Good day, dear readers and IT-geeks!

It so happened that recently I have spent a lot of time working with data backup tools on the one hand and functions on the same subject of new ones that appear in Microsoft Azure - on the other. By this, today I want to tell you about the Microsoft Azure Backup toolkit for backing up data from Windows client OS to the Microsoft Azure public cloud. You are welcome under the cat.

What and how can I back it up?

So, recently, Microsoft Azure can be used for backing up data not only for Windows Server and using System Center Data Protection Manager, but also for backing up Windows client operating systems, namely Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and even Windows backup 10 Technical Preview.
For the same, in order to configure the backup of your OS in Azure, you first need to go to the Microsoft Azure management portal and create a new backup vault there.
After creating the repository, go to its parameters and perform the following actions:
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1) Download the storage credentials - you will use them later when registering your OS with a backup agent;
2) Install the Microsoft Azure Backup Agent .

Now, during the installation of the agent on your target system, you will need the file previously downloaded - with the storage credentials. In terms of application possibilities, we have 2 options:

1) Use 1 backup repository per target system. It's simple. But one thing to keep in mind: no more than 25 archiving repositories can be created for 1 subscription;
2) Use 1 storage for multiple target systems, different - and here too there is a limitation: no more than 50 target systems per storage.

In both cases, access to the backup data occurs on the basis of a special phrase that the user either comes up with (at least 16 characters) or generates using the built-in master generator. Here you need to remember that if you generated or came up with such a phrase - you need to either remember it very well or write to reliable media - Microsoft Azure does not store these phrases, if you forget it - then you will lose access to your backup copy.



To increase the level of reliability, it is recommended to use the 1st unique phrase on the storage - this guarantees isolation and inaccessibility of data for other storage facilities.

Now we have completed the setup of Microsoft Azure Backup - we just need to configure what we will back up - and how often.



Now, when the backup agent is configured to work with the storage, launch the agent and select the Schedule Backup menu item in the right part of the agent in the Actions section.

Next, in the wizard, we choose what we will back up - files and directories, then - frequency, how often data will be sent to Microsoft Azure and how often they will be replaced - that is, the number of data instances that will form a cycle, which will replace each time the previous one is done for the relevance and reliability of the data, but on the other hand you will not have an excessive amount of duplicate data, in a certain sense - because you will pay for the amount of space consumed in Microsoft Azure - but I do not think that someone is ready to spend money just for the wind - because of a wrongly designed service for its consumption ...



Well that's all! We set up data backup of our client OS - in my case it was Windows 10 TP.
A few final comments:

1) The limit on the amount of data backup in one approach is 1700GB (do you have so much!? - smile);
2) If you back up data from a laptop or tablet - any device on the battery - then make sure that it is connected to the power supply - otherwise the backup process will not occur;
3) Well, in no way allow a smooth or hard shutdown of your device - the process will be interrupted and a backup will not be created.

Well, in general terms, it looks like something like that. Everything is quite simple and easy here - so feel free to try!

With respect,

Fireman
George A. Gadzhiev