Cloud Series: Restore Database in Azure
One of the great things about Azure is that backups are automated as part of the service. Azure for SQL touts a 12 hour RTO and a 5 minute RPO for backups that are considered "in-region".
The backup schedule is as follows:
Full: Weekly
Differential: Hourly
Transaction Log: 5 mins.
Retention Period of the backups depends on the tier that you have selected.
Basic: 7 Days
Standard and Premium: 35 Days
The backups are also Geo-Replicated, which means that in the event of an outage in your region, the backups can be restored to another region that is still up.
Perform a Restore via the Azure Portal
Select your database via the dashboard or navigate through the panes (or just use the search function!).
Select Restore.
Give the restore a different name (note that you cannot overwrite an existing database). Make note of the oldest restore point and select your Restore Point accordingly. I also made sure to use the basic pricing tier as this is a lab for myself.
Press Apply or OK, and you can watch the progress in the upper right hand corner.
Once finished you can navigate to the Azure DB server or list of DB's and see the newly restored Database. This entire process can also be done via powershell, which will be covered in a future post.