Now when backing up to the cloud, you can easily store a copy of your data offsite, allowing you to take advantage of cost-effective storage options.
Microsoft states,
“In SQL Server 2016, we have added significant enhancements to our backup technologies, making it easy to leverage the cloud for backups.”
Backup to URL
SQL Server Backup to URL allows you to easily backup directly to Microsoft Azure Blob storage, removing the requirement to manage hardware for backups, and at the same time it also gives you the benefit of storing all your backups in flexible, reliable and virtually bottomless storage.
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In SQL Server 2016, Microsoft now offers support for the use of block blobs in order to make this tool more helpful. They are as stated below:
- Backup striping can be used to support backup sizes of up to 12 TB.
- Faster backup and restore when using backup striping.
- You can use shared access signatures to create SQL backup credentials that limit SQL Server’s access to a specific container, rather than the whole storage account.
Managed Backup
Currently, Microsoft offers automated backups for multiple databases which is required for developing backup strategies, writing custom code and also scheduling backups. By using SQL Server Managed Backup to Azure, you can now easily create a backup plan by specifying the retention period and Microsoft Azure storage location. The SQL Server Managed Backup to Windows Azure does the rest – scheduling, performing and maintaining the backups.
In SQL Server 2016, Microsoft has enhanced the following features, in order to make it even easier to back-up your databases.
- Full, bulk-logged and simple recovery models are all supported.
- System databases can be configured for backups.
- Backup striping can be used to support backup sizes of up to 12 TB.
- Customer backup schedules can be specified to ensure your backups are created when it is best for your workload.
- Getting started with SQL Server 2016 Managed Backup is simple with our configuration guide.
- You can also configure Managed Backup on a SQL Server Azure Virtual Machine with the Auto Backup feature, all you need to do is simply follow the screenshot below while creating your virtual machine.
File-Snapshot Backup
The SQL Server Data Files directly in Azure Blob Storage and File-Snapshot Backup allow you to backup and restore data quickly, with minimal impact on performance. As the data in the blob changes with time, the snapshots continue to point to the data at the time when the snapshots were created.
Image Source: blogs.technet.microsoft
These features completely support point-in restore, however, unlike the traditional point-in-time restore, File-Snapshot Backup requires only the backup before point-in-time and the backup after the point-in-time.
“With SQL Server 2016, we improved our hybrid backup feature set to help you be more productive and secure. With SQL Server Backup to URL we support much larger databases and provide you with more secure storage account backup configurations. With SQL Server Managed Backup we have made it easier to customize your backup configurations and backup your system databases. File-Snapshot Backup allows you to take nearly instantaneous backups and very fast restores of SQL Server Data Files directly in Azure Blob Storage.”