Move a whole database with SqlPackage: dacpac and bacpac

Verified 2026-09-02 against SqlPackage 170.4.83.3, and the engine behaviour below measured 2026-08-29 against a container reporting EngineEdition 5, 12.0.2000.8.

This owns the four-action decision for moving an entire existing database as a portable file, and the command line for each action. Building a dacpac from a source-controlled SQL project, shipping it through CI, its refactorlog and its pre and post deployment scripts are sql-database-projects. Azure SQL Database's own automated backups and point-in-time or geo-restore are restore-and-recover. Loading rows into a table that already exists is bulk-load-and-bulk-copy. Vector indexes themselves are vector-search-azure-sql.

Read the property list for the action before you write the command

Properties are per action. ExtractAllTableData is an Extract property and is not accepted by Export. There is no catalog of properties that spans the actions, so ask the build in front of you: