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We have two SQL servers we rarely use, but were a pain to set up. Is there any way to back them up to be able to restore them at a later date, and delete the current instances. We are paying around $500 per month for these unnecessarily.
Thank you,
Greg
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(224.00000000000003, 77%, 31%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ESK%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
You might be interested in looking for ARM templates and also for SQL server configuration.ini file in setup bootstrap folder of sql server.
Hi @Greg Vogel
Just checking in to know if any of these recommendations were the answer to your problem or were you looking for something else ?
ARM templates can be exported and imported to provision same config instances in Azure.
SQL Server configuration.ini files helps you set the sql server instances with same config anywhere on VM or physical machines.
You will still need to Backup and Restore the databases, permissions etc to get things to spin in future.
You can script all your sql agent jobs and save them too to implement them in future again with just one script execution.
Regards,
Shivam
Hi @Greg Vogel Thank you for posting your question on Microsoft Q&A and for using Azure Services.
As per my understanding you are looking to back up Azure SQL servers and restore them later. Let me clarify this, a server is a logical concept, there is nothing to back up.
If you are asking how to create a backup in Azure SQL DB. The answer is you don't need to because it is unnecessary - The system does it automatically. The backup page in the Azure portal let you configure retention for existing backups that the system creates. Please refer to this documentation article Automated backups in Azure SQL Database
Please let me know if you need additional clarification
Regards,
Oury
Hi @Greg Vogel Checking if the above answers helped you clarify your request. Please do let us know if you need additional information. Do not forget to mark as accept answer wherever information provided were helpful.
Regards,
Oury