Back up Epic Hosted on Azure

Use Commvault software to back up and recover Epic EHR systems hosted on Azure virtual machines.

Procedure

1. Configure the Azure VM for backup.

   Ensure that IntelliSnap is enabled for the VM Group as Epic requires snapshots for backups and restores.

2. Perform the following steps inside the guest VM before performing a backup:

   1. Ask Epic for the scripts to freeze and thaw the databases.

      Note: Epic typically sends these scripts with the initial software delivery of the installation package. The pre-script is called instfreeze and the post-script is called instthaw.

      • Copy the freeze script to /usr/sbin/instfreeze

      • Copy the thaw script to /usr/sbin/instthaw

   2. Copy VMSnapshotScriptPluginConfig.json to /etc/azure.

   3. Edit VMSnapshotScriptPluginConfig.json and set the script locations as follows:

      • “preScriptLocation” : “/usr/sbin/instfreeze”

      • “postScriptLocation” : “/usr/sbin/instthaw”

   4. Set permissions on the scripts as follows:

      # chmod 600 /etc/azure/VMSnapshotScriptPluginConfig.json
      

      # chmod 700 /usr/sbin/instfreeze /usr/sbin/instthaw
      

3. Perform a backup operation.

4. Perform a restore operation.

   • Restore as Azure files.

   • Restore to a cleanroom site.