Azure Backup and DR: Cross-Region Restore – Exploring Solutions

Azure Backup and DR: Cross-region restore – Explore solutions

When developing a disaster recovery (DR) plan, customers often face challenges that require creative solutions, especially when capacity issues limit the options available in Azure paired regions. This article explores a real-world scenario and evaluates possible solutions to address cross-region restore requirements using Azure Backup.

Use cases

Customers want to implement a DR plan based on the following requirements:

1. Host application in a specific “XYZ” region.
2. For critical applications, set up passive nodes in other regions.
3. For less critical applications, use Azure Backup to take advantage of cross-region restore capabilities for VMs.

problem

The customer is facing capacity constraints in the Azure region associated with “XYZ”. As a result, they are exploring options to build DRs in alternative regions outside of their paired regions.

challenge

The key questions are: Is there a way to redirect Azure Backup’s cross-region restore feature to a region outside of its primary paired region? Or is there another solution to restore a VM in an unpaired region?

Solution 1: Use Azure Site Recovery (ASR)

based Azure Backup According to the documentation, VMs can only be restored to the original or paired region. This is problematic if the paired region lacks the required capacity.

In this case, Azure Site Recovery (ASR) This may be an alternative solution. For more information about Azure Site Recovery, see the following resources:

However, the problem with this solution is that ASR is ideal for: Azure virtual machine. Our customer’s scenario includes a SQL and PostgreSQL environment that requires: Application-level consistency. ASR may not be able to guarantee the consistency required for such databases, forcing customers to seek alternative solutions.

Solution 2: Leverage a third-party solution

Solution 1 does not fully meet your requirements, so an alternative approach is to use: Third party backup solution You can copy your backup data to a region of your choice. Notable options include:

For more insights, check out: Veeam vs. Rubrik: Why Veeam is the Better Choice.

Solution 3: Azure’s upcoming features for regional flexibility

If your customers don’t prefer third-party solutions, there’s good news. Azure Backup currently limits cross-region restores to the paired region, but Azure Product Group (PG) We are actively developing new features that will allow our customers to: Replicate your backup data between two selected regions.. This feature is expected to be included Preview until Q1 2025.

In the meantime, as a workaround, customers can use: AzCopy Manually transfer backup data between regions. However, it is important to note that this method is important. Not supported for all workloads..

For more information, see: