Azure Backup
Native backup service for Azure VMs, SQL databases, files, and on-premises workloads.
Supported Workloads
- Azure Virtual Machines (Windows/Linux)
- Azure SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance
- Azure Files and Blob storage
- SAP HANA databases
- On-premises servers via MARS agent or MABS
Backup Policy Settings
| Setting | Options |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Hourly, Daily, Weekly |
| Daily Retention | 7-9999 days |
| Weekly Retention | 1-5163 weeks |
| Instant Restore | 1-5 days (snapshots) |
Azure Site Recovery
Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) for replicating VMs to a secondary region.
Replication Scenarios
- Azure to Azure: Replicate between Azure regions
- VMware to Azure: Migrate or DR for VMware VMs
- Hyper-V to Azure: On-premises Hyper-V replication
- Physical to Azure: Bare-metal server protection
Key Concepts
- RPO: Recovery Point Objective - max acceptable data loss
- RTO: Recovery Time Objective - max acceptable downtime
- Recovery Plans: Orchestrated failover sequences
- Test Failover: Validate DR without impacting production
Best Practices
- Test regularly: Perform DR drills quarterly at minimum
- Document runbooks: Step-by-step failover procedures
- Monitor replication health: Set alerts for sync issues
- Use paired regions: Use Azure's region pairs for compliance
- Automate: Use Recovery Plans with scripts and runbooks
- Secure backups: Enable soft delete and immutable vaults
Info
Related: See the Disaster Recovery Testing guide for DR test procedures.