SQL Azure Backup & Restore strategy

We have a web based (ASP.NET MVC) application that uses SQL Server 2008 for its database.

Because the data is important to us (and our clients), we have a Backup & Restore strategy in place which, in a nutshell, looks like this:

-Weekly: Full database backup
-Nightly: Differential backup
-Hourly: Log backup

The strategy we use was greatly influenced by listening to a webcast done by K开发者_如何学Pythonimberly Tripp (which can be viewed here: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventId=1032278589&CountryCode=US).

Question:

Since we are looking into moving the database to SQL Azure, I wanted to know if anyone has put in place a similar Backup & Restore strategy within SQL Azure.

Has anyone encountered any known issues with trying to put in place a Backup & Restore strategy with Azure?

Thanks for any help on this.

Backup/restore is a whole different animal in SQL Azure as the traditional backup/restore commands are not available. See the article SQL Azure Backup and Restore Strategy for a good overview and then read Copying Databases in SQL Azure. Also take a look at redgate's (beta) third party tool for SQL Azure Backup.

EDIT: Adding a reference to a new blog post that appeared today (Sept 29, 2011): Data backup strategies for Windows and SQL Azure

In addition to the options that Joe has mentioned you can also use DAC as mentioned here. It is a little out of date as you can now import/export BACPAC files from blob storage in the portal.

Redgate offers a free tool to backup and restore a database from SQL Azure to SQL Server or Azure Blob Storage:

• SQL Azure Backup

I wrote a blog post on backing up your SQL Azure DB to a blog file using nothing more complex than some free command line tools and the windows task scheduler, should save you some money and hassle :-)

https://iainhunter.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/sql-azure-disaster-recovery/

There is one project on codeplex that is making possible to have a worker role to be acting as a backup agent.