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Back up your VM on Azure Stack Hub with Commvault

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Overview of backing up a VM with Commvault

This article walks through the configuration of Commvault Live Sync to update a recovery VM located on a separate Azure Stack Hub scale unit. This article details how to configure a common partner solution to protect and recover the data and system state of Virtual Machines deployed on Azure Stack Hub.

The following diagram shows you the overall solution when using Commvault to back up your VMs.

The diagram shows how Commvault can be used to replicate data from an Azure stack to another stack or to Azure Cloud.

In this article you will:

  1. Create a VM running the Commvault software on your source Azure Stack Hub Instance.

  2. Create a storage account in a secondary location. The article assumes you will create a Blob container in a storage account in an Azure Stack Hub instance separate (the target), and that the target Azure Stack Hub is reachable from the source Azure Stack Hub.

  3. Configure Commvault on your source Azure Stack Hub Instance and add VMs in the source Azure Stack Hub to the VM group.

  4. Configure Commvault's Live Sync.

You can also download and offer compatible partner VM images to protect your Azure Stack Hub VMs to an Azure Cloud or another Azure Stack Hub. This article will illustrate VM protection with Commvault Live Sync.

The topology of this approach will look like the following diagram:

The diagram shows a data path from a Commvault VSA Proxy on Azure Stack Hub 1 to Azure Stack Hub 2, which has a recovery VM that can be brought online when needed to back up Hub 1.

Create the Commvault VM from the Commvault Marketplace Item

  1. Open the Azure Stack Hub user portal.

  2. Select Create a resource > Compute > Commvault.

    Note

    If Commvault is not available to you, contact your cloud operator.

    Create VM

  3. Configure the basic settings in Create virtual machine, 1 Basics:

    a. Enter a Name.

    b. Select Standard HDD.

    c. Enter a Username.

    d. Enter a Password.

    e. Confirm your password.

    f. Select a Subscription for the backup.

    g. Select a Resource group.

    h. Select the Location of the Azure Stack Hub. If you are using an ASDK, select local.

    i. Select OK.

    The "Dashboard > New > Create virtual machine > Choose a size" dialog box shows a list of size possibilities for the virtual machine.

  4. Choose the size of the Commvault VM. The VM size for backup should be at least 10 GB of RAM and 100 GB of storage.

    The "Dashboard > New > Create virtual machine > Settings" dialog box shows the settings to be used to create the virtual machine..

  5. Choose the settings for the Commvault VM.

    a. Set the availability to None.

    b. Select Yes for use managed disks.

    c. Select the default VNet for the Virtual network.

    d. Select the default Subnet.

    e. Select the default Public IP address.

    f. Leave the VM in the Basic Network Security Group.

    g. Open the HTTP (80), HTTPS (443), SSH (22), and RDP (3389) ports.

    h. Select No extensions.

    i. Select Enabled for the Boot diagnostics.

    j. Leave the Guest OS diagnostics set to Disabled.

    k. Leave the default Diagnostics storage account.

    l. Select OK.

  6. Review the summary of your Commvault VM after it has passed validation. Select OK.

Get your service principal

You will need to know if your identity manager is Microsoft Entra ID or AD FS. The following table contains the information you will need to set up the Commvault in your Azure Stack Hub.

Element Source
Azure Resource Manager URL The Azure Stack Hub Resource Manager endpoint
Application name
Application ID The ID assigned to the service principal when the application was registered
Subscription ID Created when you subscribe to offers in Azure Stack Hub
Tenant ID (Directory ID) The ID assigned to your Active Directory tenant
Application password The secret assigned to the service principal when the application was registered

Configure backup using the Commvault Console

  1. Open your RDP client and connect to the Commvault VM in your Azure Stack Hub. Enter your credentials.

  2. Install Azure Stack Hub PowerShell and Azure Stack Hub Tools on the Commvault VM.

    a. For instructions on installing Azure Stack Hub PowerShell, see Install PowerShell for Azure Stack Hub.
    b. For instructions on installing Azure Stack Hub Tools, see Download Azure Stack Hub tools from GitHub.

  3. After Commvault installs on in your Commvault VM, open the Commcell Console. From Start, select Commvault > Commvault Commcell Console.

    The Commcell console has a navigation pane on the left, titled Commcell Browser. The right pane shows a Getting Started tabbed page.

  4. Configure your backup repositories to use storage external to the Azure Stack Hub in the Commvault CommCell Console. In the CommCell Browser, select Storage Resources > Storage Pools. Right-click and select Add Storage Pool. Select Cloud.

