(SQL) Tip of the Day: You shouldn’t be using Auto Export anymore

Today’s (SQL) Tip…

Automatic export is a tool built into SQL Azure. It was formerly used as the primary way to back up SQL Azure databases in an automated way. In fact for a long time it was the only way to automate backup. It works by first creating a copy of your database and then running an export to your Azure Storage account.

This has a large number of moving parts and can get very expensive if used daily or more frequently. Also unless you have a very defined business need it is mostly pointless.

With any tier of SQL Azure database other than Web or Business you get point in time recovery that is backing up your database every five minutes. You also get Geo-Restore which will give you full disaster recovery in a geo-redundant location.

This all boils down to unless you specifically need a bacpac of your database on a regular and automated basis you should be using the features already built into SQL Azure to handle backup for you.