The usage of cloud is often a pain what application or server should we move to the cloud just to get the feeling. And what about backup where to store the files. Well you could move your backup to the cloud and see how this is treating you. If you have storsimple or SCDPM than you can use also the backup vaults. or save the azure backup on premise. Or simple create a backup vault.
The big difference between backup Protect On-premises workloads and Protect Azure Virtual Machines is simple in the Protect Azure Virtual Machines there is a full copy of the machine and no file selection. If you want file selection backup in Azure virtual machines you will need Protect On-premises workloads.
Funny Protect On-premises workloads for Azure Virtual machines running in Azure
all you need is an agent and a Azure Subscription go to http://manage.windowsazure.com
Setting up backup for Azure virtual machines can be achieved in three simple steps:
- Discover the machines that can be protected in the Azure Backup vault.
- Register the discovered virtual machines to Azure Backup vault.
- Protect the registered virtual machines by associating them with a policy defining backup schedule and how long you want to retain.
First we need a backup Vault keep in mind that the region of your azure VM’s must be the same as you backup vault. when you do a on premise backup there is no need for this.
In this section you can create a site recovery vault backup or a backup vault. More info about and how to setup a recovery vault https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/azure-site-recovery-service-asrs-hyper-v-to-azure-recovery-mvpbuzz/ Azure Site Recovery Service #ASR #Hyper-v to #Azure #Recovery
Now that the vault is created you have two options what to backup Protect On-premises workloads or Protect Azure Virtual Machines
The Protect On-premises workloads is easy to setup First we need the vault credentials that are needed for the secure communication between on premise and azure
We save this file on the protected machine or on a file share.
And we need to download an agent and install this on every machine that we want to backup. No there is no Management suite to manage all this.
Installing the Agent and registering the Vault credentials.
Generate a passphrase or use your own but in case of a lost passphrase your backup is gone.
If the passphrase is lost or forgotten; Microsoft cannot help in recovering the backup data. The end user owns the encryption passphrase and Microsoft does not have any visibility into the passphrase which is used by the end user. Please save the file in a secure location as it would be required during a recovery operation.
When checking Azure you can see Windows Server and Azure VM to protect.
the backup tool to select files and folders to backup.
Protect Azure Virtual Machines
First we need to register items to the vault to protect. this will run a quick discovery of all your VM’s in the Region / subscription
To make sure that all items are discovered we run discover first
Successfully discovered virtual machines in the region West Europe. Please register the virtual machines to a vault of same region.
Now we are ready to register some machines to backup
I want to backup my mvpdummy01 machine
Check Protect and pick the machine and this machine is now registered
next step is to protect this VM again select the machine and your done.
Now that the machine is registered and protected we can us a default or create a custom protection level. the max setting is 99 years. why not 100 ? Guess this is not a time machine but only a backup vault that you can restore a windows server 2003 in year 2114
Storage replication
The Locally Redundant option maintains 3 copies of your data within the same region.
The Geo-Redundant option maintains 3 copies of your data locally and 3 copies in a secondary storage region.
The storage replication choice cannot be changed once items have been registered to the vault. Learn More
Nice and easy backup
Happy Clustering
Greetings,
Robert Smit
