Restore Data From A Virtual Server Hard Drive Or The Entire Virtual Server In Any Region

Overview

The below steps cover how to restore either data from a Virtual Server hard drive, or the entire Virtual Server, in any region.

Impact

The only risk here is inadvertently overwriting newer files with older files. Because of this, care needs to be taken to ensure the "Alternate Location" option is used during the process.

Process

1. Log into Azure Portal and browse to Recovery Services Vaults
2. Find the Recovery Services Vault
3. Select Backup Items
4. Select Azure Virtual Machines

Select the Azure Virtual Server in question and in the lookup box to the far right (is the box with … in it) select either File Recovery or Restore Share. They are:

• File Recovery is the ability to recover one or more files to a different location than the drive
• Restore VM recovers the entire drive – or VHDX file – you cannot pick one or more files. You can restore the share to another region if your Vault is geo-replicated

Select File Recovery

Select your Restore Point

Select Download Executable

Run the executable on the machine – should be the one you want to recover data to. Needs to be in CMD prompt in Admin mode – PowerShell will not work. Enter the password from the Azure Portal. Is what starts with 'largedisk'.

The drive will be a mapped drive on the server

When you are done – click the Unmount Disks button.

The restoration of files should be complete.

Starting here we are going to Restore the VM. To do this start in the same Recovery Service Vault, select the server and click the lookup box (…), and select Restore VM.

Select a restore point

Select Create New (you can do replace the existing ONLY if the VM in question is damaged and cannot be repaired).

1. Restore Type: Create a new virtual machine

• Virtual Machine Name
• Subscription (select the subscription for the client you are restoring this for)
• Resource Group (Select the resource group for the client you are restoring this for).
• Virtual Network (Select the virtual network for the client you are restoring this for)
• Subnet (Select the subnet for the client you are restoring this for).
• Staging Location (select a location that is part of the client’s infrastructure).
• Click Restore

When done you will have a new server – you will need to validate the IP address and name of the server.

Verification Process

Ensure that the files have been restored to the proper location, or that a new server has been created in Azure.

Summary

We learned how to restore either Data from a Virtual Server Hard drive, or the entire Virtual Server, in any Region. Please leave a comment in the comment box if you have any questions.