Backup of Azure Database
In Microsoft Azure Database, Restores can be done to the logical server hosting the database or to another region.
Local Restore
1. A new database on the same logical server recovered to specified point in time.
2. A database on the same logical server recovered to the deletion time.
3. you cannot overwrite an existing database.
Note : If you want to replace a database with a restored copy, you can rename the orignal and then rename the restored database.
Geo Restore
1. A new database on any server on any region up to the latest geo-replicated backup.
2. Full and differentials are geo-replicated.
Note : Geo-Restores have an 1hour RPO due to the possible delay in geo-replication.
Restore Demo
Lets restore database with name t1_portalRestore, here are the steps:
1. Click on the t1 database, then click on Restore button and provide the Restore point(UTC):
2. In notifications, it will show the progress:
3. Once its done, here it will show:
Thats it!!
Backup of Azure Database
In Microsoft Azure Database, Backup happen automatically as part of the service, but the retention period of the Backup is as per the selected DB Service tier.
Retention Period of MS Azure Database
Backup Schedule of MS Azure Database
Important Points:
1. In Microsoft Azure, Backups are Geo-Replicated so that:-
a. Backups are replicated to a paired Azure region by the Service.
b. In the event of the region outage, you can restore your backup to another region.
2. All databases support point-in-time recovery with a 12 hour RTO and 5 minute RPO for the in-region backups.
3. Azure provides 2x your max storage size as included backup storage. For E.g, a Standard database has up to 500GB of backup space included.
When reaching to backup storage limit,
a. Reduce the retention period by contacting Azure support.
b. Pay for extra backup storage billed at the standard Read-Access Geographically Redundant Storage rate.
4. For Archiving Backup files,
a. Manually export the database to BACPAC and keep copies on Azure Blob Storage.
b. Use Long-Term-Retention to Azure Backup Vault
5. After deleting Backup files,
a. If you delete a database, you can restore as long as you're still inside the retention period.
b. If you delete the server, all backups are deleted with no restore capability.
