Availability database restore operations

Depending on how you back up availability databases, legacy restore and VSS restore operations are available to restore the availability databases on primary or secondary availability replicas.

Certain restrictions apply when you restore availability databases:

Legacy restore

You can restore an availability database on either a primary or secondary replica.

During the restore process, the restored database is removed from the availability group. When a database is removed from the availability group, the database becomes a local database on that replica. The database is restored as a local database. After the database is restored, you must verify that the data on all replicas is transactionally consistent.

To verify that the data is transactionally consistent, verify that the backup copy contains data and transaction log records. Full backups and differential backups contain data and transaction log records so that the restored database is transactionally consistent.

After you verify that the data is transactionally consistent, manually add the database to the availability group.

VSS restore

You can restore SQL Server VSS backups either to the same SQL Server instance where the snapshot is taken or to an alternate SQL Server instance.

AlwaysOn availability databases

For AlwaysOn availability databases, you must set up Data Protection for SQL Server to use an AlwaysOn node name. By default, the AlwaysOn node name is set to the cluster node name for the Availability Group in SQL Server 2012, and later versions.