Microsoft Products for Backup – Restore -DR, we have:
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager
Microsoft Azure Backup
Microsoft Azure Site Recovery (DR)
1. Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM)
You can install Microsoft SCDPM on different solutions, like:
As a physical standalone server
As a Hyper-V virtual machine
As a Windows virtual machine in VMWare
As an Azure virtual machine
If you don’t want to manage hardware like a physical Server, you can virtualize your DPM Server on-Premises on Hyper-V or VMware but you can also install DPM into the Cloud as an Azure VM.
Before you begin you should know what Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager support and can protect by Backup. Here you find the highlights.
For Customers there are different installation scenarios possible :
You already have DPM Installed for years but you have to renew the hardware.
A complete New Installation of System Center Data Protection Manager 2019
Upgrade existing System Center DPM solution.
For the first bulletpoint, when you behind with Upgrading to the latest System Center DPM 2019 and you are still using DPM 2012 R2 for example with a SQL 2012 Database on old hardware, you have to follow a work flow.
When you installed Windows Server 2019 on your new hardware, you have to install DPM 2012 R2 and the same SQL version as before and then restore the latest DPM 2012 R2 database of your old hardware. When that’s done you can proceed with upgrading to DPM 2016 and with the right SQL version. You can’t upgrade from DPM 2012 R2 straight to DPM 2019. Here you can read more about Upgrading your System Center DPM Solution
Microsoft MVP @CHARBELNEMNOM :
He wrote this blogpostwhich can help you out with the installation of System Center DPM 2019.
The third bullitpoint, is upgrading your existing DPM Backup Solution. Important is that you have a Backup of the DPM database on a other Server or storage then the Server your are going to Upgrade. You must have a rollback scenario if something went wrong. Read more about Upgrade path of System Center DPM
2. Microsoft Azure Backup
Use Azure Backup to protect the data for on-premises servers, virtual machines, virtualized workloads, SQL server, SharePoint server, and more. Because this is a Microsoft Cloud Service, you don’t have to buy expensive hardware like Physical Servers, Storage, Tape Library, you just pay for what you are using in Azure, Here you find the Microsoft Azure Calculator to calculate your Backup costs.
First you have to create a Recovery Services Vault :
Click on Review + Create a Recovery Services Vault.
Site Recovery helps ensure business continuity by keeping business apps and workloads running during outages. Site Recovery replicates workloads running on physical and virtual machines (VMs) from a primary site to a secondary location. When an outage occurs at your primary site, you fail over to secondary location, and access apps from there. After the primary location is running again, you can fail back to it.
Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud Architecture HUB-Spoke Model
Microsoft Azure Hub-Spoke model
This blogpost about Microsoft Azure Hub-Spoke model by Enterprise Design 2 of 4 “Lift and Shift” is part of a Datacenter transition to Microsoft Azure Intelligent Cloud. It’s talking about Azure Architecture, Security, Assessment, Azure Policy, and implementation of the design. Here you find the first blogposts :
When creating a building, scaffolding is used to create the basis of a structure. The scaffold guides the general outline and provides anchor points for more permanent systems to be mounted. An enterprise scaffold is the same: a set of flexible controls and Azure capabilities that provide structure to the environment, and anchors for services built on the public cloud. It provides the builders (IT and business groups) a foundation to create and attach new services keeping speed of delivery in mind. Read more hereI did the “Lift and Shift” between quotes because it’s important to follow the process workflow to be successful in your Datacenter transition to the Microsoft Azure Cloud.
App Migration to Azure: Your options explained by Jeremy Winter
The Azure Migrate service assesses on-premises workloads for migration to Azure. The service assesses the migration suitability of on-premises machines, performs performance-based sizing, and provides cost estimations for running on-premises machines in Azure. If you’re contemplating lift-and-shift migrations, or are in the early assessment stages of migration, this service is for you. After the assessment, you can use services such as Azure Site Recovery and Azure Database Migration Service, to migrate the machines to Azure.
