Azure SQL Managed Instance - DB Backup Retention

Hi,

Towards (1):

Azure SQL Managed Instance supports Point-in-Time Restore (PITR) for a maximum of 35 days. To enable this, configure the short-term retention policy to 35 days using the Azure portal, PowerShell, or CLI. 

To extend Point-in-Time Restore (PITR) beyond the 35-day platform limit in Azure SQL Managed Instance, you could manually export transaction logs continuously to external storage. Once exported, you can use the Log Replay Service (LRS) or a custom log replay workflow to apply these logs and reconstruct the database state at any specific point in time, beyond the native PITR window.

Please note: This approach is relatively complex, not natively supported end-to-end, and requires custom automation and scripting for exporting, storing, and replaying logs. 

Towards (2):

Long-Term Retention (LTR) for Azure SQL Managed Instance (SQL MI) only supports weekly backups directly (not daily), unlike Azure SQL Database. However, you can achieve daily backups with 1-year retention using the following:

Use automated SQL Agent Jobs or Azure Automation to:

1. Run a daily full export
2. Save each backup to Azure Blob Storage.
3. Apply an Azure Storage lifecycle management policy to retain each backup for 1 year (365 days).
4. Use these backups for manual restore in case of data loss, corruption, or auditing requirements.

Best regards!