Automatic backup Azure SQL DataBase

Question

I've configured the retention policy in 'Manage Backups' for my Azure SQL Server but nothing is appearing under 'Available Backups'. Does there need to be an associated storage account? If so, how do I set it up?

From Azure's doc it is known that the automatic backups (full, differential and transaction log) are possible. And it is possible to configure retention period for these backups. The main question is where these backups are stored (from documentation by default within RA-GRS Standard blob storage)? and whether it is possible to change storage account and how to access to standard storage account with backups?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Automatic backups are part of Azure SQL Database service and are managed by Azure. You cannot change where these backups are stored, that is managed by Azure. You cannot access those backups and copy them to another storage account, and you cannot manage them.

You can use PowerShell Get-AzureRmSqlDatabaseRestorePoints to get the earliest possible restore point for the database based on the automated backup service.

Get-AzureRmSqlDatabaseRestorePoints -ResourceGroupName "resname" `
    -ServerName "yourservername" -DatabaseName "yourDBName"

With automatic backups, full database backups are created weekly, differential database backups are generally created every 12 hours, and transaction log backups are generally created every 5 - 10 minutes, with the frequency based on the performance level and amount of database activity. The first full backup is scheduled immediately after a database is created. It usually completes within 30 minutes, but it can take longer when the database is of a significant size.

If you want to have control over backups, you want to have greater retention period, then you can configure long term backups o export bacpacs of your database to an storage account as explained here.