In your datacenter you got all kind of different workloads and solutions like :
Hyper-V Clusters
VMware Clusters
SQL Clusters
Print Clusters
File Clusters
Web Farm
Two or three tiers solutions
Physical Servers
Different Storage solutions
When you do your Datacenter Assessment it’s important to get your workloads visible, because “Lift and Shift” with Azure Site Recovery (ASR) of a Virtual Machine is an different scenario then SQL database migration to Azure. That’s why Microsoft has different tooling like :
To get your dependencies in your Datacenter on the map, Microsoft has Azure Service Maps.
Service Map automatically discovers application components on Windows and Linux systems and maps the communication between services. With Service Map, you can view your servers in the way that you think of them: as interconnected systems that deliver critical services. Service Map shows connections between servers, processes, inbound and outbound connection latency, and ports across any TCP-connected architecture, with no configuration required other than the installation of an agent.
This is very handy to get insides of your Datacenter communication workloads.
Installation example of Hyper-V Virtual Machines with ASR
In the following step-by-step guide we will install the Azure Site Recovery Agent on a Hyper-V host and migrate a virtual machine to Microsoft azure in a “Lift and Shift” way.
First create a Recovery Services Vault => Click Add.
Then you go to your new created Recovery Vault and click on Getting started for Site Recovery. => Prepare infrastructure and follow the steps.
When you have selected Hyper-V VM to Azure, the next step is the ASR Deployment Planner tool kit. Here you find more information on Azure Site Recovery Deployment Planner user guide for Hyper-V-to-Azure production deployments.
Then in step 3 you will make your Hyper-V Site in Microsoft azure with the Right Hyper-V Servers.
Give your Hyper-V Site the right name, especially when you have a lot of Hyper-V Clusters with Different workloads.
Here is where the registration begins with the Azure Site Recovery (ASR) Agent installation on your Hyper-V Host.
Follow the five steps and make sure your Hyper-V Node can access Azure via secure port 443(https) via Proxy or firewall rules.
Install as Administrator the AzureSiteRecoveryProvider.exe file on the Hyper-V host.
Click on Next
Choose your Installation location and Click on Install.
The Azure Site Recovery agent is installed and need to be registered with your Azure Recovery Vault.
For this you need the key file from the Azure portal to download at step 4. Click on Register.
Browse to your downloaded key file from the Azure Portal Recovery Vault and click on Next.
When you have a proxy you can select that, otherwise select Next.
Now your Azure ASR Agent on Hyper-V is registered with your Azure Site Recovery Vault.
In the Azure Portal you will see your Hyper-V Node, in my Demo LAB it’s WAC01.MVPLAB.LOCAL.
In the next step you can choose an existing Storage account, or a new one with different specifications.
Check also after storage your network in azure.
In this step we create the replication policy.
Set your own settings.
The Replication policy is added to the configuration.
When you click on OK the Infrastructure is done.
We are now going to enable the replication :
Select your Source and location.
here you select your target Storage account, Resource Group and Network.
The connections are made between Hyper-V, ASR Vault and Storage.
Select the Virtual Machine(s) from the Hyper-V host to replicate for migration with ASR
Configure the properties.
Click on OK
From here the Replication will begin from Hyper-V Host to Azure 🙂
Azure Sire Recovery Replication Job status.
Replicated item(s)
To make your recovery plan and do the failover for migration to azure, you have to wait until the first replication is done for 100%.
Azure Site Recovery Plan for failover (Migration)
Make recovery Plan.
Click OK
The Target in the recovery plan can only be selected when the first replication is done.
Overview of the Azure Site Recovery Migration failover.
From the Hyper-V Host you can pause or see the replication health status.
