Backup and Restore Azure Managed Disks

Learn how to back up and restore Azure Managed Disks to protect your data and ensure business continuity. Azure provides several mechanisms for this purpose, including Azure Backup and disk snapshots.

Azure Backup for Managed Disks

Azure Backup is a cloud-based service that helps you back up and restore your Azure resources, including Managed Disks. It offers a simple, cost-effective, and reliable solution for data protection.

Key Features of Azure Backup:

• Automated Backups: Schedule regular backups to meet your recovery point objectives (RPOs).
• Cross-Region Restore: Restore backups to a different Azure region for disaster recovery.
• Policy-Based Management: Define backup policies for retention, frequency, and other settings.
• Application Consistency: Ensure data consistency across applications.

Steps to Back Up a Managed Disk using Azure Backup:

1. Create a Recovery Services Vault: This vault stores your backup data.
2. Configure a Backup Policy: Define the backup frequency and retention period.
3. Enable Backup for the Disk: Select the Managed Disk you want to protect and associate it with the backup policy.
4. Initiate a Backup: You can trigger an on-demand backup or wait for the scheduled backup.

For detailed instructions, refer to the official Azure documentation on Azure Backup for VMs which also covers disk backups.

Using Disk Snapshots

Disk snapshots are point-in-time copies of a Managed Disk. They are stored as unmanaged blobs in your storage account. Snapshots are a low-cost way to back up data and can be used to restore a disk or create new disks.

Benefits of Disk Snapshots:

• Point-in-Time Recovery: Capture the exact state of a disk at a specific moment.
• Cost-Effective: You only pay for the changed blocks since the last snapshot.
• Flexibility: Can be used to create new disks, clone disks, or for troubleshooting.

Creating a Disk Snapshot:

You can create a snapshot using the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or Azure PowerShell:

Azure CLI Example:

az snapshot create \
    --resource-group MyResourceGroup \
    --name MySnapshot \
    --source MyManagedDisk
        

Restoring from a Snapshot:

To restore a disk from a snapshot, you create a new Managed Disk from the snapshot:

Azure CLI Example:

az disk create \
    --resource-group MyResourceGroup \
    --name MyRestoredDisk \
    --source MySnapshot
        

Comparing Backup Methods

Feature	Azure Backup	Disk Snapshots
Automation & Scheduling	Yes (via policies)	Requires scripting or automation tools
Management Interface	Recovery Services Vault	Azure Portal, CLI, PowerShell
Consistency	Application-consistent (for VMs)	Crash-consistent (unless quiesced)
Cost Model	Based on vault storage and backup operations	Pay for snapshot storage (incremental)
Disaster Recovery	Cross-region restore supported	Requires manual replication or cross-region copy

View Detailed Azure Backup Documentation Explore Azure Disk Snapshot Features