How to Restore Azure SQL DB to Development Environment?

A straightforward method you can use is the 'create database as copy' syntax. Here’s a link to the documentation for that: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/statements/create-database-transact-sql?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true&tabs=sqlpool&WT.mc_id=DP-MVP-5001699#create-a-copy-of-a-database-on-another-logical-server

Before diving in, consider a few factors: How large is your database? Do you need all the data, or would a sample suffice? If your data contains sensitive information, like GDPR data, you'll need to ensure it’s obfuscated in the development environment. Also, think about your connection method and whether you want to schedule the process at specific times or run it on demand. We had to back up our production database and make sure to clean a lot of data to comply with regulations before moving to dev.

I just went through this process, and I found that using SQL copy was the easiest approach. I recommend scripting everything into a pipeline. Our pipeline does a SQL copy from Production to the lower environment, initially setting the lower DB's SKU higher for a faster copy. We then use Azure Data Factory to obfuscate any PII before scaling down. This way, we keep minimal impact on the source DB, and the whole process for our 400GB prod DB takes about an hour to run nightly.