The CONVERT command
Published 22 November 2018
Use the CONVERT command with the SQL Backup Pro -SQL parameter to convert SQL Backup backup files (.sqb) to Microsoft Tape Format (MTF) files (.bak) using the command line or extended stored procedure. You can use the native SQL Server RESTORE command to restore MTF files.
Alternatively, you can use the SQL Backup File Converter (either from the command line, or using the GUI application). This application can also convert SQL Backup v7 or v6 files to SQL Backup v5 files; both file types have extension .sqb. See SQL Backup File Converter for more information.
If you convert a backup file that was created with multiple threads (THREADCOUNT > 1), an individual .bak file is created for each thread. For example, if backup file BackUpA.sqb was created using three threads, the following files are created when you convert the backup:
BackUpA_01.bak
BackUpA_02.bak
BackUpA_03.bak
You can then restore the MTF (.bak) format backups as a group of backup files.
-SQL) must be delimited by single quotes. Therefore, wherever a single quote is used for the arguments below, for the extended stored procedure you must use two single quotes so that SQL Server does not interpret it as a string delimiter. See Using the extended stored procedure for more information.Syntax
CONVERT { 'p_hysical_backup_device_name' } ] TO { 'physical_file_name' }
[ WITH
[ [ , ] MAXDATABLOCK = { 65536 | 131072 | ... | 2097152 } ]
[ [ , ] PASSWORD = { 'password' | 'FILE:file_path'} ]
[ [ , ] SINGLERESULTSET ]
]
Arguments
MAXDATABLOCK
Specifies the maximum size of data blocks to be used when SQL Backup Pro stores backup data. Valid values are integers in multiples of 65536, up to a maximum value of 2097152. For example:
MAXDATABLOCK = 655360
PASSWORD
Specifies the password to be used with encrypted SQL Backup backup files. The resulting MTF (.bak) format file will not be encrypted.
Storing your password in a plain text file (only available in SQL Backup 7.5 and later)
If you don't want the password to be stored in your SQL Agent jobs, you can use a password stored in a plain text file instead. This means access to the password can be restricted using Windows file permissions.
To do this, specify the file path and name after the PASSWORD keyword instead of the password itself.
Example
PASSWORD = 'FILE:C:\mypasswords\password.txt'
SQL Backup will read only the first line of text in the file (up to the first line return), and ignore everything after.
SINGLERESULTSET
Specifies that the results returned by the CONVERT command should be limited to just one result set. This may be useful if you want to manipulate results using a Transact-SQL script. Such scripts can only manipulate results when a single result set is returned. The CONVERT command will return two result sets by default unless you specify the SINGLERESULTSET keyword.
Example
This example converts the encrypted backup file pubs.sqb to an unencrypted MTF format file:
SQLBackupC.exe -I {instance name} -SQL "CONVERT 'C:\Backups\pubs.sqb' TO 'C:\Backups\pubs.bak' WITH PASSWORD = 'MyPassword'"EXECUTE master..sqlbackup '-SQL "CONVERT ''C:\Backups\pubs.sqb'' TO ''C:\Backups\pubs.bak'' WITH PASSWORD = ''MyPassword''"'
