There are several common disaster recovery (DR) plans for Azure, including:
- Geo-redundancy: This is a built-in feature of Azure that automatically replicates data to a secondary region, ensuring that it is available in the event of a disaster in the primary region.
- Azure Site Recovery (ASR): This is a service that allows organizations to replicate virtual machines (VMs) and physical servers to Azure, providing a disaster recovery solution in the event of an outage at the primary site.
- Backup and Restore: Azure Backup is a service that allows organizations to backup their data to Azure and restore it in the event of a disaster. Azure Backup can be used to protect on-premises and Azure-based VMs, SQL Server databases and other workloads.
- Azure SQL Database Geo-replication: This feature allows organizations to create a readable secondary replica of an Azure SQL Database in a different region, providing a disaster recovery option for the database.
- Azure Cosmos DB Global Distribution: This feature allows organizations to distribute data across multiple regions, providing a disaster recovery option for Azure Cosmos DB-based applications.
- Azure Cache for Redis Geo-Replication: This feature allows organizations to create a replica of their Azure Cache for Redis in a different region, providing a disaster recovery option for the cache.
- Azure File Sync: This service allows organizations to synchronize files across multiple servers, providing a disaster recovery option for file-based workloads.
- Azure Blob Storage: This service allows organizations to store data in the cloud and access it from anywhere, providing a disaster recovery option for data stored in blobs.
Azure Site Recovery vs Azure Backup
Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup are both disaster recovery solutions offered by Microsoft Azure, but they serve different purposes:
Azure Site Recovery
Azure Site Recovery is a disaster recovery solution that replicates on-premises or Azure virtual machines to a secondary location, and in the event of a disaster, it can automatically failover to the secondary location to minimize downtime. It can be used as a standalone disaster recovery solution, or in conjunction with other Azure services such as Azure Backup, to provide a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy.
Azure Site Recovery, has some limitations that users should be aware of when using the service:
- Platform support: Azure Site Recovery supports a limited number of platforms such as Windows and Linux operating systems, Hyper-V and VMware virtualization, and Azure and on-premises infrastructures.
- Application support: Azure Site Recovery supports a limited number of applications such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and SAP.
- Replication frequency: Azure Site Recovery supports replication frequency of 30 seconds, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and 30 minutes.
- Recovery point objective (RPO): Azure Site Recovery has a maximum recovery point objective of 15 minutes.
- Recovery time objective (RTO): Azure Site Recovery has a maximum recovery time objective of 15 minutes for planned failover and up to 2 hours for unplanned failover.
- Bandwidth: Azure Site Recovery requires a minimum of 500 Kbps for replication traffic, which can increase depending on the amount of data being replicated.
- Storage: Azure Site Recovery requires additional storage capacity for replicating and storing data in the secondary location.
- Networking: Azure Site Recovery requires a dedicated network between the primary and secondary location.
It is important to keep in mind that these limitations may change over time with updates and new feature releases from Azure, and it is recommended to check the Azure Site Recovery documentation regularly to stay updated. Additionally, it is important to note that specific requirements and limitations may vary depending on the specific scenario and configuration of your environment, and it is recommended to consult with your IT teams or cloud provider’s documentation for more detailed information.
Azure Backup
Azure Backup is a data protection solution that helps you to backup data from various sources such as on-premises servers, Azure VMs and workstations. It provides a way to backup files, folders, system state, application data and entire virtual machines, to Azure storage. This allows you to restore data in case of accidental deletion, hardware failures and other disasters, and also enables you to retain data for compliance and regulatory needs.
Azure Backup, has some limitations that users should be aware of when using the service:
- Backup frequency: Azure Backup supports daily and weekly backups, but it does not support continuous backups.
- Backup retention: Azure Backup provides options to retain backups for different periods of time, but it has a maximum retention period of 99 years.
- Backup size: Azure Backup has a maximum backup size of 4 terabytes (TB) per virtual machine (VM) and up to 64 TB per storage account.
- Backup of specific resources: Azure Backup does not support backup for some Azure resources, such as Azure ExpressRoute, Azure Load Balancer, Azure Traffic Manager, Azure ExpressRoute, Azure Disk Encryption, and Azure Firewall.
- Backup of specific operating systems: Azure Backup does not support backup for some operating systems, such as Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2, and Windows Small Business Server 2011.
- Backup performance: Backing up large amount of data can take a significant amount of time, and it can also affect the performance of the resources being backed up.
- Data transfer costs: Backing up data to Azure can incur data transfer costs, especially for organizations with large amounts of data to transfer.
It is important to keep in mind that these limitations may change over time with updates and new feature releases from Azure, and it is recommended to check the Azure Backup documentation regularly to stay updated.
Comparison Summary
In summary, Azure Site Recovery is focused on providing disaster recovery for infrastructure and applications, while Azure Backup is focused on providing data protection and recovery. Both solutions can be used together as part of a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy.
How to perform a disaster recovery dry run
A cloud disaster recovery dry run (also known as a “DR drill” or “DR test”) is a process in which an organization simulates a disaster scenario to test and validate its disaster recovery plan. The goal is to ensure that the organization’s systems, processes, and procedures are in place and functioning correctly, so that it can quickly and effectively respond to a real disaster. The process typically involves the following steps:
- Planning: The organization identifies the scope of the DR drill, the systems and applications that will be tested, and the team members who will be involved.
- Preparation: The organization sets up the necessary infrastructure and tools to simulate the disaster scenario, such as creating test environments and configuring replication and failover procedures.
- Execution: The organization conducts the DR drill by simulating the disaster scenario and testing the failover and recovery procedures. This can include shutting down primary systems, simulating network failures, and testing the restoration of data and applications.
- Evaluation: The organization evaluates the results of the DR drill, identifying any issues or failures that occurred during the test and documenting the steps taken to address them.
- Reporting: The organization shares the results of the DR drill with relevant stakeholders and management, highlighting any areas of improvement and making recommendations for changes to the disaster recovery plan.
- Review: The organization reviews the results of the DR drill and revises the disaster recovery plan as needed to ensure that it is up-to-date and can effectively respond to a real disaster.
It is important to note that this is a high-level overview of the process, and organizations should consult with their specific cloud provider’s documentation or consult with their IT teams to have a more detailed and specific plan that follows their best practices and standards.
Closing remarks
Organizations should evaluate their specific requirements and choose the disaster recovery plan that best suits their needs. It’s important to test and validate the DR plans regularly to ensure that they are working as expected and to minimize the impact of an unexpected disaster.