Instead of a live SQL Server database, you can specify a snapshot file. The database snapshot is a proprietary file, created by the schema compare, that contains all the information necessary to recreate the structure of a database.

A snapshot file can be specified for the source or the target database. However, the database that you intend to synchronize, has to be a live database. The synchronization script cannot be executed in a database created from a snapshot file.

Below is the xml fragment that creates the database from a snapshot file:

<LeftDatabase>
  <LoadFromSnapshotFile>D:\QA\Idera\SqlSchema\Snapshots\AdventureWorks.snpx</LoadFromSnapshotFile>
</LeftDatabase>
<RightDatabase>
  <SqlServer>DEVSRV003\SQL2019</SqlServer>
  <DatabaseName>AdventureWorks</DatabaseName>
  <TrustedConnection>true</TrustedConnection>
</RightDatabase>


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