Monitor and back up Azure resources Flashcards
Describe ‘Azure Backup’
Provides backup solutions for all Azure-managed data assets.
Define Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
Target time within which a business process must be restored after a disaster occurs to avoid unacceptable consequences.
Define Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
The max time of acceptable data loss that is not detrimental to operations; Frequency at which backups should occur.
What are the four components of the Azure backup service?
- Workload integration layer - Backup Extension
- Access tiers - Data Plane
- Availability and Security - Data Plane
- Management Plane – Recovery Services vault/Backup vault and Backup center
Where is the data backed up by Azure backup service stored?
Stores backed-up data in vaults.
Describe the functionality of the vaults Azure backup services stores backed up data?
An online-storage entity in Azure that’s used to hold data such as backup copies, recovery points, and backup policies.
What are the two types of Azure backup service vaults?
Recovery Services vaults and Backup vaults.
What are the two backup methods Azure backup service offers?
Supports full backups and incremental backups.
What are the four additional backup methods does Azure backup service offer only for SQL servers?
Differential (Incremental); Multiple backups per day; Selective disk backup; Transaction Log.
Describe the Multiple backups per day method Azure backup service offers for SQL servers
Enhanced backup policy to set the backup schedule to 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24 hours.
Describe the selective disk backup method Azure backup service offers for SQL servers
Enhanced backup policy; Selectively back up a subset of the data disks.
Describe the Transaction Log backup method Azure backup service offers for SQL servers
Point-in-time restoration from 15 minutes up to a specific second.
Define the ‘Backup Extension/Workload integration layer’
Agent installed on the source and generates the backup.
How is the backup data transported/transferred?
Transferred to the data plane (Azure Backup managed storage) via secure Azure network connections.
Describe the ‘Access tier/Data plane’
Tiers where data are stored based on the type of type of backup.
What are the 3 access tiers in the data plane that store backups from Azure backup service?
- Snapshot tier
- Vault-Standard tier
- Archive tier
Describe the snapshot tier in the data plane of Azure backup service
Specific storage Azure file snapshots and Azure blob snapshots (including data disks and VMs).
What the the purpose of the snapshot tier in the data plane of Azure backup service?
Snapshot-tier restores are faster because they eliminate the wait time for snapshots to get copied to from the vault.
How is the snapshot tier faster than the tiers that utilize the vault?
Data in this tier is retained in the customer’s subscription itself in a specified resource group.
The ensure redundancy, where is an extra copy of data stored in the snapshot tier located?
There’s a copy of the backup data in both the snapshot tier and the vault-standard tier.
Describe the ‘Vault-Standard tier - data plane’
Where backup data for all workloads supported by Azure Backup is stored;
Define a ‘vault’
An online storage tier that allows you to store an isolated copy of backup data managed by Azure backup.
Describe the ‘Archive tier’
Storage tier for Long-Term Retention (LTR) backup data with retention needs typically defined by compliance rules.
After data is stored, how does Azure ensure availability in the data plane?
Data is replicated to another failure domain based on a replication service chosen by the customer.
After data is stored, how does Azure ensure security in the data plane?
By encrypting it and implementing Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC).
How does Azure backup service provide protection against accidental deletion of a backup?
By using soft-delete operations; Deleted backup is stored for 14 days, free of charge.
How can backups be managed to ensure they don’t take up too much space
Backup retention policies with backup data lifecycle management.
What is the logical assignment of a vault?
In the management plane because its used to orchestrate and manage backups with policies.
What tool can you use to manage backups spanning multiple workload types, vaults, subscriptions, regions, and Azure Lighthouse tenants?
Backup center.
What are the four backup services Microsoft Azure offers for VMs?
- Azure Backup
- Azure managed disks images
- Azure managed disks snapshots
- Azure Site Recovery
Describe how Azure backup performs backups for VMs
Takes a snapshot of the VM and stores the data as recovery points in vaults.
When resorting a VM from Azure backup, what are the restore methods available?
Restore the entire VM or specific files only.
