Use the ASDK to validate an Azure Stack backup

• 02/15/2019
• 7 minutes to read
• Contributors
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After deploying Azure Stack and provisioning user resources such as offers, plans, quotas, and subscriptions, you should enable Azure Stack infrastructure backup. Scheduling and running regular infrastructure backups will ensure that infrastructure management data is not lost if there is a catastrophic hardware or service failure.

Azure Stack infrastructure backups contain important data about your cloud that can be restored during redeployment of Azure Stack. You can use the ASDK to validate these backups without impacting your production cloud.

Validating backups on ASDK is supported for the following scenarios:

The following scenario is not supported when validating backups on the ASDK:

Cloud recovery deployment

Infrastructure backups from your integrated systems deployment can be validated by performing a cloud recovery deployment of the ASDK. In this type of deployment, specific service data is restored from backup after the ASDK is installed on the host computer.

Cloud recovery prerequisites

Before starting a cloud recovery deployment of the ASDK, ensure that you have the following information:

UI installer requirements

Current UI installer only supports encryption key

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PowerShell installer requirements

Current PowerShell installer supports encryption key or decryption certificate

Prepare the host computer

As in a normal ASDK deployment, the ASDK host system environment must be prepared for installation. When the development kit host computer has been prepared, it will boot from the CloudBuilder.vhdx virtual machine hard drive to begin ASDK deployment.

On the ASDK host computer, download a new cloudbuilder.vhdx corresponding to the same version of Azure Stack that was backed up, and follow the instructions for preparing the ASDK host computer.

After the host server restarts from the cloudbuilder.vhdx, you must create a file share and copy your backup data into. The file share should be accessible to the account running setup; Administrator in these example PowerShell commands:

$shares = New-Item -Path "c:\" -Name "Shares" -ItemType "directory"
$azsbackupshare = New-Item -Path $shares.FullName -Name "AzSBackups" -ItemType "directory"
New-SmbShare -Path $azsbackupshare.FullName -FullAccess ($env:computername + "\Administrator")  -Name "AzSBackups"

Next, copy your latest Azure Stack backup files to the newly created share. The folder structure within the share should be: \\<ComputerName>\AzSBackups\MASBackup\<BackupID>\.

Finally, copy the decryption certificate (.pfx) to the certificate directory: C:\CloudDeployment\Setup\Certificates\ and rename the file to BackupDecryptionCert.pfx.

Deploy the ASDK in cloud recovery mode

Use the installer UI to deploy the ASDK in recovery mode

The steps in this section show you how to deploy the ASDK using a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by downloading and running the asdk-installer.ps1 PowerShell script.

1. After the host computer successfully boots into the CloudBuilder.vhdx image, sign in using the administrator credentials specified when you prepared the development kit host computer for ASDK installation. This should be the same as the development kit host local administrator credentials.

2. Open an elevated PowerShell console and run the <drive letter>\AzureStack_Installer\asdk-installer.ps1 PowerShell script. The script might now be on a different drive than C:\ in the CloudBuilder.vhdx image. Click Recover.

   

3. Enter your Azure AD directory information (optional) and the local administrator password for the ASDK host computer on the identity provider and credentials page. Click Next.

   

4. Select the network adapter to be used by the ASDK host computer and click Next. All other network interfaces will be disabled during ASDK installation.

   

5. On the Network Configuration page, provide valid time server and DNS forwarder IP addresses. Click Next.

   

6. When network interface card properties have been verified, click Next.

   

7. Provide the required information described earlier in prerequisites section on the Backup Settings page and the username and password to be used to access the share. Click Next:

   

8. Review the deployment script to be used for deploying the ASDK on the Summary page. Click Deploy to begin deployment.

   

Use PowerShell to deploy the ASDK in recovery mode

Modify the following PowerShell commands for your environment and run them to deploy the ASDK in cloud recovery mode:

Use the InstallAzureStackPOC.ps1 script to initiate cloud recovery with encryption key.

cd C:\CloudDeployment\Setup     
$adminpass = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Local Administrator password"
$certPass = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Password for the external certificate"
$backupstorecredential = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Credential for backup share"
$key = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Your backup encryption key"

.\InstallAzureStackPOC.ps1 -AdminPassword $adminpass `
 -BackupStorePath ("\\" + $env:COMPUTERNAME + "\AzSBackups") `
 -BackupEncryptionKeyBase64 $key `
 -BackupStoreCredential $backupstorecredential `
 -BackupId "<Backup ID to restore>" `
 -TimeServer "<Valid time server IP>" -ExternalCertPassword $certPass

Use the InstallAzureStackPOC.ps1 script to initiate cloud recovery with decryption certificate.

cd C:\CloudDeployment\Setup     
$adminpass = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Local Administrator password"
$certPass = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Password for the external certificate"
$backupstorecredential = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Credential for backup share"
$decryptioncertpassword  = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Password for the decryption certificate"

.\InstallAzureStackPOC.ps1 -AdminPassword $adminpass `
 -BackupStorePath ("\\" + $env:COMPUTERNAME + "\AzSBackups") `
 -BackupDecryptionCertPassword $decryptioncertpassword `
 -BackupStoreCredential $backupstorecredential `
 -BackupId "<Backup ID to restore>" `
 -TimeServer "<Valid time server IP>" -ExternalCertPassword $certPass

Complete cloud recovery

After a successful cloud recovery deployment, you need to complete the restore using the Restore-AzureStack cmdlet.

After logging in as the Azure Stack operator, install Azure Stack PowerShell and run the following commands to specify the certificate and password to be used when restoring from backup:

Recovery mode with certificate file

$decryptioncertpassword = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Password for the decryption certificate"
Restore-AzsBackup -ResourceId "<BackupID>" `
 -DecryptionCertPath "<path to decryption certificate with file name (.pfx)>" `
 -DecryptionCertPassword $decryptioncertpassword

Recovery mode with encryption key

$decryptioncertpassword = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Password for the decryption certificate"
Restore-AzsBackup -ResourceId "<BackupID>"

Wait 60 minutes after calling this cmdlet to start verification of backup data on the cloud recovered ASDK.

Next steps

Register Azure Stack