Limitations to Restoring BAK Files

When restoring a SQL Server database back-up file in the Hosting Control Panel, you are limited to using BAK files that you created using the back-up feature in our Hosting Control Panel. You are not able to restore a BAK file that was created outside of our system. There are several reasons we have established this restriction:

• Based on the Microsoft® security best practices, hosting providers should not enable users to restore BAK files from sources outside the hosting provider.
• Certain security vulnerabilities can be passed through a BAK file, effectively allowing a malicious attacker to execute arbitrary code within a hosting provider's protected environment.

Based on this information, we observe the Microsoft® security recommendations and disallow restores of SQL Server BAK files that did not originate from a backup within our system. Therefore, you are not able to use the SQL Server restore feature to import a BAK file that came from a database outside our system or from a different hosting account.

For additional information about restoring your database, see the following articles:

• Where can I download my shared hosting backups?
• Backing up and Restoring MySQL or MSSQL Databases
• Where can I download my shared hosting backups?