I've got a handful of databases running on a SQL Server instance. I don't have access to be able to install the Azure Backup agent but I do have connection details and credentials to access the database and perform backups in SQL Server Management Studio.
What I want to do is be able to perform and schedule these backups and save them in to Azure Blob Storage. I could have this schedule running on my local computer but that's not an ideal solution.
I've got a powershell script that will perform this action for me but it relies on SQL Server assemblies to run. I've tried running this as a devops build task but am unable to do so without the assemblies it requires.
Does anybody know a way of setting this up? In azure for example? Is there a resource that will allow me to connect and backup a sql instance via connections string and save down to blob storage. Or an azure function perhaps?
Is there a resource that will allow me to connect and backup a sql instance via connections string and save down to blob storage?
I'm afraid the answer is no.
We can't find any API support in Azure to help you achieve that.
I think the SQL Server Management Studio and powershell script is more suitable for you.
Maybe you can think about using third-party tool SQL Backup and FTP, it can help you schedule backup the SQL Server to Azure Blob Storage.
Hope this helps.
Related
Requirement: I wanted to copy data from a specific table/view residing on a on-premise SQL Server to Azure SQL DB.
Infrastructure: As depicted in below picture. Essentially, the Azure network is directly connected with corporate network over Express Route. Thus it's a pure private network connection; as good as the corporate network itself.
Issue/Question: I know there are multiple approaches present to get this operation done and I am not restricted to use ADF copy Data tool only. BUT, for all of these I see some cavets or extra steps needed to be done as below:
ADF Copy Data Tool: Needs a SH-IR and a small MSI package needs to be installed on on-premise machine which hosts the SQL server for registration purpose.
Logic Apps: Needs a Virtual Gateway (OR) ASE
App Service: If the operation is wrapped in a C# application and I choose to deploy to a Azure Web Apps. Then in-order to connect to on-premise SQL Server we need to setup hybrid connection manager and as in #1 we need to install something in on-premise machine.
For my case, none of these extra steps can be done. essentially, the on-premise SQL Server comes under a different BU and thus I don't have any permission there; except they have given grant to a table/view. Thus, none of these extra shitty steps can be done.
Moreover, as mentioned above; since it's connected over express route as direct connection, As can be seen in above picture, both the on-premise and azure SQL are essentially inside the same corporate network. THUS, I should be able to access them directly without configuring any of these extra steps as mentioned above.
Please confirm on these and provide a suggestion.
Thank You.
You can still go with the ADF scenario without a SHIR by creating ADF in a Managed VNET using Private Endpoint. As you already have an ER circuit and have the flexibility to configure the Azure side, can you do this with Azure IR: Access on-premises SQL Server from Data Factory Managed VNet using Private Endpoint - Azure Data Factory | Microsoft Docs
There are 2 solutions which could work for your scenario but even for them to work ,you would need access to on prem SQL server machine access to some extent atleast for one time config and Azure SQL db should be accessible via SSMS installed on on-prem machine.
Using linked server
You can create a linked server ( process explained here https://www.sqlshack.com/create-linked-server-azure-sql-database/ ) on on-prem server and create a agent server job to insert data to azure SQL db table.
Via Python Script
This would need Python installation on on-prem machine. Once installed you can write script to transfer data between on-prem SQL server and Azure SQL db. You can schedule this script again by using an agent server job.
We are supporting a legacy system for our organisation. In the current scenario, we receive a SQL Server backup (.bak files) from the application vendor on an FTP location. For every weekend on Sunday it is a Full backup and for every other day its the differential one.
On our side, we have a SQL server instance running which has custom stored procedures written and scheduled to check the location every morning and then restore the backups every day. These restored backups are then used by the organisation for internal reporting purposes. There are 100s of other stored procedures written for different reports in different DBs on the same instance.
Since SQL Server 2008 is now out of support and for cost-saving purposes of running on-premise system, my team has been given a task to look into migrating this whole system to Azure SQL database.
My question is what is the most effective way in which we can move this workflow to the cloud? I have an azure trial account set up for me to try but haven't been successful in restoring the .bak files on Azure SQL instance.
Thanks.
You essentially have two options for Azure, either perform a fairly linear Lift and Shift to SQL Server on an Azure VM or go with a more advanced Azure PaaS offering in Azure SQL Database Managed Instance. The specific deployment Azure SQL Database (Single Instance) will not support your current solution requires with regard to the .bak file support, and I have detailed that below. For further details between the difference between Azure SQL Database Single Instance versus Managed Instance, please see: Features comparison: Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance
The second option, is to leverage the Azure Enterprise Ready Analytics Architecture (AERAA) (link) of Azure (PaaS) Analytics services. With Azure SQL Database (PaaS) services, as opposed to on-premise SQL Server or SQL Server on an Azure VM, there is no Integration Runtime or Analysis Services as a bundled service component. These services are separate PaaS offerings and with the help of the linked AERAA blog, you can gain a better understanding of the Azure Analytics services.
