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Tessell's latest release expands SQL Server capabilities across three areas: automated clone refresh for development and test environments, native backup support for long-term retention and compliance, and post-provisioning conversion from Single Instance to High Availability. Here's what's new and what it means for your teams.
Automated Clone Refresh for SQL Server Dev and Test Environments
Keeping non-production environments in sync with production data has traditionally required manual effort — recreating clones, scheduling custom scripts, or coordinating between operations and development teams. This release introduces automated clone refresh for SQL Server, eliminating that overhead.
Database service owners can now configure SQL Server dev and QA clones with a built-in refresh schedule. Tessell pulls the latest data from the source production or staging service automatically, on a defined cadence or on demand. No manual intervention is required to keep lower environments current.
The feature includes several controls designed for enterprise workflows:
- Pre- and post-refresh scripting: teams can attach .ps1 and .sql scripts to automate environment preparation tasks such as disabling jobs, truncating temporary tables, re-enabling logins, restoring permissions, or running data validation checks
- Sanitized clone support: clones can be refreshed with raw production data or with sanitization routines applied before data reaches lower environments
- Automatic rollback: a defensive snapshot is taken before every refresh operation; if the refresh fails at any point, the clone reverts to its last known good state
- Cross-region refresh via DAP policy
- Self-service schedule management: refresh cadences can be paused, resumed, modified, or deleted without reprovisioning the service
The feature is supported on AWS and Azure, across Standard and HPC shapes, and on both single-disk and multi-disk configurations. Edition and version compatibility is enforced, and refreshes proceed only when source and destination are a valid match.
Native Backup Support for SQL Server
Tessell now supports native SQL Server backups as a complement to the existing EBS snapshot-based approach, addressing use cases around backup portability, compliance readiness, and long-term retention cost.
When configured, the backup engine runs a full backup on first execution and automatically switches to differential backups on subsequent daily runs. Transaction log backups are taken every 15 minutes, enabling point-in-time recovery.
Backups are streamed directly to blob storage in native .bak format, making them suitable for WORM storage policies required under frameworks such as DORA, and compatible with long-term retention workflows that snapshot-based backups cannot support. The same RPO retention tiers available for snapshots — Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly — apply to native backups, with lower associated storage costs.
Snapshot-based backups continue to work unchanged. Customers can choose their preferred backup method per database.
Post-Provisioning Conversion: Single Instance to High Availability
SQL Server deployments on Tessell can now be converted from Single Instance to High Availability after provisioning, without recreating or migrating the database. This is supported on both AWS and Azure.
Supported conversion paths:
- SI to SI + HA
- SI + DR to SI + HA + DR
- SI to SI + Read Replica / DR
The feature supports single and multi-replica architectures, same-region and cross-region deployments, and both standard and NVMe HPC storage tiers.
What This Release Delivers
Together, these three capabilities address some of the most operationally demanding aspects of running SQL Server at enterprise scale: keeping development environments aligned with production, ensuring backup strategies meet compliance and portability requirements, and giving teams the flexibility to evolve their availability architecture without starting from scratch. Each is available today on Tessell's multi-cloud platform across AWS and Azure.
