An assumption for this course is that you are using the latest product versions and package updates. Check for available updates manually if required.
With Veeam Backup & Replication via Microsoft Azure Plug-in for centralized and unified management and monitoring of hybrid-/multi-cloud environments, which provides you with a greater portability of backups and opportunity to store data on premises as well as across any of the supported public cloud providers.
Deployment Guidelines and Prerequisites
Before you start using Azure Native Backup and Recovery, make sure to:
- Digest an overview & sizing best practices by Veeam Solution Architects
- Study hardware, software, and infrastructure limitations and considerations
- Ensure that all required ports are open and user accounts that you plan to use have the required permissions
- Add custom sets of worker profiles to specify VM sizes of worker instances that will operate in different regions in order to boost operational performance
- Check out configuration actions to work with Azure resources that operate in private environment.
Deployment
Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure is installed on an Azure VM that is created in a selected Azure subscription during the product installation. You can deploy Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure from the Veeam Backup & Replication console only.
To deploy a new backup appliance from the Veeam Backup & Replication console, do the following:
- Launch the New Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure appliance wizard.
- Choose a deployment mode.
- Specify service account settings.
- Specify an Azure subscription in which the appliance will be deployed.
- Specify a name and description for the appliance.
- Specify the connection type.
- Specify network settings for the appliance.
- Specify credentials for the default user account.
- Wait for the appliance to be added to the backup infrastructure.
- Finish working with the wizard.
How Deployment Works
When deploying Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure, Veeam Backup & Replication performs the following steps:
- Deploys an Azure VM from the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS image.
- Creates a temporary storage account in Microsoft Azure and uploads Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure installation packages and their dependencies to the account.
Alternatively, Veeam Backup & Replication can use a custom storage account with private access. For Veeam Backup & Replication to be able to do that, the account must belong to the resource group where the backup appliance will reside and must be assigned the Veeam backup for Azure deployment account Azure tag with an empty value. To learn how to apply tags to Azure resources, see Microsoft Docs.
- Installs the required software components on the Azure VM.
- Creates a default service account on the backup appliance. This service account will then be used to perform data protection and recovery operations within the Azure subscription to which the backup appliance belongs. Out of the box, the account is already assigned all the required permissions listed in section Service Account Permissions.
You will be able to add other service accounts later, after Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure installation. For more information, see Managing Service Accounts.
- Removes the temporary storage account from Microsoft Azure.
Did you know? Besides using a policy-based backup approach, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure allows you to manually create snapshots of Azure VMs or manually create backups of Azure SQL databases.
Backup & Recovery
Watch this quick demo to see how easy it is to back up public cloud in Microsoft Azure with Veeam.
Now let’s deep dive into restores. In various disaster recovery scenarios, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure allows you to perform the following restore operations using backed-up data:
- Restore of Azure VMs — restores Azure VMs from cloud-native snapshot or image-level backups to the original location or to a new location.
- Restore of Azure SQL databases — restores Azure SQL databases from image-level backups to the original or to a new location.
- Restore of Azure file shares — restore files of Azure file shares from cloud-native snapshots to the original location or to a new location.
Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure enables you to maintain business continuity by easily protecting both on-premises and cloud-based workloads. It delivers an easy way to move, test and restore Veeam backups — eliminating the complexity of setting up an on-demand recovery site in Microsoft Azure.
This three‑minute demo includes:
- How to quickly set up Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure
- How to restore an on‑premises Veeam backup of a virtual machine in Azure
Did you know? Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure stores information on all protected Azure resources in the configuration database until all restore points associated with this resource are removed, according to the retention settings. You can also remove the restore points manually on the Protected Data page.
Pro tip: It is recommended that you regularly perform configuration backup for every backup appliance present in Microsoft Azure. Periodic configuration backups reduce the risk of data loss and minimize the administrative overhead costs in case any problems with the backup appliances occur. Continue reading in the User Guide.
NOTE Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure does not include restore points created manually in backup and snapshot chains, and does not apply the configured retention policy settings to these restore points, unless you remove them manually:
- Retrieving Data from Archive
- Removing Backups and Snapshots of Azure VMs
- Removing Azure VM Snapshots Created Manually
Continue exploring advanced options for Native Azure Backup and Recovery through these resources by Veeam Solution Architects:
- Veeam Cookbook (a practical guide on how to do a task within Veeam)
- Sizing and scalability best practices
Do you need help with Azure backup? Our global network of service providers can deliver Veeam-powered Backup as a Service (BaaS) offerings for your AWS data.
Suggested resources:
- Conversational Azure Backup Best Practices Bundle
- Azure Backup Best Practices from two Microsoft MVPs
- 5 Azure Must-Haves for Backup and Recovery
- 6 Ways to Configure Azure Backup (demo)
- 4 Azure Considerations to Reduce Costs
- Azure SQL Data Migration and Protection (webinar)
Using a different public cloud? Check out the other modules!