Azure storage vhds

Question

Could someone please help me understand this? I created Virtual Machine in Azure running Windows Server 2012. I noticed Azure created a storage account automatically. When I go inside that storage account, click Containers tab, and under vhds name it shows a name-name2-2014-12-05.vhd which is 127 GB and it always has recent Last modified date. What is that for? Is that my live backup image of my entire server deployment? If so where can I see how often it backs up?

Answer 1

When I go inside that storage account, click Containers tab, and under vhds name it shows a name-name2-2014-12-05.vhd which is 127 GB and it always has recent Last modified date. What is that for?

Virtual Machines in Azure are Stateful in nature. What that means is that any changes you make to the Virtual Machines like installing software, creating files etc. are persisted. The way Azure achieves this is by storing the Virtual Machine VHD as a page blob in Azure Storage. What you see as name-name2-2014-12-05.vhd is the VHD using which Azure launches your VM.

Is that my live backup image of my entire server deployment?

It is your VM and not the backup image. If by mistake you delete it (though Azure makes it real hard for you to delete it but its possible), your VM is gone. If you want, you can take a backup of this and store it in some other place. Search for Create Azure Virtual Machine Images and you will find ample resources.

If so where can I see how often it backs up?

By default Azure keeps 2 extra copies (a total of 3 including the main) of it in the data center and if you have enabled geo-redundancy, then Azure keeps additional 3 copies in a separate datacenter. However please keep in mind that it is not a backup. Any changes you make to your VM are replicated to all the copies. You would need to come up with your backup approach.

My recommendation would be to read more about Azure Virtual Machines. I'm sure if you search for it, you will get plentiful of resources.