5 Steps to Integrate Azure Backup with Site Recovery

Protect your business with Azure Backup and Site Recovery. These tools work together to safeguard your data and keep operations running during disruptions. Here's a quick summary of how to integrate them:

1. Create a Recovery Services Vault: Centralise backup and disaster recovery management in Azure.
2. Set Up Azure Site Recovery: Replicate workloads to another region to prepare for outages.
3. Configure Azure Backup: Schedule and retain backups to protect critical data.
4. Build Recovery Plans: Prioritise and automate recovery processes for quick restoration.
5. Test Your Solution: Regularly test failovers and backup recovery to ensure readiness.

Why It Matters:

• Azure Backup secures data with isolated, encrypted storage.
• Azure Site Recovery replicates systems, ensuring business continuity.
• Together, they eliminate the need for costly secondary infrastructure.

Quick Comparison:

Start small, scale as needed, and regularly test your setup to stay prepared. Keep your data safe and your business running, no matter what.

Business Continuity with Azure Backup and Site Recovery │ Expert Talk │Skill Me UP Academy

Step 1: Create a Recovery Services Vault

The Recovery Services vault acts as the backbone of your backup and disaster recovery strategy, offering a centralised space to store and manage your configurations.

How to Create the Recovery Services Vault

To ensure smooth performance and meet data residency rules, the vault must be set up in the same region as your data sources. If you're working with resources spread across multiple regions, you'll need to create separate vaults for each region.

Start by logging into the Azure portal and navigating to the Recovery Services vaults section. During the setup, you'll need to:

• Specify your Azure subscription.
• Choose an existing resource group or create a new one.
• Assign a meaningful name that reflects the vault's purpose and region.
• Select the target region.

Pay close attention to the storage redundancy setting, as this choice becomes permanent once backups are configured. Azure provides several options, including locally redundant storage, which keeps at least three copies of your data for basic protection. These settings influence both the level of data protection and associated costs, so review them carefully. If required, enable Cross Region Restore for additional recovery options.

Once the vault is created, you can move on to configuring your disaster recovery settings in the following steps.

What the Recovery Services Vault Does

The Recovery Services vault serves as a central hub for managing backups and disaster recovery. As Microsoft explains:

"A Recovery Services vault is a management entity that stores recovery points created over time and provides an interface to perform backup related operations. These include taking on-demand backups, performing restores, and creating backup policies."

This centralised setup simplifies operations by consolidating everything into a single location within the Azure portal. It also eliminates the need for manual storage management by automatically handling capacity allocation.

Security is a key focus of the vault's design. It supports Azure role-based access control (RBAC) and includes features like soft delete protection, data isolation, and advanced monitoring to guard against accidental deletions and malicious activities.

The vault ensures durability with an impressive 99.999999999% (11 nines) reliability for stored objects over a year. Each Azure subscription allows up to 500 vaults, and a single vault can protect as many as 1,000 Azure virtual machines. If you need to safeguard more VMs, plan your vault structure accordingly and create additional vaults.

Beyond serving as a storage location, the vault is also where you'll manage backup policies, replication settings, and recovery plans. This centralisation not only simplifies backup management but also sets the stage for configuring Site Recovery in later steps.

Step 2: Set Up Azure Site Recovery

With your Recovery Services vault in place, the next step is to configure Azure Site Recovery. This ensures your critical workloads are replicated to another region, laying the groundwork for disaster recovery and keeping your systems ready for unexpected downtime.

Configure VM Replication Settings

To set up VM replication, you'll need to focus on key settings that control how data is transferred between regions. Start by accessing your Recovery Services vault and selecting Site Recovery from the menu.

Begin by defining your source environment. Specify the region, subscription, and resource group containing the virtual machines (VMs) you want to protect. Then, choose the target location where the replicated data will be stored. For best performance and minimal latency, Microsoft suggests using the same region as your Recovery Services vault. Typically, the target subscription matches the source subscription.

Azure will automatically create a new resource group in the target region, appending an _asr suffix to help organise your replicated resources. Select a failover network and subnet for disaster recovery. For storage, Azure Site Recovery replicates your source disks - whether they're standard or premium - into the target region. A cache storage account in the source region tracks changes made to the source VMs, ensuring data remains consistent during replication.

Next, establish replication policies. These policies control how often snapshots are taken and how long they are retained. The default retention period is 24 hours, but you can adjust this to align with your recovery goals. If your application setup involves multiple VMs that need to recover together, consider creating a replication group. This ensures consistent recovery points across all VMs in the group.

