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Just deleted an Azure SQL Database by mistake! What's next?

There are times when you make mistakes, big mistakes like…
…deleting an Azure SQL Database…
In this post, we will take a look on what are the steps that needs to be done to recover and restore a deleted database. We are in the context where you have a Standard database, without any special features related to backups.

Trigger
I just realized that I deleted the wrong database and I do not have any custom backups mechanism configured. What should I do?

Time is crucial 
Time is one of the most important factors. The backups of deleted databases is stored for a limited time. The time window depends based on the instance type. In this time window, you can restore a deleted database without any kind of problems. The retention policies for backups is 7 days for Basic and 35 days for Standard and Premium.
Azure SQL Server created automatically backups to your databases. These backups are used to restore a deleted database. Don’t forget that as for on-premises backups, things can go wrong during the restoration procedures.

Steps to restore the deleted Azure SQL Database
Step 1: Go to your Azure SQL Server instance
Step 2: Navigate to Deleted Databases
Step 3: Select the Azure SQL database that you want to restore and trigger the restoration procedure


Tips 

  • Don’t forget to rename your database with the previous name. 
  • If the database is to recent, than you might not have a backup to restore (first 30 minutes).
  • User access is persisted and restored.
  • Backups are created automatically.
  • Backups are created on RA-GRS storages (geo-redundancy).
  • The backups system is based a SQL database backup combined with transaction logs.
  • You can reconfigure retention policy up to 10 years (you will need in this case to pay for storage).
  • Transparent data encryption is used for all backups (backups are encrypted), when TDE is active at database level.


Conclusion
Don’t panic if you delete a database. Depending on your database size, you can fully restore it in a few minutes.

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