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Back up on-premises ONTAP data to Azure Blob storage

Contributors amgrissino netapp-tonacki
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Complete a few steps to get started backing up volume data from your on-premises ONTAP systems to a secondary storage system and to Azure Blob storage.

Note "On-premises ONTAP systems" include FAS, AFF, and ONTAP Select systems.

Quick start

Get started quickly by following these steps. Details for each step are provided in the following sections in this topic.

One Identify the connection method you'll use

Choose whether you'll connect your on-premises ONTAP cluster directly to Azure over the public internet, or whether you'll use a VPN or Azure ExpressRoute and route traffic through a private VPC Endpoint interface to Azure.

Identify the connection method.

Two Prepare your BlueXP Connector

If you already have a Connector deployed in your Azure VNet or on your premises, then you're all set. If not, then you'll need to create a BlueXP Connector to back up ONTAP data to Azure Blob storage. You'll also need to customize network settings for the Connector so that it can connect to Azure.

Learn how to create a Connector and how to define required network settings.

Three Verify license requirements

You'll need to check license requirements for both Azure and BlueXP.

Refer to Verify license requirements.

Four Prepare your ONTAP clusters

Discover your ONTAP clusters in BlueXP, verify that the clusters meet minimum requirements, and customize network settings so the clusters can connect to Azure.

Learn how to get your ONTAP clusters ready.

Five Prepare Azure Blob as your backup target

Set up permissions for the Connector to create and manage the Azure bucket. You'll also need to set up permissions for the on-premises ONTAP cluster so it can read and write data to the Azure bucket.

Optionally, you can set up your own custom-managed keys for data encryption instead of using the default Azure encryption keys. Learn how to get your Azure environment ready to receive ONTAP backups.

Six Activate backups on your ONTAP volumes

Select the working environment and click Enable > Backup Volumes next to the Backup and recovery service in the right-panel. Then follow the setup wizard to select the replication and backup policies that you'll use and the volumes you want to back up.

Activate backups on your ONTAP volumes.

Identify the connection method

Choose which of the two connection methods you will use when configuring backups from on-premises ONTAP systems to Azure Blob.

  • Public connection - Directly connect the ONTAP system to Azure Blob storage using a public Azure endpoint.

  • Private connection - Use a VPN or ExpressRoute and route traffic through a VNet Private Endpoint that uses a private IP address.

Optionally, you can connect to a secondary ONTAP system for replicated volumes using the public or private connection as well.

The following diagram shows the public connection method and the connections that you need to prepare between the components. You can use a Connector that you've installed on your premises, or a Connector that you've deployed in the Azure VNet.

A diagram showing how BlueXP backup and recovery communicates over a public connection with the volumes on the cluster and the Azure Blob storage where the backup files are located.

The following diagram shows the private connection method and the connections that you need to prepare between the components. You can use a Connector that you've installed on your premises, or a Connector that you've deployed in the Azure VNet.

A diagram showing how BlueXP backup and recovery communicates over a private connection with the volumes on the cluster and the Azure Blob storage where the backup files are located.

Prepare your BlueXP Connector

The BlueXP Connector is the main software for BlueXP functionality. A Connector is required to back up and restore your ONTAP data.

Create or switch Connectors

If you already have a Connector deployed in your Azure VNet or on your premises, then you're all set.

If not, then you'll need to create a Connector in one of those locations to back up ONTAP data to Azure Blob storage. You can't use a Connector that's deployed in another cloud provider.

Prepare networking for the Connector

Ensure that the Connector has the required networking connections.

Steps

  1. Ensure that the network where the Connector is installed enables the following connections:

    • An HTTPS connection over port 443 to the BlueXP backup and recovery service and to your Blob object storage (see the list of endpoints)

    • An HTTPS connection over port 443 to your ONTAP cluster management LIF

    • In order for the BlueXP backup and recovery Search & Restore functionality to work, port 1433 must be open for communication between the Connector and the Azure Synapse SQL services.

