Planning on using Azure's VMs to host SQL and IIS. Not using local storage but the geo-redundant storage.
What's the best solution to backup this environment? Copy the VHDs locally?
I'm planning on transferring the drives into something I could mount in Hyper-V? Is that possible? Happy to buy a product if required.
The persistent disks of a VM are stored in blob storage. This means you can leverage features like taking snapshots of these disks (blobs).
In order to create snapshots you can use the REST API, the .NET SDK or even Cerebrata’s Cloud Storage Studio. If you ever need the backup you can download the snapshot and mount it in Hyper-V.
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I have deployed a Data Science Virtual Machine on Azure on an N-series instance, which comes with a Standard HDD as the Storage Account Type.
However I would like to include an SSD, but I have not been able to do so.
What I have tried: In the Virtual Machine menu, on Disks, I can attach an extra disk, and create a new one, but it only allows for standard storage disk (HDD) and the option for a premium (SSD) is blocked.
Creating a new storage account I can select a premium storage (SSD), however I cannot link this to my existing VM. This new storage account does not appear between the options when choosing to attach a new disk.
Any help?
Unfortunately the solution is that you may have to use NCv2 or NCv3 which supports premium storage (SSD) and more faster GPU processors (Nvidia P100, V100). Another alternative is to create a separate blob on premium storage and mount that on a Ubuntu DSVM using blobfuse that comes prebuilt into the Ubuntu DSVM. BTW - The NC6 also comes with locally attached temporary storage on SSD (340GB) so you can use it for staging. The data will not presist across reboots. So it is only suitable for work files and will need to be explictly copied to persistent storage. Hope one of these options work for your scenario.
I'm an azure newbie and just trying to understand Azure better. My questions are specific to backing up Linux VMs in Azure. Please help me in understanding it better.
I read that Azure backup takes snapshots and then uploads them to the vault. I'm trying to understand how using 'Azure backup' to backup a VM is different from taking the snapshots of OS Disk and data disk of azure VM via "az vm" cli commands?
What exactly is the vault here? Is it internally implemented as a storage account with blob container or is it something similar to the Glacier in AWS?
Which is better cost wise, azure backup or osdisk snapshots?
If both the options are similar, i.e using azure backup or taking a snapshot of OS disk/Data disks. Is there an advantage of using one over the other?
Are the Snapshots of OS disk taken in Azure global in nature? Can they be accessed from any other geos?
In the azure portal, snapshots, what is "snapshot state"? Why is the snapshot state "Unattached" for me even after spinning off a VM from the snapshot disk?
I'm trying to understand how using 'Azure backup' to backup a VM is different from taking the snapshots of OS Disk and data disk of azure VM via "az vm" cli commands?
Azure backup works as disaster recovery service(DRaaS). It is a managed service and more easier to use. You don't need to worried where and how the backup files are stored. If the VM is running, Azure Backup service uses the VMSnapshotLinux extension to take a point-in-time snapshot in Linux. Otherwise, the Backup service takes a snapshot of the underlying storage.
What exactly is the vault here?
A backup vault is an managed storage service that stores all the backups that have been created over time. It also contains the backup policy applied to the protected VMs.
Is it internally implemented as a storage account with blob container or is it something similar to the Glacier in AWS?
It is a managed service, it hasn't been announced how it is worked.
Which is better cost wise, azure backup or osdisk snapshots?
Azure backup has extra charge than the storage consumed charge. For more information, link below is for your reference.
Backup Pricing
Is there an advantage of using one over the other?
If you want to take a snapshot and the VM is running, we suggest you shutdown the VM first to take a clean and consistent snapshot. Azure backup service will use a extension to do it, we don't need to shutdown the VM.
Are the Snapshots of OS disk taken in Azure global in nature? Can they be accessed from any other geos?
A snapshot is a read-only blob, it can be accessed from any other geos.
In the azure portal, snapshots, what is "snapshot state"?
The 'Unattached' is the state of image/disk. It means that the disk haven't attached to any VM.
Hello i am actually working on Azure services and i want to know if it's possible to work with a azure blob storage as a virtual machine hard drive? If possible can we by the inclusion of the virtual machine include the blob storage in a VNet?
you cannot add storage as a network resource but you can add a new virtual disk backed by your blob storage. This link has more details
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/virtual-machines-windows-attach-disk-portal?toc=%2fazure%2fvirtual-machines%2fwindows%2ftoc.json
if it's possible to work with a azure blob storage as a virtual
machine hard drive?
Do you mean mount azure blob storage on Azure VM? If is, the answer is no. You could not mount blob storage to a VM. You could download/upload blob data to your VMs . You also could mount Azure File Shares to VMs. Azure File share supports SMB. When you mount Azure File shares on your VMs, you could use them like as hard drives.
I recently created a SQL Server Virtual Machine on Microsoft Azure. Now I defined my backup jobs and store them on a different Drive. I want to ensure that my backups are safe, meaning on a zone redundant storage.
I heard and read about the storage but I don't understand how to create it and make sure that my SQL Backup is stored their directly.
Is there any other safe option? On AWS you can save your stuff on a Bucket which you can access like a mapped drive... What does Azure offer ?
When you create a storage account you can select the type of redundancy you want.
Even after creating the storage account you change it properties.
You can attach a new disk to a VM you can select any storage account in your subscription. So if your storage account was zone redundant and your created a VHD in that storage account the data in the VHD will be zone redundant.
You can learn about different storage accounts here:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/storage-introduction/
Which version of SQL Server are you using?
Based on which version of SQL Server you are using you may be able to directly backup from SQL Server to Azure blob storage without saving it to local disk.
We are using Azure Virtual machines to host our application in the cloud.
Couple of virtual machines are hosting web front-end(state-less) and one virtual machine is hosting SQL Server (data is stored in Data Disk).
As we all know, these virtual machines consist of OS Disk and Data Disk(optional) which uses VHD files stored in blob storage. We are using geo-redundant blob storage which stores these VHD files.
We are now planning for disaster recovery for our cloud application. So if a Microsoft data center is down, is it possible to spin up virtual machines in another data center with the help of OS Disk and Data Disk stored in geo-replicated storage?
You are not supposed to use geo-replicated storage with SQL Server data disks. This is documented at https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/azure/dn133149.aspx. Specifically, the document states "When creating a storage account, disable geo-replication as consistent write order across multiple disks is not guaranteed. Instead, consider configuring a SQL Server disaster recovery technology between two Azure data centers".
Currently you can not control if/when Microsoft fails over to the secondary (geo-replicated) storage account. Microsoft controls that.
As I understand it, in the event that Microsoft does declare a disaster and fails over, then your VMs would still work. Perhaps you'd have to create the VM again from the VHD, but the data would be there (minus anything lost since the last sync to storage).