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Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) vaulted backup (preview) is a streamlined, cloud-native solution to back up and restore general-purpose v2 storage accounts with a hierarchical namespace. It allows selective backup and restoration of containers, and store backups in a dedicated vault for granular control.
Note
- This feature is currently in limited preview and is available in specific regions only. See the supported regions.
- To enroll in this preview feature, fill this form and write to [email protected].
Azure Data Lake Storage backup workflow
Vaulted backup uses platform capabilities such as snapshots and object replication to copy data to the Backup vault. Object replication asynchronously copies block blobs from a source storage account to a destination backup storage account, including the blob's contents, versions, metadata, and properties.
When you configure protection, Azure Backup sets up a destination storage account within the Backup vault and applies an object replication policy at the container level for both source and destination accounts. During backup, Azure Backup places a recovery point marker on the source account and tracks its replication. After the marker is replicated to the destination, the recovery point is created.
The following diagram shows the recovery point creation process after the snapshot is taken:
Learn about the supported scenarios and limitations for Azure Data Lake Storage backup.
ADLS backup configuration and retention (preview)
The ADLS backup requires a Backup vault that provides a centralized view of configured backups. Vaulted backup is set at the storage account level, with the option to exclude containers.
Note
If an account has over 100 containers, reduce the count to <= 100. Learn about the supported container count for backup.
Backup policies manage schedules and retention, supporting daily or weekly backups and recovery point creation. Retention can be set for daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly backups and can be retained up to 10 years, with yearly rules taking priority. If no other rules are set, the default retention rule applies.
Azure Backup automatically runs scheduled jobs, replicating block blobs from the source to the destination storage account. It preserves contents, versions, metadata, and properties based on the backup frequency. Backups remain in the vault per policy and are deleted once the retention period ends.
Note
- Backup can be enabled for multiple storage accounts in a single vault using one or multiple backup policies.
- Vaulted backups support long-term retention for up to 10 years.
Backup management
After the ADLS backup configuration is complete, a backup instance is created in the Backup vault. Use it to initiate restores, monitor activity, stop protection, and perform other backup operations.
The Backup vault's managed identity needs specific permissions on storage accounts for backup and restore operations. These permissions are bundled into the Storage Account Backup Contributor role for ease of management.
You can assign the role to the Backup vault before/during configuring backup. A managed identity is a service principal exclusive to Azure resources. Learn more about managed identities.
Restoration from backups
You can restore data from any point in time where a recovery point exists. Recovery points are created when a storage account is in a protected state, and remain available for restoration as long as they fall within the retention period defined by the backup policy. You can do a granular recovery by selecting specific containers, applying a prefix-based filter, or restore the entire storage account.
Azure Backup allows restoring data from any recovery point within the retention period set by the backup policy. Recovery points are created when the storage account is in protected state, and can be used to restore until they expire as per the retention policy. This solution allows performing granular recovery by selecting containers, applying a prefix-based filter, or restoring the full storage account.
Note
- To restore a recovery point to a different subscription, request the Azure Backup team to allowlist the required subscription and grant access by using the signup form.
- Currently, the vaulted backup solution supports restoring data only to a different storage account within the same region as the vault. However, restoring data from older recovery points might result in a longer recovery time (higher Recovery Time Objective).