run adaptive. Navigating Azure Backup: Key Differences Between Recovery Services Vault and Backup Vault

Introduction

Inquiries regarding the nuanced differences between two pivotal resources within Azure Backup have surfaced — the longstanding Recovery Services Vault and the more recent Backup Vault. Both play integral roles in Azure Backup, offering the capability to safeguard virtual machine data and data from various Azure services. However, their functionalities diverge significantly.

Recovery Services Vault:

Traditionally, the Recovery Services Vault has been the stalwart storage repository for Azure Backup, serving as the cornerstone for storing backup data. Whether your virtual machines reside in Azure or on-premises, this vault has been the go-to choice. It also serves Azure Site Recovery for disk replication in disaster recovery or migration scenarios.

For virtual machine backups, the vault operates on a regional level, providing configuration options such as replication (LRS, ZRS, GRS), and encryption tailored to your preferences. Diverse backup policies, including enhanced options for the latest Azure features, are at your disposal.

Fundamentally, Azure Backup secures virtual machines through full backup jobs and subsequent incremental backups (excluding SQL Server backups). The pricing model involves a fixed monthly fee per backup instance for the Azure Backup service, coupled with charges for the storage consumption of backup data. The vault caters to both short and long-term data retention, with recent additions enabling the movement of long-term backups to an archive storage tier for cost optimization.

Moreover, this service supports application-consistent backups for various workloads like Windows, Linux, and SQL Server, leveraging VSS writers or backup pre-scripts and post-scripts.

Azure Backup Vault:

In contrast, the Backup Vault is a service designed to accommodate newer workloads supported by Azure Backup, such as Azure managed disks, Azure blob storage, and Azure Database for PostgreSQL Servers. It does not replace the Recovery Services Vault but complements it.

Similar to the Recovery Services Vault, each Azure Backup Vault operates on a regional level and features "per vault" settings for backup resiliency and encryption.

The Backup Vault doesn't perform full Virtual Machine application-consistent backups but offers a backup option for Azure managed disks. This provides a crash-consistent data backup for OS and data disks through incremental disk snapshots at regular intervals, potentially every hour.

Crucially, no data is transferred to a "vault" storage for long-term retention; instead, it offers an operational backup facility. Charges are solely for the delta changes in the snapshot storage, with no additional backup service fee. Snapshots are stored on Standard HDD storage by default to minimize storage costs.

You can take up to 200 snapshots per disk, with a maximum of 180 snapshots per backup policy, limiting the retention period for operational backups.

Key Differences:

• Suitable for short-term operational backups

• More frequent disk backups, up to once per hour

• No backup agent dependency, no performance impact on virtual machines during backup

• Crash-consistent backups only

• Back up only the necessary disks rather than the entire virtual machine

• Pay only for incremental snapshot storage on Standard HDD tier; no backup service cost

• Faster on-demand backups and restores compared to Recovery Services Vault transfer operations

• Restore operation creates new disks only; no option to replace existing disks

• Backup Vault uses managed identities for access during backup and restore operations

Conclusion:

The distinctions between Recovery Services Vault and Backup Vault offer diverse use cases, allowing users to tailor their choice based on workload types. Whether opting for short-term operational backups or leveraging frequent disk backups, understanding these differences is essential for crafting an effective and efficient backup strategy. In some scenarios, a combination of both services might be the ideal solution for a comprehensive backup strategy.

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Navigating Azure Backup: Key Differences Between Recovery Services Vault and Backup Vault

Level: 100
Publishing date: 05-Mar-2024
Author: Catalin Popa

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