Export/Copy managed snapshots as VHD to a storage account in different region with PowerShell

This script exports a managed snapshot to a storage account in different region. It first generates the SAS URI of the snapshot and then uses it to copy it to a storage account in different region. Use this script to maintain backup of your managed disks in different region for disaster recovery.

If needed, install the Azure PowerShell module using the instructions found in the Azure PowerShell guide, and then run Connect-AzAccount to create a connection with Azure. Also, you need to have an SSH public key named id_rsa.pub in the .ssh directory of your user profile.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

Sample script

#Provide the subscription Id of the subscription where snapshot is created
$subscriptionId = "yourSubscriptionId"

#Provide the name of your resource group where snapshot is created
$resourceGroupName ="yourResourceGroupName"

#Provide the snapshot name 
$snapshotName = "yourSnapshotName"

#Provide Shared Access Signature (SAS) expiry duration in seconds e.g. 3600.
#Know more about SAS here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/Az.Storage/storage-dotnet-shared-access-signature-part-1
$sasExpiryDuration = "3600"

#Provide storage account name where you want to copy the snapshot. 
$storageAccountName = "yourstorageaccountName"

#Name of the storage container where the downloaded snapshot will be stored
$storageContainerName = "yourstoragecontainername"

#Provide the key of the storage account where you want to copy snapshot. 
$storageAccountKey = 'yourStorageAccountKey'

#Provide the name of the VHD file to which snapshot will be copied.
$destinationVHDFileName = "yourvhdfilename"


# Set the context to the subscription Id where Snapshot is created
Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId $SubscriptionId

#Generate the SAS for the snapshot 
$sas = Grant-AzSnapshotAccess -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -SnapshotName $SnapshotName  -DurationInSecond $sasExpiryDuration -Access Read
#Create the context for the storage account which will be used to copy snapshot to the storage account 
$destinationContext = New-AzStorageContext -StorageAccountName $storageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $storageAccountKey

#Copy the snapshot to the storage account 
Start-AzStorageBlobCopy -AbsoluteUri $sas.AccessSAS -DestContainer $storageContainerName -DestContext $destinationContext -DestBlob $destinationVHDFileName

Script explanation

This script uses following commands to generate SAS URI for a managed snapshot and copies the snapshot to a storage account using SAS URI. Each command in the table links to command specific documentation.

Command	Notes
Grant-AzSnapshotAccess	Generates SAS URI for a snapshot that is used to copy it to a storage account.
New-AzureStorageContext	Creates a storage account context using the account name and key. This context can be used to perform read/write operations on the storage account.
Start-AzureStorageBlobCopy	Copies the underlying VHD of a snapshot to a storage account

Next steps

Create a managed disk from a VHD

Create a virtual machine from a managed disk

For more information on the Azure PowerShell module, see Azure PowerShell documentation.

Additional virtual machine PowerShell script samples can be found in the Azure Linux VM documentation.