Azure Serverless SQL server database backup/restore - azure

I've created an azure **serverless ** sql database. It seems there is no way to backup/restore this type of databases. I know there is restore to a point in time feature, But I what to download and save database backups my self.
Is there a way to backup serverless azure sql databases?
1-) There is no Backup/restore option on the database right click
2-) I've tried to use BACKUP T-SQL with azure storage account and storage url from SSMS but this is not supported.

You can use the "export" functionality by accessing the specific database in your Azure Portal to get a copy of your DB.
You can rely on Azure SQL's integrated Backup funcionality by setting up your requirements by accessing your DB Server in you Azure Portal and selecting the "Backup" uption.
You can use SSMS (SQL Management Studio), right click on the DB in question, and select "Tasks" --> "Export Data-tier Application", which will return a .bacpac file with your database. NOTE: bacpac files are not quite the same as full .bak files. bacpac files are not aware of any transactions that may be being executed whilst the data is being dumped, which means that you could end up with some data corruption.

Export your database as bacpac to an Storage Account. We are using weekly exports of the database on Saturdays, with a retention of one year for long-term backups.
The export will trigger an auto-resume of the database if the database was auto-paused.
We use an Azure Automation account and a PowerShell script to schedule the export of the database. Here you will find the script and the steps needed to schedule the script using Azure Automation.

Related

How to take a backup & Restore of Azure SQL table in Azure Blob storage and vice versa

I want to take an Archival(Backup) of Azure SQL Table to the Azure Blob Storage, I have done the backup in Azure Blob storage using via the Pipeline in CSV file format. And From the Azure Blob Storage, I have restored the data into the Azure SQL Table successfully using the Bulk Insert process.
But now I want to retrieve the data from this CSV file using some kind of filter criteria. Is there any way that I can apply a filter query on Azure Blob storage to retrieve the data?
Is there any other way to take a backup differently and then retrieve the data from Azure Storage?
My end goal is to take a backup of the Azure SQL table in Azure Storage and retrieve the data directly from Azure Storage with a filter.
Note
I know that I can take a backup using the SSMS, but that is not a requirement, I want this process through some kind of Pipeline or using the SQL command.
AFAIK, there is no such filtering option available when restoring the database. But, as you are asking for another way to backup and restoring, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is one the most conveniently used platform for almost all SQL Server related activities.
You can use SSMS to access Azure SQL database using server name and Login Password.
Find this official tutorial from Microsoft about how to take backup of your Azure SQL Database and store it in Storage account and then restore it.

Azure Sql Database back up files

We are new to Azure SQL Database and doing some research about the backup files. I have few questions related to SQL Database.
1) I read that Azure has built-in backup capabilities. I don't see the back up files in the azure portal. We want to use the automated backup files and restore the database in our local environments. Is there any way to access the back up files.
2) I used the SQLPackage.exe command to export the database to my local machine. With this approach it is only allowing me to export a bacpac file. Is there anyway other way to take backup files with extension of .bak
The overall goal is to take a weekly full backup and daily differential backups, which would allow us to restore the database in local. Please suggest us the best options to do so.
Thanks in advance.
We want to use the automated backup files and restore the database in our local environments. Is there any way to access the back up files.
No, you cannot access the backup files directly. In SQL Sever you can't restore a backup file to an older version of SQL Server, and Azure SQL Database is generally newer than any SQL Server you could install. So you wouldn't be able to restore them anyway.
I read that Azure has built-in backup capabilities. I don't see the back up files in the azure portal. We want to use the automated backup files and restore the database in our local environments. Is there any way to access the back up files.
We can see the backup on Portal: SQL Server--> Manage Backups, but we can not access the backup files and use the automated backup files to restore the database in your local environments.
I used the SQLPackage.exe command to export the database to my local machine. With this approach it is only allowing me to export a bacpac file. Is there anyway other way to take backup files with extension of .bak
For Azure SQL Database, it doesn't provide a native way to generate '.bak' format backup file. You could reference:How to create BAK file from azure sql db.
About your goal, you should using some scripts to schedule backup the database to blob, then you can use the backup to restore the database in local.
Here two ways can help you:
Powershell scripts: Backup Azure SQL Databases to Blob storage: This Azure Automation runbook automates Azure SQL database backup to Blob storage and deletes old backups from blob storage.
Tool Database Backup Tool: SQLBackupAndFTP is SQL Server, MySQL
and PostgreSQL backup software that runs scheduled backups (full,
differential or transaction log) of SQL Server or SQL Server Express
databases (any version), runs file/folder backup, zips and encrypts
the backups, stores them on a network or on an FTP server or in the
cloud (Amazon S3 and others we're constantly adding more), removes
old backups, and sends an e-mail confirmation on the job's success
or failure.
Hope this helps.

