#5 Lab Adventure: Azure VM Protection | Building Robust Backup and Restoration Solutions

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In the fast-evolving cloud landscape, securing Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) is paramount. Recently, I conducted an in-depth lab on Azure, specifically focusing on leveraging Recovery Service Vaults to fortify VMs through robust backup and restoration procedures. This comprehensive exploration unveils crucial steps in both safeguarding and restoring Azure VMs using these essential Azure services.

Importance of the Lab:

This lab's significance lies in empowering Azure users to not only establish resilient backups but also restore VMs seamlessly in the face of potential data loss or system disruptions. By utilizing Recovery Service Vaults, users can proactively secure their VMs and effortlessly restore them to operational states, ensuring business continuity and data integrity.

Steps to Safeguard Azure VMs:

1.????? Create a VM

• Go to the Azure portal or use the Azure CLI to create a virtual machine
• Choose the name, region, size, image, and authentication method for your VM
• Review and create your VM

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2.????? Create a Recovery Service Vault

• Go to the Azure portal or use the Azure CLI to create a recovery service vault
• Choose the name, region, and resource group for your vault
• Review and create your vault

3.????? Configure Backup Settings

• Go to the properties of your vault and click backup
• Make sure that the backup configuration is geo-redundant

• Go to security and make sure soft delete is enabled

• Go to backup and select virtual machine for backup option

• Choose the standard policy sub type option
• Click create a new policy and select the backup frequency and retention period

• Scroll down and select the VM that you want to backup

• Click ok and enable backup

?4. Backup Your VM

• Go to backup items and select the virtual machine option

• Click view details and click backup now

• Wait for the backup operation to complete
• Check the status and progress of the backup operation

5. Restore Your VM Disk

• Go to backup items and select the virtual machine option Click view details and click file recovery

• Select the backup that you want to restore from

• Click download executable and copy the password

• Run the executable file and enter the password

• Browse the backed up drive and copy the files that you need. As you can see Windows Drive (F) here is the backed up drive.

• ?Click unmount to unmount the drive

6.????? Restore the VM

• Go to the Azure portal or use the Azure CLI to create a storage account
• Choose the name, region, performance tier, account kind, replication, and resource group for your storage account
• Review and create your storage account

• Go to backup items and select the virtual machine option
• Click view details and click restore VM

• Select the restore point that you want to use
• Choose to create a new VM that will have its OS drive data from the backup point
• Select the storage account that you created for the restore operation

• Review and start the restore operation
• Check the status and progress of the restore operation

• See a new VM created and check its configuration

7. Clean Up Your Resources

• Go to Recovery Service Vault, properties, then click security settings and disable soft delete
• Go to backup items and select the virtual machine option
• Click view details and click stop backup. Confirm the deletion of the backup data

• Go to backup infrastructure and select protected servers
• Click azure virtual machines and select the VM that you want to remove from backup
• Click stop backup and delete data
• Confirm the removal of the VM from backup

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Conclusion:

This comprehensive lab provides Azure users with a holistic understanding of not just securing but also restoring Azure VMs via Recovery Service Vaults. By following these detailed steps, users can confidently establish resilient backups and seamlessly restore VMs, ensuring continuity and data integrity within their Azure environments.

Through this hands-on experience, it becomes evident that leveraging Recovery Service Vaults isn't merely about backup; it's about establishing a fail-safe mechanism for VM restoration, underscoring the resilience and flexibility offered by Azure's robust infrastructure services. This guide empowers users to proactively protect their assets and swiftly recover from unforeseen incidents, bolstering their confidence in managing critical cloud-based resources.