Modern IT isn’t for the faint of heart. You’ve worked your magic—spun up shiny new virtual machines, kept your cloud spending in check, and maybe even trained your team to stop clicking on phishing emails. But none of that matters if disaster strikes and you don’t have robust, rock-solid backups at the ready. Sound dramatic? Maybe. Necessary? Absolutely.
Today, let’s break down a smarter, safer way to back up your Azure VMs using local, cross-region (CR), and storage account (SA) archiving—because in a world of ransomware and accidental deletions, hope is not a strategy.
The Multi-Tiered Backup: Your VM’s Safety Net
Let’s face it: one backup just isn’t enough. If you’re only protecting your virtual machines with a single backup in the same region, you’re basically building your castle with Lego bricks. Enter N2W.
Start by creating a new Azure-native policy in your N2W console. You pick your virtual machine as the target and plug in your Azure account and subscription. Then set the schedule.
Cross-Region Backups: Your Geo-Redundant Bunker
What happens if the datacenter hosting your primary backup gets hit by the digital equivalent of Godzilla? You need your data elsewhere. This is why setting up cross-region backups is important.
In Cynthia’s example, her VM lives in the East US region, but disaster recovery (DR) backups are shipped safely to the West US region. Should cyber villains or natural disasters take down the East, your data is alive and well out West. It’s a simple, strategic move and one that separates the “sorta-protected” from the truly resilient.
Lifecycle Management: How Long Should You Keep It?
Nobody wants a bunch of old VM snapshots eating up your cloud storage. That’s where lifecycle management steps in. Here’s how Cynthia breaks it down:
- Daily backups: Keep 30 generations (think of these as time slices) for 30 days—enough to roll back bad changes, malware, and “oops” moments.
- Monthly backups: Most customers only need one monthly backup for long-term peace of mind. You can fine-tune this to your heart’s content, but once-a-month is a solid, industry-tested approach.
Just like that, you tailor retention periods to your actual needs—avoiding both storage bloat and blind spots.
Archiving to Storage Accounts
Let’s say compliance wants you to keep certain records for half a year (or longer). Hello, archive storage! By sliding the “Use Storage Repository” toggle in your policy, you direct monthly backups into a designated Azure storage account. Think of it as moving your data from the fast lane into a comfy, economical long-term parking spot.
Of course, you should set up your storage account and worker configuration first (don’t skip those prerequisites). Archive backups are perfect for long-term retention without eating up your expensive, performance-heavy resources.
Backups in Action: Monitor, Verify, Relax
With your policy saved and backups humming, you get to witness the magic. Kick off a manual run, watch your backup policy show progress in the monitor, and verify that local, cross-region, and archived copies are exactly where they should be. Local snapshots live in your East US region, DR copies in the West, and archives in your storage container under Blob storage.
The Takeaway: Build Layered Resilience
In the cloud, “good enough” is never enough. By combining local, cross-region, and long-term archival backups, you’re not just backing up your VMs—you’re future-proofing your business.
Confidently click ‘Run ASAP’ and sleep easy. Your data’s got the best seat in the house, no matter what comes next. And don’t miss the sequel: how to recover Azure VMs!
