Application-Consistent Backups Using Azure Managed Disk Snapshots

You can perform application-consistent snapshot backups of the following applications using Commvault agents running on Azure VMs. You can perform multiple snapshot and backup copy operations for different applications on the client at the same time.

  • DB2

  • Epic EHR

  • Oracle

  • SAP HANA

  • SAP Oracle

  • SQL Server

  • Sybase

Using Azure Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disks

You can run application-consistent disk snapshots for Azure Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk types. When the system mounts snapshots of these disk types it does not wait for the Azure clone copy operation to finish. This allows you to run multiple backup copy operations simultaneously by avoiding the significant time delays associated with clone copies of these disk types.

Use of Incremental Snapshots

By default, the snapshot engine leverages Microsoft's incremental snapshot type for the managed disks. Incremental snapshots are a cost-effective point-in-time backup of the managed disks, which store only the delta data from the last snapshot. If the incremental snapshot fails for any reason, the snapshot engine creates a regular full snapshot automatically. Microsoft's incremental snapshot solution has the following advantages:

  • Cost-effective solution to create snapshots that include only the differences from the previous snapshot.

  • Data aging and restore operations are the same as that for Commvault regular snapshots.

For more information on the restrictions and prerequisites for incremental snapshots, see Microsoft article Create an incremental snapshot for managed disks.

Using NVMe Controllers on Linux

You can use NVMe controllers for the source client on a Linux platform to run the IntelliSnap backups. To do this, you must install the nvme-cli package on your source VM.

Snapshot Operation Types

You can perform the following snapshot operations using the Microsoft Azure snapshot engine.

  • IntelliSnap backups are supported only for the Azure managed disks for the virtual machine.

  • IntelliSnap restore operations and revert operations

    As part of a snapshot restore operation, temporary disks (snapshot clones) are created from point-in-time snapshots and attached to the VM. Data is transferred from the snapshot clones to the original database disks. The snapshot clones are detached and deleted after the data transfer completes.

    As part of a snapshot revert operation, the existing database disks are detached from the VM and deleted from the resource groups. You can use the bAzureDeleteOriginalDiskOnRevert additional setting to control whether deletion of the existing database disks from the resource groups is skipped. The new disks are then created from the point-in-time snapshots and attached to the VM.

  • Offline backup copy operations with and without a proxy server

    Backup copy operations with the source VM and the proxy VM on different subscription or resource group are supported. Make sure that the proxy VM has the contributor role at the Azure Resource Groups scope that manages the VM and the backup snapshots.

  • Replica copy of an Azure snapshot in a different Azure region

    You can make a replica copy of an Azure snapshot in a region other than the source region. The replica copy is an application-consistent snapshot copy that is created in a different region for disaster recovery purposes. This copy reduces your risk of Azure region-level failures or outages and allows you to choose regions abiding by data sovereignty laws. You can use the replica copy to restore data to another client that is in the destination region of the replica copy.

    This feature must be enabled at the plan level. A secondary snapshot copy must be configured with region mappings that use Azure as the vendor. For more information about configuring the secondary snapshot copy, see Adding a Snapshot Copy to a Plan.

    Cross-region restores from a replica copy back to the source client or to a client in another region are not supported.

    You can make replica copies for the following workloads:

    • Oracle
    • SAP HANA
    • SAP on Oracle
  • Database copy restore operations with a bare-metal setup from one Azure VM to a new Azure VM

    Cross-machine restores with the source and destination VM on different subscription or resource groups are supported.

Availability Zones

IntelliSnap operations are supported on Azure VMs with availability zones. Inter-zone data transfer rates are applied when you restore the snapshots to a different availability zone. For more information about the inter-zone data transfer rates, see Azure - Bandwidth Pricing Details documentation.

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