Create Azure Recovery Services backup policies using REST API

Article
02/14/2023
7 minutes to read

The steps to create a backup policy for an Azure Recovery Services vault are outlined in the policy REST API document. Let's use this document as a reference to create a policy for Azure VM backup.

Create or update a policy

To create or update an Azure Backup policy, use the following PUT operation

PUT https://management.azure.com/Subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/{vaultName}/backupPolicies/{policyName}?api-version=2019-05-13

The {policyName} and {vaultName} are provided in the URI. Additional information is provided in the request body.

Create the request body

For example, to create a policy for Azure VM backup, following are the components of the request body.

Name	Required	Type	Description
properties	True	ProtectionPolicy:AzureIaaSVMProtectionPolicy	ProtectionPolicyResource properties
tags		Object	Resource tags

For the complete list of definitions in the request body, refer to the backup policy REST API document.

Example request body

For Azure VM backup

The following request body defines a standard backup policy for Azure VM backups.

This policy:

Takes a weekly backup every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday at 10:00 AM Pacific Standard Time.
Retains the backups taken on every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday for one week.
Retains the backups taken on every first Wednesday and third Thursday of a month for two months (overrides the previous retention conditions, if any).
Retains the backups taken on fourth Monday and fourth Thursday in February and November for four years (overrides the previous retention conditions, if any).

{
  "properties": {
    "backupManagementType": "AzureIaasVM",
    "timeZone": "Pacific Standard Time",
    "schedulePolicy": {
      "schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicy",
      "scheduleRunFrequency": "Weekly",
      "scheduleRunTimes": [
        "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
      ],
      "scheduleRunDays": [
        "Monday",
        "Wednesday",
        "Thursday"
      ]
    },
    "retentionPolicy": {
      "retentionPolicyType": "LongTermRetentionPolicy",
      "weeklySchedule": {
        "daysOfTheWeek": [
          "Monday",
          "Wednesday",
          "Thursday"
        ],
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 1,
          "durationType": "Weeks"
        }
      },
      "monthlySchedule": {
        "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
        "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
          "daysOfTheWeek": [
            "Wednesday",
            "Thursday"
          ],
          "weeksOfTheMonth": [
            "First",
            "Third"
          ]
        },
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 2,
          "durationType": "Months"
        }
      },
      "yearlySchedule": {
        "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
        "monthsOfYear": [
          "February",
          "November"
        ],
        "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
          "daysOfTheWeek": [
            "Monday",
            "Thursday"
          ],
          "weeksOfTheMonth": [
            "Fourth"
          ]
        },
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 4,
          "durationType": "Years"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The following request body defines an enhanced backup policy for Azure VM backups creating multiple backups a day.

This policy:

Takes a backup every 4 hours from 3:30 PM UTC everyday
Retains instant recovery snapshot for 7 days
Retains the daily backups for 180 days
Retains the backups taken on the Sunday of every week for 12 weeks
Retains the backups taken on the first Sunday of every month for 12 months

{
	"properties": {
		"backupManagementType": "AzureIaasVM",
		"policyType": "V2",
		"instantRPDetails": {},
		"schedulePolicy": {
			"schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicyV2",
			"scheduleRunFrequency": "Hourly",
			"hourlySchedule": {
				"interval": 4,
				"scheduleWindowStartTime": "2023-02-06T15:30:00Z",
				"scheduleWindowDuration": 24
			}
		},
		"retentionPolicy": {
			"retentionPolicyType": "LongTermRetentionPolicy",
			"dailySchedule": {
				"retentionTimes": [
					"2023-02-06T15:30:00Z"
				],
				"retentionDuration": {
					"count": 180,
					"durationType": "Days"
				}
			},
			"weeklySchedule": {
				"daysOfTheWeek": [
					"Sunday"
				],
				"retentionTimes": [
					"2023-02-06T15:30:00Z"
				],
				"retentionDuration": {
					"count": 12,
					"durationType": "Weeks"
				}
			},
			"monthlySchedule": {
				"retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
				"retentionScheduleWeekly": {
					"daysOfTheWeek": [
						"Sunday"
					],
					"weeksOfTheMonth": [
						"First"
					]
				},
				"retentionTimes": [
					"2023-02-06T15:30:00Z"
				],
				"retentionDuration": {
					"count": 12,
					"durationType": "Months"
				}
			}
		},
		"tieringPolicy": {
			"ArchivedRP": {
				"tieringMode": "DoNotTier",
				"duration": 0,
				"durationType": "Invalid"
			}
		},
		"instantRpRetentionRangeInDays": 7,
		"timeZone": "UTC",
		"protectedItemsCount": 0
	}
}

Important

The time formats for schedule and retention support only DateTime. They don't support Time format alone.

