Restore an Azure Database for Postgres Flexible Server?

[impworks]

If I configure my Aspire project to provision an Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server, and then I need to restore the server to a backup point, how is that supposed to work?

The backups in the built-in "Backup and restore" tab have a "Fast restore" option, but that creates a new server from the dump rather than overwrite the existing one. In a manually configured environment I would just change the connection string to the new one, but since it's managed by Aspire, that would not work. Moreover, there's a postgreskv-... key vault created in the resource group: should something be done about it as well?

We also use Azure Vault to make long-living and offline backups of the database, but in this case the restore process (probably) also boils down to the same question of pointing Aspire to another server instance.

I believe it would be very beneficial to have a page covering the backup restore topic in Aspire docs - at least for Azure-based database resources.

[davidfowl]

If I configure my Aspire project to provision an Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server, and then I need to restore the server to a backup point, how is that supposed to work?

Anything that can be represented with bicep can be represented by the "Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server" integration in the apphost. I'm not sure backup and restore are part of this as those occur after provisioning and need to be automated elsewhere.

In a manually configured environment I would just change the connection string to the new one, but since it's managed by Aspire, that would not work.

Change the connection string where?

Moreover, there's a postgreskv-... key vault created in the resource group: should something be done about it as well?

This happens when you use a password for postgres instead of using the default (which is a managed identity). You can specify your own keyvault via WithPasswordAuthentication.

We also use Azure Vault to make long-living and offline backups of the database, but in this case the restore process (probably) also boils down to the same question of pointing Aspire to another server instance.

Maybe this helps https://aspire.dev/integrations/cloud/azure/overview/#use-existing-azure-resources?

[impworks]

I'm not sure backup and restore are part of this as those occur after provisioning and need to be automated elsewhere.

That's right. Backup or restore are done manually and are not parts of the provisioning process. My concern is that there seems to be no way to seamlessly restore a database: if I ever do so, I will need to give up on automatic provisioning forever and rewrite my Aspire configuration to AsExisting..., as described in your link. This is a tough choice to make.