1372 - How to manage your Azure VM backups

Introduction

Backing up and restoring Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) forms part of our cloud service offering. You can also view the contents of your backup snapshots and download specific folders or files.

To use the Azure VM Pro service, you need to be both a RedApp company administrator, and an administrator of the Azure subscription for the VMs you want to back up.

For more information, see Article 1526 - Azure backup and recovery: frequently asked questions.

Note:

• We support backup and recovery to PremiumV2_LRS disk type, as well as other premium-type SKUs, including Ultra SSD. This ensures parity in disk type between the source and target VMs (conditional on Azure supporting this disk type in-region).
• VHDX disk image files are supported.
• VMs with unmanaged disks are not currently supported. These will therefore not appear in the list when you select VMs to be protected. Unmanaged disks include Azure Blob Storage, Azure Files, and Azure Queue Storage. In an unmanaged disk, you manage the storage accounts that are used to store the virtual hard disk (VHD) files that correspond to your VM disks. VHD files are stored as page blobs in Azure storage accounts.
• If you are experiencing issues adding or recovering VMs, see Article 1473 - Azure VM Pro troubleshooting.
  

Use the guide below to manage your backups.

How to add a virtual machine

How to remove a virtual machine

How to configure the backup schedule

How to recover a virtual machine

How to browse and download virtual machine snapshots

Common errors

How to add a virtual machine

1. On the RedApp home page, go to My Company or to the relevant customer company.

2. Go to Azure in the sidebar. This will take you to your Azure Overview page.

3. Click on Virtual Machines in the sidebar.

4. Go to Add at the top right and click Add virtual machines.

5. You will now need to log into Azure and allow Redstor access to your resource groups. Click Next to proceed.

6. Authenticate with your admin credentials and accept the requested permissions.

7. You will be shown a list of VMs that your Azure user has access to, and that are located in a subscription that is not yet protected by Redstor. Select one or more VMs from the list (all are selected by default) and click Add. This will queue the deployment of a new virtual backup appliance into the relevant subscription.

You can also enable Redstor Protect using the toggle switch at the bottom. This means that for the selected VMs, all backups stored in Azure will also be copied to the Redstor Storage Platform for off-site storage at an additional cost. 

There are some scenarios in which Redstor Protect does not currently offer full support. This list includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• storage pools (Azure SQL images are configured to use this for data and log volumes)
• RAID configurations that make use of striping
• encryption when the keys are customer-managed

Consider disabling Redstor Protect in these scenarios.

Note:

• If you are using Redstor Protect for Azure VM Pro, Full System Recovery to any other target is NOT possible. That means if these snapshots are removed, your only option is file and folder restore.
• The appliance will be deployed into the region of the first VM listed.
• Once an appliance has been deployed into a subscription, you will not need to repeat this process when adding new VMs to be backed up. 
• Redstor Protect can be enabled or disabled at any time from the Backup selection card on the VM's home page.
  
  
  
  
• If you make use of the Storage Platform Console, you will not see any Azure VM backups there unless Redstor Protect is enabled.
• Where Redstor Protect is enabled, retention for Azure VMs is the retention period that is set for the relevant group/folder or collection (or the default retention period if none has been set).
• Whether or not Redstor Protect is enabled, 30 days of snapshots are retained.

You can monitor the progress of the deployment on the All Virtual Machines page or under Notifications > Tasks.

You will receive a message under Notifications > Recent when the deployment completes

Once the appliance has been deployed, you can back up the VMs in that subscription. For an individual VM, click on the menu icon to its right and then on Backup.

You can also select multiple VMs and click Backup at the bottom of the page.

You can monitor the progress of the backup on the All Virtual Machines page or under Notifications > Tasks.

You can also view an audit trail of all activities and which users performed them by clicking on the icon at the top right.

The status of all your backups, along with additional analytics, is shown on the Virtual Machines Overview page, which can be accessed from the sidebar.

Any potential malware in your backups will be flagged on the Suspicious files card. Click View to go to a list of all suspicious files, from where you can delete them or mark them as safe.

Suspicious files will also be indicated in the list of backups for a specific VM. From here, you can also delete them or mark them as safe.

How to remove a virtual machine

1. Go to the All Virtual Machines view or to the relevant resource group in the sidebar.

2. Select the relevant VM and click the menu icon to its right, then Remove. For multiple VMs, make your selection and click Remove at the bottom of the page.

You will see a notification that the machine/s have been removed.

How to configure the backup schedule

1. On the home page for the relevant resource group, click on Backup Schedule > Edit.

2. You can retain the default of a single daily backup, or you can set your backups to only run on specific days (custom). In either case, use the drop-down menu to set the backup time. Set your preferences and click on the check mark.

How to recover a virtual machine

You can recover an entire VM back to its current location or a new location, or recover the VM with InstantData.

Note:

• If you are using Redstor Protect for Azure VM Pro, Full System Recovery to any other target is NOT possible. That means if these snapshots are removed, your only option is file and folder restore.
• You can also recover specific files or folders by downloading them locally. Read more below.
• Azure Disk Encryption is supported. If the source VM was created with Azure Disk Encryption, the restored VM will have the same level of encryption, whether overwriting the source or restoring to a new VM.

On the home page for the relevant VM, locate the backup you wish to recover. Expand its menu, then proceed according to your preferred option.

• Recover to > Current VM reverts the backed-up VM into its original location.
• Recover to > New VM restores the data into a new, functionally identical VM in a resource group of your choosing.
• Recover with InstantData generates a shareable link that can be used to recover the VM's data. 
  • Please note that InstantData is currently only supported on Windows.

You will now need to authenticate with Microsoft.

If you selected New VM:

1. Specify a name for the new VM, and select a resource group for it to be located in. You can also configure the region, VNet and subnet (default = source VM configuration), as well as the VM's power state when recovering (default = off). When you're ready, click Next to proceed.

2. Confirm the selected settings and click Recover.

You can monitor the progress of your recovery on the resource group's home page or under Notifications > Tasks.

You will receive a message under Notifications > Recent when the recovery completes. 

If you selected Recover with InstantData:

1. Download the InstantData agent onto the VM where you want to recover the data.

2. Run the application.

3. Select between permanent and temporary recovery. 

4. Drag and drop files from the application into your File Explorer to recover them.

How to browse and download virtual machine snapshots

To view the contents of a snapshot or verify that it is intact, follow the steps below. You can also browse your snapshots for specific files or folders and download these locally.

1. Go to the home page for the relevant VM. You will be shown a list of mount points (snapshots) that have been taken of this VM, sorted by date. Note that it may take a few seconds for the list to load for the first time. You can then drill down and select one or more files you wish to download. Once you have made your selection, click Download.

The file/s will be downloaded to a zip file. Open the zip file to access its contents in your file explorer.

You can monitor the progress of your download on the resource group's home page or under Notifications > Tasks.

You will receive a message under Notifications > Recent when the download is ready.