorldImporters-Full.bak';
GOYou should see all the contained in the backup file of the WideWorldImporters database. Take note of those for the next step.
Then restore the database. Please take note that if you don’t map the path of the files to where you want to store them, the restore proccess will assume that you are restoring the files into the same directory the backup files were stored in the source. Chances are you will then get an error because those original directory don’t exist in the target container.
RESTORE DATABASE [WideWorldImporters]
FROM DISK = '/var/opt/mssql/backup/WideWorldImporters-Full.bak'
WITH
MOVE 'WWI_Primary' TO '/var/opt/mssql/data/WideWorldImporters.mdf',
MOVE 'WWI_UserData' TO '/var/opt/mssql/data/WideWorldImporters_UserData.ndf',
MOVE 'WWI_Log' TO '/var/opt/mssql/data/WideWorldImporters_Log.ldf',
MOVE 'WWI_InMemory_Data_1' TO '/var/opt/mssql/data/WideWorldImporters_InMemory_Data_1',
REPLACE;
GOThat took about 8 seconds to complete in my container:
That’s it! Enjoy querying!