Azure Migrate Virtual Machines using Azure Site Recovery video with Microsoft Jeff Woolsey
Microsoft Azure Data Migration Assistant
To migrate your SQL Backend to Microsoft Azure, use this step-by-step instructions help you perform your first assessment for migrating to on-premises SQL Server, SQL Server running on an Azure VM, or Azure SQL Database, by using Data Migration Assistant.
Conclusion :
“Lift and Shift” Migration of your complete datacenter exists of different scenarios for your workloads to Microsoft Azure. With that said, Microsoft has for each scenario tooling available to get the job done. It’s all about a good Architectural Design, Security in place, People and process to get your Intelligent Azure Cloud up and running for your Business.
Next Blogpost Microsoft Azure Hub-Spoke model by Enterprise Design 3 of 4 : SQL assessment and Data Migration to Azure
Windows Admin Center is an evolution of Windows Server in-box management tools; it’s a single pane of glass that consolidates all aspects of local and remote server management. As a locally deployed, browser-based management experience, an Internet connection and Azure aren’t required. Windows Admin Center gives you full control of all aspects of your deployment, including private networks that aren’t Internet-connected.
Windows Admin Center supports several optional features that integrate with Azure services. Use the following information to configure the Windows Admin Center gateway to support these Azure integration features. Configuring Azure Integration in WAC
When you have Azure integration in place with Microsoft Windows Admin Center you can use Azure Site Recovery (ASR). Azure Site Recovery is an Azure service that replicates workloads running on VMs so that your business-critical infrastructure is protected in case of a disaster. Learn more about Azure Site Recovery
Protect your Hyper-V Virtual Machines from Windows Admin Center with Azure Site Recovery
.Use the following information to configure replication settings and create a recovery plan from within the Azure portal, enabling Windows Admin Center to start VM replication and protect your VMs.
Follow Jeff Woolsey Principal Program Manager Windows Server / Hybrid Cloud
Windows Admin Center Just Rocks also for our PowerShell Administrators 😉
Azure Backup is the Azure-based service you can use to back up (or protect) and restore your data in the Microsoft cloud. Azure Backup replaces your existing on-premises or off-site backup solution with a cloud-based solution that is reliable, secure, and cost-competitive. Azure Backup offers multiple components that you download and deploy on the appropriate computer, server, or in the cloud. The component, or agent, that you deploy depends on what you want to protect. All Azure Backup components (no matter whether you’re protecting data on-premises or in the cloud) can be used to back up data to a Backup vault in Azure.
See the Azure Backup components table
Azure Backup’s cloud-first approach and why it matters by Principal Group Program Manager, Azure BackupShreesh Dubey
Cloud-first value propositions
These are the benefits customers would likely expect in backup scenarios as they augment the public cloud to their IT infrastructure:
Consistent management experience for Hybrid IT: Companies will be in a hybrid model where in addition to the on-premise IT, they will have a cloud foot print that has IaaS (“lift-and-shift applications”) that possibly extends to PaaS (“born-in-the-cloud applications”) and SaaS (O365). It is important to have a consistent experience to manage backups across the IT assets in this hybrid model.
Agility: Business owners are seeking more agility offered by the public cloud where they can deploy solutions from the marketplace to meet their business needs. From a backup perspective, an application admin should be able to sign up for backup and do self-service restores without having to go through a central IT process to provision compute/storage in the cloud to enable backup.
Reduce TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): A subscription based model (PAYG) is an obvious benefit of the public cloud, but it is also important to consider overall IT cost for backup. For example, if you need to deploy additional infrastructure in the cloud (compute and storage) for backups your overall costs would be higher.
Freedom from infrastructure: This is one of the fundamental benefits companies seek when they move their IT to the cloud and since backup has a significant infrastructure footprint in on-premises IT (storage, compute, licenses, etc), an infrastructure-less backup solution would be a natural expectation for customers
Any developer or IT professional can be productive with Azure. The integrated tools, pre-built templates and managed services make it easier to build and manage enterprise, mobile, Web and Internet of Things (IoT) apps faster, using skills you already have and technologies you already know. Microsoft is also the only vendor positioned as a Leader across Gartner’s Magic Quadrants for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, Application Platform as a Service, and Cloud Storage Services for the second consecutive year.
