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Windows Azure SQL Backups
Hi There, i am currently in the process of working with azure and mainly sql as a service. At the moment i am looking at backup options. my query is if i leave the backups to azure, is there a way i can check\query the backup history? Thanks in advance,
It depends on your pricing tier. If you're in the old Web or Business tiers, you have to manage your backups yourself. However you do it, you should then have access to what backups you've taken. Microsoft has the backup process [pretty well documented][1]. To see what you can restore, just go to the portal and click on the Restore button at the bottom of the page (old portal, I can't find it on the new portal). You'll see how far back you have restore solutions available. [1]:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/jj650016.aspx
HI Grant, thanks for the reply. i had seen the backup documentation before and have tested out the restore facility using the built in azure backups. what i would like to know is if it was possible to run a query to view these backups, times ran etc . at the moment i don't see how i can view this information, you basically have to trust that azure does it. regards, Niall
The documentation gives you three pieces of information. 1) You're doing a point in time restore. 2) The time available to you varies by tier. 3) You can count on having two times the size of your allocated tier for backup storage. So, per the documentation, you can only go back, say 7 days for a basic database. This means one full, 6 differentials and log backups every five minutes. Other than that, you're looking at storage managed by Microsoft. There is no exposed list of backups beyond the documentation provided.
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