How to create full backup for Azure VM everytime, not incremental backup after the initial one?

Question

Hi team. I would like to design a system to back up a VM on demand. We will create the backup manually and keep at most 3 full-backup. When we create a fourth backup, we will delete the oldest one and then do the backup.

However, I found that only the initial backup is a full backup. All backups after that are incremental backups. So My questions are:

1. Is it possible to always create a full backup for the same VM in 1 vault?
2. If it is not possible, can we do that in 3 different vaults (1 backup in 1 vault)? And what shall we do when we create the forth one?
3. If we soft delete a backup and create a new one, will it also be a full backup?

Answer 1

Hi Jason Yang,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Azure Backup does not support creating a full backup every time for the same VM in a single vault. Incremental backups are used to save storage space and reduce backup times. Creating a full backup for an azure VM every time rather than relying on incremental backups, involves some specific considerations and configurations. I have detailed it as below, let me know if this helps.

Creating Full Backups:

• By default, Azure Backup performs an initial full backup of a VM, and all subsequent backups are incremental. This means that after the first backup, only changes since the last backup are captured. Unfortunately, Azure Backup does not support creating a full backup every time within the same Recovery Services vault.

Using Multiple Vaults:

• You can create full backups by utilizing multiple Recovery Services vaults. If you wish to maintain only one backup per vault, you can set up three separate vaults. When you create a fourth backup, you would delete the oldest backup from one of the vaults to maintain your limit of three full backups.

Soft Delete and New Backups:

• If you soft delete a backup and then create a new one, the new backup will still be an incremental backup unless you perform an initial backup again. Soft delete allows you to recover deleted backups but does not change the nature of the new backup created afterward. To ensure a full backup, you would need to delete the existing backup permanently and then initiate a new backup as the first backup for that VM in the vault.

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