AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions Exam

Define Recovery Objectives and Configure Azure Backup for Virtual Machines

Assessing Business Requirements

When designing a backup and disaster recovery solution for compute resources in Azure, it is important to understand the Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) by assessing the business requirements. This involves focusing on several key aspects:

• Criticality of Applications: Determine how crucial each application is to business operations. This will help prioritize which applications need faster recovery times and more frequent backups.
• Data Change Frequency: Understand how often data changes within these applications. Applications with frequently updated data may require more frequent backups.
• Acceptable Data Loss: Identify the maximum acceptable amount of data loss during a disaster. This will help define the RPOs and ensure that backup schedules meet business needs.

Azure Backup Configuration

Azure Backup is a service that provides secure and scalable protection for various Azure workloads, with virtual machines being a primary focus. There are several components to consider when configuring Azure Backup:

• Vault Configuration: Backup copies are stored in Recovery Services vaults or Backup vaults. It’s important to opt for geo-redundant storage to safeguard data against regional failures.
• Backup Policies: These policies define how and when data is backed up, specifying:
  • Backup frequency: The intervals at which backups occur (daily, weekly, hourly, etc.)
  • Retention duration: How long the backups are kept, which can include both short-term and long-term retention options.

Setting Up Backup for VMs

Here are the steps to enable Azure VM backup effectively:

1. Create a Recovery Services Vault:
   • Navigate to "All resources" > "Recovery Services vaults" > "Add".
   • Select the region that matches the VM’s location (e.g., if the VM is in West US, choose West US for the vault).
2. Verify Storage Replication:
   • Go to the created vault > "Properties" > "Backup Configuration" > "Update".
   • Ensure that geo-redundant storage is selected by default to provide redundancy across multiple regions.
3. Configure Backup Policy and Enable Backup:
   • Assign virtual machines (VMs) to backup policies that specify when backups occur and how long they are retained.

Performing Test Restores

To ensure that backups can be successfully restored, it is crucial to perform regular test restores:

• Test Restore Procedures: Validate that restoring from backups does not negatively impact production applications.
• Recovery Point Validation: Make sure that the latest recovery points are consistently accessible and usable during the restore process.

Using Azure Site Recovery

For enhanced disaster recovery, consider configuring Azure Site Recovery alongside Azure Backup:

• Setup Process:
  • Define primary and secondary regions for the replication of workloads.
  • Enable replication for VMs to a secondary region in Azure.
  • Use Recovery Services vaults to manage replication settings and monitor the replication status.
• Disaster Recovery Drills: Regularly conduct failover and failback drills to ensure that all components are fully operational during an actual disaster event without interruption to production environments.

Conclusion

Combining Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery forms a comprehensive business continuity plan that helps organizations meet stringent RPO and RTO requirements. This integration ensures minimal data loss and rapid recovery when disasters occur. Regular testing and validation of backup and recovery processes reinforce the reliability and efficiency of this strategic approach, keeping business operations resilient against disruptions.