Backing up SQL Databases To Azure Blob Storage

In this session, I will be taking you through the basics of setting up Azure and your SQL Server instance to store your backups in blob storage. This is based on my own experiences of implementing such solutions. This will include: * Creating containers to store your blobs in, securing your containers using Azure’s built-in security features and increasing protecting using firewall settings. * How to authenticate your SQL Server instance with azure for backup creation and restore activities. * Configuring Ola Hallengren’s backups scripts for Azure-based backups – also some details on Maintenance Plans if you happen to use these. * Configure scheduled blob deletions against containers as the cleardown processes within Ola’s scripts and Maintenance Plans do not work with blob storage. This will be enhanced by implementing a wrapper stored procedure around Ola’s scripts to give additional flexibility around: * Use logic to control the selection of a container to implement retention policies * Add sanity checks regarding inputs and edition specific features And finally, I will cover some scenarios on overcoming issues where you do not have complete control over how and where to backup.