Monitoring Azure VM Backups

Azure Backup is a cloud-based backup service that enables you to effectively protect data. With Azure Backup, data for different Azure cloud and on-premises components can be backed up, stored in a cost-efficient manner, and recovered as needed. At LogicMonitor, we commonly get asked about monitoring these backup services. Monitoring backup processes and services can help ensure that the right resources are being backed up at the right intervals, which is necessary to enable successful disaster recovery. We recently rolled out initial monitoring for Azure Backup, starting with monitoring for Virtual Machine (VM) backups specifically. This means that you can now monitor Azure VM backups in LogicMonitor, alongside the rest of your monitored hybrid infrastructure!

To get started, simply add your Azure environment into monitoring and import our newest DataSource for monitoring VM backups. Alongside monitored performance and availability metrics for each VM, you’ll see monitored backup data for any VM that is being backed up:

To achieve this, LogicMonitor is populating properties that indicate whether a VM is backed up:

For VMs that are backed up, LogicMonitor is pulling data from the Azure Backup REST API to monitor the time since last backup, as well as backup, health and protection statuses. Default alert thresholds are configured such that alerts will trigger out of the box for failed backups and other undesirable statuses.

Among the metrics monitored, we recommend paying close attention to the following three:

1. Backup status: Monitoring the status of the backup allows you to quickly identify failed backups. Possible statuses are completed, in progress, and failed. LogicMonitor has default alert thresholds configured to alert you when VM backups have a failed status.
2. Health status: The health status enables you to identify when a backup isn’t in good health. Possible values are passed, action required, action suggested, and invalid. Monitoring the health status of the backup is a good way to alert on situations where the backup job was successful, but the resulting backup is not usable. LogicMonitor has default alert thresholds configured to alert you when VM backups aren’t in good health.
3. Hours since last backup: While monitoring the backup status may enable you to quickly identify failed backups, monitoring time since the last backup enables you to alert on multiple failed backups. For example, if the backup frequency is daily, you may want to receive a critical alert when a VM hasn’t been backed up twice in a row, or for 48 hours.

With LogicMonitor’s new monitoring for Azure Backups, you can monitor the status of your Azure VM backups alongside VM performance metrics in a single view. Of course, LogicMonitor also enables you to monitor the rest of your cloud and on-premisess infrastructure, so you can get a comprehensive understanding of your entire distributed hybrid environment, all with a single tool. Sign up for a free trial today!