    • Additional inbound security group rules are required for Azure and Azure Government deployments. See Rules for the Connector in Azure for details.

  2. Enable a VNet Private Endpoint to Azure storage. This is needed if you have an ExpressRoute or VPN connection from your ONTAP cluster to the VNet and you want communication between the Connector and Blob storage to stay in your virtual private network (a private connection).

Verify or add permissions to the Connector

To use the BlueXP backup and recovery Search & Restore functionality, you need to have specific permissions in the role for the Connector so that it can access the Azure Synapse Workspace and Data Lake Storage Account. See the permissions below, and follow the steps if you need to modify the policy.

Before you start

You must register the Azure Synapse Analytics Resource Provider (called "Microsoft.Synapse") with your Subscription. See how to register this resource provider for your subscription. You must be the Subscription Owner or Contributor to register the resource provider.

Steps

  1. Identify the role assigned to the Connector virtual machine:

    1. In the Azure portal, open the Virtual machines service.

    2. Select the Connector virtual machine.

    3. Under Settings, select Identity.

    4. Select Azure role assignments.

    5. Make note of the custom role assigned to the Connector virtual machine.

  2. Update the custom role:

    1. In the Azure portal, open your Azure subscription.

    2. Select Access control (IAM) > Roles.

    3. Select the ellipsis (…​) for the custom role and then select Edit.

    4. Select JSON and add the following permissions:

      Details 
      "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/listkeys/action",
"Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/read",
"Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/write",
"Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/read",
"Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/listAccountSas/action",
"Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/read",
"Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/accessPolicies/write",
"Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/read",
"Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/locations/read",
"Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/read",
"Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/subnets/read",
"Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups/read",
"Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourcegroups/resources/read",
"Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups/write",
"Microsoft.Authorization/locks/*",
"Microsoft.Network/privateEndpoints/write",
"Microsoft.Network/privateEndpoints/read",
"Microsoft.Network/privateDnsZones/virtualNetworkLinks/write",
"Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/join/action",
"Microsoft.Network/privateDnsZones/A/write",
"Microsoft.Network/privateDnsZones/read",
"Microsoft.Network/privateDnsZones/virtualNetworkLinks/read",
"Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/delete",
"Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups/delete",
"Microsoft.Resources/deployments/delete",
"Microsoft.ManagedIdentity/userAssignedIdentities/assign/action",
"Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces/write",
"Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces/read",
"Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces/delete",
"Microsoft.Synapse/register/action",
"Microsoft.Synapse/checkNameAvailability/action",
"Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces/operationStatuses/read",
"Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces/firewallRules/read",
"Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces/replaceAllIpFirewallRules/action",
"Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces/operationResults/read",
"Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces/privateEndpointConnectionsApproval/action"

      View the full JSON format for the policy

    5. Select Review + update and then select Update.

Verify license requirements

You'll need to verify license requirements for both Azure and BlueXP:

  • Before you can activate BlueXP backup and recovery for your cluster, you'll need to either subscribe to a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) BlueXP Marketplace offering from Azure, or purchase and activate a BlueXP backup and recovery BYOL license from NetApp. These licenses are for your account and can be used across multiple systems.

  • You need to have an Azure subscription for the object storage space where your backups will be located.

Supported regions

You can create backups from on-premises systems to Azure Blob in all regions where Cloud Volumes ONTAP is supported; including Azure Government regions. You specify the region where the backups will be stored when you set up the service.

Prepare your ONTAP clusters

You'll need to prepare your source on-premises ONTAP system and any secondary on-premises ONTAP or Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems.

Preparing your ONTAP clusters involves the following steps:

  • Discover your ONTAP systems in BlueXP

  • Verify ONTAP system requirements

  • Verify ONTAP networking requirements for backing up data to object storage

  • Verify ONTAP networking requirements for replicating volumes

Discover your ONTAP systems in BlueXP

Both your source on-premises ONTAP system and any secondary on-premises ONTAP or Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems must be available on the BlueXP Canvas.

