We have a load of single servers at a lot (200+) different sites to backup. We tested MABS but find it too cumbersome to install and maintain in so many locations for the benefits it gives
These are Hyper V servers will 2 windows server VMs running on them. We want to backup the whole VMs.
Azure site recovery is a nice option but doesn't keep enough history to be a true backup solution as its really a DR solution with a few days history.
The solution we have been using is to simply install the MARS agent on the Hyper V host, and backup the actual vhdx files of the production VMs. Works fine so far, we have tested restores and they work fine (ie restoring the VHDX to a new VM and they boot fine). Also tried connecting to the backup sitting in Azure from on premise server and mounting the VHDX as a drive and we can restore individual files.
It seems a bit of an odd approach but gives us a nice light footprint at each site and does work.
As far as local backups we are simply running Windows backup daily to an internal drive on the local host, then the MARS azure backup runs on a different schedule. It gives us a local backup, a cloud backup of the WHOLE VM, a simple and light install
Only two downsides we have is:
1. The local windows backup only allows FULL system restores from the last actual backup which in the case of an issue happening prior to last successful backup you are in trouble
2. Restores from Azure of a whole VM take a long time. We have 500mb/500mb internet here and a 75GB file takes 8 hours (incidentally we tried restoring the same backup file sitting in Azure to an Azure VM and very similar time)
Be interested to hear comments from anyone with good knowledge of azure backups on our approach