How to Backup Windows Azure Server

Question

I have a workgroup server on Windows Azure. I have used Rackspace before and simply image the server to back it up BUT thats not so easy on Azure as imaging the server deletes it! My Azure server is used to run an application that uses an SQL Database. I backup the DB off site BUT need ensure I have a strategy for downtime of the server. I have looked into roles and instances but am fuzzy on it and getting lost in the many articles. See below what I have so far BUT I don't want the cost of two servers running for one application so **DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO ENSURE AVAILABILITY OF AN AZURE SERVER AND BACKUP THE CONTENTS IN THE EVENT OF A CRASH WITHOUT ftping EVERYTHING OFF SITE?

• Azure is georedundant BUT you have to set up your server to avail of this feature

  • Current Azure setup is that we set up Workgroup servers and license them BUT I am fuzzy on where to go from here.

  • This is where it gets tricky

  • The number of per-role instances in a Windows Azure application is controlled by the Instances setting in the configuration (cscfg) file.

  • Windows Azure Service Configuration Schema http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ee758710.aspx

  • How to Configure the Roles for a Windows Azure Application with Visual Studio http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh369931.aspx Change the Number of Instances To improve the performance of your application, you can change the number of instances of a role that are running, based on the number of users or the load expected for a particular role. A separate virtual machine is created for each instance of a role when the application runs in Windows Azure. This will affect the billing for the deployment of this application. For more information about billing, see Windows Azure Billing Basics.

• I will continue to research but if any of you know the answer (how can I easily backup my Azure server docs and data without ftping offsite) please feel free to weigh in!

Answer 1

If all you want is to back up the server, then you could use Recovery Services Vaults. This feature allows you to backup any Azure VM. The backup is a snapshot of the entire server.

You can test your contingency plan by restoring the backup to a new VM.

Answer 2

It depends on what you are trying to backup and scale. A proper cloud architecture should not store or persist data on local Azure servers, since that does not scale. You should be persisiting data to azure table storage, blob storage, SQL db and backup the data from there. Then you can use the APIs to backup anything from a central location.

if you are running something like SQL Server or SharePoint then there are some files peristed on the local VMs that you will need to backup. Luckily, those vhd drives are stored on BLOB storage and can be backed up as well in addition to geo redundant backup.