Azure SQL Managed Instance - How does the new database created in the portal reference the restored database from on-prem?

Question

Hi All,

I`m in the process of migrating SQL databases from on-premise to Azure SQL Managed instance. I have followed the "back up and restore" outlined here "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/data-migration/sql-server/managed-instance/guide". 

I have started with a test db, created a new managed instance database and restored the db from the storage account URL and I can see the storage utilisation has noted the size of the imported db and all tests are good in regards to the SQL db and application.

How does the manually created managed instance database reference the copied database from on-premise? As tests have now been successful we are looking to migrate the production db from on-premise to a newly created managed instance db I have created for production. In regards to backup retention, how does the managed instance database know which db to back up depending on the configured retention policy? (which will be different between test and production).

Thank you,

Scott