For SQL in Azure VM backup

The following is an example request body for SQL in Azure VM backup.

This policy:

Takes a full backup everyday at 13:30 UTC and a log backup every 1 hour.
Retains the daily full backups for 30 days and log backups for 30 days as well.

"properties": {
    "backupManagementType": "AzureWorkload",
    "workLoadType": "SQLDataBase",
    "settings": {
      "timeZone": "UTC",
      "issqlcompression": false,
      "isCompression": false
    },
    "subProtectionPolicy": [
      {
        "policyType": "Full",
        "schedulePolicy": {
          "schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicy",
          "scheduleRunFrequency": "Daily",
          "scheduleRunTimes": [
            "2022-02-14T13:30:00Z"
          ],
          "scheduleWeeklyFrequency": 0
        },
        "retentionPolicy": {
          "retentionPolicyType": "LongTermRetentionPolicy",
          "dailySchedule": {
            "retentionTimes": [
              "2022-02-14T13:30:00Z"
            ],
            "retentionDuration": {
              "count": 30,
              "durationType": "Days"
            }
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "policyType": "Log",
        "schedulePolicy": {
          "schedulePolicyType": "LogSchedulePolicy",
          "scheduleFrequencyInMins": 60
        },
        "retentionPolicy": {
          "retentionPolicyType": "SimpleRetentionPolicy",
          "retentionDuration": {
            "count": 30,
            "durationType": "Days"
          }
        }
      }
    ],
    "protectedItemsCount": 0
  }

The following is an example of a policy that takes a differential backup everyday and a full backup once a week.

"properties": {
    "backupManagementType": "AzureWorkload",
    "workLoadType": "SQLDataBase",
    "settings": {
      "timeZone": "UTC",
      "issqlcompression": false,
      "isCompression": false
    },
    "subProtectionPolicy": [
      {
        "policyType": "Full",
        "schedulePolicy": {
          "schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicy",
          "scheduleRunFrequency": "Weekly",
          "scheduleRunDays": [
            "Sunday"
          ],
          "scheduleRunTimes": [
            "2022-06-13T19:30:00Z"
          ],
          "scheduleWeeklyFrequency": 0
        },
        "retentionPolicy": {
          "retentionPolicyType": "LongTermRetentionPolicy",
          "weeklySchedule": {
            "daysOfTheWeek": [
              "Sunday"
            ],
            "retentionTimes": [
              "2022-06-13T19:30:00Z"
            ],
            "retentionDuration": {
              "count": 104,
              "durationType": "Weeks"
            }
          },
          "monthlySchedule": {
            "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
            "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
              "daysOfTheWeek": [
                "Sunday"
              ],
              "weeksOfTheMonth": [
                "First"
              ]
            },
            "retentionTimes": [
              "2022-06-13T19:30:00Z"
            ],
            "retentionDuration": {
              "count": 60,
              "durationType": "Months"
            }
          },
          "yearlySchedule": {
            "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
            "monthsOfYear": [
              "January"
            ],
            "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
              "daysOfTheWeek": [
                "Sunday"
              ],
              "weeksOfTheMonth": [
                "First"
              ]
            },
            "retentionTimes": [
              "2022-06-13T19:30:00Z"
            ],
            "retentionDuration": {
              "count": 10,
              "durationType": "Years"
            }
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "policyType": "Differential",
        "schedulePolicy": {
          "schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicy",
          "scheduleRunFrequency": "Weekly",
          "scheduleRunDays": [
            "Monday",
            "Tuesday",
            "Wednesday",
            "Thursday",
            "Friday",
            "Saturday"
          ],
          "scheduleRunTimes": [
            "2022-06-13T02:00:00Z"
          ],
          "scheduleWeeklyFrequency": 0
        },
        "retentionPolicy": {
          "retentionPolicyType": "SimpleRetentionPolicy",
          "retentionDuration": {
            "count": 30,
            "durationType": "Days"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "policyType": "Log",
        "schedulePolicy": {
          "schedulePolicyType": "LogSchedulePolicy",
          "scheduleFrequencyInMins": 120
        },
        "retentionPolicy": {
          "retentionPolicyType": "SimpleRetentionPolicy",
          "retentionDuration": {
            "count": 15,
            "durationType": "Days"
          }
        }
      }
    ],
    "protectedItemsCount": 0
  }

For SAP HANA in Azure VM backup

The following is an example request body for SQL in Azure VM backup.

This policy:

Takes a full backup every day at 19:30 UTC and a log backup every 2 hours.
Retains the daily backups for 180 days.
Retains the weekly backups for 104 weeks.
Retains the monthly backups for 60 months.
Retains the yearly backups for 10 years.
Retains the log backups for 15 days.

