Automated Backup for SQL Server 2014 virtual machines (Resource Manager)

Applies to: SQL Server on Azure VM

Automated Backup automatically configures Managed Backup to Microsoft Azure for all existing and new databases on an Azure VM running SQL Server 2014 Standard or Enterprise. This enables you to configure regular database backups that utilize durable Azure Blob storage. Automated Backup depends on the SQL Server infrastructure as a service (IaaS) Agent Extension.

Prerequisites

To use Automated Backup, consider the following prerequisites:

Operating system:

• Windows Server 2012 and greater

SQL Server version/edition:

• SQL Server 2014 Standard
• SQL Server 2014 Enterprise

Database configuration:

• Target user databases must use the full recovery model. System databases do not have to use the full recovery model. However, if you require log backups to be taken for model or msdb, you must use the full recovery model. For more information about the impact of the full recovery model on backups, see Backup under the full recovery model.
• The SQL Server VM has been registered with the SQL IaaS Agent extension and the automated backup feature is enabled. Since automated backup relies on the extension, automated backup is only supported on target databases from the default instance, or a single named instance. If there is no default instance, and multiple named instances, the SQL IaaS Agent extension fails and automated backup won't work.

Settings

The following table describes the options that can be configured for Automated Backup. The actual configuration steps vary depending on whether you use the Azure portal or Azure Windows PowerShell commands. Note that Automated backup uses backup compression by default and you cannot disable it.

Configure new VMs

Use the Azure portal to configure Automated Backup when you create a new SQL Server 2014 virtual machine in the Resource Manager deployment model.

On the SQL Server settings tab, scroll down to Automated backup and select Enable. The following Azure portal screenshot shows the SQL Automated Backup settings.

Configure existing VMs

For existing SQL Server VMs, you can enable and disable automated backups, change the retention period, specify the storage account, and enable encryption from the Azure portal.

Navigate to the SQL virtual machines resource for your SQL Server 2014 virtual machine and then select Backups.

When finished, select the Apply button on the bottom of the Backups page to save your changes.

If you are enabling Automated Backup for the first time, Azure configures the SQL Server IaaS Agent in the background. During this time, the Azure portal might not show that Automated Backup is configured. Wait several minutes for the agent to be installed and configured. After that, the Azure portal will reflect the new settings.

Configure with PowerShell

You can use PowerShell to configure Automated Backup. Before you begin, you must:

• Download and install the latest Azure PowerShell.
• Open Windows PowerShell and associate it with your account with the Connect-AzAccount command.

Verify current settings

If you enabled automated backup during provisioning, you can use PowerShell to check your current configuration. Run the Get-AzVMSqlServerExtension command and examine the AutoBackupSettings property:

$vmname = "yourvmname"
$resourcegroupname = "yourresourcegroupname"

(Get-AzVMSqlServerExtension -VMName $vmname -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname).AutoBackupSettings

You should get output similar to the following:

Enable                      : False
EnableEncryption            : False
RetentionPeriod             : -1
StorageUrl                  : NOTSET
StorageAccessKey            : 
Password                    : 
BackupSystemDbs             : False
BackupScheduleType          : 
FullBackupFrequency         : 
FullBackupStartTime         : 
FullBackupWindowHours       : 
LogBackupFrequency          : 

If your output shows that Enable is set to False, then you have to enable automated backup. The good news is that you enable and configure Automated Backup in the same way. See the next section for this information.

Configure Automated Backup

You can use PowerShell to enable Automated Backup as well as to modify its configuration and behavior at any time.

First, select or create a storage account for the backup files. The following script selects a storage account or creates it if it does not exist.

$vmname = "yourvmname"
$resourcegroupname = "yourresourcegroupname"
$storage_accountname = "yourstorageaccount"
$storage_url = "https://yourstorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/"

$storage = Get-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname `
    -Name $storage_accountname -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
If (-Not $storage)
    { $storage = New-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname `
    -Name $storage_accountname -SkuName Standard_GRS -Location $region }

If you want to use a custom container in the storage account for the backups, use the following script to check for the container or create it if it doesn't exist.

$storage_container = "backupcontainer"

New-AzStorageContainer -Name $storage_container -Context $storage.Context

if (!(Get-AzStorageAccount -StorageAccountName $storage_accountname -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname | Get-AzStorageContainer | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq $storage_container })){ `
	New-AzStorageContainer -Name $storage_container -Context $storage.Context `
} `
 else `
{ `
	Write-Warning "Container $storage_container already exists." `
}

Next, use the following script to get the Access key for the storage account:

$accesskey = (Get-AzStorageAccountKey -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname  -Name $storage_accountname)[0].value

Then use the Update-AzSqlVM command to enable and configure the Automated Backup settings to store backups in the Azure storage account. In this example, the backups are set to be retained for 10 days.

Update-AzSqlVM -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname -Name $vmname -AutoBackupSettingEnable `
-AutoBackupSettingStorageAccessKey $accesskey `
-AutoBackupSettingStorageAccountUrl $storage_url `
-AutoBackupSettingRetentionPeriod 10 `
-AutoBackupSettingStorageContainerName $storage_container 

It could take several minutes to install and configure the SQL Server IaaS Agent.

To enable encryption, modify the previous script to pass the -AutoBackupSettingEnableEncryption parameter along with a password (secure string) for the -AutoBackupSettingPassword parameter. The following script enables the Automated Backup settings in the previous example and adds encryption.

$password = "r@ndom Va1ue"
$encryptionpassword = $password | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force  

Update-AzSqlVM -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname -Name $vmname -AutoBackupSettingEnable `
-AutoBackupSettingStorageAccessKey $accesskey `
-AutoBackupSettingStorageAccountUrl $storage_url `
-AutoBackupSettingRetentionPeriod 10 `
-AutoBackupSettingEnableEncryption `
-AutoBackupSettingPassword $encryptionpassword `
-AutoBackupSettingStorageContainerName $storage_container 

To confirm your settings are applied, verify the Automated Backup configuration.