Describe ‘Azure Site Recovery’
Protects your virtual machines from a major disaster scenario when a whole region experiences an outage due
Describe ‘Azure managed disks - snapshot’
A read-only full copy of a managed disk that’s stored as a standard managed disk by default.
How is a managed disk snapshot billed?
For the total amount of backup data.
Describe ‘Azure managed disks - image’
Captures a single image that contains all managed disks associated with a virtual machine, including both the operating system and data disks.
What are the two phases performed by the backup job/service when creating a VM snapshot?
- Snapshot of the VM data
- Transfer the snapshot to an Azure Recovery Services vault
What is the default recovery point objective Azure keeps snapshots for?
2 days.
What is the most amount time the default retention value can be set to?
5 days.
How are incremental backups stored in Azure backup or what are they stored as?
Stored as page blobs (Azure Disks).
Can a snapshot be recovered in-between phase 1 and phase 2 of the backup job/service?
Yes
Where is the backup data from phase 1 in the backup job/service stored?
Local Redundancy Service; in a specified resource group.
What is the purpose of the ‘Azure Recovery Services vault’
To store copies of data, or configuration information for virtual machines, workloads, servers, or workstations.
What are the required steps to implement Azure backup?
- Create a Recovery Services vault
- Define backup policy options
- Backup VMs
What are the two replication options to choose from when creating a recovery services vault?
Geo-redundant (GRS) is the default or Locally Redundancy (LRS).
What is the purpose of a backup policy?
Specifies when to take the data snapshots, and how long to keep the snapshots.
What do stored snapshots represent?
A recovery point of the data.
What is required for the backup job/service to operate and perform phase 1 and 2?
Requires the Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Agent to be present on your Azure virtual machine.
Which Azure backup service can be used to backup physical servers, on-prem VMs, and AWS VMs?
Azure Site Recovery
What’s the best backup method for a company’s production virtual machines?
Azure Backup
Define ‘Azure Monitor’
Solution for collecting, analyzing, and responding to telemetry data from on-premises and cloud environments.
What does monitoring a system consist of?
Collecting and analyzing data.
What is the data collected by Azure Monitor used for?
Used to determine the performance, health, and availability of applications resources.
What are the 4 categories of services Azure Monitor offers?
- Core
- Application
- Infrastructure
- Shared Capabilities
What are the two types of data Azure monitor collects?
- Metrics
- Logs
Describe ‘Metrics’
Numerical values that describe some aspect of a system (compute power/performance) at a particular point in time.
Describe ‘Logs’
Data organized into records with different sets of properties for each type.
What are the general sources Azure monitor can collect data from?
Apps; OS; Services/Resources/Dependencies; APIs.
When does Azure Monitor begin collecting data on cloud resources?
As soon as you create your Azure subscription and add resources.
Where are logs regarding the creation or modification of resources stored?
Stored in Azure Monitor activity logs.
What are the 5 tiers of Azure Monitoring data?
- Application
- Guest OS
- Azure resource
- Azure subscription
- Azure tenant
What monitoring data is stored in the Azure Monitor application tier?
Contains monitoring data about the performance and functionality of application code.
What monitoring data is stored in the Azure Monitor Guest OS tier?
Data about the operating system on which your application is running.
What monitoring data is stored in the Azure Monitor resource tier?
Data about the operation of any Azure based resource including consumption details.
What monitoring data is stored in the Azure Monitor subscription tier?
Data about the operation and management of the Azure subscription as well as the health and operation of Azure itself.
What monitoring data is stored in the Azure Monitor tenant tier?
Data about the operation of your tenant-level Azure services, such as Microsoft Entra ID.
What is the purpose/function of Azure Monitor Activity Logs
Provides insight into subscription-level events that occur in Azure; Help determine “what, who, and when” for any write operation.
What is the retention period for Azure Monitor activity logs?
90 days.
What is the purpose of Azure Log Analytic(s)?
A tool in Azure Monitor to edit and run log queries for the data collected in Azure Monitor Logs.
What is the first step in utilizing log analytics in Azure Monitor?
Create a workspace.