Daily Backup of Azure Sql Server over blob storage account

How can I Schedule automatic daily backup of Azure Sql Database on my Azure blob storage container.
You can't create or schedule Backups (.bak file format) of a managed Azure SQL Database.
However, it is possible to create an export (.bacpac file format).
Such an export process can be started with Powershell and this Powershell Script can then be time-controlled with a Powershell-Runbook.
I'm using this script for exactly the same purpose. It will create your database "backups" in the blob storage and it will also take care of how long backups are kept.
The full process is available here
For Azure SQL Server (IaaS): You can configure back up to a storage account using SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) as shown here in "Database backup to URL"
This method was also included in an earlier answer that suggested using the tool SQLBackupandTFP here.
For Azure SQL Database (PaaS): Built-in backups are auto configured and work as such... "Seven days of automated backups of your databases are copied to RA-GRS Standard blob storage by default. The storage is used by weekly full backups, daily differential backups, and transaction log backups copied every 5 minutes. The size of the transaction log depends on the rate of change of the database. A minimum storage amount equal to 100% of database size is provided at no extra charge. Additional consumption of backup storage will be charged in GB/month." - Automated Backups-Storage Costs
Automating copy of the database and export to the blob storage container is an option as well. However you are incurring the extra cost for the storage with this method--assuming it is only used for this purpose.
There is a good comparison of the two here.
Here's a tool SQLBackupAndFTP can help you daily backup of Azure Sql database to you specified blob storage account. It's free for download and using .
You can download and install SQLBackupAndFTP tool, create a backup job. I tried and it works well. You can follow my step:
Step1: Connect to Azrue SQL database:
Step2: Select database,select the database you want to backup:
Step3:****Store backups in selected destination:
Choose the Azure Storage as the destination:
Step4:****Schedule backup:
Set Schedule automatic backup time:
Step5: Run the backup job:
For more details, you can reference this tutotial: How to automate SQL Server database backups .
Hope this helps.

How to export DB of a specific time?

I want to check how was my data 2 days ago and to do that I though of exporting a back up that Azure take every hour. But I cannot find it.
I've found this page on Microsoft that talks about exporting a DB but it is for the current data.
Azure SQL Database automatically creates database backups and writes them to read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) for geo-redundancy. Frequency depends on what kind of load the service is dealing with, duration backups are kept depends on the tier you've purchased.
To recover to a point in time using the Azure portal, open the page for your database and click Restore on the toolbar.
You cannot overwrite an existing database during restore, so you need to create a new instance for the point-in-time restore, and you'll pay for that. You can also do the restores programmatically using PowerShell.
Further details here.
I suggest to execute a restore, with a specific time, on a temporary DB then export it to a bacpac file. You can use Azure CLI for that:
az sql db restore with -time option for restoring
az sql db export for exporting
az sql db delete for deleting the temporary database
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/sql/db
The same can be also achieved using Azure Portal.

How to backup Azure SQL that will withstand deletion of azure server

Azure SQL has built in backups. If the SQL database and server are deleted from within the Portal these backups are lost.
What is best practice for backing up Azure SQL that will withstand deletion of the server from the portal.
I have manually exported the database to a storage location, however Azure says that this should not be used as a backup. Why should it not be used and what should I be doing instead?
If you want a direct control over your backups, then the best mechanism is fairly straight forward.
Create a copy of your database. This ensures no active transactions because it's a copy.
Use the BACPAC process to export the copy of the database. BACPAC doesn't respect transactions, this is why we created a copy.
Store this where ever you want.
Drop the copy of the database because you're paying for that while it exists.
You can use the BACPAC to import into a new Azure database, or you can import it into a VM in Azure, AWS, or locally.
Azure SQL has built in backups. If the SQL database and server are
deleted from within the Portal these backups are lost.
Yes,If you delete the Azure SQL server that hosts SQL Databases, all databases that belong to the server are also deleted and cannot be recovered. You cannot restore a deleted server.
What is best practice for backing up Azure SQL that will withstand
deletion of the server from the portal.
If your Azure SQL Server has been deleted, you need to create a support ticket to restore the databases.
When you really need to delete a SQL sever and then try to back up it, You can configure the Azure Recovery Services vault to store Azure SQL database backups and then recover a database using backups retained in the vault using the Azure portal or PowerShell.
Why should it not be used and what should I be doing instead?
I think you can export your database to your local storage , but it's complex to restore it to Azure. Also, it may change some information of your SQL database and may need migration to Azure.
Well, there is no real answer to this, you can use any backup method you like. Its mostly a personal preference.
But the easiest way (probably) is using Azure Backup Vault to do long term backups (which is a native way for Azure). Its pretty easy to configure (next\next\next) and it is not connected to the Azure SQL Server, so when you delete the server the backups are there.

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