Is there a way to import a BACPAC file into an existing (empty) database? It looks like the PowerShell commands allow me to create new target databases only...
Is there a trick?
Yes you can import BACPAC file to an existing db but it should be absolutely empty.
Use below command, run it from cmd or powershell. Note : location of sqlpackage.exe could be different on your machine.
/tdn: is target database name here, which could be a pre-existing db but totaly empty. It's a good practice to create db before hand for larger db imports. SQL package.exe does make a new db for you if your db does not exists but then it caps its maximum size to 32gb unless specified otherwise.
c:\"Program Files"\"Microsoft SQL Server"\150\DAC\bin\sqlpackage.exe
/a:Import
/sf:"bacpac file path"
/tsn:"targetsqlserver.database.windows.net"
/tdn:target_database_name
/tu:username
/tp:password