A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Md Ullah restores a database using Azure Data Factory:
Prerequisite
- Azure SQL Managed Instances are located across two distinct subscriptions.
- Azure Blob storage same subscriptions SQL Managed Instances are located
- Azure Data Factory (ADF) instance
Read on for necessary permissions and a note to turn off Transparent Data Encryption before giving this a go.
Comments closedRobert Haas shares some thoughts:
Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot of experienced PostgreSQL users reiterate this line: “pg_dump is not a backup tool.” In fact, the documentation has recently been updated to avoid saying that it is a backup tool, to widespread relief. Experienced PostgreSQL users and developers have been publicly called out for having the temerity to assert that pg_dump is, in fact, a backup tool. I find this narrative deeply frustrating, for two reasons.
Click through for those reasons.
Comments closedIn this video, I cover the three recovery models available to SQL Server, describe (most of) the types of backups you can take, and spend a bit of time covering Recovery Point Objective & Recovery Time Objective.
The advice for video length that people tend to give is 8-10 minutes. I typically average closer to 15 minutes per video. This one is nearly 30 minutes long because there’s just so much information to cover, even with me repeatedly saying “Don’t worry, I’ll cover this bit in a future video.”
Comments closedI’ve started a new video series:
In this video, I explain why it is so important to back up your databases. From there, we see one technique for taking these backups in SQL Server: using SQL Server Management Studio. We review some of the backup metadata you can collect and also see how to compress and encrypt backups.
The first few videos in the series have all gone a bit longer than I expected, and that’s even with me pointedly ignoring most everything to do with tape drives.
Comments closedGrant Fritchey provides an important public service announcement:
Please, let me reiterate: The only valid test of a backup is a restore.
THE
ONLY
VALID
TEST
OF
A
BACKUP
IS
A
RESTORE.
Grant is absolutely correct here. And do you know how hard it is to test a SQL Server backup? With dbatools, it’s this hard: Test-DbaLastBackup. That one cmdlet restores a backup (under a different name so it doesn’t clobber your existing database), runs DBCC CHECKDB against the restored data, drops the test database after the fact, and even allows you to do all of that against a different SQL Server instance.
Incidentally, my next YouTube series just happens to be around backup and restoration in SQL Server, so stay tuned if you’re interested.
Comments closedJosephine Bush makes and restores a backup:
I wanted to test a migration of Azure PostgreSQL from simple to flexible. I wanted a simple db to restore onto my single server. I may not have needed to do this, but I was then curious how one would go about dumping and restoring on Azure Postgres in general. I plan to use the Azure migration service, but since I started this dump/restore exercise, I thought I would document it here.
Read on for the process.
Comments closedStefan Fercot does some explaining:
Recently, we’ve received many questions about how to take backups from a standby server using pgBackRest. In this post, I’d like to clarify one of the most frequently asked questions and address a common misconception for new users.
First of all, it’s important to understand that taking a backup exclusively from the standby server is not currently possible. When you trigger a backup from the standby, pgBackRest creates a standby backup that is identical to a backup performed on the primary. It does this by starting/stopping the backup on the primary, copying only files that are replicated from the standby, then copying the remaining few files from the primary.
Read on to learn more and to see an example of how this works.
Comments closedAndy Brownsword needs to make a call out:
One method for transferring a database to a different environment is using a Data-Tier Application – in the form of a DACPAC (for schema) or BACPAC (for schema and data).
Trying to use this approach with multi-database solutions is a challenge though as Data-Tier Applications don’t play nicely with cross-database objects.
Let’s look at how we can ease that pain.
Read on for the solution.
Comments closedRajendra Gupta takes a backup:
Azure SQL Managed Instance automatically takes backups to suit your business requirements. However, if you need a manual backup for specific requirements, does Azure MI support it? Let’s explore this in this tip.
Read on for the solution, which has several working parts due to the lack of locally accessible disk.
Comments closedGrant Fritchey restores some backups:
PostgreSQL has the capabilities to support backups as I already described in my first article on the topic. PostgreSQL also has the capability to restore to a point in time. However, that does require you to change the way you’re performing your backups. This article advances our understanding of how to better protect your PostgreSQL databases by expanding on the database backups and restores into a more full-blown disaster recovery process through point in time restores.
While the important part is the restore, in a classic chicken or egg conundrum, we can’t talk about restoring until we first have a backup, so I’ll start with how you need to backup your databases in preparation for a point in time restore.
Click through for the process and to see it in action.
Comments closed