Rapid Recovery 6.9 - Azure Setup Guide

This procedure includes general guidance for creating a VM in Azure to serve as your Rapid Recovery Core, and configuring the required speed, networking and compute resources. Available resources may include VM disk type, number of virtual CPUs, amount of random access memory (RAM), and performance range (measured in Input/Output Per Second, or IOPS). You may be prompted for other Azure options such as disk support type and load balancing. Because the Azure interface changes frequently, some steps may not match precisely. Conceptually, this procedure includes the following aspects:

• Locating the Rapid Recovery Core VM template in the Azure marketplace and adding it to your subscription.
• Configuring the VM basic settings. These may include VM name, authentication information, and properties such as resource group and location.
• Choosing the VM size. While details for this option often change, this step involves selecting a disk type (solid state or standard hard disk drive). Choose an option with enough RAM and Input/Output per Second (IOPS).
• Configure optional features. These may include managed disks, network and IP address settings, security group settings (which may include public inbound ports), and other Azure options such as auto shut-down, monitoring, and so on.
• Review the summary, which includes a cost per hour to run the VM with the selected attributes.

NOTE: The configuration options and resources you select can affect your hourly cost to operate the VM. before you click Create, you can confirm the price per hour for your selected configuration.

Caution: Once you enable the VM, you incur hourly charges in your Azure subscription for the duration of time that the VM is allocated. To perform regular backups or replication, the VM must be enabled and allocated. When not using your Rapid Recovery Core VM, you can de-allocate the VM, which pauses hourly billing. The VM remains associated with your subscription but does not incur hourly charges until it is allocated.

For more information about Azure configurations and pricing, see the virtual machines pricing page on the Azure website. For links to other useful references on Microsoft websites, see Microsoft Azure documentation.

This procedure assumes you have not yet created your Core VM.

Follow this procedure to create your Rapid Recovery Core VM.

1. Log into your Azure subscription.
2. From the left Azure navigate menu, click Create a resource to access the Azure marketplace.
3. In the Search the Marketplace field, type Rapid Recovery Core and then press Enter.
4. Click to select the Rapid Recovery Core VM in the Compute category.

   A Description pane expands on the right side, showing information about the Core VM. Optionally, read information about Rapid Recovery Core and explore the web links. Note that this VM uses the Resource Manager model.

5. In the bottom of the Description pane, click Create.

   The Create Virtual Machine pane appears, listing the 4 basic steps required for this process. To the right, the Basics pane appears, with prompts for basic information about your VM.

6. Configure basic VM settings, as appropriate.

   While basic settings available in the Azure UI may change, please note the following:

   • Name refers to the name you want to use for the virtual machine.
   • The values you provide in the Username and Password fields define login credentials for the Windows user account on the virtual machine. When you connect to the VM in the future, use these credentials.
   • A Resource group is a unique name Azure Resource Manager applies to resources (associated with your current Azure subscription only) that groups resources together.
   • If you own a Windows license than you can apply to this VM, you can select an option that will result in a less expensive overall VM cost. Other steps are required as directed in the Azure UI.

   When satisfied, click OK. The Choose a size pane appears. You can search or filter to select from various VM size configurations.

7. Configure VM size settings, as appropriate, noting the following considerations:
   • The VM sizes that appear in the list are relevant for the selected disk type (SSD or HDD).
   • Some VM sizes that meet minimum requirements are marked with a star . If those sizes are not clearly displayed, click the Recommended column to sort the view using this criterion.
   • You can select any VM size that meets or exceeds the sizes of the recommended VMs. However, you cannot change the VM size for your Core in Azure later, so consider the intended use.
   • The processing, compute, and memory resources you select determine the robustness of your Rapid Recovery Core VM. Physical Rapid Recovery Cores in release 6.9 require a minimum of 8GB RAM and quad-core processor; these are minimum recommended specifications. The minimum disk size is not relevant, since repository storage is considered separately.
     
   
   When satisfied, click Select. Your selections are saved and the Settings pane appears.
8. Configure optional features, as appropriate, noting the following considerations:
   • If you select high availability, you must reside in a region supporting availability zones. This requires using managed disks. For more information, see Overview of Availability Zones in Azure.
   • If prompted to specify public inbound ports, specify RDP at minimum, since you must connect to your Azure VM by Remote Desktop Protocol after it has been created.
   • If your Core requires other ports to be opened, select the appropriate options. For example, if your Core also requires SQL Server, select MS SQL.

     Caution: Quest strongly recommends avoiding Azure's Auto-shutdown feature. Allowing Azure to shut down the VM without gracefully stopping the Rapid Recovery Core service may lead to repository corruption or data inconsistencies.

   • For more information about the options available, see Azure documentation.

   When satisfied, click OK. Your selections are validated, and the Create pane appears.

9. Review a summary of your VM configuration options, including the estimated hourly cost for running the VM on Azure These costs are charged by Microsoft on a monthly basis according to your subscription details and usage. When satisfied, click Create.

When the VM creation and deployment is complete, the VM creation options window closes, and the Azure dashboard displays. While the VM deploys, you can see a representation of it on the desktop. When complete, a notification appears briefly, and an overview with details for your VM appears in Azure.