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Quick Recovery Time with SQL Data Warehouse using User-Defined Restore Points

We are excited to announce that SQL Data Warehouse (SQL DW) now supports user-defined restore points! This feature enables you to trigger a manual snapshot of your data warehouse that is transactionally consistent.

We are excited to announce that SQL Data Warehouse (SQL DW) now supports User-Defined Restore Points! SQL DW is a flexible and secure analytics platform for the enterprise optimized for running complex queries fast across petabytes of data.

Previously, SQL DW supported only automated snapshots guaranteeing an eight-hour recovery point objective (RPO). While this snapshot policy provided high levels of protection, customers asked for more control over restore points to enable more efficient data warehouse management capabilities leading to quicker times of recovery in the event of any workload interruptions or user errors. 

Now, with user-defined restore points, in addition to the automated snapshots, you can initiate snapshots before and after significant operations on your data warehouse. With more granular restore points, you ensure that each restore point is logically consistent and limit the impact and reduce recovery time of restoring the data warehouse should this be needed. User-defined restore points can also be labeled so they are easy to identify afterwards. 

You can seamlessly create a restore point with a single statement in PowerShell, so it’s easy to integrate with your data warehouse management operations. You can have up to 42 restore points at any point, and as all restore points expire after seven days there’s no need to manage them individually. 

#Create Restore point
New-AzureRmSqlDatabaseRestorePoint -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -ServerName $ServerName -DatabaseName $DatabaseName -RestorePointLabel $RestorePointName

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