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Exercise - Recover data by restoring an Azure SQL database

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Trial restores are a key component of any disaster recovery strategy.

You want to familiarize yourself with the steps to restore a backed-up database to a specific point in time, in case it becomes necessary. You also want to investigate how long a restore operation takes. That way, you can plan for this time in your guidance for your organization.

Let's perform a restore from automated Azure SQL Database backups.

Confirm that backups are active

It can take up to 15 minutes for the first successful backup to finish. We need to make sure that backups are running before we continue the exercise.

1. In Azure Cloud Shell, run the following PowerShell command to set a variable to the value of your SQL Server instance:

   $sqlserver=Get-AzSqlServer
   

2. Validate that continuous backups are running by using this command:

   Get-AzSqlDatabaseRestorePoint `
       -ResourceGroupName <rgn>[sandbox resource group name]</rgn> `
       -DatabaseName sql-erp-db `
       -ServerName $sqlserver.ServerName
   

   You should get an output similar to the following code if your backups are running. If the command returns no value, a backup hasn't started yet. Rerun this command in a couple of minutes.

   ResourceGroupName        : <rgn>[sandbox resource group name]</rgn>
   ServerName               : erpserver-53903
   DatabaseName             : sql-erp-db
   Location                 : East US
   RestorePointType         : CONTINUOUS
   RestorePointCreationDate :
   EarliestRestoreDate      : 9/24/19 4:21:21 PM
   RestorePointLabel        :
   

   RestorePointType is CONTINUOUS, indicating that backups are automatically happening. EarliestRestoreDate indicates the timestamp of the first backup. With backups in place, let's continue the exercise.

Drop a table from the database

Let's start by simulating a mistaken database modification.

1. On the Azure portal menu or from the Home page, select All resources, select erpserver-NNNN, select SQL databases, and then select the sql-erp-db database.

2. Select Query editor (preview), then sign in with the dbadmin user and the password that you specified for this account.

3. Let's drop the Person table that we created earlier. In a new query window, run this command.

   DROP TABLE Person
   

4. To check the tables in the database, select New Query. Then, in the Query 2 window, run this command to list all tables in the database:

   SELECT schema_name(t.schema_id) as schema_name,
       t.name as table_name
   FROM sys.tables t
   ORDER BY schema_name, table_name;
   

   You should see No results returned, because we deleted the Person table.

   

Run a point-in-time restore

The Person table was mistakenly deleted. Now, let's restore the database to its previous state.

1. On the Azure portal menu or from the Home page, select All resources, and then select the sql-erp-db database.

2. At the top of the Overview page, select Restore.

3. Complete the Basics tab on the Restore database page with these values, and then select Review + create.

   Setting	Value
   Select source	Point-in-time
   Database name	sql-erp-db-xxxxx
   Restore point	Select a time 10 minutes ago, before you dropped the Person table
   Server	erpserver-xxxxx
   Want to use SQL elastic pool?	No
   Compute + storage	Default value
   Backup storage redundancy	Locally-redundant backup storage

   

4. Select Create. The database restore takes several minutes to complete.

View the restored database

The restored database should contain the Person table. You can check that in the portal.

1. In the Azure portal menu or from the Home page, select All resources, and then select the sql-erp-db-restored database.

2. Select Query editor (preview), and then sign in with the dbadmin user and the password that you specified for this account.

3. To check the tables in the database, in the Query 1 window, run this command:

   SELECT schema_name(t.schema_id) as schema_name,
       t.name as table_name
   FROM sys.tables t
   ORDER BY schema_name, table_name;
   

   The Person table should now be present.

   

4. Confirm that the data is in the table by running this command:

   SELECT * FROM Person
   

   You should see the data that you entered previously.

   

You've now learned how you can restore a database if something unintended happens to the data. You've familiarized yourself with the restore process. You can now assure your organization that you've properly defined the backup and restore procedures.

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