Azure BAckup

Question

While scheduling backups of my on premise windows server to azure It appears now that the backup software is requiring that the computer it is being installed on be joined to a domain and have a domain administrator. During install, It will no advanced past the attached error. The server we are installing the backup software too IS NOT part of a domain nor does it have Active Directory. It is more of a WebServer with internal access only. We do not wish to apply a domain or active directory. Could you please advise what our solution would be? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/tutorial-backup-windows-server-to-azure https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/tutorial-backup-windows-server-to-azure ![22301-backup-to-azure-error.png][1] [1]: /api/attachments/22301-backup-to-azure-error.png?platform=QnA

Answer 1

anonymous user Thank you for reaching out to us!

You are trying to install Azure Backup Server and one of the requirement is to join Azure backup server to a domain. Also, there are few other limitations/conditions for installing Azure backup server. Please see the image below:

Reference link - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-microsoft-azure-backup#using-an-on-premises-server

MARS agent is the perfect solution that matches your current set up. With MARS agent you can backup files, folders and system state from on premise machine to Azure. I see that you are referring to the correct URL - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/tutorial-backup-windows-server-to-azure. However, the installation is different than what is being shown in the tutorial. You should download MARS agent not Azure backup server. See - Where can I download the latest version of the MARS agent?

Let me know if you have any questions!

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Answer 2

RPeaks-9363 On-premise backed up VM cannot be restore as VM in Azure. Currently, this is not a supported scenario. Please see the feedback item here - https://feedback.azure.com/forums/258995-azure-backup/suggestions/6197211-backup-on-premises-vm-to-azure-and-restore-the-vm

You can also, upload your VHDX to Azure and create a VM in Azure. For instructions see this URL - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/prepare-for-upload-vhd-image?toc=/azure/virtual-machines/windows/toc.json

If you are planning for a DR set up, Azure Site Recovery is the best option for you. You can replicate your on premise VMs to Azure and in the event of disaster you can failover to Azure. For more details you can refer to - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/site-recovery-overview

Hope that helps!

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Answer 3

So after getting the MARS agent to successfully install, I was able to make a backup to Azure of the “system state” and “files and folders” with no other options being available. In the Azure Recovery Service Vault where the server backed up, I noticed that it places the backup files in “Azure Backup Agent”

In your instructions you said that we would be able to alternatively restore these backups directly to an Azure VM. Unfortunately, it seems the only way to restore directly to an Azure VM is if the backup was from an existing Azure VM as the “Restore VM” option only appears under backups listed in “Azure Virtual Machine”.

However, I was able to create and spin up an Azure VM. I installed the MARS agent on there and recover an VHDX file of the backup I performed. I’m not sure how we can run this image on an existing VM as 1) the file format is VHDX and 2) I was not able to find any options for image restoral within the VM.

Unfortunately, this process seems more tedious than we anticipated or expected.we need to be able to automate backups from our on-prem server to an Azure VM in the event that we lost our on-prem server. We were hoping to have much more ease with this process than what is now in front of us.

I’ve even gone back and attempted to reconfigure the backup procedures on the on-prem server in attempt to see if I was missing anything, but I have not been able to discover any new processes. Unless I am missing something, it seems there may have been some confusion on backup and restoring, or I am configuring our server incorrectly.

Could you please explain if I am doing something in error or if this is just the way it works with a on-prem backup?

As a recap, our main objective is to backup our existing ON-PREM Server to Azure on a weekly basis then have the most recent backup spun up into an Azure VM if we ever lose our on-prem server.

Thank you!