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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +title: Azure Backup support matrix for SQL Server Backup in Azure VMs |
| 3 | +description: Provides a summary of support settings and limitations when backing up SQL Server in Azure VMs with the Azure Backup service. |
| 4 | +ms.topic: conceptual |
| 5 | +ms.date: 03/05/2020 |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +--- |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +# Support matrix for SQL Server Backup in Azure VMs |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +You can use Azure Backup to back up SQL Server databases in Azure VMs hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. This article summarizes the general support settings and limitations for scenarios and deployments of SQL Server Backup in Azure VMs. |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +## Scenario support |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +**Support** | **Details** |
| 16 | +--- | --- |
| 17 | +**Supported deployments** | SQL Marketplace Azure VMs and non-Marketplace (SQL Server manually installed) VMs are supported. |
| 18 | +**Supported geos** | Australia South East (ASE), East Australia (AE), Australia Central (AC), Australia Central 2 (AC) <br> Brazil South (BRS)<br> Canada Central (CNC), Canada East (CE)<br> South East Asia (SEA), East Asia (EA) <br> East US (EUS), East US 2 (EUS2), West Central US (WCUS), West US (WUS); West US 2 (WUS 2) North Central US (NCUS) Central US (CUS) South Central US (SCUS) <br> India Central (INC), India South (INS), India West <br> Japan East (JPE), Japan West (JPW) <br> Korea Central (KRC), Korea South (KRS) <br> North Europe (NE), West Europe <br> UK South (UKS), UK West (UKW) <br> US Gov Arizona, US Gov Virginia, US Gov Texas, US DoD Central, US DoD East <br> Germany North, Germany West Central <br> Switzerland North, Switzerland West <br> France Central <br> China East, China East 2, China North, China North 2 |
| 19 | +**Supported operating systems** | Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 <br/><br/> Linux isn't currently supported. |
| 20 | +**Supported SQL Server versions** | SQL Server 2019, SQL Server 2017 as detailed on the [Search product lifecycle page](https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search?alpha=SQL%20server%202017), SQL Server 2016 and SPs as detailed on the [Search product lifecycle page](https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search?alpha=SQL%20server%202016%20service%20pack), SQL Server 2014, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 <br/><br/> Enterprise, Standard, Web, Developer, Express. |
| 21 | +**Supported .NET versions** | .NET Framework 4.5.2 or later installed on the VM |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +## Feature consideration and limitations |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +* SQL Server backup can be configured in the Azure portal or **PowerShell**. We don't support CLI. |
| 26 | +* The solution is supported on both kinds of [deployments](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/resource-manager-deployment-model) - Azure Resource Manager VMs and classic VMs. |
| 27 | +* VM running SQL Server requires internet connectivity to access Azure public IP addresses. |
| 28 | +* SQL Server **Failover Cluster Instance (FCI)** isn't supported. |
| 29 | +* Back up and restore operations for mirror databases and database snapshots aren't supported. |
| 30 | +* Using more than one backup solutions to back up your standalone SQL Server instance or SQL Always on availability group may lead to backup failure; refrain from doing so. |
| 31 | +* Backing up two nodes of an availability group individually with same or different solutions, may also lead to backup failure. |
| 32 | +* Azure Backup supports only Full and Copy-only Full backup types for **Read-only** databases |
| 33 | +* Databases with large number of files can't be protected. The maximum number of files that is supported is **~1000**. |
| 34 | +* You can back up to **~2000** SQL Server databases in a vault. You can create multiple vaults in case you have a greater number of databases. |
| 35 | +* You can configure backup for up to **50** databases in one go; this restriction helps optimize backup loads. |
| 36 | +* We support databases up to **2 TB** in size; for sizes greater than that performance issues may come up. |
| 37 | +* To have a sense of as to how many databases can be protected per server, consider factors such as bandwidth, VM size, backup frequency, database size, and so on. [Download](https://download.microsoft.com/download/A/B/5/AB5D86F0-DCB7-4DC3-9872-6155C96DE500/SQL%20Server%20in%20Azure%20VM%20Backup%20Scale%20Calculator.xlsx) the resource planner to calculate the approximate number of databases you can have per server based on the VM resources and the backup policy. |
| 38 | +* When availability groups are configured, backups are taken from the different nodes based on a few factors. The backup behavior for an availability group is summarized below. |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +### Back up behavior with Always on availability groups |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +We recommend that the backup is configured on only one node of an availability group (AG). Always configure backup in the same region as the primary node. In other words, you always need the primary node to be present in the region where you're configuring the backup. If all the nodes of the AG are in the same region where the backup is configured, there isn't any concern. |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +#### For cross-region AG |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +* Regardless of the backup preference, backups will only run from the nodes that are in the same region where the backup is configured. This is because cross-region backups aren't supported. If you have only two nodes and the secondary node is in the other region, the backups will continue to run from the primary node (unless your backup preference is 'secondary only'). |
| 47 | +* If a node fails over to a region different than the one where the backup is configured, backups will fail on the nodes in the failed-over region. |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | +Depending on the backup preference and backups types (full/differential/log/copy-only full), backups are taken from a particular node (primary/secondary). |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +#### Backup preference: Primary |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +**Backup Type** | **Node** |
| 54 | +--- | --- |
| 55 | +Full | Primary |
| 56 | +Differential | Primary |
| 57 | +Log | Primary |
| 58 | +Copy-Only Full | Primary |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +#### Backup preference: Secondary Only |
| 61 | + |
| 62 | +**Backup Type** | **Node** |
| 63 | +--- | --- |
| 64 | +Full | Primary |
| 65 | +Differential | Primary |
| 66 | +Log | Secondary |
| 67 | +Copy-Only Full | Secondary |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +#### Backup preference: Secondary |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | +**Backup Type** | **Node** |
| 72 | +--- | --- |
| 73 | +Full | Primary |
| 74 | +Differential | Primary |
| 75 | +Log | Secondary |
| 76 | +Copy-Only Full | Secondary |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | +#### No Backup preference |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | +**Backup Type** | **Node** |
| 81 | +--- | --- |
| 82 | +Full | Primary |
| 83 | +Differential | Primary |
| 84 | +Log | Secondary |
| 85 | +Copy-Only Full | Secondary |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +## Next steps |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | +Learn how to [back up a SQL Server database](backup-azure-sql-database.md) that's running on an Azure VM. |
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