How to back up and restore system disks in Windows Azure virtual machines

Backup and restore are critical to operating a real system. For Windows http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13357.html ">azure Windows Server in a virtual machine environment, You can select a variety of different tools or use them in conjunction with your own needs to implement backups. These tools are quickly compared and contrasted to help you identify the best solution.

Windows Server Backup (WSB)

Windows Server Backup can be used to make online backups from within a virtual machine. It can also back up the system state and files and folders.

Note that when you use Windows Server Backup, the backup files are located in the virtual machine. You may need to move these backup files to an external location using other solutions similar to Windows Azure backup.

Windows Azure Backup (WAB)

Windows Azure Backup is a solution that backs up local files to the cloud. You can also use this solution from the Windows Azure VM. This tool adds cloud backup capabilities to other Microsoft backup tools. It can be used in a variety of ways, combined with Windows Server Backup or System Center Data homeowner Manager.

Click here for a tutorial on how to set up a backup using Windows Azure backup.

In addition, if you are interested in this, you can also click to view pricing details for Windows Azure Backup.

System Center 2012

Windows Azure Backup can also be integrated with System Center homeowner Manager to protect field server data. In this case, the Windows Azure Backup agent software is installed on the DPM server. DPM will continue to protect the servers in the environment, but it now adds functionality to store backups in cloud storage.

Windows Azure Copy blob API and Storage Client Library API (Copy BLOB)

The Replication blob (REST API) for Windows Azure Storage Services provides developers with the means to access Blob, queue, and table services in Windows Azure or in the development environment. A copy blob operation can copy a blob to a target location.

Windows Azure Storage Client Library for. NET (version 2.0) contains the Storage Client Library. You can use this library to access the REST APIs in. NET applications and PowerShell scripts. Here are some more details about using Cloudpageblob.startcopyfromblob.

Unlike WSB and WAB, this API-based replication feature can be used for bare metal backup and restore from outside the VM, and WSB and WAB are used to back up files/folders from within the VM. For example, if you are backing up an Active Directory domain controller, you can use a Copy Blob for bare metal backups and as an initial system backup. You can then use WSB to back up the system state to a file and use WAB to back up files/folders (including System State backup files) to Windows Azure storage. If you need to restore these computers, you should restore them from a bare metal backup VHD and then from a file backed up using WSB and WAB.

Tool comparison

See the table below for a quick look at the capabilities of these tools.

Tools

Online backup

(Application consistent, no downtime)

Backup

Target Location

Backup System State

Back up files/folders

WSB

Is

Within the operating system

Is

Is

WAB

Is

Blob Store

Whether

Is

Copy Blob

Whether

Blob Store

As an entire VHD