Introduction
Before we start explaining Azure backup, we should know:
Background
In this article, we will explore what is Microsoft Azure backup but before we look into it, let’s understand:
Organizations are implementing numerous software applications to automate their business processes. It is observed that most of the organization fails to make their recovery plans accurately and its more crucial parameter in my view. If you develop any application, then it is equally important to consider the backup and restore/retention mechanism of the applications to keep business continuity. This service helps in different ways to recover the application in case of disaster etc. Traditionally, non-cloud application backups reside in disks or tape. On the other side, Azure has a backup mechanism that is more reliable and secure at lower costs.
What is Azure Backup
The name its self-understandable, Azure backup is a service from Microsoft Azure cloud which helps us to take the backup data to the Azure cloud environment. Azure backup service can take backup the data of Azure virtual machine(s) or on-premise machines and workloads.
If you are using Azure IaaS virtual machines in cloud applications, then Microsoft helps to restore the virtual machines in the case of disasters. Azure backup provides isolated backups and is stored in a Recovery Services vault (storage container where we store the backup data) with built-in managed recovery points. Configuration of backup is quite simple, and we can easily restore our VMs at any point of time with negligible downtime. As I said, we are now able to take backups of on-premise servers to the cloud with cloud backup added advantages. With Azure Backup, there is no cost for using on-premises storage devices.
We can unlimited scale the Azure cloud as needed. Azure Backup does not limit the amount of data you transfer and keeps data securely. By using Recovery Services vaults, we can perform the retention for the short term and long term. Azure Backup offers two types of replication to keep your storage/data highly available:
- Locally redundant storage (LRS)
It helps to replicate our data in the same data center, and it is a low cost data redundancy technique. LRS is the lowest-cost replication option and offers the least durability compared to other options. It provides at least 99.999999999% (11 nines) durability of objects over a given year. This is helpful when we can easily reconstruct the data in case of data loss, or we have restricted data to replicate only within the country/region.
- Geo-redundant storage (GRS)
It helps us in replicating our data to another region which is far away hundreds of miles away from primary region. It provides at least 99.99999999999999% (16 9's) durability of objects over a given year. GRS replicates our data to another region, but data will be available to be read-only if Microsoft initiates a failure from primary to the secondary region. Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) – It is based on the GRS, but it also provides an option to read from the secondary region regardless of whether Microsoft initiates a failover from the primary to the secondary region.
Azure backup provides three verities to back up our data
Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent
To take backup of on-premise servers, we need to run the Azure Backup Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent. This agent has download and install on the on-premise servers. This agent will take care to back up the folder and files. For Azure VMs no agent needed. Azure VM extension for backup is installed on the Azure VM when you run the first Azure VM backup. However, we can still use the MARs agent on Azure VM to take the backups of the folders and files.
Data Protection Manager (DPM)
It works with an on-premise backup server as a middleware for disk-to-disk-to-cloud backups as a result.
Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS)
This is an alternative to the DPM. However, this server originates from Microsoft and no software cost will be linked. We have more flexibility and granular scheduling options for running backups.
Is data secure using Azure backup service?
It provides a feature to encrypt the data at rest by using the passphrase provided during backup. All new VMs that will be backed up and all new backup data from already backed-up VMs will be encrypted at rest through Storage Service Encryption (SSE).
Please note that Azure backup service and Azure site recovery are different.
- Azure Site Recovery
It replicates the Azure or on-premise VMs to a secondary location. During a disaster we can access the VM from secondary location.
- Azure Backup
It takes the backup of Azure or on-premise VMs BUT data is backed up and can restored at a granular level including backup of files, folders, machine system state, and app-aware data backup.
- Pricing Information
Azure backup has no upfront cost, no termination fees. It works on a pay as you use model, meaning you only pay for the storage you consume. Refer to this article for more information.
Next - Recover files from Azure backup VM backup
Reference Links
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-overview
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-restore-files-from-vm
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/backup/
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-backup-sse-encryption-at-rest/
Conclusion
In this article, we have seen an overview of Azure backup and its services.