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Recreate dropped database on Azure SQL Managed Instance

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Azure SQL Database - Managed Instance is fully-managed PaaS service that provides advanced disaster-recovery capabilities. Even if you accidentally drop the database or someone drops your database as part of security attack, Managed Instance will enable you to easily recover the dropped database.

Azure SQL Managed Instance performs automatic backups of you database every 5-10 minutes. If anything happens with your database and even if someone drops it, your data is not lost. Managed Instance enables you to easily re-create the dropped database from the automatic backups. Just make sure that you have the following prerequisites:

  • PowerShell version >= 5.1.17763.134
  • AzureRM.Resources  version >=  6.7.3

I had some hard-to-debug problems with executing this script on a machine that has lower version of AzureRM library so it is better not to experiment with earlier versions.

Now, let's imagine that someone dropped your database. Below you can find the PowerShell script that can restore it.

Recreate your dropped database

Before you run this script you need to login to your Azure account and select the subscription where your database is dropped using the script like:

 Login-AzureRmAccount
$subscriptionId = "cd827379-9270-0791-....."

Select-AzureRmSubscription -SubscriptionId $subscriptionId

Now you are ready to restore your database.
First, populate information about the instance and database (in this case AdventureWorksDW) that you want to recover:

 $subscriptionId = "cd827379-9270-0791-....."
$resourceGroup = "rg_recovery"
$location = "West Central US"
$managedInstanceName = "jovanpop-try-re-create-db"
$deletedDatabaseName = "AdventureWorksDW"
$targetDatabaseName = "NewAdventureWorksDW"

In this example, dropped AdventureWorksDW on the instance jovanpop-try-re-create-db in West Central US region will be re-created as NewAdventureWorksDW database. Then, you can run the following script that uses these variables to recreate it:

 $db = Get-AzureRmResource -ResourceId "/subscriptions/$subscriptionId/resourceGroups/$resourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/$managedInstanceName/restorableDroppedDatabases" -ApiVersion "2017-03-01-preview" |
         Where-Object { $_.Properties.databaseName -eq $deletedDatabaseName } | 
         Sort-Object -Property @{Expression={$_.Properties.deletionDate}; Ascending = $False} | 
         Select-Object  -First 1

Write-Host "Database $($db[0].Properties.databaseName) created on $($db[0].Properties.creationDate) dropped on $($db[0].Properties.deletionDate)"

$properties = New-Object System.Object
$properties | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name CreateMode -Value "PointInTimeRestore"
$properties | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name RestorePointInTime -Value $db.Properties.deletionDate
$properties | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name RestorableDroppedDatabaseId -Value $db.ResourceId
New-AzureRmResource `
        -Location $location -Properties $properties `
        -ResourceId "subscriptions/$subscriptionId/resourceGroups/$resourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/$managedInstanceName/databases/$targetDatabaseName" `
        -ApiVersion "2017-03-01-preview" `
       -Force

As a result, new database called NewAdventureWorksDW will be created as a copy of the database AdventureWorksDW that is dropped. Just note that some properties as backup retention would be reset to the default value.

NOTE: Dropped time reported in the list might not be correct due to a known issue with duration of last log backup  that will be fixed in next until the end of February. The dropped time reported in this list might lag after the actual drop time that should be used to re-create the database. If this script don't work in your case, subtract few minutes or enter the actual data when you deleted the database if you know it.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 30, 2019
    Thank you very much for this post! Was able to use it to recover a dropped MI instance today. We changed the restore PointInTime for a later backup and the logic still worked.