Documentation / Data Studio / Common Workflows

Common Workflows — Data Studio

Typical Workflows

1. Nightly Backup with Cloud Upload

  1. Select all user databases on the Backup tab
  2. Enable snapshot consistency and GZip compression
  3. Set Max Threads to 4–8 (balance speed vs. server load)
  4. Export to a local folder
  5. Upload to Azure Blob Storage for offsite archival

2. Environment Refresh (Dev/Staging from Production)

  1. Use the Migrate tab for streaming server-to-server transfer
  2. Connect to Production as source, Dev/Staging as target
  3. Override target database name if needed
  4. Enable “Drop & Recreate” for a clean refresh
  5. Tables are available on the target in seconds, not hours

3. Cross-Platform Migration (MySQL → SQL Server)

  1. Open the Export/Import tab, direction: Database → Database
  2. Source: MySQL provider, enter host, port, username, password
  3. Target: SQL Server provider, enter connection details
  4. Click Discover Tables
  5. Select tables — Data Studio maps INT→INT, VARCHAR→NVARCHAR, DATETIME→DATETIME2, etc.
  6. Click Start Transfer

4. Export Data for Stakeholders

  1. Direction: Database → File
  2. Connect to the source database
  3. Select tables to export
  4. Choose Excel (XLSX) for business users, JSON for APIs, SQL for deployment scripts
  5. Click Start Transfer — one file per table in the output folder

5. Bulk Import from CSV/JSON

  1. Direction: File → Database
  2. Browse to the source file
  3. Configure target database connection
  4. Review auto-detected columns and types
  5. Click Start Transfer — the target table is auto-created if it doesn’t exist

6. Generate Deployment SQL Scripts

  1. Direction: Database → File, format: SQL Script
  2. Enable Include CREATE TABLE and Include DROP TABLE
  3. Export — each table produces a .sql file with DROP, CREATE, and batched INSERT statements
  4. Run the scripts on the target server using Script Runner or SSMS