Load rows fast: BULK INSERT from Blob Storage, bcp, and the driver bulk APIs

Moves rows into a table that already exists, and kills the two habits carried over from SQL Server: a local file path, and a minimal-logging tune-up. Designing that table is another job.

Engine behaviour measured 2026-08-29 against a container reporting SERVERPROPERTY('EngineEdition') 5 and 12.0.2000.8, with bcp 18.6.0002.1 from mssql-tools18. Every option and flag below comes from Microsoft Learn's BULK INSERT, bcp utility, sys.dm_user_db_resource_governance and "Resource management in Azure SQL Database" pages, fetched 2026-09-03.

The correction

A local path is refused before the file is opened. BULK INSERT and OPENROWSET(BULK ...) both fail on a filesystem path with:

Msg 12713, Level 16, State 1, Server SQL Azure, Line 1
OPENROWSET is not allowed to read local files. Path: '/tmp/data.csv'.