Azure IaaS workload protection using Data Protection Manager

System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) is an established backup product for protecting Microsoft on-premise workloads. As our customers move some or all of their infrastructure to Azure, a key ask is the ability to back up workloads now running in Azure. In order to cater to this need, we now support DPM running in an Azure IaaS VM, to protect Azure IaaS workloads.

Supported deployment

Figure 1: Supported deployment of DPM in Azure for workload protection

Supported deployment of DPM in Azure for workload protection

The supported configuration is illustrated in the above diagram. The DPM installation prerequisites remain the same, as described in the TechNet documentation.

• DPM is supported on any Azure IaaS virtual machine that is size A2 or higher.
• DPM can protect workloads that run across multiple Azure cloud services that have the same Azure virtual network and Azure subscription.
• The number of disks that can be used for the target storage (DPM storage pool) is limited by the size of the virtual machine (maximum of 16). For more information about size limits, see Azure Virtual Machines.

Recommendations for setting up DPM as an Azure virtual machine

1. Create an instance in the Standard compute tier because the maximum IOPS per attached disk is higher in the Standard tier than in the Basic tier.
2. Use a separate storage account for the DPM virtual machine, because there are size and IOPS limits on a storage account that might impact the performance of the DPM virtual machine if shared with other running virtual machines.
3. The DPM virtual machine should have network connectivity to the Active Directory domain controller and the protected workloads. Additionally the DPM virtual machine and the protected workload should be on the same or trusted domain for trusted communication with the domain controller.
4. The following table summarizes the maximum number of protected workloads for each DPM virtual machine size. The information is based on internal performance and scale tests with canonical values for the workload size and churn. The actual workload size can be larger but should be accommodated by the disks attached to the DPM virtual machine.
   

   DPM VM size	Max. number of protected workloads	Avg. workload size	Avg. workload churn	Sample workload
   A2	20	100 GB	Net 5% churn daily	SQL, File server
   A3	40	150 GB	Net 10% churn daily	SQL, File server
   A4	60	200 GB	Net 15% churn daily	SQL, File server

5. Retain data for one day on DPM-attached storage, and store data older than one day in the Azure Backup service. The goal is to protect a larger amount of data or have a longer retention range. Offloading backup data from DPM to Azure Backup provides retention flexibility without the need to scale the storage attached to the DPM server.

Protecting workloads

Use the console in the DPM virtual machine to perform all the standard backup operations like installing the DPM agent, setting up the protection group, recovering data, and monitoring backup and recovery jobs. DPM running as an Azure virtual machine also works seamlessly with the Azure Backup service to protect certain supported workloads. See the documentation on TechNet for more information.

Supported workloads

Only a subset of the workloads supported by DPM on-premise are supported for protection in an Azure deployment. The table below summarizes the backup support for Azure-supported workloads. Workloads that are not supported in Azure are not included in the table.

Key Takeaways

1. DPM can now run as an Azure IaaS virtual machine
2. Customers can protect workloads running in Azure IaaS virtual machines using DPM

To learn more, check out the DPM blog or click on the relevant links below to get started and do send us your comments and feedback!

• Existing DPM and Azure customers – download Update Rollup 3 for DPM and the new Azure backup agent.
• Existing DPM customer, but have not yet tried Azure? Click for a free Azure trial subscription to get started!
• If you are new to DPM, get introduced to Hyper-V backups at private cloud scale.
• The Azure Backup User Forum is a channel to solicit feedback and asks from customers.
• The Windows Azure Backup forum is also a great place to start for any support queries related to Azure Backup.
• The System Center Data Protection Manager forums can be used for any support queries related to DPM.