Disable Automated Backup

To disable Automated Backup, run the same script with the -AutoBackupSettingEnable parameter set to $false in the Update-AzSqlVM command. By setting the value to $false the feature is disabled. As with installation, it can take several minutes to disable Automated Backup.

Update-AzSqlVM -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname -Name $vmname -AutoBackupSettingEnable:$false

Example script

The following script provides a set of variables that you can customize to enable and configure Automated Backup for your VM. In your case, you might need to customize the script based on your requirements. For example, you would have to make changes if you wanted to disable the backup of system databases or enable encryption.

$vmname = "yourvmname"
$resourcegroupname = "yourresourcegroupname"
$region = "Azure region name such as EASTUS2"
$storage_accountname = "yourstorageaccount"
$storage_url = "https://yourstorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/"
$retentionperiod = 10

# ResourceGroupName is the resource group which is hosting the VM where you are deploying the SQL Server IaaS Extension

Set-AzVMSqlServerExtension -VMName $vmname `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname -Name "SQLIaasExtension" `
    -Version "2.0" -Location $region

# Creates/use a storage account to store the backups

$storage = Get-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname `
    -Name $storage_accountname -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
If (-Not $storage)
    { $storage = New-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname `
    -Name $storage_accountname -SkuName Standard_GRS -Location $region }

# Creates/uses a custom storage account container

$storage_container = "yourbackupcontainer"

if (!(Get-AzStorageAccount -StorageAccountName $storage_accountname -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname | Get-AzStorageContainer | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq $storage_container })){ `
	New-AzStorageContainer -Name $storage_container -Context $storage.Context `
} `
 else `
{ `
	Write-Warning "Container $storage_container already exists." `
}

# Get storage account access key
$accesskey = (Get-AzStorageAccountKey -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname  -Name $storage_accountname)[0].value

# Configure Automated Backup settings

Update-AzSqlVM -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname -Name $vmname -AutoBackupSettingEnable `
-AutoBackupSettingStorageAccessKey $accesskey `
-AutoBackupSettingStorageAccountUrl $storage_url `
-AutoBackupSettingRetentionPeriod $retentionperiod `
-AutoBackupSettingStorageContainerName $storage_container 

Backup with encryption certificates

If you decide to encrypt your backups, an encryption certificate will be generated and saved in the same storage account as the backups. In this scenario, you will also need to enter a password which will be used to protect the encryption certificates used for encrypting and decrypting your backups. This allows you to not worry about your backups beyond the configuration of this feature, and also ensures you can trust that your backups are secure.

When backup encryption is enabled, we strongly recommend that you ascertain whether the encryption certificate has been successfully created and uploaded to ensure restorability of your databases. You can do so by creating a database right away and checking the encryption certificates and data were backed up to the newly created container properly. This will show that everything was configured correctly and no anomalies took place.

If the certificate failed to upload for some reason, you can use the certificate manager to export the certificate and save it. You do not want to save it on the same VM, however, as this does not ensure you have access to the certificate when the VM is down. To know if the certificate was backed up properly after changing or creating the Automated Backup configuration, you can check the event logs in the VM, and if it failed you will see this error message:

If the certificates were backed up correctly, you will see this message in the Event Logs:

As a general practice, it is recommended to check on the health of your backups from time to time. In order to be able to restore your backups, you should do the following:

1. Confirm that your encryption certificates have been backed up and you remember your password. If you do not do this, you will not be able to decrypt and restore your backups. If for some reason your certificates were not properly backed up, you can accomplish this manually by executing the following T-SQL query:

   BACKUP MASTER KEY TO FILE = <file_path> ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = <password>
   BACKUP CERTIFICATE [AutoBackup_Certificate] TO FILE = <file_path> WITH PRIVATE KEY (FILE = <file_path>, ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = <password>)
   

2. Confirm that your backup files are uploaded with at least 1 full backup. Because mistakes happen, you should be sure you always have at least one full backup before deleting your VM, or in case your VM gets corrupted, so you know you can still access your data. You should make sure the backup in storage is safe and recoverable before deleting your VM’s data disks.

Monitoring

To monitor Automated Backup on SQL Server 2014, you have two main options. Because Automated Backup uses the SQL Server Managed Backup feature, the same monitoring techniques apply to both.

First, you can poll the status by calling msdb.smart_admin.sp_get_backup_diagnostics. Or query the msdb.smart_admin.fn_get_health_status table valued function.

Another option is to take advantage of the built-in Database Mail feature for notifications.

1. Call the msdb.smart_admin.sp_set_parameter stored procedure to assign an email address to the SSMBackup2WANotificationEmailIds parameter.
2. Enable SendGrid to send the emails from the Azure VM.
3. Use the SMTP server and user name to configure Database Mail. You can configure Database Mail in SQL Server Management Studio or with Transact-SQL commands. For more information, see Database Mail.
4. Configure SQL Server Agent to use Database Mail.
5. Verify that the SMTP port is allowed both through the local VM firewall and the network security group for the VM.

Next steps

Automated Backup configures Managed Backup on Azure VMs. So it is important to review the documentation for Managed Backup on SQL Server 2014.

You can find additional backup and restore guidance for SQL Server on Azure VMs in the following article: Backup and restore for SQL Server on Azure virtual machines.

For information about other available automation tasks, see SQL Server IaaS Agent Extension.

For more information about running SQL Server on Azure VMs, see SQL Server on Azure virtual machines overview.