You'll need to know the cluster management IP address and the password for the admin user account to add the cluster.
Learn how to discover a cluster.

Verify ONTAP system requirements

Ensure that the following ONTAP requirements are met:

  • Minimum of ONTAP 9.8; ONTAP 9.8P13 and later is recommended.

  • A SnapMirror license (included as part of the Premium Bundle or Data Protection Bundle).

    Note: The "Hybrid Cloud Bundle" is not required when using BlueXP backup and recovery.

    Learn how to manage your cluster licenses.

  • Time and time zone are set correctly. Learn how to configure your cluster time.

  • If you are going to replicate data, you should verify that the source and destination systems are running compatible ONTAP versions before replicating data.

    View compatible ONTAP versions for SnapMirror relationships.

Verify ONTAP networking requirements for backing up data to object storage

You must configure the following requirements on the system that connects to object storage.

  • For a fan-out backup architecture, configure the following settings on the primary system.

  • For a cascaded backup architecture, configure the following settings on the secondary system.

The following ONTAP cluster networking requirements are needed:

  • The ONTAP cluster initiates an HTTPS connection over port 443 from the intercluster LIF to Azure Blob storage for backup and restore operations.

    ONTAP reads and writes data to and from object storage. The object storage never initiates, it just responds.

  • ONTAP requires an inbound connection from the Connector to the cluster management LIF. The Connector can reside in an Azure VNet.

  • An intercluster LIF is required on each ONTAP node that hosts the volumes you want to back up. The LIF must be associated with the IPspace that ONTAP should use to connect to object storage. Learn more about IPspaces.

    When you set up BlueXP backup and recovery, you are prompted for the IPspace to use. You should choose the IPspace that each LIF is associated with. That might be the "Default" IPspace or a custom IPspace that you created.

  • The nodes' and intercluster LIFs are able to access the object store.

  • DNS servers have been configured for the storage VM where the volumes are located. See how to configure DNS services for the SVM.

  • If you use are using a different IPspace than the Default, then you might need to create a static route to get access to the object storage.

  • Update firewall rules, if necessary, to allow BlueXP backup and recovery service connections from ONTAP to object storage through port 443 and name resolution traffic from the storage VM to the DNS server over port 53 (TCP/UDP).

Verify ONTAP networking requirements for replicating volumes

If you plan to create replicated volumes on a secondary ONTAP system using BlueXP backup and recovery, ensure that the source and destination systems meet following networking requirements.

On-premises ONTAP networking requirements

  • If the cluster is in your premises, you should have a connection from your corporate network to your virtual network in the cloud provider. This is typically a VPN connection.

  • ONTAP clusters must meet additional subnet, port, firewall, and cluster requirements.

    Because you can replicate to Cloud Volumes ONTAP or an on-premises systems, review peering requirements for on-premises ONTAP systems. View prerequisites for cluster peering in the ONTAP documentation.

Cloud Volumes ONTAP networking requirements

  • The instance's security group must include the required inbound and outbound rules: specifically, rules for ICMP and ports 11104 and 11105. These rules are included in the predefined security group.

Prepare Azure Blob as your backup target

  1. You can use your own custom-managed keys for data encryption in the activation wizard instead of using the default Microsoft-managed encryption keys. In this case you will need to have the Azure Subscription, Key Vault name, and the Key. Learn how to use your own keys.

    Note that Backup and recovery supports Azure access policies as the permission model. The Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) permission model is not currently supported.

  2. If you want to have a more secure connection over the public internet from your on-prem data center to the VNet, there is an option to configure an Azure Private Endpoint in the activation wizard. In this case you will need to know the VNet and Subnet for this connection. Refer to details about using a Private Endpoint.

