# Restoring an Always On Availability Database

Because availability database restores are not allowed on any replica of availability groups, before running the restore, you must remove the database from the availability group. After the operation, you can manually add the database back to the availability group.

An availability group instance protects a set of user databases, known as availability databases. By default, a database is restored to the same location where it was backed up, and the existing database files are overwritten. Because availability database restores are not allowed on any replica of availability groups, before running the restore, you must remove the database from the availability group. After running the restore operation, you can manually add the database back to the availability group.

Even if you performed the backup on a different replica, run the browse and restore operations from the availability group instance, because all backups are registered against the availability group instance.

You can restore individual tables only on SQL clones. For more information, see Creating an Instant Clone for SQL Server.

## Procedure

1. Remove the database from the availability group.

2. From the availability group instance, run the restore operation to an instance that has the same SQL version or a more recent version than the instance where the backup ran.

   For more information about running restore operations, see SQL Restore Operations.

3. If necessary, manually add the database back to the availability group.

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