Copying database or tables from Production SDE to Dev/Testing SDE

[NigelGriffiths]

Hello, just a quick question. We have two separate EGDBs, both using Microsoft SQL server. We are part of a managed service so don't have full access to SQL Server Management studio for doing direct backups between databases.

Beyond using a python script copying tables individually from one SDE to another using arcpy.management.Copy(), is there a better method within arcpy to copy tables or even do a bulk backup and dump of tables from one SDE to another? Or would this only be possible using a backup and restore from SQL Server Management Studio directly.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[VinceAngelo]

If versioning and/or replication is involved, you really don't want to use anything but a database restore.  The management service folks should be capable of snapshotting the old dev, and replacing it with a production snapshot for development.  If replication is involved, you then need to immediately drop the replica in new-Dev, lest something very ugly happens. If old-Dev had a different keycode, you'll need to apply that to new-Dev before you forget (save the contents of old-dev.sde_server_config before it's archived).

- V