In today’s world it is all about mobility and Applications. On your work, at School, at Home, and even when you do Sport like biking or running. I think that’s why
Microsoft makes One Platform Windows 10 to get the best experience with Applications on every Device.
Making your own websites is really Easy with Microsoft Azure and is Cool to work with.
To run all those Web Apps in the Cloud you need Storage and capacity to store your data save in the Cloud with high security policies.
Microsoft Azure has all kind of diffenrent Storage in the Cloud for your data.
Microsoft Azure Data and Storage
Learn about Azure Storage, and how to create applications using Azure blobs, tables, queues, and files :
Of course when you have a lot of data, you like to analyze it for the business and make good Reports or Dashboard to
make the right decisions. Microsoft Azure Cloud Services has Data and Analytics :
Microsoft Azure Data and Analytics
Learn to create Hadoop clusters, process big data, develop solutions using streaming or historical data, and analyze the results :
When you are still working on an On-premises datacenter only, Microsoft makes it’s easy to transform your datacenter into Hybrid Cloud Scenarios.
You can think of a Twin Datacenter for your Core Business Applications, or save your longtime protection data into an Azure Backup Vault.
Microsoft Azure Hybrid Integration
Learn how to integrate the enterprise and the cloud with BizTalk Services :
To make those Microsoft Solutions Available for everyone, you need Developers and Developer Environments.
Microsoft Azure Developer Services
Learn how to detect issues, diagnose crashes and track usage of your mobile apps, and web apps hosted anywhere: on Azure or on your own IIS or J2EE servers :
This is a super simple “getting started” experience for deploying single and multi-container Dockerized applications utilizing Azure Resource Manager templates and the new Docker Extension
This Blogpost is about Deploying Microsoft Azure Site Recovery Manager to replicate and failover virtual machines on Hyper-V host servers that are located in System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) clouds. It’s not Microsoft Hyper-V alone protection anymore, they have managed to protect VMWare and Physical Servers on Primary Sites too.
SCVMM 2012 R2 to Azure
Microsoft Azure Site Recovery Quick Start
On April 30, 2015. You could choose from the Quick Start page the following configurations :
Between an On-Premises VMM Site and Azure
Between Two On-Premises VMM Sites
Between an On-Premises Hyper-V Site and Azure
Between Two On-Premises VMWare Sites
Between Two On-Premises VMM Sites with SAN Array Replication.
When Your Microsoft Azure Subscription is Active and you have created a Storagepool in Azure, you can follow the next step.
Quick Create a Site Recovery Vault by giving it a Name and choose a Region
This is my Azure Site Recovery called HybridCloud
From here start the Quick Start Page of your Azure Site Recovery Vault by clicking on
I Choose for SCVMM to Azure
Just Click on the links for a Registration key and the SCVMM Provider Software
Click on Install
Set the Proxy settings when you behind an Proxy Server
Browse to your downloaded Registration key of the Azure Site Recovery
Give the directory path for the Certificate
Registration software in SCVMM is completed
Here you see your SCVMM Server in the Azure Site Recovery Vault
In System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager RU6 is ASR also Active
Next Step is to install the ASR Agent on Hyper-V :
Choose your Cache Location with Enough Storage
Set your Proxy Settings and Click Next
Click Install
Click on Proceed to Registration
Next Step in Virtual Machine Manager
If you don’t have your Virtual Machines in a SCVMM Cloud, you have to make Cloud(s) with Virtual Machine Manger.
The next step is to make a Cloud if you don’t have any.
