Manage SQL server databases in Azure VMs with REST API

Article
2025-02-09

This article explains how to manage and monitor the SQL server databases that are backed-up by Azure Backup.

Note

See the SQL backup support matrix to know about the supported configurations and scenarios.

Monitor jobs

The Azure Backup service triggers jobs that run in the background. This includes scenarios, such as triggering backup, restore operations, and disabling backup. You can track these jobs using their IDs. Learn more about managing backup and restore jobs.

Fetch job information from operations

An operation, such as triggering backup, returns a jobID in response.

For example, the final response of a trigger backup REST API operation is as follows:

{
  "id": "cd2a3b13-d392-4e81-86ac-02ea91cc70b9",
  "name": "cd2a3b13-d392-4e81-86ac-02ea91cc70b9",
  "status": "Succeeded",
  "startTime": "2018-05-28T11:43:21.6516182Z",
  "endTime": "2018-05-28T11:43:21.6516182Z",
  "properties": {
    "objectType": "OperationStatusJobExtendedInfo",
    "jobId": "c22eca5d-0c1c-48a0-a40d-69bef708d92a"
  }
}

You can identify the Backup job is identified by the jobId field and track as mentioned here using a GET request.

Track the job

GET https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/{vaultName}/backupJobs/{jobName}?api-version=2016-12-01

The {jobName} is the jobId mentioned above. The response is 200 (OK) with the status field indicating the status of the job. Once it's Completed or CompletedWithWarnings, the extendedInfo section shows more job details.

GET https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000000000/resourceGroups/SQLServerSelfHost/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/SQLServer2012/backupJobs/c22eca5d-0c1c-48a0-a40d-69bef708d92a?api-version=2016-12-01

Response

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	JobResource	OK

Response example

Once the GET URI is submitted, a 200 response is returned.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Pragma: no-cache
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
x-ms-request-id: e057b496-8ceb-45b6-bd9e-367f7dd73d6d
x-ms-client-request-id: 1ffda117-b2c0-4a80-a9ba-43ba66eaec9b; 1ffda117-b2c0-4a80-a9ba-43ba66eaec9b
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
x-ms-ratelimit-remaining-subscription-reads: 14999
x-ms-correlation-request-id: e057b496-8ceb-45b6-bd9e-367f7dd73d6d
x-ms-routing-request-id: SOUTHINDIA:20180528T115536Z:e057b496-8ceb-45b6-bd9e-367f7dd73d6d
Cache-Control: no-cache
Date: Mon, 28 May 2018 11:55:35 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/8.0
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000000000/resourceGroups/SQLServerSelfHost/providers/microsoft.recoveryservices/vaults/SQLServer2012/backupJobs/c22eca5d-0c1c-48a0-a40d-69bef708d92a",
  "name": "c22eca5d-0c1c-48a0-a40d-69bef708d92a",
  "type": "Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/backupJobs",
  "properties": {
    "jobType": "AzureWorkloadJob",
    "workloadType": "SQLDataBase",
    "duration": "00:03:13.6439467",
    "actionsInfo": [
      1
    ],
    "errorDetails": [
      {
        "errorCode": 510008,
        "errorString": "Operation cancelled as a conflicting operation was already running on the same database.",
        "errorTitle": "OperationCancelledBecauseConflictingOperationRunningUserError",
        "recommendations": [
          "Please try again after sometime."
        ]
      }
    ],
    "extendedInfo": {
      "tasksList": [
        {
          "taskId": "Transfer data to vault",
          "status": "Failed"
        }
      ],
      "propertyBag": {
        "Data Transferred (in MB)": "0"
      }
    },
    "entityFriendlyName": "MSSQLSERVER/msDB [sqlserver-0.contoso.com]",
    "backupManagementType": "AzureWorkload",
    "operation": "Backup (Full)",
    "status": "Failed",
    "startTime": "2018-05-28T11:43:21.6516182Z",
    "endTime": "2018-05-28T11:46:35.2955649Z",
    "activityId": "6b033cf6-f875-4c03-8985-9add07ec2845"
  }
} 
}

Modify policy

To change the policy that protects the database, use the same format as enabling protection. However, provide the new policy ID in the request body and submit the request. For example, to change the policy of testVM from HourlyLogPolicy to ProdPolicy, provide the ProdPolicy ID in the request body.