{
  "properties": {
    "backupManagementType": "AzureIaasVM",
    "timeZone": "Pacific Standard Time",
    "schedulePolicy": {
      "schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicy",
      "scheduleRunFrequency": "Weekly",
      "scheduleRunTimes": [
        "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
      ],
      "scheduleRunDays": [
        "Monday",
        "Wednesday",
        "Thursday"
      ]
    },
    "retentionPolicy": {
      "retentionPolicyType": "LongTermRetentionPolicy",
      "weeklySchedule": {
        "daysOfTheWeek": [
          "Monday",
          "Wednesday",
          "Thursday"
        ],
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 1,
          "durationType": "Weeks"
        }
      },
      "monthlySchedule": {
        "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
        "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
          "daysOfTheWeek": [
            "Wednesday",
            "Thursday"
          ],
          "weeksOfTheMonth": [
            "First",
            "Third"
          ]
        },
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 2,
          "durationType": "Months"
        }
      },
      "yearlySchedule": {
        "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
        "monthsOfYear": [
          "February",
          "November"
        ],
        "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
          "daysOfTheWeek": [
            "Monday",
            "Thursday"
          ],
          "weeksOfTheMonth": [
            "Fourth"
          ]
        },
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 4,
          "durationType": "Years"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The following is an example of a policy that takes a full backup once a week and an incremental backup once a day.


"properties": {
  "backupManagementType": "AzureWorkload",
  "workLoadType": "SAPHanaDatabase",
  "settings": {
    "timeZone": "UTC",
    "issqlcompression": false,
    "isCompression": false
  },
  "subProtectionPolicy": [
    {
      "policyType": "Full",
      "schedulePolicy": {
        "schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicy",
        "scheduleRunFrequency": "Weekly",
        "scheduleRunDays": [
          "Sunday"
        ],
        "scheduleRunTimes": [
          "2022-06-13T19:30:00Z"
        ],
        "scheduleWeeklyFrequency": 0
      },
      "retentionPolicy": {
        "retentionPolicyType": "LongTermRetentionPolicy",
        "weeklySchedule": {
          "daysOfTheWeek": [
            "Sunday"
          ],
          "retentionTimes": [
            "2022-06-13T19:30:00Z"
          ],
          "retentionDuration": {
            "count": 104,
            "durationType": "Weeks"
          }
        },
        "monthlySchedule": {
          "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
          "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
            "daysOfTheWeek": [
              "Sunday"
            ],
            "weeksOfTheMonth": [
              "First"
            ]
          },
          "retentionTimes": [
            "2022-06-13T19:30:00Z"
          ],
          "retentionDuration": {
            "count": 60,
            "durationType": "Months"
          }
        },
        "yearlySchedule": {
          "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
          "monthsOfYear": [
            "January"
          ],
          "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
            "daysOfTheWeek": [
              "Sunday"
            ],
            "weeksOfTheMonth": [
              "First"
            ]
          },
          "retentionTimes": [
            "2022-06-13T19:30:00Z"
          ],
          "retentionDuration": {
            "count": 10,
            "durationType": "Years"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "policyType": "Incremental",
      "schedulePolicy": {
        "schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicy",
        "scheduleRunFrequency": "Weekly",
        "scheduleRunDays": [
          "Monday",
          "Tuesday",
          "Wednesday",
          "Thursday",
          "Friday",
          "Saturday"
        ],
        "scheduleRunTimes": [
          "2022-06-13T02:00:00Z"
        ],
        "scheduleWeeklyFrequency": 0
      },
      "retentionPolicy": {
        "retentionPolicyType": "SimpleRetentionPolicy",
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 30,
          "durationType": "Days"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "policyType": "Log",
      "schedulePolicy": {
        "schedulePolicyType": "LogSchedulePolicy",
        "scheduleFrequencyInMins": 120
      },
      "retentionPolicy": {
        "retentionPolicyType": "SimpleRetentionPolicy",
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 15,
          "durationType": "Days"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "protectedItemsCount": 0
}

The following is an example request body for Azure File share backup.

This policy:

Takes a backup every day at 15:30 UTC.
Retains the daily backups for 30 days.
Retains the backups taken every Sunday for 12 weeks.