Give your Private Cloud a Name and Mark the Checkbox for ASR Protection
Select your Resources
Choose the right network
Click Next
Choose the right Storage pool(s) for this Cloud
Check the Summary and make your Private Cloud with SCVMM
When you have a VM in your Cloud Click on Manage Protection
Select the Replication settings
The SCVMM Cloud is in the Azure Recovery Site
Configure now the network Maps
Map the Azure VNET to your Local Network
When you protect the Virtual Machine you will see this in Azure :
And after this Hyper-V Replica to Azure is replicating the VM to the Microsoft Cloud :
When the Sync is completed we can make an Azure Recovery Plan :
In my Next blogpost I will write more about Microsoft Azure Recovery Plans.
Azure Site Recovery contributes to your business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) strategy by orchestrating replication, failover and recovery of virtual machines and physical servers. Read about possible deployment scenarios in the Azure Site Recovery overview.
This walkthrough describes how to deploy Site Recovery to:
Protect on-premises VMware virtual machines to Azure
Protect on-premises physical Windows and Linux servers to Azure
Business advantages include:
Protection of physical Windows or Linux servers.
Simple replication, failover, and recovery using the Azure Site Recovery portal.
Data replication over the Internet, a site-to-site VPN connection, or over Azure ExpressRoute.
Failback (restore) from Azure to an on-premises VMware infrastructure.
Simplified discovery of VMware virtual machines.
Multi VM consistency so that virtual machines and physical servers running specific workloads can be recovered together to a consistent data point.
Recovery plans for simplified failover and recovery of workloads tiered over multiple machines.
Deployment components
On-premises machines—Your on-premises site has machines that you want to protect. These are either virtual machines running on a VMware hypervisor, or physical servers running Windows or Linux.
On-premises process server—Protected machines send replication data to the on-premises process server. The process server performs a number of actions on that data. It optimizes it before sending it on to the master target server in Azure. It has a disk-based cache to cache replication data that it receives. It also handles push installation of the Mobility Service which must be installed on each virtual machine or physical server you want to protect, and performs automatic discovery of VMware vCenter servers. The process server is a virtual or physical server running Windows Server 2012 R2. We recommend it’s placed on the same network and LAN segment as the machines that you want to protect, but it can run on a different network as long as protected machines have L3 network visibility to it. During deploy you’ll set up the process server and register it to the configuration server.
Azure Site Recovery vault—The vault coordinates and orchestrates data replica, failover, and recovery between your on-premises site and Azure.
Azure configuration server—The configuration server coordinates communication between protected machines, the process server, and master target servers in Azure. It sets up replication and coordinates recovery in Azure when failover occurs. The configuration server runs on an Azure Standard A3 virtual machine in your Azure subscription. During deployment you’ll set up the server and register it to the Azure Site Recovery vault.
Master target server—The master target server in Azure holds replicated data from your protected machines using attached VHDs created on blob storage in your Azure storage account. You deploy it as an Azure virtual machine as a Windows server based on a Windows Server 2012 R2 gallery image (to protect Windows machines) or as a Linux server based on a OpenLogic CentOS 6.6 gallery image (to protect Linux machines). Two sizing options are available – standard A3 and standard D14. The server is connected to the same Azure network as the configuration server. During deployment you’ll create the server and register it to the configuration server.
Mobility service—You install the Mobility service on each VMware virtual machine or Windows/Linux physical server that you want to protect. The service sends replication data to the process server, which in turn sends it to the master target server in Azure. The process server can automatically install the Mobility service on protected machines, or you can deploy the service manually using your internal software deployment process.
Data communication and replication channel—There are a couple of options. Note that neither option requires you to open any inbound network ports on protected machines. All network communication is initiated from the on-premises site.
Over the Internet—Communicates and replicates data from protected on-premises servers and Azure over a secure public internet connection. This is the default option.
VPN/ExpressRoute—Communicates and replicates data between on-premises servers and Azure over a VPN connection. You’ll need to set up a site-to-site VPN or an ExpressRoute connection between the on-premises site and your Azure network.