Connect On-Premises Systems to Site Recovery

Once VM replication is configured, extend protection to your on-premises systems to complete the disaster recovery setup. The Recovery Services vault acts as a central hub, connecting your on-premises infrastructure with Azure.

The integration process depends on your virtualisation platform. If you're using VMware, you'll need to install a configuration server. This server acts as a bridge between your on-premises VMware setup and Azure, managing data replication and orchestrating the recovery process. Ensure the configuration server's clock is synchronised with a time server, and that on-premises systems can access Azure URLs over HTTPS (port 443).

For non-VMM Hyper-V environments, create an Azure Hyper-V site, then install the Site Recovery Provider and MARS agent on each host. Register each host in your Recovery Services vault. In VMM-managed Hyper-V environments, install the Site Recovery Provider on the VMM server itself and ensure the Recovery Services agent is installed on all Hyper-V hosts or cluster nodes.

When setting up network interfaces for replicated VMs, select an Azure VM size that meets your network requirements. Regularly test your replication setup to ensure everything is functioning as expected. You might also automate replication for critical workloads by tagging VMs with labels like "Production" or "Critical" to maintain consistent protection across your systems.

"Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is a service provided by Microsoft Azure to ensure business continuity by keeping applications and workloads running during outages." – Adam Bertram

Azure Site Recovery supports both planned and unplanned failovers, giving you the flexibility to handle routine maintenance or unexpected emergencies with ease.

Step 3: Configure Azure Backup

Adding Azure Backup to your Site Recovery plan strengthens your overall data protection strategy, ensuring continuous business operations even in challenging situations. Azure Backup works seamlessly with Site Recovery, creating regular backup copies to safeguard your data alongside replication. When both services are active on a virtual machine (VM), replication continues without any impact on its health or performance.

This integration provides flexible recovery options. For instance, you can retrieve individual files from backups on source VMs without disrupting ongoing replication. However, restoring an entire backed-up disk or VM requires temporarily disabling and then re-enabling replication for that machine. Once you’ve set up Azure Backup, define your backup schedule and retention policies to strike the right balance between protection and cost efficiency.

Define Backup Schedule and Retention

Crafting a well-thought-out backup policy is essential to balance storage costs with reliable data protection. A backup policy typically includes two key elements: schedule (when backups occur) and retention (how long backups are stored).

Think about the nature of your workloads and your recovery needs. For example, if you’re managing critical systems where even minimal data loss is unacceptable, frequent backups will help you achieve a lower Recovery Point Objective (RPO). In June 2023, an e-commerce platform implemented hourly backups for its database VMs. Using PowerShell scripts, they scheduled backups to run every hour, ensuring minimal data loss and optimised recovery times.

To minimise performance impacts, schedule backups during non-peak hours. If you’re backing up multiple VMs, stagger their schedules throughout the day to avoid network congestion and maintain consistent performance.

When it comes to retention, consider both short-term and long-term needs. Short-term retention typically covers daily backups, while long-term retention is useful for weekly, monthly, or yearly points. Long-term retention is often vital for meeting compliance standards or retaining data for unforeseen circumstances.

One thing to note: Azure Backup doesn’t automatically adjust for daylight-saving time changes. You’ll need to manually update your backup policies when the clocks change.

Turn On Backup for Your Workloads

Once your schedule and retention settings are finalised, enable backup for your critical systems. Focus on VMs that handle essential business data or applications. Use application-consistent snapshots to ensure data coherence and avoid transaction loss during recovery. This approach complements Site Recovery’s replication, ensuring data integrity across your systems.

Azure Backup offers flexibility by supporting full system backups for both Windows and Linux, as well as file- or folder-level backups via the MARS agent. For less critical workloads, file-level backups may suffice, while mission-critical databases typically require full system protection.

Enable soft delete to safeguard against accidental backup deletions. This feature allows you to recover deleted backups within a grace period, adding an extra layer of security.

Monitor backup jobs using Azure’s built-in tools or automated scripts. You can also use Azure Policy to enforce compliance, ensuring that new VMs are automatically included in your backup strategy.

To keep costs manageable, Azure’s incremental backup feature saves only the changes made since the last backup, reducing storage usage. Consider using Azure’s archive storage tiers for long-term retention to optimise costs further while maintaining comprehensive data protection.

Lastly, regularly test your backup and restore processes to ensure they work as expected. These tests should complement your Site Recovery drills, giving you confidence in your disaster recovery and data protection plans.

Step 4: Build Recovery Plans

Recovery plans act as the foundation for managing disaster recovery, ensuring systems can restart and reconnect effectively during emergencies. They work hand in hand with your backup configurations to safeguard critical business applications.

