Windows System State Backup to Azure with Azure Backup is generally available

We are excited to announce the general availability (GA) of Windows Server System State Backup to Azure with the Azure Backup agent. We previewed the direct offsite of Windows Server System State to Azure using the Azure Backup agent earlier this year. This was a key addition to Azure Backup agent’s existing capability of backing up files and folders directly to Azure. With this GA release, the Azure Backup agent has full production support for protecting Windows File Servers, Active Directory, and IIS Web servers hosted on Windows Server 2016 all the way back to Windows Server 2008 R2. Backing up your Windows Server System State to Azure gives you a simple, secure and cost-effective way of protecting Windows Servers and enabling the recovery of dynamic OS and application configuration from Azure in the event of an IT disaster.

New features

  • Flexible backup schedule and retention policy for System State
    Now you can configure daily backups for System State at your preferred time directly from the Azure backup agent console. You can also set retention ranges for your daily, weekly and monthly system state backups. These options put you in control of managing your data.
  • Automation at scale with PowerShell
    Full PowerShell support for configuration, backup and recovery of System State so that you can automate protection of Windows Server files and configuration at scale.

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Benefits of System State Backup with Azure Backup

  • Comprehensive protection for Active Directory, File-Servers and IIS Web servers
    System State fully encapsulates Active Directory, which is the most important database in any organization and allows for targeted domain-controller recoveries. In addition, critical cluster information of File Servers and the IIS Web Server Metabase is fully contained in the Windows System State.
  • Centralized management in Azure
    Once it is backed up, all information related to System State backups across your Windows Servers is available in the Azure portal. You can also configure notifications directly from the Azure portal so you get notified of a failed backup and you can take corrective steps. You can also generate reports using Microsoft Power BI.
  • Cost-effective and secure offsite storage for Windows Server
    With pay-as-you-go Azure storage, Azure Backup eliminates on-premises infrastructure by directly backing up your Windows Server System State to Azure. Azure Backup also encrypts your backups at the source using a key that only you have access to. Additionally, enhanced security features built into Azure Backup ensure that your critical system state backups remain secure from ransomware, corruptions, and deletions.
  • Free restores
    With Azure Backup, you can restore System State files from Azure without any egress charges.

Follow the four simple steps below to start protecting Windows Servers using Azure Backup.

  1. Create an Azure Recovery Services Vault in the Azure portal
  2. Download the latest version of the Azure Backup Agent to your on-premises Windows Servers from the Azure Portal
  3. Install and Register the Agent to your Recovery Services Vault in Azure
  4. Start protecting Windows Server System State and other Files and Folders directly to Azure!

Related links and additional content

Download Microsoft Ignite 2017 session content

This script can download all the Microsoft Ignite slidedecks and videos that are available from the Ignite portal. Very useful if you want to watch all the movies and sessions once again!! In this example I’ll download only the sessions with the keyword “IaaS”. But you can also download all the content, or just by title, speaker, etc.

Download the script from Microsoft Gallery here.


\Get-IgniteSession.ps1 -DownloadFolder C:\Ignite2017 -Keyword "IaaS"

Microsoft Azure Architecture Center overview

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The Microsoft Azure Architecture Center is the place when you want to start building Cloud Services in Azure or to start using Hybrid Cloud technologies.All the things you need to know are available within the Azure Architecture Center:

  • Architecture Guides:
  • Reference Architectures;
  • Design Patterns;
  • Best Practices;
  • Design Review Checklists;
  • Scenario Guides;
  • And many, many, many more…….

Start here your Microsoft Cloud Journey with Azure Architecture Center

Veeam – 750 euro in FREE Cloud Services

Over 200,000 businesses rely on Veeam® for comprehensive, on-premises data protection. With this new program Veeam and its Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) partners provide a simple and cost effective way for customers to try backup and disaster recovery in the Cloud.

By using a VCSP, customers can avoid the cost and complexity of building and maintaining an off-site infrastructure while meeting their business and regulatory requirements for off-site backup and disaster recovery.

Extend Availability to the Cloud with Veeam Cloud Connect and Veeam partners to ensure your business remains Always-On™!

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List all VM sizes in Microsoft Azure per Location

Sometimes it’s realy useful to list all the different VM sizes in Microsoft Azure for one Location, for example ‘West Europe’. You can see for example: the VM size, the number of cores, Memory, Max disk count, OS disk size, Resource disk size, etc.

Very powerful to have an overview when choosing the right virtual machine within Microsoft Azure IaaS.


## Login to your subscription using PowerShell
Login-AzureRmAccount
## List all VM sizes in Location 'West Europe'
Get-AzureRmVMSize -Location 'West Europe'

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Free eBook: Enterprise Cloud Strategy

Together Microsoft Press and Microsoft Virtual Academy have a number of Free eBooks available for download. The latest released eBook is “Enterprise Cloud Strategy” written by Barry Briggs and Eduardo Kassner.

Enterprise Cloud Strategy outlines the benefits Enterprises can realize from adoption Microsoft Azure and the Cloud. Based on the authors real world experience they describe the details necessary to answer the most common questions Enterprises have on moving to the cloud.

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The different download formats for the book are available on the Free eBooks from Microsoft Press page, along with the full catalog of other Free eBooks that have been published. For convenience, I’ve included the file download links below:

PDF for desktop & tablet (8.75 MB)

PDF for mobile (4.70 MB)

EPUB (6.41 MB)

Mobi for Kindle (15.7 MB)

This eBook is also available Free for Amazon Kindle as well!

Demo movie: Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016

The following movie shows the power of Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016. From the local disks, to storage pools and cluster, all the layers are explained!! Very useful when you want to know exactly how Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) works.

Software Defined will be the feature! So prepare yourself….. 🙂

Microsoft Ignite 2016 Slidedeck and Video downloader

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Have you missed the Microsoft Ignite 2016 event…..no problem!! MVP Michel de Rooij has created a script to download all the content (videos and slidedecks). So you can watch all the content again.

This script will download all the Ignite 2016 slidedecks and videos that are available from Techcommunity via the OneDrive URL on the session page. Video downloads will leverage a utility which can be downloaded from https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe, and put it in the same folder as the script. The script itself will try to download the utility when the utility is not present.

Special credits goes to:
Original scraper for slidedecks by Mattias Fors, http://deploywindows.info.
Adjusted for video downloading by Michel de Rooij, http://eightwone.com
Enhancements by Scott Ladewig http://ladewig.com

Download the script here.

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