What is unique to each workspace in log analytics?
Workspace ID and resource ID.
What is the purpose of a workspace?
The configured destination for the sources to send data for analysis and storage.
How is data stored in the log analytics workspace?
In tables
Describe ‘Azure Network Watcher’
Monitor, diagnose, and manage resources in an Azure virtual network.
Describe is the function of the ‘IP flow verify’ feature of Azure Network Watcher
To monitor, diagnose, and manage resources in an Azure virtual network.
What is the purpose of ‘IP flow verify’
Helping to ensure correct application of your security rules in an NSG.
If IP flow verify in Network Watcher fails, but the cause is not the NSG, what is the next course of action?
Explore other areas, such as firewall restrictions.
Describe is the function of the ‘Next hop’ feature of Azure Network Watcher
View the next hop in a network route to analyzing routing configuration.
Describe is the function of the ‘NSG diagnostics’ feature of Azure Network Watcher
Map IP traffic through a network security group.
Describe is the function of the ‘Connection troubleshoot’ feature of Azure Network Watcher
Check a direct TCP or ICMP connection from a virtual machine, application gateway, or Azure Bastion host to a virtual machine.
What is the purpose of the next hop feature of Azure Network Watcher?
Checks if traffic is being directed to the intended destination or next hop of if a route is broken.
What is the purpose of the Network Watcher feature ‘topology’
Generates a visual diagram of the resources in a virtual network/infrastructure.
What are the 4 components of an alert rule in Azure Monitor?
- Resource/target
- Condition - Metric; Activity; Log
- Action
- Alert Details
What triggers an alert?
A specified threshold.
Define a static metric alert
Static conditions and thresholds that you define.
Define a dynamic metric alert
Use machine-learning tools that Azure provides to automatically improve the accuracy of the thresholds defined by the initial rule.
What are the two parameters defined when configuring dynamic threshold alerts?
- look-back period
- number of violations
How is a ‘dimension’ created?
Define one metric alert rule and have it applied to multiple related instances.
What does a log alert rule consist of?
Log query (specified query); Time range/period; Frequency; Threshold.
What are the two types of log alert search results?
- Number of records
- Metric measurement
Describe the ‘number of records’ log search
Returns a single alert when the number of records in a search result reaches or exceeds the value for the number of records (threshold).
Describe the ‘Metric measurement’ log search
Triggered when a range of criteria that defines a patter or trend is found.
What are the four criteria used to define a metric measurement log search?
- Aggregate function
- Group field
- Interval
- Threshold
How are users or admin notified of alerts in Azure Monitor?
Action groups containing actions and users to contact are notified.
What type of data does Azure Monitor collect automatically?
Azure Monitor Metrics automatically monitors a predefined set of metrics for every Azure VM, and retains the data for 93 days with some exceptions.
How is data collected for a guest OS, workload, or application installed on a VM?
Install Azure Monitor Agent and set up a data collection rule (DCR).
Describe a ‘data collection rule (DCR)’
DCRs define what data to collect and where to send that data.
Can Azure Monitor Logs store both metrics and event logs?
Yes.
Can Azure Monitor Metrics store both metrics and event logs?
No; Azure Monitor Metrics can store only metrics data
Describe ‘VM insights’
Azure Monitor feature useful for exploring overall VM usage and performance when you don’t yet know the metric of primary interest.
What configuration is predefined in VM insights to automatically draw common Windows and Linux performance counters?
Preconfigured data collection rule (DCR).
Describe a VM insight ‘workbook’
Workbooks show performance, connections, active ports, traffic, and other collected data from one or several VMs.
What are the two main types of monitoring data that Azure Monitor collects for Azure VMs?
Metrics and logs.
What do you need to do to enable recommended alert rules when you create a VM?
Select Enable recommended alert rules on the Monitoring tab.
What’s a quick way to install the Azure Monitor Agent to collect guest OS metrics?
Select the Azure Monitor Agent when you enable VM insights.
How can you view log data collected by a DCR?
By using a KQL query in your Log Analytics workspace.
