Archiving to Microsoft Azure

In this post, we are going to look into how to replace traditional physical tape and use the public cloud to store long-term archival data. We will look into using Microsoft Azure Storage - Cool Storage Tier. Currently when writing this post Archive Storage Tier is not available in South East Asia Region.

Microsoft Azure Blob storage is divided into 3 tier
a) Hot Tier - optimize to store data that frequent use
b) Cool Tier - storing data that is infrequent access and stored for at least 30 days
c) Archive Tier - optimize to store data that is rarely accessed and stored for at least 180 days

To calculate the cost of Azure Blob Storage according to tier, you can refer to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/storage/blobs/

[Environment]

• Microsoft Azure 
• Veeam Backup & Replication
• Starwind VTL

[Pre-requisite]
1. Go to Azure Market Place, deploy Starwind VTL Appliance

2. Setup site to site vpn between on-premise and Microsoft Azure
3. Create new Azure Storage, upgrade it to v2 (Storage | Configuration | Upgrade)

Set to Cool  Access Tier

4. Add a new data disk into the VTL and point to Cool Access Tier Storage

[ Configure Starwind VTL]

1. Add Tapes and point it to Data Disk (where Cool Access Tier Storage) is located

[Configure Veeam Backup and Replication]

1. Use iscsi initiator and connect to VTL which located in Microsoft Azure.
2. Rescan your tape server and able to see drive & tape

3. Create a GFS Media Pool which the setting : Weekly -4, Monthly - 12, Yearly - 1
This pool has the retention:-

• 4 weekly
• 12 monthly
• 1 yearly

4. To protect the tape store in cloud, configure to use encryption and define the password.

5. Create a Tape Job and run the backup.

Lastly, backup successful transfer to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage (Cool Access Tier) using VTL.