Design a Backup Strategy for Azure Virtual Desktop
A backup is required if you want to retrieve old data or accidentally deleted data.
As we discussed earlier, the backup and disaster both are different. Disaster allows you to continue service access during disaster in your primary region, but it will not allow you to retrieve old data in case something goes wrong with the user data. Backups can be taken in the same region using the Azure native service called Azure Backup.
You can protect your data by taking backups at regular intervals, via a backup policy. Azure Backup creates recovery points that can be stored in georedundant recovery vaults. See Figure 10-45.
Figure 10-45. Azure Backup
A comprehensive backup strategy is an essential part of an organization’s cyber safety. It can be defined as an administrator’s plan to ensure critical organizational data is backed up and available for restore in the case of a data loss event. A backup strategy, along with a disaster recovery plan, is a better business continuity plan, which allows an organization to recover with zero-to-minimal damage to the business, data, and reputation.
Here we’ll detail four steps to develop a backup strategy for the enterprise.
\ 1.\ Determine what data has to be backed up: When it comes to data, “everything” will probably be your answer. However, thelevel of data protection will vary based on how critical it is to restore that data. Your organization’s recovery time objective (RTO), which is the maximum acceptable length of time required for an organization to recover lost data and get back up and running, is a reliable benchmark when forming your backup strategy. The recovery time objective (RTO) can be different for each data type, and accordingly you should form your strategy for each data set.
Assess and group your applications and data into the following so that you can decide your priority:
•\ Existentially-critical for the business
•\ Mission-critical for the organization to operate
•\ Optimal-for-performance for the organization to thrive
\ 2.\ Determine how often data has to be backed up: The frequency with which you back up your data should be aligned with your organization’s recovery point objective (RPO), which is defined as the maximum allowable period between the time of data loss and the last useful backup of a known good state. Thus, the more often your data is backed up, the more likely you are to comply with your stated RPO. As a good rule of thumb, backups should be performed at least once every 24 hours to meet acceptable standards of most organizations, but if the data is more/less important, then you should define your backup schedule strategy accordingly.
\ 3.\ Identify and implement a suitable backup and recovery solution: Based on your organization’s requirements, you need toidentify a suitable backup solution as part of your backup strategy. Azure Backup is the most preferred and suitable solution when it comes to Azure Virtual Desktop or any other cloud service backup, but if you already have backup solution, then make sure it’s compatible and suitable for Azure Virtual Desktop.
\ 4.\ Test and monitor your backup system: Once your backup system is in place, check that the backup is successful, and the restore is smooth and accurate.
There are two major components you must have to consider in your backup plan:
•\ Personal desktop VM backup
•\ Pooled FSLogix user profile storage
A personal desktop needs to be backed up as users can store data on personal desktop and it should be protected with any backup tool.
For pooled desktops, VMs are not required to be backed up, because user data will be there in the user profile storage, so you have to plan a backup option for the user profile data for pooled desktops.