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sql-serverazureazure-sql-databasedatabase-administrationtest-environments

How to create a Dev/Test environment on Azure SQL Database?

On the Holy Book of SQL Server The Messiah once described how a Test/Dev environment should look like in a perfect World:

"In a perfect world, my test/QA servers get restored nightly from production. Let’s say every night at 9pm, the production full backups kick off, and they’re finished by 10pm. At 11pm, the QA box kicks off a restore job that grabs the latest full backups off the file share and restores them."

This makes sense in an on-prem scenario but what if I have to migrate to Azure SQL Database?

Because if I really want to test the Test/Dev environment need to be on Azure SQL Database too!

The questions are:

  1. Should I create a logic that restore a backup from Production every night?
  2. Does delete/restore database on Azure has a cost? (I mean if I do it 30 times per month?)

Thank you

Solution

    1. Sure. No different from on prem.

    2. Dev/Test can be on a lower SLO, perhaps Serverless. There is no other cost to restore a database.