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Database Backup Sync and Restore

Do you need to copy your SQL Server database backup files off your server and on to a local network share, or upload them to Azure Blob Storage?

Azure Blob Storage Backup is a feature built right into SQL Server, but it is only available in SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 CU 2 and higher.

Furthermore, there is no ability in any version of SQL Server prior to 2016, to back up to more than one location simultaneously. You have to choose between local backups or Azure Blob Storage. It is not possible to pick both. This is especially problematic if you perform Differential Backups.

AzureBlobStorageSync is a free tool that allows you to continue backing up your database locally, for any version of SQL Server, and synchronise your files to Azure Blob Storage on a schedule of your choosing.

If you don’t want to use Azure Blob Storage, FileStorageSync is a free tool that allows you to synchronise your files to a UNC path on a schedule of your choosing.

Either of these tools will work alongside your existing backup process, and both leverage Ola Hallengren’s Maintenance Solution.

There are companion restore tools, AzureBlobStorageRestore and FileStorageRestore, also free, which can download the latest database (including Full, Differential and Transaction Log Backups), only knowing the name of the database from the Azure or UNC location, and build a restore script.

This is especially useful if you suffer a catastrophic failure and have no other knowledge of the backups (e.g. the content of the msdb database).

You can download the source code (written in C#) from GitHub at https://github.com/bornsql/azureblobstoragesync.

The GitHub page is the best source for information or documentation on how it works.