Can a transaction log backup create a new database before any full database backup is applied? SQL Server 2017 We have a large database we restore daily from a single t-log backup from a remote supplier. We are looking to move to 15 minute t-logs, but applying these to the current database on prem it is then very hard to see just what has changed, to update the downstream warehouse tables. A hypothetical solution would be if it were possible to take a t-log as it came in, restore it to a new database, and then be able to compare tables in that with the tables in the full database to then create some sort of UNION view that reflects the current state.
But I am 99.9% sure you cannot restore a t-log if you have not restored a full backup before, hence I am looking at ApexSQL Log to read the t-logs instead.
But if I'm wrong, please let me know! I'd love to be able to restore a single t-log to a new database!
No, in order to restore transaction logs, your database has to be in a restoring state first, and to do that, you'll need to restore a full backup.