{"id":90,"date":"2018-02-22T14:16:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T14:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nillsf.wordpress.com\/?p=90"},"modified":"2018-02-22T14:16:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T14:16:54","slug":"azure-files-integration-with-azure-backup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/22\/azure-files-integration-with-azure-backup\/","title":{"rendered":"Azure Files integration with Azure Backup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Azure Files offers a managed SMB 3.0 file share. Inside Azure Files, it was possible already to take file share snapshots to have a backup\/retention solution. With the integration with Azure Backup, managing those snapshots has become a lot easier. The functionality is in public preview right now, so you can go ahead and try it out.<\/p>\n<h2>Setting Azure Backup for Azure Files<\/h2>\n<p>Setting up the integration is straightforward. From within your recovery services vault, you can navigate to backup items and add an Azure Files to backup.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-91\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_10_29-e1519308981622.png\" alt=\"2018-02-22 14_10_29-\" width=\"1692\" height=\"854\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_10_29-e1519308981622.png 1692w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_10_29-e1519308981622-300x151.png 300w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_10_29-e1519308981622-768x388.png 768w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_10_29-e1519308981622-1024x517.png 1024w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_10_29-e1519308981622-1568x791.png 1568w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1692px) 100vw, 1692px\" \/><br \/>\nNext, you select your storage account and file share and set your backup policy. The backup policies &#8211; today &#8211; are simple daily retentions. As the integration is in preview, I would assume this will evolve over time.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-92\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_40_10-select-storage-account-microsoft-azure.png\" alt=\"2018-02-22 14_40_10-Select Storage Account - Microsoft Azure\" width=\"1210\" height=\"335\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_40_10-select-storage-account-microsoft-azure.png 1210w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_40_10-select-storage-account-microsoft-azure-300x83.png 300w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_40_10-select-storage-account-microsoft-azure-768x213.png 768w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_40_10-select-storage-account-microsoft-azure-1024x284.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1210px) 100vw, 1210px\" \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-93\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_12_08-select-file-shares-microsoft-azure-e1519306881878.png\" alt=\"2018-02-22 14_12_08-Select File Shares - Microsoft Azure\" width=\"891\" height=\"307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_12_08-select-file-shares-microsoft-azure-e1519306881878.png 891w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_12_08-select-file-shares-microsoft-azure-e1519306881878-300x103.png 300w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_12_08-select-file-shares-microsoft-azure-e1519306881878-768x265.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 891px) 100vw, 891px\" \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-94\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_12_31-backup-policy-microsoft-azure.png\" alt=\"2018-02-22 14_12_31-Backup policy - Microsoft Azure\" width=\"831\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_12_31-backup-policy-microsoft-azure.png 831w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_12_31-backup-policy-microsoft-azure-300x117.png 300w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_12_31-backup-policy-microsoft-azure-768x299.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 831px) 100vw, 831px\" \/><br \/>\nWith those setting, you can go ahead and configure the backup.<\/p>\n<h2>Testing backup and restore<\/h2>\n<p>When you have a look at your backup configuration, you&#8217;ll notice a warning. This is informing you the initial backup is still pending. At this point you have 2 options, either you wait for your policy to kick in and start the back-up process, or you do a manual &#8220;Backup now&#8221;. As the backup is leveraging Azure File snapshots, this backup doesn&#8217;t take long.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-95\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_16_09.png\" alt=\"2018-02-22 14_16_09-\" width=\"904\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_16_09.png 904w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_16_09-300x107.png 300w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_16_09-768x273.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 904px) 100vw, 904px\" \/><br \/>\nLet&#8217;s now dive into our file share and see how the file restore works. I uploaded a folder with 308 files of roughly 1MB in there. To test the restore, I simply deleted the full folder, and tried restoring it using the previous versions in Windows.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-96\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_19_43-files-__nffilesbackup-file-core-windows-net-z_.png\" alt=\"2018-02-22 14_19_43-files (__nffilesbackup.file.core.windows.net) (Z_)\" width=\"510\" height=\"291\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_19_43-files-__nffilesbackup-file-core-windows-net-z_.png 510w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_19_43-files-__nffilesbackup-file-core-windows-net-z_-300x171.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><br \/>\nGoing into previous versions shows us our backup we just took:<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-97\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_48_18-files-__nffilesbackup-file-core-windows-net-z_.png\" alt=\"2018-02-22 14_48_18-files (__nffilesbackup.file.core.windows.net) (Z_)\" width=\"1127\" height=\"474\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_48_18-files-__nffilesbackup-file-core-windows-net-z_.png 1127w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_48_18-files-__nffilesbackup-file-core-windows-net-z_-300x126.png 300w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_48_18-files-__nffilesbackup-file-core-windows-net-z_-768x323.png 768w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_48_18-files-__nffilesbackup-file-core-windows-net-z_-1024x431.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1127px) 100vw, 1127px\" \/><br \/>\n(in the screenshot above I&#8217;m showing the URL. You don&#8217;t need to type this URL, just use previous versions to get there).<br \/>\nA restore is as simple as either copy pasting the folder from the previous version into the current one, or hitting the restore butting in the previous versions window.<br \/>\nThe restore itself went relatively slow on my laptop. It is downloading\/uploading the files (downloading for the restore, and uploading as we&#8217;re writing directly on the file share). I would expect this to be a lot faster on an Azure VM.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-98\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_22_13-task-manager.png\" alt=\"2018-02-22 14_22_13-Task Manager\" width=\"626\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_22_13-task-manager.png 626w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_22_13-task-manager-300x216.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\" \/><br \/>\nAnother way to do the restore is doing the restore in the Azure portal iself. This experience is also very simple to use, select your restore point, which files\/folder you want to restore and what you want the restore to do (overwrite or new location).\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-99\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_32_03-select-restore-location-microsoft-azure.png\" alt=\"2018-02-22 14_32_03-Select Restore Location - Microsoft Azure\" width=\"889\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_32_03-select-restore-location-microsoft-azure.png 889w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_32_03-select-restore-location-microsoft-azure-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_32_03-select-restore-location-microsoft-azure-768x339.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 889px) 100vw, 889px\" \/><br \/>\nThis restore went incredibly fast in my case. In less than a minute all my files were restored in the file share.<\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Integration between Azure Backup and Azure Files makes it easy to have backup enabled on your cloud-based file shares.<\/li>\n<li>Retention policies are simpel daily retention points (no weekly\/monthly\/yearly at the time of writing).<\/li>\n<li>An end-user can restore his own files\/folders by using the previous version functionality. An a workstation outside of the cloud this is quiet slow.<\/li>\n<li>An IT admin can restore files\/folders by using the Azure backup console; which has fast restore speeds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Azure Files offers a managed SMB 3.0 file share. Inside Azure Files, it was possible already to take file share snapshots to have a backup\/retention solution. With the integration with Azure Backup, managing those snapshots has become a lot easier. The functionality is in public preview right now, so you can go ahead and try [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azure","category-management"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nillsfblog.blob.core.windows.net\/media\/2018\/02\/2018-02-22-14_32_03-select-restore-location-microsoft-azure.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nillsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}