Create your Azure Blob storage account

By default, the service creates storage accounts for you. If you want to use your own storage accounts, you can create them before you start the backup activation wizard and then select those storage accounts in the wizard.

Learn more about creating your own storage accounts.

Activate backups on your ONTAP volumes

Activate backups at any time directly from your on-premises working environment.

A wizard takes you through the following major steps:

You can also Show the API commands at the review step, so you can copy the code to automate backup activation for future working environments.

Start the wizard

Steps

  1. Access the Activate backup and recovery wizard using one of the following ways:

    • From the BlueXP canvas, select the working environment and select Enable > Backup Volumes next to the Backup and recovery service in the right-panel.

      A screenshot that shows the Backup and recovery Enable button that is available after you select a working environment.

      If the Azure destination for your backups exists as a working environment on the Canvas, you can drag the ONTAP cluster onto the Azure Blob object storage.

    • Select Volumes in the Backup and recovery bar. From the Volumes tab, select the Actions Actions icon icon and select Activate Backup for a single volume (that does not already have replication or backup to object storage already enabled).

    The Introduction page of the wizard shows the protection options including local Snapshots, replication, and backups. If you did the second option in this step, the Define Backup Strategy page appears with one volume selected.

  2. Continue with the following options:

    • If you already have a BlueXP Connector, you're all set. Just select Next.

    • If you don't already have a BlueXP Connector, the Add a Connector option appears. Refer to Prepare your BlueXP Connector.

Select the volumes that you want to back up

Choose the volumes you want to protect. A protected volume is one that has one or more of the following: Snapshot policy, replication policy, backup to object policy.

You can choose to protect FlexVol or FlexGroup volumes; however, you cannot select a mix of these volumes when activating backup for a working environment. See how to activate backup for additional volumes in the working environment (FlexVol or FlexGroup) after you have configured backup for the initial volumes.

Note

  • You can activate a backup only on a single FlexGroup volume at a time.

  • The volumes you select must have the same SnapLock setting. All volumes must have SnapLock Enterprise enabled or have SnapLock disabled.
Steps

Note that if the volumes you choose already have Snapshot or replication policies applied, then the policies you select later will overwrite these existing policies.

  1. In the Select Volumes page, select the volume or volumes you want to protect.

    • Optionally, filter the rows to show only volumes with certain volume types, styles, and more to make the selection easier.

    • After you select the first volume, then you can select all FlexVol volumes (FlexGroup volumes can be selected one at a time only). To back up all existing FlexVol volumes, check one volume first and then check the box in the title row. (button backup all volumes).

    • To back up individual volumes, check the box for each volume (button backup 1 volume).

  2. Select Next.

Define the backup strategy

Defining the backup strategy involves setting the following options:

  • Whether you want one or all of the backup options: local Snapshots, replication, and backup to object storage

  • Architecture

  • Local Snapshot policy

  • Replication target and policy

    Note If the volumes you choose have different Snapshot and replication policies than the policies you select in this step, the existing policies will be overwritten.

  • Backup to object storage information (provider, encryption, networking, backup policy, and export options).

Steps

  1. In the Define backup strategy page, choose one or all of the following. All three are selected by default:

    • Local Snapshots: If you are performing replication or back up to object storage, local Snapshots must be created.

    • Replication: Creates replicated volumes on another ONTAP storage system.

    • Backup: Backs up volumes to object storage.

  2. Architecture: If you chose replication and backup, choose one of the following flows of information:

    • Cascading: Information flows from the primary to the secondary, and from secondary to object storage.

    • Fan out: Information flows from the primary to the secondary and from the primary to object storage.

      For details about these architectures, refer to Plan your protection journey.

  3. Local Snapshot: Choose an existing Snapshot policy or create a new one.

    Tip To create a custom policy before activating the Snapshot, refer to Create a policy.

    To create a policy, select Create new policy and do the following:

    • Enter the name of the policy.

