Azure Site Recovery & Backup Lab Guide
Index
Establish Access into Azure Lab Tenant.
Create a Resource Group in the North Central US region.
Create a Recovery Services Vault in the North Central US region.
Setup Azure Site Recovery for an On-Prem Virtual Machine.
Backup a Virtual Machine in a Recovery Services Vault.
Setup Azure Site Recovery for an Azure Virtual Machine.
Backup a File Share in an Azure Storage Account.
Review a Back Up & Disaster Recovery (BCDR) Plan.
Notes
Establishing Site Recovery in Azure is a slow process filled with several waiting periods. Feel free to ask any question during these lulls or review the additional content available at the bottom of each section.
The simulated on-prem Hyper-V virtual machines will need to be powered on at the beginning of the course. The example Backup virtual machine and Azure Site Recovery (Azure to Azure) virtual machine will need to be created the day of the workshop by the instructor.
Feel free to request a break at any time.
Step 1 - Establish Access into the Azure Lab Tenant
Your instructor should have sent an email with a username and password for the lab tenant. The instructor will delegate the Contributor or Owner role on the subscription. Azure will prompt you for Multifactor Authentication. The instructor will tell you the code.
Subscriptions
Azure Migration & Storage
Resource Based Access Control: Owner
Username: ***student@*********.onmicrosoft.com
Password: Given by instructor
Notes
Using a shared student lab account is not best practice.
Step 2 - Create a Recovery Services Vault in a Resource Group
Let's build a Recovery Services Vault in the North Central US region. Start by building the Resource Group.
Subscription: Azure Migrate & Storage
Resource Group Name: rg_app_prodXXX
Set the XXX variable to today's date. For example, Feb 14 would be rg_app_prod214
Recovery Services Vault: rsv-prod-ncusXXX
Make sure to uncheck the option for Immutability.
Notes
This process should take about 5 minutes minimum.
An immutable vault for Azure Backup can help you protect your backup data by blocking any operations that could lead to loss of recovery points. You can lock the immutable vault setting to make it irreversible. You can also use WORM (write once, read many) storage for backups to prevent any malicious actors from disabling immutability and deleting backups. More info
Step 3 - Establish Disaster Recovery for an On-Prem Hyper-V Virtual Machine
You can access the Hyper-V environment in the Hyper-V_Lab Resource Group. Running on Hyper-V is a Windows Server 2016 virtual machine which we'll failover into Azure. The Disaster Recovery process encompasses three major steps: Building a Hyper-V Site, Connecting a Hyper-V Server to the Site, and Associating a Replication Policy to the Site.
Please note this portion of the lab will be easier to complete from the Hyper-V virtual machine. From this virtual machine, proceed to login to the Azure Portal again, as we will be downloading files directly to the on-prem Hyper-V environment.
Subscription: Azure Site Recovery & Backup
Resource Group: rg_app_prodXXX
Recovery Services Vault: rsv-prod-ncusXXX
From the Recovery Services Vault, navigate to the Site Recovery section listed under Getting started on the blade menu then select 1: Prepare infrastructure button listed under Hyper-V machines to Azure.
(Recovery Services Vault > Getting started > 1: Prepare infrastructure )
We will skip the Deployment Planning process. Select Yes, I have done it. Select Next.
Select No where asked if using System Center VMM. Select Add Hyper-V site.
Name the Hyper-V site.
When it appears, select Add Hyper-V server in the Hyper-V servers section.
From steps 3 and 4, download the Microsoft Azure Site Provider software and the Vault Registration Key.
Proceed to install the software and register it to the Recovery Services Vault using the Vault Registration Key. Registration will take several minutes. Please proceed to the next part of the lab and we will return to this portion of the lab later.
Step 4 - Backup a Virtual Machine in a Recovery Services Vault
In the Azure Portal, navigate to either the Virtual Machine or the Recovery Services Vault and create a Backup for our virtual machine.
Subscription: Azure Migrate & Storage
Resource Group: Hyper-V_Lab
Virtual Machine: virtualmachineXXX
Let's build a weekly Policy. Choose the default configuration for Sundays with a retention period of 7 days. Establishing backup takes roughly 90 seconds to process.
Once backup is scheduled, perform an immediate backup.
Notes
The backup will take up to 30 minutes. Please continue to the next portion of the lab.
The instructor will need to create a small virtual machine prior to the workshop. The instructor will also create a separate virtual machine for Azure Site Recovery (Azure to Azure).
Step 3 Continued... - Establish Azure Site Recovery for an on-prem Hyper-V virtual machine
In the Azure Portal, navigate to back to the Recovery Services Vault we built earlier.
On the blade menu, navigate to manage > Site Recovery Information
Verify the Hyper-V Site
Verify the Hyper-V Hosts
Navigate to Replication Policies and build a policy.
Associate the Policy with a Hyper-V site. This will take about 2 minutes.
Navigate back to the Recovery Services Vault main page and select + Enable Site Recovery
Notes
Replication depends on a Storage Account resource.
Once replication has started, you can view the progress by navigating to the Recovery Services Vault, then navigating to Site Recovery under Protected Items. When the virtual machine is fully replicated with continuous delta-sync, you'll be able to perform a Test Failover.
When fully replicated and ready for failover, Hyper-V virtual machines will be listed as Protected whereas VMware virtual machines will be listed as Delta Sync.
With both the virtual machine being backed up and the on-prem virtual machine being replicated, now is a good time for a five minute break.
Step 5 - Establish Azure Site Recovery (Azure to Azure)
In the Azure Portal, navigate to the ASR Virtual Machine. From the blade menu under Backup + disaster recovery, select Disaster Recovery.
Subscription: Azure Migrate & Storage
Resource Group: Hyper-V_Lab
Virtual Machine: ASRvm
Select the Target region of East US. Select Next: Advanced settings
Review the Storage settings. Then select Review + Start replication.
Select Start replication.
Notes
Replication from North Central US to East US will take several minutes. Proceed to the next portion of the lab. Performing a Test Failover is optional.
Step 6 - Backup a File Share (Optional)
Create a Storage Account in the Resource Group created earlier.
Create a File Share on the storage account. Enable Backup.
Notes
Backup of File Shares can also be setup from the Recovery Services Vault interface.
Step 7- Review a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) Plan
Here is a link to an example BCDR plan.
Microsoft Word document available for download here.