AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam

Create a Recovery Services vault

Recovery Services vault is an Azure resource that stores backup data and recovery points for your workloads. It acts as a secure container where you can manage backup and restore operations for virtual machines, files, and applications. When you create a vault, Azure automatically configures baseline encryption and organizes data by resource group and region.

To create a vault, you start in the Azure portal and select Recovery Services vault under the Backup center. You then choose your:

• Subscription to bill the resource.
• Resource group for logical grouping.
• Region to store data close to your resources.

After creation, you should review and configure access controls and soft delete settings. These settings help you safeguard backups from accidental or malicious deletion and ensure data recoverability.

Create an Azure Backup vault

An Azure Backup vault is a legacy container for storing backups of on-premises servers and Azure VMs. While newer Recovery Services vaults are recommended, you may still encounter Backup vaults in classic deployments. The vault holds backup items, policies, and recovery points.

To set up a Backup vault, navigate to the Azure portal and select Backup vaults under the Recovery Services section. Provide a name, choose a resource group, and specify the region. Once the vault is created, you register your machines with the vault using the Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent.

After registration, you configure backup policies and schedule your backups. The vault dashboard shows protected instances and available recovery points, helping you track backup status and plan restores.

Create and configure a backup policy

A backup policy defines when and how long your backups are kept. It includes a backup schedule, retention range, and frequency settings for daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly snapshots. Policies ensure consistent protection across your resources.

To create a policy, go to your Recovery Services vault and select Backup policies. Choose the workload type—Azure VMs, SQL Server, or files—and set:

• Backup frequency (e.g., daily at 2 AM).
• Retention rules (e.g., keep daily backups for 30 days).

Once saved, you assign the policy to vault items. Azure then executes backups automatically, following your defined schedule and retention windows.

Perform backup and restore operations by using Azure Backup

Azure Backup provides both on-demand backups and scheduled backups. On-demand lets you trigger a backup instantly, while scheduled backups run based on your policy. Backups are incremental, capturing only changes since the last snapshot to optimize storage and performance.

To restore data, go to the vault and select Backup Items, then choose the item and click Restore. You can restore to:

• The original location for quick recovery.
• An alternate location to avoid overwriting live data.

Azure guides you through the restore wizard, where you confirm the recovery point and target settings. After completion, you verify the data integrity and resume production operations.

Configure Azure Site Recovery for Azure resources

Azure Site Recovery (ASR) helps you replicate and fail over Azure VMs to a secondary region. It ensures business continuity by keeping VMs in sync across locations. ASR uses continuous replication to minimize data loss and supports both Windows and Linux workloads.

To configure ASR, open the Recovery Services vault and select Site Recovery under the Getting Started section. You then:

• Enable replication for specific VMs.
• Choose the target region and resource group.
• Configure network and storage accounts for replicated data.

ASR installs a replication agent on each VM and begins syncing data. You monitor replication health in the vault dashboard and ensure RPO (Recovery Point Objective) targets are met.

Perform a failover to a secondary region by using Site Recovery

Failover processes let you switch to replicated resources in another region during an outage. ASR supports three failover types:

• Test failover to validate readiness without impacting production.
• Planned failover for scheduled maintenance or evacuations.
• Unplanned failover during actual disasters.

To initiate failover, go to your vault’s Replicated Items and select the VM. Click Failover, choose the type, and confirm the recovery point. During a planned failover, ASR ensures no data is lost by completing final replication before the switch.

After failover, you perform a failback or re-protect to resume normal operations in the primary region. Always validate application functionality and update DNS records or load balancers to direct traffic to the new location.

Configure and interpret reports and alerts for backups

Monitoring backup health is critical for understanding protection status. Azure provides built-in backup reports and alerts that show job success rates, storage usage, and items at risk. Reports help you identify trends and address issues proactively.

To configure monitoring, enable Azure Monitor integration in your Recovery Services vault. Then set up:

• Alerts for failed backup jobs or low storage.
• Action groups to notify teams via email or SMS.

In the vault’s Reports section, you can view charts and tables for backup operations. Use these insights to adjust policies, increase quotas, or troubleshoot failures, ensuring continuous protection.

Conclusion

Implementing backup and recovery in Azure involves creating and managing vaults, defining policies, and running operations effectively. You start by setting up a Recovery Services vault or, in classic scenarios, an Azure Backup vault, to house all backup data. Configuring a backup policy ensures that your workloads are protected on a regular schedule with defined retention rules.

Azure Backup operations let you perform on-demand and scheduled backups, with incremental snapshots that save space and time. Restores can target original or alternate locations, providing flexibility during recovery. For large-scale continuity, Azure Site Recovery replicates VMs to a secondary region, enabling quick failover and failback processes.

Finally, monitoring via reports and alerts keeps you informed about backup health and resource usage. By integrating with Azure Monitor, you set up notifications for failures and capacity issues. Together, these features form a robust backup and recovery strategy that safeguards your data and applications in Azure.