Exercise - Restore Azure virtual machine data

Completed

A few days after you backed up your first Azure virtual machine (VM), the server had issues. The VM needs to be restored from a backup. You want to restore the VM's disk and attach it to the problematic live server, and then track the restore to ensure that it finished successfully.

In this exercise, you'll see how to restore a successful backup to replace a VM that has become corrupted, and monitor its progress.

Restore a virtual machine in the Azure portal

Create a storage account to use as a staging location

  1. If you closed Azure, sign in to the Azure portal by using the same account that you used in the previous exercise.

  2. In the Azure portal, enter Storage accounts in the top search bar, and then select it.

    Select storage accounts.

    The Storage accounts pane appears.

  3. In the menu bar, select Create. The Create a storage account pane appears.

  4. On the Basics tab, enter the following values for each setting to create a storage account.

    Setting Value
    Resource group From the dropdown list, select vmbackups.
    Instance details
    Storage account name Enter a unique name like restorestagingYYYYMMDD, where YYYYMMDD is replaced with today's date.
    Region From the dropdown list, select (US) West US 2.

    Specify storage account options.

  5. Select Review + create.

  6. After validation passes, select Create.

    Wait for the storage account to be deployed.

Stop the virtual machine to allow for the restore

A backup can't be restored if the VM is allocated and running. If you forget to stop the VM and attempt to restore it, you'll see an error that's similar to the following example.

Screenshot that shows the error details when a VM is running.

To prevent this error, follow these steps:

  1. In the top left of the Azure portal, select Home, select Virtual Machines, and then select NW-APP01.

    Screenshot that shows the VM overview page.

    The NW-APP01 virtual machine pane appears.

  2. In the menu bar, select Stop.

    Screenshot that shows how to stop the VM.

  3. In the Stop this virtual machine dialog box, select OK.

    Screenshot of the prompt for stopping this VM.

Restore the virtual machine

The Recovery Services vaults are accessible at the subscription level. When you're viewing the VM, Azure provides a quick link to the specific vault under Operations.

  1. In the menu pane, scroll to Operations, and select Backup.

    Screenshot of the Backup operation for a VM.

  2. To restore the virtual machine, in the menu bar, select Restore VM. The Restore Virtual Machine pane for NW-APP01 appears.

  3. Under the Restore point text box, select Select. The Select restore point pane appears.

  4. By default, the start and end date are set for a two week range. Set the Start date to an appropriate date for our restore points (07/05/2021), select the restore point to use for the recovery, and then select OK.

    Screenshot of selecting a restore point.

    The Restore Virtual Machine pane for NW-APP01 appears.

  5. Configure the restore point using the following values for each setting.

    Setting Value
    Restore Configuration
    Replace existing Select this option.
    Staging Location From the dropdown list, select the storage account that you previously created.

    Screenshot that shows the restore configuration options.

  6. Select Restore. The Backup pane for the NW-APP01 virtual machine appears. Notice the notifications in the top right of the toolbar. The latest notification shows Triggering restore for NW-APP01

Track a restore

  1. In the Alerts and Jobs section, select View all Jobs. The Backup Jobs pane appears.

    Screenshot of view details for the restore job.

  2. In the Details column, select View details for the Restore job.

    Screenshot of the restore progress.

    The Restore pane appears for NW-APP01.

  3. You can monitor the progress of the VM restore job:

    • Job details: Details about the restore job you launched for this VM.
    • Job status: Real-time progress of the restore job.
    • Sub tasks: Name and status of the tasks within the job.

    Screenshot of the job details pane.