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Protecting Azure Virtual Machines with Commvault

You can use the Commvault software to back up and recover Azure VMs.

Backups

Backups You Can Perform

  • Full backups

  • Full backups, using IntelliSnap

  • Incremental backups

  • Synthetic full backups

The first backup of a VM is always a full backup. By default, all subsequent backups are incremental, capturing any changes to VM data since the last backup. You can recover VM data, even when the most recent backup was incremental.

If a backup cannot start immediately, the backup job is queued.

If a VM fails to back up during an IntelliSnap backup of a VM group, the backup job is marked as completed with errors.

Data You Can Back Up

  • VMs (Windows and Linux, powered on or powered off)

  • VMs of any security type (standard, trusted launch, and confidential)

  • VMs of Azure Generation 1 and Azure Generation 2

  • For Azure Resource Manager deployments, VMs that are configured with Azure unmanaged and managed disks.

    From these backups, you can restore full VMs and guest files and folders.

  • VMs that are encrypted by Azure Key Vault.

    Backups of these VMs can include the operating system information, the data disks information, secrets (for example, token and password information), and encryption keys (for example, algorithm information). The encryption keys can be managed by Microsoft or by customers.

  • VMs that are configured with Azure Site Recovery.

    Before performing an in-place restore of VMs configured with Azure Site Recovery, disable replication in Azure Site Recovery. After restoring the VMs, you can re-enable replication.

  • VMs that have encrypted blobs.

    These VMs can be protected and fully recovered. However, guest file recovery of these VMs is not currently supported.

  • Disks that are configured by users through the Azure portal, including disks that are configured on Standard and Premium storage accounts.

  • Azure managed disks that are 8 TB or smaller.

  • For Azure-managed disks, information about the configured Availability Zones, which are specific (physical) locations within an Azure region.

  • Azure-managed disks that are enabled with encryption at the host.

  • Unmanaged and managed disks with Changed Block Tracking (CBT) enabled.

  • Proximity placement groups.

  • Application security groups that are associated with backed-up VMs.

  • Extensions that are associated with backed-up VMs.

Data You Cannot Back Up

  • Temporary disks that are automatically configured by Azure when a VM is created.

  • Files or network drives that are shared in Azure and mounted on a VM.

  • Azure Ultra SSD-managed disks.

    Due to a Microsoft limitation, snapshots of Ultra SSD-managed disks are not supported. When Ultra SSD-managed disks reside on a VM with other supported disks, during backups, the Ultra SSD-managed disks are skipped. The other disks on the VM are backed up.

    You can back up your Ultra SSD-managed disks using the Commvault Windows File System Agent.

  • Managed Premium V2 SSD disks.

Known Issues

  • Azure snapshots that were taken with a locked resource group cannot be deleted.

Restores

Restores You Can Perform

  • Full VMs

  • Guest files and folders

  • Attaching disks to an existing VM

  • VM files

Backups You Can Use for Restores

  • The most recent backup: For example, restore the most recent backup to its original location

  • A backup from a specific date: For example, restore data to a point in time before it became unusable

  • Backups from a date range: For example, restore data that was accidentally deleted

Destinations You Can Restore To

  • The current location (in place)

  • A different VM (out of place)

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