Can you update a database with transaction logs only, without having to do a full restore? Initial note I am not a DBA, I am learning on the job.
Where I work we have an antiquated third-party system that sends us a .bak file once a week and log files every hour. To get the previous day's data in the database we have a process that runs a python script which builds the SQL to to do the full restore. The restore takes about 2 hours every night. We have a request from our end users to get the data as &quot;live&quot; as possible, which is theoretically possible as we receive the log file every hour. However I haven't found a way to restore log files only, as it appears a full restore has to be done before you can restore transaction log files.
I would like to run a process that loads in the latest log file every hour and then run a full restore once a week (when we receive the latest bak file). Is there anyway of doing this? Say by only restoring the latest log file or by running a partial restore so we don't have to restore all the files every time?
I would like to run a process that loads in the latest log file every hour and then run a full restore once a week (when we receive the latest bak file). Is there anyway of doing this?

Assuming you run the same version of SQL Server, Yes.  What you're looking for is called RESTORE WITH STANDBY:

RESTORE WITH STANDBY Leaves the database in a standby state, in which
the database is available for limited read-only access. This option is
equivalent to specifying WITH STANDBY in a RESTORE statement.
Choosing this option requires that you specify a standby file in the
Standby file text box. The standby file allows the recovery effects to
be undone.

Every time you apply another log backup users will need to be disconnected briefly.  This is how Log Shipping works, and so long as they send you all the transaction log backups, you don't need to restore the weekly full.  Just apply the next log backup in the chain.