{
  "properties": {
    "backupManagementType": "AzureWorkload",
    "workloadType": "SQLDataBase",
    "policyId": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000000000/resourceGroups/SQLServerSelfHost/providers/microsoft.recoveryservices/vaults/SQLServer2012/backupPolicies/ProdPolicy"
  },
  "location": "westcentralus"
}

The response will follow the same format as mentioned for enabling protection.

Stop protection and retain existing data

To remove protection from a protected database and retain the data already backed-up, remove the policy in the request body you used to enable backup and submit the request. Once you remove the association with the policy, backups are no longer triggered, and no new recovery points are created.

{
  "properties": {
    "protectedItemType": "AzureVmWorkloadSQLDatabase",
    "protectionState": "ProtectionStopped",
    "sourceResourceId":
"/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000000000/resourceGroups/SQLServerPMDemo/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/sqlserver-0",
    "policyId": ""
  }
}

Sample response

Stopping protection for a database is an asynchronous operation. The operation creates another operation that needs to be tracked. It returns two responses: 202 (Accepted) when another operation is created, and 200 when that operation is complete.

Response header when operation is successfully accepted:

Status Code:
OK

Headers:
Pragma                        : no-cache
X-Content-Type-Options        : nosniff
x-ms-request-id               : 388c9359-e237-4644-8f6c-38ae5eb0dfcb
x-ms-client-request-id        : 5ef896e6-d812-431a-ad58-9d9ee1bb8bb3,5ef896e6-d812-431a-ad58-9d9ee1bb8bb3
Strict-Transport-Security     : max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
x-ms-ratelimit-remaining-subscription-resource-requests: 107
x-ms-correlation-request-id   : 388c9359-e237-4644-8f6c-38ae5eb0dfcb
x-ms-routing-request-id       : SOUTHINDIA:20211126T054036Z:388c9359-e237-4644-8f6c-38ae5eb0dfcb
Cache-Control                 : no-cache
Date                          : Fri, 26 Nov 2021 05:40:36 GMT
Server                        : Microsoft-IIS/10.0
X-Powered-By                  : ASP.NET

Body:
{
  "id": "aaaaaaaa-0000-1111-2222-bbbbbbbbbbbb",
  "name": "TestOBJ",
  "status": "Succeeded",
  "startTime": "2021-11-26T05:36:36.5262731Z",
  "endTime": "2021-11-26T05:36:36.5262731Z",
  "properties": {
    "objectType": "OperationStatusJobExtendedInfo",
    "jobId": "68178d86-d564-460b-9643-829046aac1b1"
  }
}

Then, track the resulting operation using the location header or Azure-AsyncOperation header with a GET command:

GET https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/{vaultName}/backupoperations/0000aaaa-11bb-cccc-dd22-eeeeee333333?api-version=2016-12-01

Response body

{
  "id": "aaaaaaaa-0000-1111-2222-bbbbbbbbbbbb",
  "name": "TestOBJ",
  "status": "Succeeded",
  "startTime": "2021-11-26T05:36:36.5262731Z",
  "endTime": "2021-11-26T05:36:36.5262731Z",
  "properties": {
    "objectType": "OperationStatusJobExtendedInfo",
    "jobId": "68178d86-d564-460b-9643-829046aac1b1"
  }
}

Stop protection and delete backup data

To remove the protection from a protected file share and delete the backup data as well, perform a delete operation.

DELETE https://management.azure.com/Subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/{vaultName}/backupFabrics/{fabricName}/protectionContainers/{containerName}/protectedItems/{protectedItemName}?api-version=2019-05-13

The parameters containerName and protectedItemName are as set in the configure backup step in this article.

Responses

Delete protection is an asynchronous operation. The operation creates another operation that needs to be tracked separately. It returns two responses: 202 (Accepted) when another operation is created, and 204 (NoContent) when that operation is complete.

Next steps

Learn how to troubleshoot problems while configuring backup for SQL server databases.

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