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In this post I will document an online backup solution for small businesses, branch offices, and mobile workers, where Azure Backup can be used to cost effectively protect files and folders in the cloud.
Note that this post is written for those using Azure Backup via the Recovery Services Vault in the newer Azure Portal, and not the Backup Vault in the old Azure Management Portal.
The solution that we are looking at deploying is the Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent. This is a simple disk-cloud backup solution; that means that the agent creates a backup that is sent directly to the cloud.
Right now (and this is changing in the future), the MARS agent is restricted in the following ways:
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MARS is improving — see Project Venus. Although MARS might be limited right now, it’s proven to be a popular solution for online backup in the small to midsized enterprise, probably thanks to the very competitive pricing of Azure Backup and Azure (hot) blob storage.
The first prerequisite that you will need is a Recovery Services Vault (RSV); create an RSV in the Azure Portal and be sure to do the following:
Open the settings of the RSV and browse to Getting Started > Backup. Do the following in the subsequent wizard:
Download the Azure Backup MARS agent and vault credentials [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
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The vault credentials file is used to connect a MARS agent installation with the RSV; it also provides a secret that is used to permit the MARS agent to connect to the RSV.
You do not need to download a set of credentials for every installation. The credentials file can be used repeatedly for many agent installations, which will use the same RSV, over the next 48 hours. After 48 hours, the secret in the file will expire and you’ll need to get a new credentials file for further installations.
Copy the setup file to the machine that you want to backup and run the installer; it’s little more than a next-next-next. There is one setting to mind; Azure Backup needs a cache location. This location must have access to free space that is at least 5 percent of the size of the data being backed up. If you have a proxy server, then you can configure the necessary settings.
At the end of the wizard, you will be prompted to start a registration; click Proceed To Registration.
This is where you will associate the MARS agent with the RSV in Azure. Click Browse and navigate to/select the vault credentials file. Assuming that all is well, the wizard will update with details of your RSV.
A successful Azure Backup vault identification [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
Generate a passphrase for the Azure Backup MARS agent [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
Launch the Microsoft Azure Backup console. Click Change Properties and navigate to Throttling. This is where you can restrict the bandwidth used by the MARS agent on this machine.
Throttling bandwidth utilization of the Azure Backup MARS agent [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
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Azure Backup can retain up to 9,999 recovery points (times from when you restore files) for up to 99 years. Most of my customers go with something simple like retaining 30 days of data. But Azure Backup offers a very configurable retention schedule, as shown below:
Enable a complex retention policy for backed up data [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
More from Aidan Finn
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