Rapid Restore for Azure SQL Databases with Short-Term Retention

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

When setting up an Azure SQL Database, it is common to have a backup and restore strategy to protect against data loss. Azure SQL Databases offer backup retention policies that can be configured to meet your disaster recovery and compliance needs.

For rapid restores with Azure SQL Databases, you'll be looking at Short-Term Retention, which are automated backups of your databases that are retained for a set number of days based on your configuration. These backups can be used to quickly restore your database to a point in time.

In Pulumi, managing the backup retention policies of an Azure SQL Database is accomplished using the `azure-native.sql.BackupShortTermRetentionPolicy` resource. You can set the retention period for the backups, which allows you to determine how far back in time you can restore your database.

The following Pulumi program in Python sets up an Azure SQL Database server, creates a sample SQL database, and then configures a short-term retention policy for that database with a retention of 7 days.

Let's walk through each step:

1. **Setting up an Azure SQL Server:** We will start by defining an Azure SQL Server resource. This server will host our databases.

2. **Creating a SQL Database:** We'll create a new Azure SQL Database on the server we just declared.

3. **Configuring the Backup Short-Term Retention Policy:** Finally, we'll define the short-term retention policy for the database, specifying that the backups should be retained for 7 days.

```python
import pulumi
from pulumi_azure_native import resources
from pulumi_azure_native import sql

# Create a resource group to contain the Azure SQL Server and Database
resource_group = resources.ResourceGroup('resourceGroup')

# Create an Azure SQL Server
sql_server = sql.Server(
    'sqlServer',
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    # Specifying properties for the SQL Server
    administrator_login='adminUser',
    administrator_login_password='complex_password',
    version='12.0',  # Set the version of the SQL Server
    location='westus',
)

# Create a SQL Database in the server
sql_database = sql.Database(
    'sqlDatabase',
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    server_name=sql_server.name,
    # Specifying properties for the SQL Database
    sku=sql.SkuArgs(
        name='Standard_DS12_v2',  # Choose an appropriate performance level SKU
        tier='Standard',
    ),
)

# Set up a short-term retention policy for the SQL Database
short_term_retention_policy = sql.BackupShortTermRetentionPolicy(
    'shortTermRetentionPolicy',
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    server_name=sql_server.name,
    database_name=sql_database.name,
    # Specify retention period (in days)
    retention_days=7,  # How many days automated backups are retained
)

# Export the SQL Server name and SQL Database ID
pulumi.export('sql_server_name', sql_server.name)
pulumi.export('sql_database_id', sql_database.id)
```

In this program, we've created resources with names such as 'resourceGroup', 'sqlServer', and 'sqlDatabase'. These names are identifiers in the Pulumi program but don't correspond to the Azure physical resource names, which will be auto-generated to ensure they are globally unique and follow Azure's naming requirements.

Note that we've set the `retention_days` property to 7, which means the automated backups created for this database will be retained for a week and can be used for restoration during that period. The exact number of retention days should align with your organization's backup policy and compliance requirements.

Now, by running this Pulumi program with the appropriate Azure credentials configured, it will provision the resources described above in Azure. Remember to select an appropriate password for the SQL Server administrator and an appropriate SKU for the SQL Database based on the performance and cost requirements of your use case.