Azure VM Backup Software Solution from Bacula

Using Bacula, you can easily back up and recovery Azure VM’s – and all the apps and data within them. All done in the Cloud. Remember, using Bacula means being protected with Bacula’s heightened levels of security and robustness, as well as being able to inter-operate your backups with a vast range of other technologies.

Bacula’s Azure VM module enables users to do:

• Block-level image backup, from an online Snapshot of any guest VM
• Full Backups
• Easy restore of complete virtual machine image

Bacula allows users to choose from two possible backup methods: guest backup via File Daemon install or image-level backup utilizing Bacula’s Azure VM module.

1: Image Backup Using Bacula’s Azure-VM Module

Using the image backup level method, Bacula’s Enterprise Azure VM Module saves the Client disks at the raw level, in the Azure context. This Azure VM module efficiently reads and saves content of virtual machines disks using snapshots. During the backup stage, the Azure module will save the integrity of a disks images, as well as guest VM configurations, to allow rapid guest VM restores to their original parameters.

2: Installing a Bacula Client on Each separate Guest

This method is done by installing the Bacula Enterprise File Daemon on each virtual machine to be protected, in the same way as if they were physical clients. In order to achieve the best I/O performance on the Azure-VM hypervisor, the user will employ Bacula’s Schedules, Priorities, and Maximum Concurrent Jobs function to spread out backup jobs over the backup window. Because all VMs could use the same storage on the Microsoft Azure hypervisor, running all backup jobs at the same time could accordingly lead to bottlenecks on the disk/network subsystem since Bacula will work through all the file systems to open/read/close/stat files.