Restore a single database in Azure SQL Database to an earlier point in time using the Azure CLI
Applies to: 
Azure SQL Database
This Azure CLI example restores a single database in Azure SQL Database to a specific point in time.
If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.
Prerequisites
Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.
If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.
If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.
When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.
Sample script
For this script, use Azure CLI locally as it takes too long to run in Cloud Shell.
Sign in to Azure
Use the following script to sign in using a specific subscription.
subscription="<subscriptionId>" # add subscription here
az account set -s $subscription # ...or use 'az login'
For more information, see set active subscription or log in interactively
Run the script
# Restore a single database in Azure SQL Database to an earlier point in time
# Use Bash rather than Cloud Shell due to its timeout at 20 minutes when no interactive activity
# In Windows, run Bash in a Docker container to sync time zones between Azure and Bash.
# Variable block
let "randomIdentifier=$RANDOM*$RANDOM"
location="East US"
resourceGroup="msdocs-sql-rg-$randomIdentifier"
tag="restore-database"
server="msdocs-azuresql-server-$randomIdentifier"
database="msdocsazuresqldb$randomIdentifier"
restoreServer="restoreServer-$randomIdentifier"
login="azureuser"
password="Pa$$w0rD-$randomIdentifier"
echo "Using resource group $resourceGroup with login: $login, password: $password..."
echo "Creating $resourceGroup in "$location"..."
az group create --name $resourceGroup --location "$location" --tags $tag
echo "Creating $server in $location..."
az sql server create --name $server --resource-group $resourceGroup --location "$location" --admin-user $login --admin-password $password
echo "Creating $database on $server..."
az sql db create --resource-group $resourceGroup --server $server --name $database --service-objective S0
# Sleeping commands to wait long enough for automatic backup to be created
echo "Sleeping..."
sleep 30m
# Restore a server from backup to a new server
# To specify a specific point-in-time (in UTC) to restore from, use the ISO8601 format:
# restorePoint=“2021-07-09T13:10:00Z”
restorePoint=$(date +%s)
restorePoint=$(expr $restorePoint - 60)
restorePoint=$(date -d @$restorePoint +"%Y-%m-%dT%T")
echo $restorePoint
echo "Restoring to $restoreServer"
az sql db restore --dest-name $restoreServer --edition Standard --name $database --resource-group $resourceGroup --server $server --service-objective S0 --time $restorePoint
Clean up resources
Use the following command to remove the resource group and all resources associated with it using the az group delete command - unless you have an ongoing need for these resources. Some of these resources may take a while to create, as well as to delete.
az group delete --name $resourceGroup
Sample reference
This script uses the following commands. Each command in the table links to command specific documentation.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| az sql db restore | Restore database command. |
Next steps
For more information on Azure CLI, see Azure CLI documentation.
Additional SQL Database CLI script samples can be found in the Azure SQL Database documentation.