Users are advised to research features of Azure before using them with Rapid Recovery. Proper research enables you to balance your needs, preferences, and costs.
Take the example of an Azure storage account, which contains data objects: Binary Large OBjects (or “blobs”,) files, queues, tables, and disks. When creating an Azure storage account, consider the following aspects:
When performing virtual export to Azure, you must select or create a storage account that supports the relevant type of blobs. For export, Rapid Recovery uses page blobs, which are a collection of 512-byte pages optimized for random read and write operations. Azure now supports a maximum page blob size of 8TB. Eventually, this Azure restriction is likely to be increased in the future. Accordingly, as of release 6.4, Rapid Recovery Core has doubled the supported maximum data disk size for virtual export and deploy to Azure from 4TB to 8TB.
Azure storage offers different access tiers, which affect cost, restrict data types, affect speed of access, and apply to the frequency of use. Select the Azure storage account kind that best reflects your needs.
For Azure storage, there are 3 account kinds, which is relevant when determining which blobs you want to store and how quickly or often you need to access them. These are shown in the following table:
Kind | Description | Recommendations |
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Storage (general purpose v1), or GPV1 | Legacy storage type. Supports page blobs, required for virtual export. Does not have an access tier. | Can be used for virtual export or archiving to Azure. Microsoft documentation suggests using GPV2 instead when possible. |
Storage V2 (general purpose v2), or GPV2 | Contemporary and default storage account type. Supports page blobs, required for virtual export. Lets you select an access tier when creating the storage account. Incorporates all of the functionality of GPV1 and BlobStorage accounts. | Recommended by Microsoft. Hot access tier has higher storage costs, but the lowest access costs. Use GPV2 with hot access tier for continual export to Azure; consider GPV2 with cool access tier for one-time export. |
BlobStorage | Legacy account kind. Supports only block and append blobs, not page blobs, and thus does not support virtual export. Lets you select an access tier when creating the storage account. | Can be used for archiving but not for virtual export. Microsoft documentation suggests using GPV2 instead when possible. |
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NOTE: You can upgrade a GPV1 or BlobStorage account to a GPV2 account with no downtime and without the need to copy data. For more information, see Azure article Upgrade to a General-purpose v2 storage account. |
You must have administrative access to an account on Azure.
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NOTE: The Microsoft Azure interface is subject to change. For more information, see Azure interface disclaimer. |
To perform certain functions (including virtual export from Rapid Recovery Core to an Azure account), you must first create a storage account on Azure.
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NOTE: When creating a storage account, many of the options have additional information available by clicking the information icon. Place your cursor over the icon for more information. |
Complete the steps in this procedure to create an Azure storage account.
Option | Description | ||
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Subscription |
Required. Select the subscription into which you want this storage account to be created. | ||
Resource group |
Required. Select the resource group in which you want this storage account to be created.
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Storage account name |
Required. Provide a clear unique description for your storage account, using between 3 and 24 characters consisting only of lower-case letters and numbers. For example, companyabcstorage1. | ||
Location |
Required. Choose the appropriate Azure region. | ||
Performance |
Select Standard or Premium. | ||
Account kind |
Select an account kind. The default, StorageV2 (general purpose v2), is recommended for most scenarios. | ||
Replication |
Choose a replication strategy for your storage account. The default is Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS). | ||
Access tier (default) |
Choose from Cool or Hot, based on frequency of access. |
NOTE: Restrict the name to letters, numbers, underscores, periods, or hyphens. See additional name restrictions in the Azure UI. |
The Advanced page closes and the virtual network you created is selected.
You see a message indicating that the deployment of your storage account has started. If toast alerts are active, you see another message when the deployment is completed.
The following items are prerequisites:
When you perform virtual export, the information is stored in a container within an Azure storage account. You can define the container from your Azure account before performing virtual export, using the procedure below.
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NOTE: If you do not define containers in advance, you can choose default containers (named export and deploy, respectively) |
Complete the steps in this procedure to create a container in an Azure storage account.
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NOTE: Type a name between 3 and 63 characters, using only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. |
Option | Description |
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Private (no anonymous access) | This option restricts the container to the account owner. |
Blob (anonymous read access for blobs only) | This option allows public read access for Binary Large Objects (Blobs). |
Container (anonymous read access for containers and blobs) | This option allows public read and list access to the entire container. |
The Blob service page refreshes, with the new container name displayed in the list.
Perform these steps before attempting virtual export to Azure.
You must use an Azure Active Directory (AD) web application to serve as a connection between your Rapid Recovery Core and your Azure subscription. After creating the web application, record its application ID, and create a secret key associated with the application.
You should also gather the tenant ID. Finally, associate the appropriate privileges to your web application.
Complete the steps in this procedure to create an Azure AD web application with the appropriate keys and privileges.
The details pane for your web application appears.
Caution: Immediately record the secret key description and value in a secure location for the long term. If you do not retain the secret key for your Azure AD web application when you create it, it cannot be recovered. |
The Add permissions dialog box appears.
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