Create Your Recovery Plan

To craft a solid recovery plan, start by evaluating the dependencies between applications and prioritising based on business needs. Identify the systems that are most critical and map out their interdependencies. This will help you determine the correct order in which systems should be started.

Group virtual machines (VMs) logically to establish the proper startup sequence. For instance, you can create separate recovery groups for different tiers of your applications: one for database servers, another for middleware, and a third for web front-ends. This approach ensures systems come online in the correct order, reducing the risk of connection failures or data inconsistencies.

Azure Site Recovery allows you to enhance your recovery plans with automation scripts using Azure Automation runbooks. These scripts can handle tasks like updating DNS records, configuring load balancers, or adjusting database connection strings during failover. This reduces manual intervention and lowers the chances of human error. If automation isn’t feasible, clearly document manual steps, specifying who is responsible and the timing required.

Additionally, ensure that network configurations in the failover environment - such as security groups, IP addresses, and routing rules - are correctly set up to avoid connectivity problems.

Once your recovery plan is in place, the next step is to test its effectiveness regularly.

Test and Improve Your Recovery Plans

Testing is essential to ensure your recovery plan works in real-world scenarios. Regular tests turn theoretical plans into reliable recovery procedures. Azure Site Recovery provides built-in testing tools that let you validate your plans without disrupting your production systems.

Conduct disaster recovery drills at least quarterly. During these drills, track recovery times and note any issues that arise. Use these insights to refine your plan. Azure Site Recovery’s dashboard can also help you maintain a consistent testing schedule by providing useful prompts.

Compare your recovery times to your Recovery Time Objectives (RTO). If your tests consistently show delays, investigate potential bottlenecks like limited bandwidth, insufficient computing resources, or overly complicated manual processes.

Involve the entire IT team in these tests so everyone knows their role. Regular simulations prepare the team to handle recovery smoothly, even if key personnel are unavailable during an actual emergency.

After each test, review the results to identify areas for improvement. Update your recovery plan to accommodate changes in applications, dependencies, or network setups. This ensures your disaster recovery strategy stays effective and evolves alongside your business needs.

Step 5: Test Your Complete Solution

Testing your disaster recovery setup as a whole is essential to ensure it works when it matters most. Skipping this step could leave you vulnerable to data loss or downtime when disaster strikes.

Run Test Failovers

Test failovers are a crucial way to validate your disaster recovery plan without disrupting your production environment. Azure Site Recovery provides tools to simulate disaster scenarios while keeping your live systems unaffected.

Start by choosing an appropriate recovery point. Azure offers several options, such as Latest processed, Latest app-consistent, Latest, Latest multi-VM processed, Latest multi-VM app-consistent, or even a Custom point. For many small and medium-sized businesses, the Latest app-consistent option strikes a good balance between data integrity and recovery speed.

Set up an isolated Azure virtual network for your test environment. This network should mirror your production setup, with the same number of subnets, identical names, and matching IP address ranges. Update the DNS settings to include the IP address specified for the DNS VM in your Compute and Network configuration. This ensures smooth connectivity during the test.

When you initiate a test failover, Azure Site Recovery automatically checks prerequisites, processes the failover, and starts the Azure virtual machine in your test environment. Monitor the process and verify that the VM in the recovery region runs correctly and matches the source configuration.

Azure Site Recovery also includes a dashboard that actively reminds you to conduct disaster recovery drills. Use these reminders to establish a regular testing schedule. After completing a test, clean up the environment and document key observations to refine your recovery plan.

Once failover tests are complete, it’s time to shift your focus to backup recovery testing.

Test Backup Recovery

Backup recovery testing ensures that your data is intact and your applications function as expected, completing your disaster readiness strategy. This step involves verifying that restored data is complete and that applications work properly after recovery. Use Azure Backup’s built-in restore tools to schedule regular test restores and confirm your data is recoverable.

Test both file-level and system-level restores. For file-level tests, select specific files or folders, restore them, and ensure they open without corruption. For system-level restores, recover a full virtual machine, check that it boots successfully, and confirm that all applications start and function as they should.

For example, a failed restore that caused a blue-screen error was resolved by restoring the production VM to a new machine and replacing the OS disk. This highlights the importance of having clear recovery steps documented and ready to follow.

Automate your backup testing with Azure Automation and PowerShell scripts. Create a runbook that automatically restores a VM to a test environment and verifies its functionality. This reduces manual work and ensures testing happens consistently.

Develop a clear backup recovery testing strategy. Define the scope, frequency, and methods for these tests. Specify which systems need testing, how often tests should occur, and what criteria determine success. A structured approach ensures thorough coverage and helps uncover potential problems before they escalate.

