• Databases exist in two places in Azure, in Azure Virtual Machines and in Microsoft Azure SQL Database (MASD). The VMs act exactly like physical boxes or VMs local to your environment. You can backup and restore databases, whatever. Anything goes, same as dealing with your local instances. The databases in MASD are completely different. You can't run a standard restore. So, any movement of an entire database is done through scripting. You can export structures as a DACPAC and then run them in MASD. Data can be moved through SSIS and other choices. But the simple attach/detach or backup/restore processes are gone.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning