Edit

Restore a dropped Azure Database for PostgreSQL server

  • Article

APPLIES TO: Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Single Server

Important

Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Single Server is on the retirement path. We strongly recommend that you upgrade to Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server. For more information about migrating to Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server, see What's happening to Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server?.

When a server is dropped, the database server backup will be retained for five days in the service. The database backup can be accessed and restored only from the Azure subscription where the server originally resided. The following recommended steps can be followed to recover a dropped PostgreSQL server resource within five days from the time of server deletion. The recommended steps will work only if the backup for the server is still available and not deleted from the system.

Pre-requisites

To restore a dropped Azure Database for PostgreSQL server, you need following:

  • Azure Subscription name hosting the original server
  • Location where the server was created

Steps to restore

  1. Browse to the Azure portal. Select the Azure Monitor service, then select Activity Log.

  2. In Activity Log, select on Add filter as shown and set following filters for the following

    • Subscription = Your Subscription hosting the deleted server
    • Resource Type = Azure Database for PostgreSQL servers (Microsoft.DBforPostgreSQL/servers)
    • Operation = Delete PostgreSQL Server (Microsoft.DBforPostgreSQL/servers/delete)

    Activity log filtered for delete PostgreSQL server operation

  3. Select the Delete PostgreSQL Server event, then select the JSON tab. Copy the resourceId and submissionTimestamp attributes in JSON output. The resourceId is in the following format: /subscriptions/ffffffff-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff/resourceGroups/TargetResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.DBforPostgreSQL/servers/deletedserver.

  4. Browse to the PostgreSQL Create Server REST API Page and select the Try It tab highlighted in green. Sign in with your Azure account.

  5. Provide the resourceGroupName, serverName (deleted server name), subscriptionId properties, based on the resourceId attribute JSON value captured in the preceding step 3. The api-version property is pre-populated and can be left as-is, as shown in the following image.

    Create server using REST API

  6. Scroll below on Request Body section and paste the following replacing the "Dropped server Location"(e.g. CentralUS, EastUS etc.), "submissionTimestamp", and "resourceId". For "restorePointInTime", specify a value of "submissionTimestamp" minus 15 minutes to ensure the command doesn't error out.

    {
  "location": "Dropped Server Location",  
  "properties": 
  {
    "restorePointInTime": "submissionTimestamp - 15 minutes",
    "createMode": "PointInTimeRestore",
    "sourceServerId": "resourceId"
  }
}

    For example, if the current time is 2020-11-02T23:59:59.0000000Z, we recommend a minimum of 15 minutes prior restore point in time 2020-11-02T23:44:59.0000000Z. See below example and ensure that you're changing three parameters (location,restorePointInTime,sourceServerId) as per your restore requirements.

    {
  "location": "EastUS",  
  "properties": 
  {
    "restorePointInTime": "2020-11-02T23:44:59.0000000Z",
    "createMode": "PointInTimeRestore",
    "sourceServerId": "/subscriptions/ffffffff-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff/resourceGroups/SourceResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.DBforPostgreSQL/servers/sourceserver"
  }
}

    Important

    There is a time limit of five days after the server was dropped. After five days, an error is expected since the backup file cannot be found.

  7. If you see Response Code 201 or 202, the restore request is successfully submitted.

    The server creation can take time depending on the database size and compute resources provisioned on the original server. The restore status can be monitored from Activity log by filtering for

    • Subscription = Your Subscription
    • Resource Type = Azure Database for PostgreSQL servers (Microsoft.DBforPostgreSQL/servers)
    • Operation = Update PostgreSQL Server Create

Next steps

  • If you're trying to restore a server within five days, and still receive an error after accurately following the steps discussed earlier, open a support incident for assistance. If you're trying to restore a dropped server after five days, an error is expected since the backup file cannot be found. Don't open a support ticket in this scenario. The support team cannot provide any assistance if the backup is deleted from the system.
  • To prevent accidental deletion of servers, we highly recommend using Resource Locks.