Modernize Infrastructure from on-premises to Microsoft Azure with backup solution using Azure Files, Azure Backup, and Recovery Services Vault

Project Description

In this project based on a real-world scenario, I acted as a Cloud Specialist to modernize and migrate an on-premises infrastructure environment to Microsoft Azure. I deployed a set of Virtual Machines running applications that access a shared file system, and replaced tape backups with cloud backups achieving 99.9% (3-nines) availability.

I used a Resource Group to organize resources, a VNet with a subnet for provisioning two Application VMs, and Azure Files as a shared file system solution between our Application VMs.

All the power and reliability of Azure Backup with Azure Recovery Services were used to configure file backups in a shared file system. Azure Backup was used to move the files to the Azure Recovery Services Vault.

Key Steps in the Project

1. Deploy 2 VMs to run the applications.
2. Create a Storage Account located in the Central US Region
3. Create some File Shares within the Storage Account
4. Connect/Mount the File Systems into the VMs using GitBash
5. Create Files into the File System
6. Use Azure Console to set up a backup using Azure Backup within Storage Accounts
7. Enable backups
8. Do a baseline backup
9. Verify that backup completed from the Azure Recovery Services Vault and also by looking at the snapshots in the Storage Accounts section to see the list of files that were backed up.
10. Use GitBash to see the list of files in the VM.
11. Simulate an accidental deletion of two files.
12. Use GitBash to verify that two files were deleted.
13. Restore the two files by going to the Azure Console and selecting “File Recovery” inside the File Shares.
14. Verify that the files were restored by using GitBash and finding that the formerly missing files are now present.

Technologies Used

Definitions come from Microsoft documentation.

Cloud Provider — Microsoft Azure

Azure Backup — The Azure Backup service provides simple, secure, and cost-effective solutions to back up your data and recover it from the Microsoft Azure cloud.

Azure Files — Azure Files offers fully managed file shares in the cloud that are accessible via the industry standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, Network File System (NFS) protocol, and Azure Files REST API. Azure file shares can be mounted concurrently by cloud or on-premises deployments. SMB Azure file shares are accessible from Windows, Linux, and macOS clients. NFS Azure file shares are accessible from Linux clients. Additionally, SMB Azure file shares can be cached on Windows servers with Azure File Sync for fast access near where the data is being used.

Azure Recovery Service Vault — A Recovery Services vault is a storage entity in Azure that houses data. The data is typically copies of data, or configuration information for virtual machines (VMs), workloads, servers, or workstations. You can use Recovery Services vaults to hold backup data for various Azure services such as IaaS VMs (Linux or Windows) and SQL Server in Azure VMs. Recovery Services vaults support System Center DPM, Windows Server, Azure Backup Server, and more. Recovery Services vaults make it easy to organize your backup data, while minimizing management overhead.

Resource Group — A resource group is a container that holds related resources for an Azure solution. The resource group can include all the resources for the solution, or only those resources that you want to manage as a group.

Virtual Machine — Azure virtual machines are one of several types of on-demand, scalable computing resources that Azure offers. Typically, you choose a virtual machine when you need more control over the computing environment than the other choices offer.

Virtual Network — Azure Virtual Network is a service that provides the fundamental building block for your private network in Azure. An instance of the service (a virtual network) enables many types of Azure resources to securely communicate with each other, the internet, and on-premises networks. These Azure resources include virtual machines (VMs).

A virtual network is similar to a traditional network that you’d operate in your own datacenter. But it brings extra benefits of the Azure infrastructure, such as scale, availability, and isolation.