  5. Add the name of the Storage Pool. Select Next.

  6. Select Create > Cloud Storage.

    The StorageDevice# dialog box displays the General tabbed page, with various list and text boxes for specifying the storage device to be created.

  7. Select your cloud service provider. In this procedure, we will use a second Azure Stack Hub in a different location. Select Microsoft Azure Storage.

  8. Select your Commvault VM as your MediaAgent.

  9. Enter your access information for your storage account. You can find instruction on setting up an Azure Storage account here. Access information:

    • Service host: Get the name of the URL from the Blob container properties in your resource. For example, my URL was https://backuptest.blob.westus.stackpoc.com/mybackups and I used blob.westus.stackpoc.com in Service host.

    • Account Name: Use the Storage account name. You can find this in the Access Keys blade in the storage resource.

    • Access Key: Get the access key from the Access Keys blade in the storage resource.

    • Container: The name of the container. In this case, mybackups.

    • Storage Class: Leave as User container's default storage class.

  10. Create a Microsoft Azure Stack Hub Client by following the instructions at Creating a Microsoft Azure Stack Hub Client

    The Create Azure Stack Client dialog box has list and text boxes for specifying the characteristics of the client.

  11. Select the VMs or Resource Groups to protect and attach a backup policy.

  12. Configure your backup schedule to match your RPO requirements for Recovery.

  13. Perform the first full backup.

Configure Commvault Live Sync

Two options are available. You can choose to replicate changes from the primary copy of backups or replicate changes from a secondary copy to the recovery VM. Replicating from a Backup Set eliminates the Read IO impact on the source machine.

  1. During the configuration of Live Sync, you will need to provide the source Azure Stack Hub (Virtual Server Agent) and the target Azure Stack Hub details.

  2. For the steps to configure Commvault Live Sync, see Live Sync Replication for Microsoft Azure Stack Hub.

    The Commcell console shows the tabbed page "vm-kr-cvlt > Client Computers > ASIC Azure Stack > Virtual Server > Azure Stack > defaultBackupSet". A context menu for the Off Stack Protection on the page has a Live Sync > Configuration option.

  3. During the configuration of Live Sync, you will need to provide the target Azure Stack Hub and Virtual Server Agent details.

    The Destination step of the Live Sync Options for Subclient Off Stack Protection wizard has list boxes for specifying the Virtualization Client and the Proxy Client.

  4. Continue the configuration and add the target storage account where the replica disks will be hosted, the resource group(s) where the replica VMs will be placed, and the name you would like attached to the replica VMs.

    The Virtual Machines step of the Live Sync Options for Subclient Off Stack Protection wizard allows you to add and remove VMs.

  5. You can also change the VM size and configure network settings by selecting Configure next to each VM.

  6. Set the frequency of replication to the target Azure Stack Hub

    The Job Options step of the Live Sync Options for Subclient Off Stack Protection wizard is for specifying a backup schedule.

  7. Review your settings to save the configuration. The recovery environment will then be created and replication will begin at the chosen interval.

Set up failover behavior using Live Sync

Commvault Live Sync allows you to failover machines from one Azure Stack Hub to another and failback to resume operations on the original Azure Stack Hub. The workflow is automated and logged.

The Replication Monitor page of the Admin Console shows no data available for various subpanes of the Replication RPO pane. The Replication Monitor pane shows two VMs listed. For each of them there is a row of replication information.

Select the VMs you wish to failover to your Recovery Azure Stack Hub and choose a planned or unplanned failover. A planned failover is appropriate when there is time to gracefully shut down the production environment before resuming operations in the recovery site. Planned failover shuts down the production VMs, replicates final changes to the recovery site, and brings the recovery VMs online with the latest data and applies the VM size and network configuration specified during the Live Sync configuration. An unplanned failover will attempt to shut down the production VMs, but will proceed if the production environment is unavailable and simply bring the recovery VMs online with the last received replication data set applied to the VM and the size and network configuration previously chosen. The images below illustrate an unplanned failover where the recovery VMs have been brought online by Commvault Live Sync.

The "Job summary" shows information about the disaster recovery event, including Type, Priority, "Start time", and "End time".

A list titled Events shows a single event, described as "DR Orchestration job has completed." There is other information for that event.

A list titled Phase Details shows six events for four machines. For each there is a phase name, status, start time, and end time. The phase names are Power Off, Power On, Disable Synch, and Post Operation.

Next steps

Differences and considerations for Azure Stack Hub networking