SQL Backup on azure vm(streamline) Vault backup cost estimation

Hi Siva,

Thanks for posting your question in Microsoft Q&A forum

You can absolutely use PowerShell to fetch only the full backup sizes for all SQL Server instances protected under your Azure Recovery Services Vault (RSV).

1. Understand Your Current Costs: Start by gathering your current storage consumption from the Recovery Services Vault. You can do this by checking the Backup Vault Dashboard in Azure to see the total data being backed up and the type of storage used.
2. Evaluate Archive Storage: For backups eligible for archiving (those older than 45 days), the costs in the archive tier are usually lower. Under the new pricing model, see how the prices differ:
   • Locally Redundant Storage (LRS): $0.0224 per GB/month
   • Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS): $0.0448 per GB/month
   • https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/backup/#resources
   • Archive storage can represent substantial savings, especially for infrequently accessed backups.
   • Use the Azure Pricing Calculator: You can leverage the Azure Backup Pricing Calculator to simulate different scenarios and compare costs between standard storage and archive storage.

Getting Full Backup Size:

To script the gathering of full backup sizes for all instances, you can use Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI to query your SQL backup configurations. Here's a basic outline of the PowerShell you might consider

# Example PowerShell command to get the size of all SQL Server backups
$SQLInstance = "YourSQLInstanceName"
Get-SqlBackupHistory -SqlInstance $SQLInstance | Where-Object { $_.BackupType -eq 'Full' } | Select-Object DatabaseName, BackupSize

1. Consider the Data Churn: When estimating, keep in mind the average daily data churn of your databases, as this can affect backup sizes over time.
2. Retention Policy Adjustments: Modifying your retention policies can also help optimize costs. If you don't need to keep backups longer than necessary, reducing retention can save you money.
3. Utilize the Azure Backup Pricing Estimator: For a more comprehensive estimate, consider downloading the detailed Azure Backup pricing estimator to analyze various workloads.

Refer: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/backup/#purchase-options

I hope this helps do let me know if you have any questions.