Azure SQL Database is a PaaS offering and therefore some of its features differ from the on-premises SQL Server. Some of the important features that differ are as follows:
Backup and Restore
Conventional database backup and restore statements aren't supported. Backups are automatically scheduled and start within a few minutes of the database provisioning. Backups are consistent, transaction-wise, which means that you can do a point-in-time restore.
There is no additional cost for backup storage until it goes beyond 200% of the provisioned database storage.
You can reduce the backup retention period to manage backup storage costs. You can also use the long-term retention period feature to store backups in the Azure vault for a much lower cost for a longer duration.
Apart from automatic backups, you can also export the Azure SQL Database bacpac or dacpac file to Azure storage.
Recovery Model
The default recovery model of an Azure SQL database is FULL and it can't be modified to any other recovery model as in on-premises recovery models.
The recovery model is set when the master database is created, meaning when an Azure SQL server is provisioned, the recovery model can't be modified because the master database is read-only.
To view the recovery model of an Azure SQL database, execute the following query:
SELECT name, recovery_model_desc FROM sys.databases;
