AZ-104 Exam EP 46: Virtual Machine Backups

Introduction

This tutorial provides a comprehensive guide on how to back up virtual machines (VMs) in Azure, based on the insights from the AZ-104 Exam series. Understanding VM backups is essential for Azure administrators to ensure data protection and workload continuity. We'll cover key concepts, backup implementation, and restore procedures, making it easier for you to safeguard your virtual environments.

Step 1: Understand Virtual Machine Data Protection

• Importance of Data Protection: Virtual machine data protection is crucial for avoiding data loss due to accidental deletions, corruption, or disasters.
• Key Considerations:
  • Identify the data critical to your business.
  • Determine the recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) you need.

Step 2: Assess Workload Protection Needs

• Identify Workload Types: Understand the types of workloads running on your VMs and their specific backup requirements.
• Determine Backup Frequency: Decide how often backups should occur based on workload criticality.

Step 3: Utilize Virtual Machine Snapshots

• What are Snapshots?: Snapshots are a point-in-time capture of your VM's state, which can be used for quick backups or rollbacks.
• How to Create a Snapshot:
  1. Navigate to your VM in the Azure portal.
  2. Select 'Disks' under the VM settings.
  3. Choose the disk you want to snapshot and click 'Create snapshot'.
  4. Fill in the necessary details and confirm.

Step 4: Explore Recovery Services Vault Backup Options

• Setting Up Recovery Services Vault: This is a storage entity in Azure used to manage backup data.
  • Go to the Azure portal and create a new Recovery Services Vault.
• Backup Configuration:
  1. Select 'Backup' from your vault.
  2. Choose 'Azure Virtual Machine' as the workload type.
  3. Select the VMs you wish to back up and configure the backup policy.

Step 5: Implement VM Backups

• Create a Backup Policy:
  • Set schedules for daily or weekly backups.
  • Define retention periods for how long backups should be kept.
• Start the Backup: Manually trigger the first backup to ensure everything is configured correctly.

Step 6: Implement VM Restore Procedures

• Restoring a VM:
  1. Go to the Recovery Services Vault.
  2. Select the VM you want to restore.
  3. Choose 'Restore VM' and select the restore point.
  4. Follow the prompts to complete the restoration process.

Step 7: Configure Azure Backup Server

• Installing Azure Backup Server: This is an on-premises solution for a hybrid backup approach.
• Integration with Azure Services: Ensure the backup server is configured to work with your Azure environment.

Step 8: Understand Backup Component Comparison

• Evaluate Backup Options:
  • Compare Azure Backup with other solutions in terms of cost, scalability, and features.
  • Take note of the pros and cons of each option to choose the best fit for your needs.

Step 9: Implement Soft Delete Feature

• What is Soft Delete?: This feature protects your backups from accidental deletions.
• Enabling Soft Delete:
  • Go to the Recovery Services Vault.
  • Enable the soft delete option in the settings.

Step 10: Explore Azure Site Recovery

• Purpose of Azure Site Recovery: This service helps in disaster recovery by replicating workloads to a secondary location.
• Setting Up Site Recovery:
  • Configure replication settings for your VMs.
  • Test the failover to ensure everything works as expected.

Step 11: Consider Azure to Azure Architecture

• Benefits of Azure to Azure Backups: This ensures redundancy and availability for critical workloads.
• Planning Your Architecture: Design a backup strategy that leverages multiple Azure regions for added resilience.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we've covered the essential steps to back up and restore virtual machines in Azure. Key points include understanding data protection needs, implementing backups via Recovery Services Vault, and exploring restoration options. Moving forward, consider regularly reviewing your backup strategies and keeping abreast of new Azure features to enhance your disaster recovery plans.