Azure Sql Database back up files

2
votes

We are new to Azure SQL Database and doing some research about the backup files. I have few questions related to SQL Database.

1) I read that Azure has built-in backup capabilities. I don't see the back up files in the azure portal. We want to use the automated backup files and restore the database in our local environments. Is there any way to access the back up files.

2) I used the SQLPackage.exe command to export the database to my local machine. With this approach it is only allowing me to export a bacpac file. Is there anyway other way to take backup files with extension of .bak

The overall goal is to take a weekly full backup and daily differential backups, which would allow us to restore the database in local. Please suggest us the best options to do so.

Thanks in advance.

2
azureazure-sql-database
Hi Sandeep Reddy Pinniti , If my answer is helpful for you, please vote up and mark it as answer( click on the check mark beside the answer to toggle it from greyed out to filled in.). This can be beneficial to other community members. Thank you. – Leon Yue

2 Answers

0
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We want to use the automated backup files and restore the database in our local environments. Is there any way to access the back up files.

No, you cannot access the backup files directly. In SQL Sever you can't restore a backup file to an older version of SQL Server, and Azure SQL Database is generally newer than any SQL Server you could install. So you wouldn't be able to restore them anyway.

0
votes
  1. I read that Azure has built-in backup capabilities. I don't see the back up files in the azure portal. We want to use the automated backup files and restore the database in our local environments. Is there any way to access the back up files.

We can see the backup on Portal: SQL Server--> Manage Backups, but we can not access the backup files and use the automated backup files to restore the database in your local environments. enter image description here

  1. I used the SQLPackage.exe command to export the database to my local machine. With this approach it is only allowing me to export a bacpac file. Is there anyway other way to take backup files with extension of .bak

For Azure SQL Database, it doesn't provide a native way to generate '.bak' format backup file. You could reference:How to create BAK file from azure sql db.

About your goal, you should using some scripts to schedule backup the database to blob, then you can use the backup to restore the database in local.

Here two ways can help you:

  1. Powershell scripts: Backup Azure SQL Databases to Blob storage: This Azure Automation runbook automates Azure SQL database backup to Blob storage and deletes old backups from blob storage.
  2. Tool Database Backup Tool: SQLBackupAndFTP is SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL backup software that runs scheduled backups (full, differential or transaction log) of SQL Server or SQL Server Express databases (any version), runs file/folder backup, zips and encrypts the backups, stores them on a network or on an FTP server or in the cloud (Amazon S3 and others we're constantly adding more), removes old backups, and sends an e-mail confirmation on the job's success or failure.

Hope this helps.