Microsoft has released an update to SQL Azure with new support for database
copying.
With SQL Azure Service Update 4, users get the ability to take a
snapshot of their database.
"This new
copy feature is the first step in backup support for SQL Azure, allowing
you to get a complete backup of any SQL Azure database before making schema or
database changes to the source database," according to a blog post by
Wayne Walter Brady of Microsoft's SQL Azure team. "The ability to snapshot
a database easily is our top requested feature for SQL Azure, and goes above
and beyond our database center replication to keep your data always available."
The backup is performed in the SQL Azure data center using a transactional
mechanism without downtime to the source database, he explained. The database
is copied in full to a new database in the same data center, and users can
choose to copy to a different server in the same data center or the same server
with a different database name.
"A new database created from the copy process is transactionally
consistent with the source database at the point in time when the copy
completes," he wrote. "This means that the snapshot time is the end
time of the copy, not the start time of the copy."
Microsoft announced the update Aug. 24.
The company also updated a Web-based
database management tool for SQL Azure databases code-named "Houston."
The tool can be used to handle tasks such as authoring and executing
queries and designing database schema.
Database News & Reviews 
