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Azure SQL Backup and Recovery Strategy

We have a web application (ASP.NET MVC) that uses SQL Server 2008 for its database.

Since data is important to us (and our customers), we have a backup and recovery strategy, which in a nutshell looks like this:

-Weekly: Full database backup -Nightly: Differential backup -Hourly: Log backup

Our strategy was greatly influenced by listening to the Kimberly Tripp webcast (which can be seen here: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventId=1032278589&CountryCode=US ).

Question:

As we study moving a database in SQL Azure, I wanted to know if anyone had added a similar backup and restore strategy in SQL Azure.

Has anyone encountered known issues when trying to create a backup and recovery strategy using Azure?

Thanks for any help with this.

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5 answers

Backup / restore is a completely different animal in SQL Azure because traditional backup / restore commands are not available. See Azure SQL Backup and Recovery Strategy article for a good overview, and then read Copying Databases to SQL Azure . Also look at the third-party redaate (beta) tool for SQL Azure Backup .

EDIT : Add a link to a new blog post that appeared today (September 29, 2011): Data backup strategies for Windows and Azure SQL

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In addition to the options mentioned by Joe, you can also use the DAC as indicated here . This is a bit outdated since you can now import / export BACPAC files from the blob repository in the portal.

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Redgate offers a free tool for backing up and restoring a database from SQL Azure to SQL Server or Azure Blob storage:

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I wrote a blog post about backing up an Azure SQL database to a blog file, using nothing more complicated than some free command line tools and the Windows Task Scheduler should save you some money and hassle :-)

https://iainhunter.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/sql-azure-disaster-recovery/

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There is one codeplex project that allows you to have the worker role as a backup agent.

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