A special export of the database is required to restore a database to Azure.  

Export to a BACPAC file takes longer than a tradition export to .bak file, and may fail early and/or late in the process, indicating some needed cleanup.

We recommend using VM with with as much RAM as possible to make the process as fast as possible.

To start the process go to Tasks menu in SQL Server Management Studio

 

Follow prompts:

 

When Exporting to BACPAC, typically will there will be a need to cleanup some items

If it fails, there is helpful information to remove the things that are causing problems. 

Once errors below resolved, export to BACPAC will complete, though it will take longer than a typical backup.

• example: for 11.5GB Db took approx. 60 mins on a VM (16GB RAM), the process was seen to be RAM bound, could likely run faster with more RAM.
• BACPAC file size was approx half the size of the .bak file for the same db 

 

Sample errors:

 Typically, there is helpful information to remove the things that are causing problems. 

 

One or more unsupported elements were found in the schema used as part of a data package.

Error SQL71564: Error validating element [inm]: The element [inm] has been orphaned from its login and cannot be deployed.

Error SQL71564: Error validating element [Ivara_dw]: The element [Ivara_dw] has been orphaned from its login and cannot be deployed.

Error SQL71564: Error validating element [dw_ro]: The element [dw_ro] has been orphaned from its login and cannot be deployed.

 (Microsoft.SqlServer.Dac)

 ------------------------------

The solution in this scenario was to manually delete the two orphaned database users from the security folder that belongs to the database, so happened that their associated SQL Server logins no longer exist on the instance.

 

If unable to determine what to remove/fix, submit an SR with the resulting errors.   We will help to determine whether Support or Services can resolve the issue.  The .bak file will have to be uploaded to troubleshoot.