"properties": {
    "backupManagementType": "AzureStorage",
    "workloadType": "AzureFileShare",
    "schedulePolicy": {
      "schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicy",
      "scheduleRunFrequency": "Daily",
      "scheduleRunTimes": [
        "2022-06-13T15:30:00Z"
      ],
      "scheduleWeeklyFrequency": 0
    },
    "retentionPolicy": {
      "retentionPolicyType": "LongTermRetentionPolicy",
      "dailySchedule": {
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2022-06-13T15:30:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 30,
          "durationType": "Days"
        }
      },
      "weeklySchedule": {
        "daysOfTheWeek": [
          "Sunday"
        ],
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2022-06-13T15:30:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 12,
          "durationType": "Weeks"
        }
      }
    },
    "timeZone": "UTC",
    "protectedItemsCount": 0
  }

Responses

The backup policy creation/update is a asynchronous operation. It means this operation creates another operation that needs to be tracked separately.

It returns two responses: 202 (Accepted) when another operation is created. Then 200 (OK) when that operation completes.

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	Protection PolicyResource	OK
202 Accepted		Accepted

Example responses

Once you submit the PUT request for policy creation or updating, the initial response is 202 (Accepted) with a location header or Azure-async-header.

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
Pragma: no-cache
Retry-After: 60
Azure-AsyncOperation: https://management.azure.com/Subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/SwaggerTestRg/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/testVault/backupPolicies/testPolicy1/operations/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000?api-version=2016-06-01
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
x-ms-request-id: db785be0-bb20-4598-bc9f-70c9428b170b
x-ms-client-request-id: e1f94eef-9b2d-45c4-85b8-151e12b07d03; e1f94eef-9b2d-45c4-85b8-151e12b07d03
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
x-ms-ratelimit-remaining-subscription-writes: 1199
x-ms-correlation-request-id: db785be0-bb20-4598-bc9f-70c9428b170b
x-ms-routing-request-id: SOUTHINDIA:20180521T073907Z:db785be0-bb20-4598-bc9f-70c9428b170b
Cache-Control: no-cache
Date: Mon, 21 May 2018 07:39:06 GMT
Location: https://management.azure.com/Subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/SwaggerTestRg/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/testVault/backupPolicies/testPolicy1/operationResults/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000?api-version=2019-05-13
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET

Then track the resulting operation using the location header or Azure-AsyncOperation header with a simple GET command.

GET https://management.azure.com/Subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/SwaggerTestRg/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/testVault/backupPolicies/testPolicy1/operationResults/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000?api-version=2019-05-13

Once the operation completes, it returns 200 (OK) with the policy content in the response body.

{
  "id": "/Subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/SwaggerTestRg/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/testVault/backupPolicies/testPolicy1",
  "name": "testPolicy1",
  "type": "Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/backupPolicies",
  "properties": {
    "backupManagementType": "AzureIaasVM",
    "schedulePolicy": {
      "schedulePolicyType": "SimpleSchedulePolicy",
      "scheduleRunFrequency": "Weekly",
      "scheduleRunDays": [
        "Monday",
        "Wednesday",
        "Thursday"
      ],
      "scheduleRunTimes": [
        "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
      ],
      "scheduleWeeklyFrequency": 0
    },
    "retentionPolicy": {
      "retentionPolicyType": "LongTermRetentionPolicy",
      "weeklySchedule": {
        "daysOfTheWeek": [
          "Monday",
          "Wednesday",
          "Thursday"
        ],
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 1,
          "durationType": "Weeks"
        }
      },
      "monthlySchedule": {
        "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
        "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
          "daysOfTheWeek": [
            "Wednesday",
            "Thursday"
          ],
          "weeksOfTheMonth": [
            "First",
            "Third"
          ]
        },
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 2,
          "durationType": "Months"
        }
      },
      "yearlySchedule": {
        "retentionScheduleFormatType": "Weekly",
        "monthsOfYear": [
          "February",
          "November"
        ],
        "retentionScheduleWeekly": {
          "daysOfTheWeek": [
            "Monday",
            "Thursday"
          ],
          "weeksOfTheMonth": [
            "Fourth"
          ]
        },
        "retentionTimes": [
          "2018-01-24T10:00:00Z"
        ],
        "retentionDuration": {
          "count": 4,
          "durationType": "Years"
        }
      }
    },
    "timeZone": "Pacific Standard Time",
    "protectedItemsCount": 0
  }
}

If a policy is already being used to protect an item, any update in the policy will result in modifying protection for all such associated items.

Next steps

Enable protection for an unprotected Azure VM.

For more information on the Azure Backup REST APIs, see the following documents:

Create Azure Recovery Services backup policies using REST API

Create or update a policy

Create the request body

Example request body

For Azure VM backup

For SQL in Azure VM backup

For SAP HANA in Azure VM backup

Responses

Example responses

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources

Additional resources

Create Azure Recovery Services backup policies using REST API

Create or update a policy

Create the request body

Example request body

For Azure VM backup

For SQL in Azure VM backup

For SAP HANA in Azure VM backup

For Azure File share backup

Responses

Example responses

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources

Additional resources