Authentication

FastTransfer supports two types of authentication methods depending on your database platform. Authentication can be configured separately for source and target databases.

Source Authentication

Trusted Connection (Source)

Uses the current Windows user's credentials or the operating system authentication if allowed by the RDBMS.

.\\FastTransfer.exe ` 
...
 --sourcetrusted `
...

Syntax:

• Short form: -a
• Long form: --sourcetrusted

Warning

This method is only available if your RDBMS supports trusted/integrated authentication (e.g., SQL Server with Windows Authentication).

SQL Login with Username and Password (Source)

Standard database authentication with explicit credentials for the source database.

./FastTransfer `
...
 --sourceuser "myuser" `
 --sourcepassword "mypassword" `
...

Syntax:

• Username: -u "username" or --sourceuser "username"
• Password: -x "password" or --sourcepassword "password"

Target Authentication

Trusted Connection (Target)

Uses the current Windows user's credentials or the operating system authentication if allowed by the RDBMS.

.\\FastTransfer.exe ` 
...
 --targettrusted `
...

Syntax:

• Short form: -A
• Long form: --targettrusted

SQL Login with Username and Password (Target)

Standard database authentication with explicit credentials for the target database.

./FastTransfer `
...
 --targetuser "myuser" `
 --targetpassword "mypassword" `
...

Syntax:

• Username: -U "username" or --targetuser "username"
• Password: -X "password" or --targetpassword "password"

Alternative: Connection String Parameter

You can also use connection string parameters where you pass the user and password directly in the connection string:

• --sourceconnectionstring for source database connection - see Source Connection Parameters
• --targetconnectionstring for target database connection - see Target Connection Parameters

Password Security in Logs

All passwords passed either through the --sourcepassword, --targetpassword parameters or within the --sourceconnectionstring, --targetconnectionstring parameters are automatically hidden in all logs (Console, Files, and Database). This ensures your credentials remain secure in logging outputs.

Tips

For Login/Password you can also use the environment variables like FastTransfer_SOURCEUSER and FastTransfer_SOURCEPASSWORD for example or store the password in an encrypted file. Up to you to decrypt the file and its content before using it in a shell variable that will be used with FastTransfer.