Tag Archives: backups

Backup Techniques for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines

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In the previous blog post I did a quick overview building a SQL VM (imaged) in Azure. It is now time to clarify some backup techniques because it can get confusing.

At a high level there are 3 techniques.

  • Automated backup.
  • Azure backup for SQL VM (that’s what MS call it).
  • Manual backup, for example backup to URL.

I prefer not setting up manual backups to storage accounts, I have done it, I just find it painful to  setup/support/fix. So my choice would be automated backup vs “Azure backup” for SQL VM. What’s the difference?

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Azure SQL Database and Transaction Log

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Checking out the transaction log in Azure SQL Database. If you are curious like me, you will want to know about what your transaction log is doing in the cloud. The following queries have been tested and run okay within Azure SQL Database it gives you some great insight. First up, the classic log_reuse_wait_desc. You can’t exactly do much with this output, more so, just to fulfill curiosity.

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SQL Server Looking into Differential Backups

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I seem to be writing solely about Azure so to shake things up a bit I am going back to my “roots”. In SQL Server your differential backup is cumulative and NOT incremental and a differential will contain the data that has changed since the last full backup.

Let’s dig in using DBCC PAGE.

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SQL Server Backup To Azure Storage

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Once again I would like to share with you an article I wrote about backing up (and restoring) a SQL Server database to Azure Blob Storage. In this article I write about some important concepts and show you the code needed to do this. This includes all the lovely components such as SQL Server credentials, secrets and SAS etc.

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Azure SQL Data Warehouse and Backups

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Just because the cloud movement is strong doesn’t mean the end of “DBA’s”, it does mean a change in skills and no doubt you will (one day) create Azure SQL Data Warehouse (DW) in Azure. If you are from an operational background like me then backups will be on your mind for this product. The question is how are backups done with Azure SQL DW?

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