Perform your backup tests in an environment that closely replicates your production systems but remains isolated. This ensures realistic testing conditions without risking disruption to your live operations.

Best Practices for SMBs

To get the most from Azure Backup and Site Recovery, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can follow these strategies to manage costs effectively while ensuring strong disaster recovery capabilities. These tips are designed to help SMBs achieve reliable protection without straining their IT resources.

Manage Both Services from One Location

Using a single Recovery Services vault for both Azure Backup and Site Recovery simplifies disaster recovery management. This centralised setup not only reduces administrative burden but also provides a consolidated view of all protection activities.

To optimise performance, coordinate backup and replication schedules carefully. For example, schedule backups during off-peak hours and stagger replication tasks to avoid network congestion. Additionally, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all disaster recovery management accounts to safeguard against unauthorised access.

Automate routine maintenance tasks by integrating runbooks into your processes. These can handle activities like monitoring backup statuses, cleaning up outdated recovery points, and generating compliance reports, freeing up time for your IT team.

Maintain Application Data Consistency

Once centralised management is in place, focus on ensuring the reliability of system data during recovery by maintaining application consistency. This is vital for ensuring that your business-critical applications can restart properly after a restoration, reducing the risk of data corruption. For Windows systems, Azure Backup uses the Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to create application-consistent snapshots.

For Linux environments, leverage the pre-script and post-script framework to run custom scripts that ensure consistency. Successful execution of these scripts allows Azure Backup to mark recovery points as application-consistent.

Here’s a quick look at the different consistency types and their implications:

To catch issues early, log all pre- and post-script activities and review them regularly. Also, ensure that permissions are managed correctly to avoid failures caused by access restrictions.

Test and Monitor Regularly

Setting up your disaster recovery plan is just the beginning - ongoing testing and monitoring are crucial. Regularly perform test restores using Azure Backup’s built-in features to verify data integrity and restoration processes.

Automate these tests using Azure Automation and PowerShell. For instance, create runbooks that restore virtual machines in isolated environments to confirm they’re functioning as expected.

Use Azure Monitor and Log Analytics to track backup performance and identify potential issues early. Configure alerts to prioritise responses: production outages should trigger immediate action, capacity issues should be addressed within hours, and informational alerts can be reviewed the next business day.

Disaster recovery plans should be revisited and updated frequently to reflect changes in your infrastructure or applications. Conducting full-scale drills will test both your technology and your team’s readiness, ensuring everyone knows their role in an emergency.

Finally, optimise network bandwidth for replication. Monitor traffic patterns and adjust replication schedules to avoid peak business hours, reducing latency and improving recovery times. Adopting these practices not only strengthens operational resilience but also helps SMBs in the UK manage costs more effectively.

UK SMB Cost Planning

When it comes to disaster recovery, UK small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need a clear plan for managing costs. Azure Backup and Site Recovery offer valuable tools, but understanding their pricing models is key to making informed budget decisions. By grasping how these services are priced, UK businesses can better align their disaster recovery investments with their financial goals.

How Azure Charges for These Services

Azure Backup pricing is based on two main factors: protected instances and storage consumed. The cost for protected instances depends on the size of your data, while storage charges vary depending on the redundancy option you choose.

Here’s a breakdown of Azure Backup's virtual machine pricing:

• Up to 50 GB: £4 (approx.)
• 50–500 GB: £8 (approx.)
• Each additional 500 GB: £8 (approx.)

These costs are for the protected instances only; storage charges are calculated separately.

For storage, prices vary based on redundancy levels:

• Locally Redundant Storage (LRS): £0.018 per GB
• Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS): £0.022 per GB
• Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS): £0.036 per GB
• Read-Access Geo-Redundant Storage (RA-GRS): £0.045 per GB

Archive storage offers even lower costs, with LRS at £0.002 per GB and GRS at £0.004 per GB.

Azure Site Recovery costs £13 per month per instance when protecting to customer-owned sites, or £20 per month per instance when protecting to Azure. A 31-day free trial is included. Additionally, Azure adjusts its prices quarterly to match equivalent services on AWS.

Paul, an Azure Sales Specialist in the UK, highlights the platform’s affordability, describing it as:

"very sensible costs" and praising it as the "No.1 Brand backup, simple to use for cloud and on prem".

