How do I identify the Initial Catalog(name of the collection database) in a migrating step of Azure DevOps Server to Services?

Question

I am an administrator of Azure DevOps Server 2019 Update 1.1 in an organization. I will migrate our collection from the on-premises server to Azure DevOps Services. Currently, I am on the step of using SqlPackage.exe to generate a DACPAC file. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/migrate/migration-import?view=azure-devops

According to this reference, the command example to generate DACPAC is as below.

SqlPackage.exe /sourceconnectionstring:"Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Foo;Integrated Security=True" /targetFile:C:\DACPAC\Foo.dacpac /action:extract /p:ExtractAllTableData=true /p:IgnoreUserLoginMappings=true /p:IgnorePermissions=true /p:Storage=Memory

However, I cannot understand what is Initial Catalog. The reference said Initial Catalog - Name of the collection database. But I could not find the name of the collection database in Azure DevOps Server management console.

I referred another article on dev.to
https://dev.to/timothymcgrath/the-great-azure-devops-migration-part-6-import-2obc
By this article, Initial Catalog=[COLLECTION_NAME], and the collection name in my Azure DevOps Server is "DefaultCollection" (default name).

Then, I tried the following command then failed.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\SQL\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\SQLDB\DAC\130> ./SqlPackage.exe /sourceconnectionstring:”Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=DefaultCollection;Integrated Security=True” /targetFile:C:\DefaultCollection.dacpac /action:extract /p:ExtractAllTableData=true /p:IgnoreUserLoginMappings=true /p:IgnorePermissions=true /p:Storage=Memory
Connecting to database 'DefaultCollection' on server 'localhost'.
Extracting schema
Extracting schema from database
*** Error extracting database:Could not connect to database server.

(provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40

Is this error caused by wrong Initial Catalog?
How do I find the correct Initial Catalog - Name of the collection database?

Environment and pre-conditions

• Windows 10 Pro
• SqlPackage.exe installed from SSDT for Visual Studio 2017
• The machine where commands are executed and where Azure DevOps Server running is the same
  • so, DataSource=localhost should be correct, I think
• Detached my collection by Azure DevOps Server management console
• SQL Server Express for my Azure DevOps server is running

Answer 1

Look at the admin console on your app tier. That shows you all of the databases.

For what it's worth, the standard name for the default collection database is Tfs_DefaultCollection. It may be different in your case, but that's a safe bet.

Answer 2

Resolved. The database name in the case is "AzureDevOps_DefaultCollection". It could be found by Azure DevOps Management Console in the feature of selecting attach. (Application Tier -> Team Project Collections) Or, by using SQL Server Management Studio, we can also find "AzureDevOps_DefaultCollection".

And, in my case, DataSource=localhost is wrong, DataSource=<hostname>\SQLEXPRESS is correct. I noticed this answer when I connect to my database by SQL Server Management Studio. Finally, I successfully generated a DACPAC file.

Connecting to database 'AzureDevOps_DefaultCollection' on server '<my machine host name>\SQLEXPRESS'.
Extracting schema
Extracting schema from database
Resolving references in schema model
Validating schema model for data package
Validating schema
Exporting data from database
Exporting data
Processing Export.
Processing Table '[dbo].[tbl_PropertyValue]'.
Processing Table '[Task].[tbl_LibraryItemString]'.
...
...
...
Processing Table '[Search].[tbl_FileMetadataStore]'.
Processing Table '[dbo].[SequenceIds]'.
Successfully extracted database and saved it to file 'C:\DACPAC\DefaultCollection.dacpac'.

Thanks so much! Mario Dietner, Daniel Mann.