The .bak versus .bacpac support dilemma:
Since the main requirement for your solution is support of .bak files, you need to understand where .bak and where .bacpac files are supported. The term Azure SQL Database applies to both a specific deployment option for an Azure SQL database (PaaS) service and as a general term for Azure SQL cloud databases. As for the specific deployment option, Azure SQL Database (Single Instance nor Elastic Pools) will support your scenario with .bak files. This deployment option will support export/import functionality via .bacpac file format. It will not support full/partial restore functionality. The backup/restore functionality although configurable, is only in scope for the specific database hosted by an Azure SQL (logical) Server instance. Basically, you can not restore an external file. You can import, which is always a full copy. So, for that reason, for an Azure PaaS database service you will need Azure SQL Database Managed Instance for .bak file support or deploy an SQL Server VM image to an Azure VM, and migrate your objects via Azure Database Migration Service.
Regards,
Mike
I am using azure server for sql database.
I want to enabled backup database daily.
And also need to dump sql file for current database and other images uploaded to server.
Any suggestions please?
You can install backup software to your azure server and backup your SQL server to azure cloud storage. There are plenty such software (Duplicati, CloudBerry, Acronis etc).
Some of them have special features to backup SQL server in a proper way, also there are free versions among them.
You can do this in a different ways. You can use the third party applications and schedule backup jobs. Or you can use the native tools and configure everything by your-self. Hope this will be useful for you.
Since you're going down the Azure services route, for the images you had ought to look at Azure Blob Storage
And to back it up...Look at this answer
I know that Cloudberry works with Azure. You can try this software for doing backups daily both full image or icnremental backup.The price is afforable. The tool's simple. I see the person above has already mentioned Cloudberry. Seems to be a good thing.
I have a large database in an AWS instance running SQL Server 2008 on a Windows Server 2008 R2.
The database is constantly changing and writing information, and its size is about ~100GB
I wish to migrate from our Amazon services to Microsoft Azure.
But I cannot afford any lost of information more them for more than 20-30 minutes
I don't mind using the Azure SQL or running a SQL Server under a VM in Azure Cloud, but I must keep the databases live and updated, there are few main tables that information is being added to them constantly
What would be the best way to do so ?
if you are using an AWS instance and not RDS and you are going to an Azure instance and not "Azure SQL Database" you can use log-shipping or something similar to get the downtime down to a few seconds: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187103.aspx
The steps you need to take:
Take full backup on AWS
restore full backup without recovery on Azure
take log backup on AWS
restore log backup without recovery on Azure
repeat 3 and 4 until the time it takes is short enough (you probably want to script this out)
take app offline
take another log backup on AWS
restore that log backup WITH recovery on Azure
repoint App to Azure
bring App online again.
3, 4 and 5 is what log-shipping would automate, but you could just write a powershell script too.
Has anyone come up with a good way to do backups of SQL Azure databases?
The two approaches seem to be SSIS or BCP. SSIS looks like it requires a local install of MS SQL 2008 which I don't have. BCP looks a bit more promising but I haven't managed to find any examples of using it with SQL Azure as of yet.
At the PDC09 they announced SQL Azure Data Sync, which was an early preview that is designed to let you keep your local SQL Server in sync with an Azure SQL Server.
In terms of database backups for maintenance etc, then of course that is part of the service you pay for with Azure that MS manage.
The sync framework team have a blog on a number of issues surrounding data syncronisation between Azure and a local DB - http://blogs.msdn.com/sync/default.aspx
My personal favorite solution is to use Azure Mobile Services to do a nightly backup & export from SQL Azure to a .bacpac file hosted in Azure Storage. This solution doesn't require a 3rd party tool, no bcp or powershell, is 100% cloud and doesn't require a local hosted SQL Server instance to download/copy/backup anything.
There are about 8 different steps, but they're all pretty easy: http://geekswithblogs.net/BenBarreth/archive/2013/04/15/how-to-create-a-nightly-backup-of-your-sql-azure.aspx
SQL Azure now offers automated and schedulable backups to bacpac files in Azure blob storage
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sql-bi-sap-cloud-crm_all_in_one_place/archive/2013/07/24/sql-azure-automated-database-export.aspx
We use this to make nightly backups and have the tool keep the most recent 14 backups.
Enzo Backup for SQL Azure is available (full release expected October 1st): http://www.bluesyntax.net/backup.aspx
You can backup a database with transactional consistency and restore it at a later time; it stores its backups in the cloud, or on-premise. It also includes a scheduling capability.
I spent some time with BCP and got it working acceptably. It's a bit annoying to have to do the backup/restore table-by-table but I'll script it and that will do until Microsoft bring in a proper SQL Azure backup feature which is supposedly going to be the first half of 2010.
Backup:
bcp mydb.dbo.customers out customers.dat -n -U user#azureserver -P pass -S tcp:azureserver.database.windows.net
Restore:
bcp mydb.dbo.customers in customers.dat -n -U user#azureserver -P pass -S tcp:azureserver.database.windows.net
We set up a simple solution using Red Gate tools, but it too requires a local SQL instance: http://mooneyblog.mmdbsolutions.com/index.php/2011/01/11/simple-database-backups-with-sql-azure
I'm using www.sqlscripter.com to generate insert/update data scripts (to sync my local db). Not for free (shareware) but worth to try.
You can now use SQL Azure Copy to perform backups of your database. More details on this can be found here.
Seems that azurelabs has something to offer now:
Azure Labs
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