Case Study: Disaster Recovery Test Restore from Cloud Backups to Azure Using Veeam
Client Overview
A mid-sized enterprise specializing in retail services relies on a hybrid IT infrastructure, with critical workloads that run their whole warehouse operations which are running both on-premises and in the cloud. To ensure business continuity, the company uses Veeam Backup & Replication for data protection, storing backups on premise for performance and also in an Azure storage account for offsite disaster recovery and capacity management.s
Objectives
The company needed to validate its disaster recovery (DR) strategy by conducting a full-scale test restore from cloud backups to Azure. The goal was to assess recovery time objectives (RTOs), recovery point objectives (RPOs) to ensure they comply with their business goals and validate their disaster recovery strategy and overall operational resilience.
Challenges
- Ensuring minimal downtime while restoring critical applications.
- Validating backup integrity and data consistency.
- Testing network connectivity and application dependencies post-recovery.
- Confirming compliance with industry regulations regarding disaster recovery procedures.
Our Solution
As a Veeam partner, we recommend and implement Veeam Backup & Replication as a trusted backup and disaster recovery solution for our clients. Utilizing this software, we conducted a disaster recovery test to restore critical virtual machines (VMs) and services to Microsoft Azure, ensuring seamless failover and business continuity.
How we done it
Preparation:
- Reviewed the existing DR documentation to confirm recovery procedures and identified key business-critical systems for testing.
- Verified that all required backup copies were successfully stored in the cloud repository and accessible for recovery.
- Configured Veeam Backup & Replication for direct restore to Azure, ensuring that all necessary cloud integration settings were properly defined.
- Confirmed that the appropriate licensing was in place within both Veeam and Azure to facilitate this operation, including checking Azure subscription limits and backup retention policies.
- Established secure Azure networking by defining virtual networks, subnets, and firewall rules to accommodate restored workloads while maintaining strict security controls.
- Reviewed and adjusted IAM roles and permissions in Azure to ensure only authorized users had access to recovery resources.
Initiating Restore:
- Selected the latest cloud-stored backups for critical workloads and verified backup integrity before initiating the restore process.
- Utilized Veeam’s “Direct Restore to Azure” feature, selecting appropriate VM configurations such as size, storage type, and region to optimize performance and cost.
- Monitored data transfer speeds, ensuring that the bandwidth allocation did not impact production workloads or exceed cost thresholds.
- Ensured restored VMs were provisioned within the expected timeframe and validated that they were correctly assigned to predefined Azure resource groups.
Validation & Testing:
- Conducted a thorough integrity check of restored VMs to confirm successful recovery and operational status.
- Performed comprehensive application and service-level tests to validate system dependencies, including database connectivity, authentication mechanisms, and third-party service integrations.
- Simulated real-world user access scenarios to confirm business operations could resume without issues, testing login credentials, access permissions, and performance under load.
- Measured actual RTO and RPO metrics against predefined objectives, ensuring they met the company’s business continuity requirements.
- Reviewed logs and reports generated by Veeam and Azure to identify any anomalies, bottlenecks, or potential optimizations in the restore process.
Results & Findings:
- All critical systems were restored successfully within the defined RTO, confirming the effectiveness of the DR plan.
- Data integrity and application functionality were fully maintained, ensuring no data loss or corruption occurred during the restore process.
- Identified minor networking misconfigurations, including firewall rule conflicts and DNS resolution delays, which were addressed and documented for future recovery improvements.
- Business continuity policies were updated based on test findings, incorporating refined recovery steps, enhanced security measures, and optimized networking configurations to further streamline future DR scenarios.
Key Takeaways:
- Cloud-based backups and Veeam’s Direct Restore to Azure ensure fast and reliable disaster recovery.
- Regular DR testing helps identify and resolve potential issues before an actual disaster occurs.
- Proper network and security configurations are critical for a seamless cloud restore.
- Documenting findings and improving DR strategies enhance long-term business resilience.
Conclusion
This disaster recovery test provided invaluable insights into the effectiveness of the organization’s cloud backup strategy and recovery procedures. The ability to restore workloads seamlessly to Azure reinforces confidence in the company’s DR capabilities, ensuring that business operations can continue even in the face of unexpected disruptions. By proactively identifying and addressing minor gaps in the process, the organization has strengthened its resilience and is better prepared for real-world recovery scenarios. Moving forward, ongoing testing and refinements will be key to maintaining a robust disaster recovery strategy.
