This is the second post in a series on Azure Backup Server. In this blog post, I will be going through the Microsoft Azure Backup Server install. I will assume you have completed all of the steps in the first post in this series, as well as ensuring all prereqs have been met.
Downloading the Software Package
- Sign into Microsoft Azure and select “Recovery Services Vault” and select the Recovery Vault we created in the previous post | Click “All Settings”
- Click on “Backup” in Settings tab. It will then open the “Backup Goal” tab. Change the “Where is your backup workload running to “On Premise”. Under the “What do you want to backup” section, chose Files & Folders, SQL and Exchange. This will ensure you download the Azure Backup Server. Then click “OK” **Note – If you only select Files and Folders, it will default to only downloading the agent. The agent will move backups directly to the cloud with no “On-Prem” backup.
- Once you click ok, this will change the “Getting Started” tab. It will now reference “Backup Goal – Azure Backup Server.
- In the “Prepare Infrastructure” tab, Click on Download link in step 1. This will open a new web browser tab that allows you to download Microsoft Azure Backup Server.
5. Click on the “Download” button and you will be prompted for the download that you want. You will want to select all of the files and save them in the same folder location locally.
Extracting the installer
- Go the the location that you downloaded the software above.
- Click on the MicrosoftAzureBackupInstaller.exe | This will a wizard to extract the setup files required to a location you decide. I recommended using the default “C:\Microsoft Azure Backup” folder. This process usually takes about 2-3 minutes.
Installing Azure Backup Server
- After extraction has completed, you will be prompted for by the “Microsoft Azure Backup” setup wizard
- Click on “Microsoft Azure Backup” under the install section
- The “Prerequisite Checks” page will check your machine for required software installed – click “Next”
- Azure Backup Server requires Microsoft SQL Standard and the installer comes bundled with this software. Ensure “Install new Instance of SQL Server with this Setup” and click “Check and install” –
- Note: Azure Backup Server requires you to use a LOCAL SQL instance. Do not select remote SQL as the software will not work with remote SQL.
Why would this even be an option if it doesn’t work with remote SQL - Note: After you click “Check and Install” you will be required to reboot the server.
- Note: Azure Backup Server requires you to use a LOCAL SQL instance. Do not select remote SQL as the software will not work with remote SQL.
- Once the server reboots, open the folder that you extracted the install to. In this example, we used “C:\Microsoft Azure Backup” and double click on “Setup.exe” This will bring us back to the “Check and Install” step. All steps should pass and you will be able to click on next.
- Select the location for the installation of Azure Backup Server. I would recommend keeping the defaults | Click Next
- Note: The scratch location is a requirement to backup to the cloud. This location needs to have atleast 5% of the data being backed up.
- Provide a strong password for the restricted local accounts | Ensure you document the password with the project documentation | Click Next
- Select to utilize Microsoft Updates for Azure Backup Server | Click Next
- Review the settings and click next
- Click Install to install – This Installation happens in phases
- You may be prompted to install .Net 4.5 and PowerShell for the Agent install – Click ok
- You will then be prompted for the Vault Identification. This is the “Vault” file that you downloaded earlier in this section (Download the Software part 4) | Click Next
On the Encryption page, I would recommend clicking on the “Generate Passphrase” button – This will populate the fields for you. On the “Location to save passphrase” field, select a network location that is backed up and then DOCUMENT where you saved the encryption key. You will need to have a copy of this if something happens to this server. Microsoft Online Services does not save or manage this passphrase. | Click Finish
- Once the registration finishes with the Backup Vault, the install will continue and begin to install SQL 2014, tools & components, as well as Azure Backup Server.
Configuring Onsite Repository
The last part of the software install is to setup and configure the onsite backup repository. My general rule on sizing of this drive is VM Size + 30GB | this also depends on how long you want to retain this data onsite.
- Since we are utilizing a VMware based VM, open the vSphere client and right click on the Azure Backup Server VM and click “Edit Settings”
- Click Add and go through the process of adding a disk. Click OK and the drive will be added to the VM
- Open Disk Management on your Azure Backup VM – right click on the disk that you just added click “Online” to bring the disk online. DO NOT INITIALIZE DISK!
- Open Azure Backup server from the icons on the desktop. On the bottom left of the screen, click on the Management option.
- Click on the disks section | Then click on the Add button in the top left hand corner to add a disk
On the “Add Disks to Storage Pool” page, click on the available disk and then click on Add to add the selected disk | Click OK- Once the disk has been added, you will see the disk available in the DPM Storage Pool.
This will complete the software install.