How to complete backuped of this instance so we can rebuild the server in future because there is no option of capture the image.

Question

We have a windows virtual machine in azure with windows server 2012 R2. how we take complete backup of this instance so we can rebuild the server in future because there is no option of capture the image.

Virtual machine has unmanaged disk.

Answer 1

Hello, @Haridev Arya !

How do I completely backup my Azure VM with unmanaged disks?

Azure Backup is used for backups and disaster recovery for both managed disks as well as unmanaged disks. While managed disks allow snapshot of your virtual hard disks (VHDs), unmanaged disks can create incremental snapshots. You can see a list of backup and restore options for unmanaged disks in Azure in our documentation:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/page-blobs-backup-and-disaster-recovery

• Azure Backup: Used for backups and disaster recovery, and it works with managed disks as well as unmanaged disks. You can create a backup job with time-based backups, easy VM restoration, and backup retention policies.
• (Alternative solution) Consistent snapshots: If you are unable to use Azure Backup, you can implement your own backup mechanism by using snapshots. Creating consistent snapshots for all the disks used by a VM and then replicating those snapshots to another region is complicated. For this reason, Azure considers using the Backup service as a better option than building a custom solution.
• SQL Server: SQL Server running in a VM has its own built-in capabilities to back up your SQL Server database to Azure Blob storage or a file share. If the storage account is geo-redundant storage or read-access geo-redundant storage, you can access those backups in the storage account’s secondary datacenter in the event of a disaster, with the same restrictions as previously discussed.

Additional reading:

• Back up Azure unmanaged Virtual Machine disks with incremental snapshots
• Backup and disaster recovery for Azure unmanaged disks
• Backup and restore options for virtual machines in Azure
• An overview of Azure VM backup

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