    • Select up to 5 schedules, typically of different frequencies.

    • Select Create.

  4. Replication: Set the following options:

    • Replication target: Select the destination working environment and SVM. Optionally, select the destination aggregate or aggregates and prefix or suffix that will be added to the replicated volume name.

    • Replication policy: Choose an existing replication policy or create a new one.

      Tip To create a custom policy before activating the replication, refer to Create a policy.

      To create a policy, select Create new policy and do the following:

      • Enter the name of the policy.

      • Select up to 5 schedules, typically of different frequencies.

      • Select Create.

  5. Back up to Object: If you selected Backup, set the following options:

    • Provider: Select Microsoft Azure.

    • Provider settings: Enter the provider details and region where the backups will be stored.

      Either create a new storage account or select an existing one.

      Either create your own resource group that manages the Blob container or select the resource group type and group.

      Tip If you want to protect your backup files from being modified or deleted, ensure that the storage account was created with immutable storage enabled using a 30-day retention period.
      Tip If you want to tier older backup files to Azure Archive Storage for further cost optimization, ensure that the storage account has the appropriate Lifecycle rule.

    • Encryption key: If you created a new Azure storage account, enter encryption key information given to you from the provider. Choose whether you'll use the default Azure encryption keys, or choose your own customer-managed keys from your Azure account, to manage encryption of your data.

      If you choose to use your own customer-managed keys, enter the key vault and key information.

    Note If you chose an existing Microsoft storage account, encryption information is already available, so you don't need to enter it now.

    • Networking: Choose the IPspace, and whether you'll be using a Private Endpoint. Private Endpoint is disabled by default.

      1. The IPspace in the ONTAP cluster where the volumes you want to back up reside. The intercluster LIFs for this IPspace must have outbound internet access.

      2. Optionally, choose whether you'll use an Azure private endpoint that you have previously configured. Learn about using an Azure private endpoint.

    • Backup policy: Select an existing Backup to object storage policy or create a new one.

      Tip To create a custom policy before activating the backup, refer to Create a policy.

      To create a policy, select Create new policy and do the following:

      • Enter the name of the policy.

      • Select up to 5 schedules, typically of different frequencies.

      • For backup-to-object policies, set the DataLock and Ransomware Protection settings. For details on DataLock and Ransomware Protection, refer to Backup-to-object policy settings.

      • Select Create.

    • Export existing Snapshot copies to object storage as backup copies: If there are any local Snapshot copies for volumes in this working environment that match the backup schedule label you just selected for this working environment (for example, daily, weekly, etc.), this additional prompt is displayed. Check this box to have all historic Snapshots copied to object storage as backup files to ensure the most complete protection for your volumes.

  6. Select Next.

Review your selections

This is the chance to review your selections and make adjustments, if necessary.

Steps

  1. In the Review page, review your selections.

  2. Optionally check the box to Automatically synchronize the Snapshot policy labels with the replication and backup policy labels. This creates Snapshots with a label that matches the labels in the replication and backup policies.

  3. Select Activate Backup.

Result

BlueXP backup and recovery starts taking the initial backups of your volumes. The baseline transfer of the replicated volume and the backup file includes a full copy of the primary storage system data. Subsequent transfers contain differential copies of the primary storage system data contained in Snapshot copies.

A replicated volume is created in the destination cluster that will be synchronized with the primary volume.

A Blob storage account is created in the resource group you entered, and the backup files are stored there. The Volume Backup Dashboard is displayed so you can monitor the state of the backups.

You can also monitor the status of backup and restore jobs using the Job Monitoring panel.

Show the API commands

You might want to display and optionally copy the API commands used in the Activate backup and recovery wizard. You might want to do this to automate backup activation in future working environments.

Steps

  1. From the Activate backup and recovery wizard, select View API request.

  2. To copy the commands to the clipboard, select the Copy icon.

What's next?