As the move to the cloud continues at a record pace, understanding how to properly backup and recover Azure virtual machines is becoming a key skill, one that every IT professional should possess.
In this course, you will learn how to plan and deploy Azure Backup and how to manage backups on a day-to-day basis. You will learn how to create the Recovery Services Vault that stores backed-up data, how to create backup policies, and how to perform backup operations. You’ll also learn how to perform VM restores.
The topics covered in this Azure course map very closely to the learning objectives covered in the Microsoft Azure certification exams. By mastering the topics covered in this course, you will not only learn the skills necessary for day-to-day Azure Backup management, but also learn the skills necessary to become Azure certified.
Learning Objectives
- Learn how to configure and review backup reports
- Understand how to perform backup operations
- Create a Recovery Services Vault
- Be able to create and configure backup policies
- Know how to assign backup policies
- Execute and perform restore operations
Intended Audience
- IT Professionals interested in becoming Azure cloud architects
- IT Professionals preparing for Microsoft’s Azure certification exams
Prerequisites
- General knowledge of IT infrastructure
- General knowledge of the Azure environment
Azure Backup is the Azure-based service that's used to backup and restore your data in Microsoft Azure. It is designed to replace any existing on-premises or off-site backup solution that might be in place already. When a backup job is initiated by the Azure Backup Service, the service triggers a point-in-time snapshot by the backup extension. Azure Backup leverages the VMSnapshot extension in Windows and the VMSnapshotLinux extension in Linux.
This extension is installed during the first VM backup, provided the VM is running. If the VM is not running at the time of the backup, the backup service, instead, will take a snapshot of the underlying storage for the VM. During the snapshot process on a VM, the backup service coordinates with the volume shadow copy service or VSS to ensure a consistent snapshot is taken of the virtual machines disks. When backing up Linux VM's, custom scripts can be used to ensure consistency when taking the snapshot of the VM. After taking a snapshot, the Azure Backup service transfers the data to the vault.
Azure Backup maximizes efficiency by transferring only the changed data since the last backup. After the data transfer to the vault is complete, snapshot is removed and recovery point is created. It's important to note that all backup traffic from servers to the Recovery Services vault is encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard 256. The backup data is sent over a secure HTTPS link. Backup data stored in the Recovery Services vault is also encrypted.
Tom is a 25+ year veteran of the IT industry, having worked in environments as large as 40k seats and as small as 50 seats. Throughout the course of a long an interesting career, he has built an in-depth skillset that spans numerous IT disciplines. Tom has designed and architected small, large, and global IT solutions.
In addition to the Cloud Platform and Infrastructure MCSE certification, Tom also carries several other Microsoft certifications. His ability to see things from a strategic perspective allows Tom to architect solutions that closely align with business needs.
In his spare time, Tom enjoys camping, fishing, and playing poker.