How to Automate Continuous Database Backup and Restore

Star Knowledge — Fri, 01 May 2020 09:55:21 +0000

Microsoft SQL is the most widely used database management system. As a user, you put huge amount of data there. Using this popular database is easy but its maintenance and backup is not. We hear a lot of cries from users where they accidentally drop a database, lose backups, want to restore and retrieve the data and more.

While there are several easy ways you can lose your data such as a bug in the database engine, using an unreliable infrastructure to host your database, damage to the files, storage device failure etc., there are also very easy and simple steps to avoid data loss and automate SQL database backup & restore.

But you don’t want to lose your data, do you? Or are you hit by this disaster ALREADY???

To help you out of this mess, we bring to you this step-by-step guide on how to automate SQL database backup and how to restore the backups.

Although, these days databases are more stable and reliable, you still need perfect, automated database backup and restore solutions for your database, be it SQL, MySQL, Oracle or any other database. Let’s dive in:

Other posts: Azure Infrastructure Migration

How to Automate Continuous Backups for SQL Database
Whether your SQL server is running on Microsoft Azure, AWS (Amazon Web Service), Google Cloud or is running on any Virtual Machines (VMS) or PaaS instances, the tips and tricks for automation of database backups shared in this article are universal.

Important Benefits of Database Backup Automation
Guess what? you need not be an Automation expert, a skilled database engineer or an experienced database administrator to execute this job.
Forget database mirroring. You don’t have to spend time in learning how it’s done.
This is just a one-time set up. Yes, you read it right! Once you setup the automation explained in this article, you will never have to worry about scheduling backups. It automatically does all that for you.
Follow this easy 4-step guide on how to automate continuous backups for SQL database:
Step 1: Run an Azure Batch Job – Portal

Microsoft Azure Batch is largely used for its cost optimization benefit. You’re charged only when you execute a back-up or restore Job. This job scheduling and compute management platform is widely used as it enables running large-scale applications efficiently on the cloud.

Now, follow this link to create a batch account which you will need to create pools, jobs, and tasks.

Step 2: obtain the SQLpackage command-line utility

You can obtain the SQLpackage command-line utility in “SQL Server Database Tools” from Microsoft.

Step 3: Upload to the Azure blob container

Step 4: Create Azure batch task Add

RESOURCE FILES as blob container location
Command Line

cmd /c “%AZ_BATCH_APP_PACKAGE_sqlpack#v1%\DAC\bin\SqlPackage.exe /a:Export /ssn: /sdn: /su: /sp:/tf:\.file.core.windows.net\common\extractv-batch.bacpac”
How to Automate Continuous Database Restore:
Follow the below 4 easy steps to automate database restore:

Step 1: Run an Azure Batch Job – PortalFollow this link to create a batch account which you will need to create pools, jobs, and tasks.

Step 2: Obtain the SQLpackage command-line utility

Step 3: Upload to the Azure blob container

Step 4: Create Azure batch task Add

RESOURCE FILES as blob container location
Command line

cmd /c “%AZ_BATCH_APP_PACKAGE_sqlpack#v1%\DAC\bin\SqlPackage.exe /a:Import /tsn:ae-dev-sql.database.windows.net /tdn:extractv /tu:tabexpone /tp:Tabexp@123 /sf:\.file.core.windows.net\common\extractv3-batch.bacpac
Conclusion
The above steps for automation of database backups will help you avoid disasters from data loss and focus on more important things.

Microsoft Teams: Remote Work Made Productive & Smooth

Star Knowledge — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 10:38:31 +0000

Almost a month of social distancing, lockdowns and work-from-home due to the COVID-19 outbreak has thrown all of us into what everybody is calling ‘the new normal’. But the former 2 of these 3 things will not last long while the latter – ‘remote work (WFH)’ is here to stay.

Companies, small to large, across different industries have migrated their employees to the new remote-work environment and this has constructed a massive market for Chat, Meetings, Callings, and Collaboration tools as they have become a necessity to keep businesses running, employees safe, and productivity unaffected.

One such modern group collaboration platform that has seen a massive spike in its usage is Microsoft Teams. In early March 2020, driven by the coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft Teams witnessed a 500% spike as more and more companies began to embrace remote work and the number of daily active users of the software jumped from 32 Million to 44 Million (and counting).

Now, let’s see how Microsoft Teams assists remote work / work-from-home:

Microsoft teams work from home

Getting on-board Microsoft Teams:
As Covid-19 spread across the world, Microsoft made Microsoft Teams available to everyone by providing many of its premium features at zero cost. Organizations with a Microsoft Office 365 Subscription have access to Microsoft Teams already but what if you’re a newbie? You can download a freemium version of Microsoft Teams or can move to Office with us.

Microsoft Teams Features: Extending Support to Remote Employees
Microsoft Teams has amazing group collaboration features along with enormous cloud storage. To extend support to remote workers and assist them in staying productive while working from home, Microsoft offers the below package:

Unlimited chat
One-on-one audio, video calling
Group audio & video calling
10 GB Team file storage
2 GB of Personal file storage
Real-time collaboration with Office apps – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote
Microsoft Team Features & Capabilities to Support Work-From-Home:
Unlimited messaging
Resource sharing
Create Groups for relevant tasks, documents and communication
Calling on desktops and mobile phones
Virtual meetings
Video conferencing
High security to both internal and external devices
Fun feature:
You can turn yourself into a potato in a Microsoft Teams video conference. Learn how to be a potato, I mean, how to look like a potato.

Microsoft teams work from home
Microsoft Teams’ New Features to support Remote Work:
With extraordinary features already present such as Background blur, meeting scheduling and recording, Microsoft Teams is planning to roll out the below features by late 2020 for highly effective team collaboration:

Enhanced audio experience
‘Raise hand’ feature
Background noise suppression feature
Pop-out chats into a separate window feature
It is during the crisis like this that we realize how beneficial modern workplace solutions and productivity tools, like Office 365 and Microsoft Teams, are for a business’ continuity and employee productivity.

If you want to adopt Microsoft Teams, a Microsoft Partner and Service Provider like us, is ready to lead you out of the challenges of remote work your business and employees might be facing. Get in touch with us for Microsoft Teams consulting or if you’d like to migrate to Office 365, our consultants are here to help.

DEV Community: Star Knowledge

How to Automate Continuous Database Backup and Restore

Microsoft Teams: Remote Work Made Productive & Smooth