Ways to Reduce Your Costs

With a clear understanding of pricing, UK SMBs can explore strategies to manage and optimise their cloud spending:

• Reserved Instances: These can save up to 72% compared to pay-as-you-go rates, making them ideal for predictable workloads. For example, committing to 100 TB of monthly LRS storage for one year costs £19,378, while a three-year commitment is £52,848.
• Tagging and Resource Management: Implementing a tagging system to categorise resources by department, project, or usage type helps track and control costs. Regularly reviewing and right-sizing resources ensures you’re not overpaying for unused capacity.
• Azure Hybrid Benefit: This programme allows businesses to use their existing Windows Server and SQL Server licences on Azure, offering discounts of up to 85% compared to standard rates.
• Spot Pricing: For non-critical tasks like backup testing or development, spot pricing can offer discounts of up to 90%. However, this comes with the risk of deallocation during peak demand.
• Azure Advisor: This tool integrates with Azure Cost Management to provide tailored recommendations, such as identifying idle or underused resources that can be adjusted or removed to cut costs.

For those looking to plan ahead, the Azure Pricing Calculator is a helpful tool for estimating costs. However, it’s important to note that these estimates are not guaranteed price quotes. Regular audits of your Azure environment can also uncover unused resources, allowing you to decommission them and save money.

Conclusion

Pairing Azure Backup with Site Recovery provides a solid foundation for a disaster recovery plan that UK SMBs can adopt without breaking the bank. This straightforward five-step approach ensures both data protection and operational continuity during unexpected disruptions. The combination not only strengthens data security but also supports business resilience.

From a financial perspective, the solution focuses on predictable and scalable costs, removing the need for costly secondary infrastructure. For more guidance on managing Azure costs effectively, check out Azure Optimisation Tips, Costs & Best Practices.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlights the importance of digital transformation in today’s business landscape:

"Over a year into the pandemic, digital adoption curves aren't slowing down. They're accelerating, and it's just the beginning. We are building the cloud for the next decade, expanding our addressable market and innovating across every layer of the tech stack to help our customers be resilient and transform."

To ensure their disaster recovery plans succeed, businesses should regularly test and monitor their systems. Conducting business impact analyses to identify essential processes, setting clear RTOs and RPOs, and automating recovery tasks where possible are key steps. Avoiding common mistakes like overlapping IP address ranges and ensuring staff are well-trained can turn disaster recovery from a necessary expense into a real competitive edge.

Ultimately, these tools provide UK SMBs with a flexible, scalable disaster recovery solution that evolves alongside their operational needs.

FAQs

What are the cost and efficiency benefits of integrating Azure Backup with Azure Site Recovery for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)?

Integrating Azure Backup with Azure Site Recovery offers small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) a practical and budget-friendly way to handle data protection and disaster recovery. These cloud-based services eliminate the need for costly on-premises infrastructure, helping businesses cut down on both upfront investments and ongoing expenses. With Azure's pay-as-you-go pricing model, businesses gain better control over their spending, paying only for the resources they actually use.

This integration also simplifies operations by automating backup and recovery tasks, which minimises downtime during unexpected disruptions. It ensures that critical data stays protected while allowing businesses to maintain operations and focus on growth. For SMBs, this translates to greater efficiency, flexibility, and reassurance - all while keeping costs under control.

What should I consider when setting up a Recovery Services Vault for effective data protection and compliance?

When setting up a Recovery Services Vault in Azure, there are a few essential steps to ensure your data is well-protected and meets compliance standards.

Start by prioritising data security. Enable encryption for both data at rest and in transit to safeguard sensitive information. For added control, you can opt for customer-managed keys. Next, use role-based access control (RBAC) to limit access strictly to authorised users, keeping your data secure from unauthorised access.

It's also important to establish backup policies that automate regular backups. This reduces the risk of losing critical data. To stay compliant with regulations, use Azure Policy to track and report on how well your setup aligns with required standards. For disaster recovery, enabling cross-region restore options can provide added flexibility. Additionally, choose the right storage redundancy for your needs, whether that’s geo-redundant or locally redundant storage.

Finally, make monitoring a priority. Set up alerts to quickly detect and resolve any issues in your backup processes, ensuring everything runs smoothly and reliably.

How can businesses keep their disaster recovery plans effective and aligned with changing needs?

To ensure disaster recovery plans remain useful, businesses must routinely test and update them to align with changes in operations, technology, and emerging risks. Running regular recovery drills can help pinpoint weaknesses, clarify team roles, and fine-tune processes for better efficiency.

Equally important is having clear communication strategies in place. Regularly reviewing backup and recovery procedures ensures they meet the organisation's current needs. Tools like Azure Site Recovery can make testing easier and automate recovery steps, keeping businesses ready to tackle unexpected disruptions.

Related posts

• Azure Backup Options for Small Businesses
• RPO Best Practices for Azure Disaster Recovery
• Azure Site Recovery Costs: Breakdown
• Checklist for Azure Failover Setup