Considerations and Limitations

Before you start using Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure, review the following limitations and considerations for protecting VMs, Azure SQL Serverss and Azure Files..

General

Consider the following about backup and restore of Azure resources:

• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure only supports storage accounts that use the locally redundant storage (LRS) redundancy option.

• To store backups, Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure automatically creates a repository in every Azure region whose resources are protected by the backup policy.
• Due to Microsoft Azure limitations, Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support retention of locked snapshots. This means that Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure will not be able to remove an outdated snapshot during a retention session if the snapshot is protected from deletions and modifications using the lock feature. For more information on the lock feature, see Microsoft Docs.

Azure VMs

Consider the following about backup and restore of Azure VMs, VM disks and files:

• Consider the following about backup of Azure VMs deployed in virtual networks with restricted (private) access:

• If VM disks have restricted network access, Veeam Data Cloud will temporarily modify the networking configuration to allow public SAS link access during the backup, which will enable the creation of snapshots with preserved network settings. Once the backup transfer is complete, the network settings are reverted to their original state.
• If network access is completely denied, Veeam Data Cloud will not be able to modify this setting, which will result in backup failure.

• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support backup of Azure VMs whose source disks have the data access authentication mode enabled. For more information on the data access authentication mode, see Microsoft Docs.
• Due to Microsoft Azure limitations, Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support backup of Ephemeral OS disks.

• When performing restore operations, Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure assigns Azure tags to the processed resources. If you have any Azure policies that do not allow tag assignment, the restore operations will fail. To learn more about Azure policies, see Microsoft Docs.

• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support restore of Azure confidential VMs. For more information on Azure confidential VMs, see Microsoft Docs.
• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support restore of locked Azure VMs and Azure virtual disks. For more information on the lock feature, see Microsoft Docs.

Azure SQL Databases

Consider the following about backup and restore of Azure SQL databases:

• You can create SQL backup policies to protect only Azure SQL databases running on SQL Servers and databases located on SQL Managed Instances. If you want to protect a database hosted by a SQL Server on Azure VM, create an Azure VM backup policy. Note that in this case, you will not be able to restore a single database without restoring the entire VM.
• Consider the following about backup of Azure resources deployed in virtual networks with restricted (private) access:

• If public access is disabled on the SQL Server, the backup policy will attempt to create a private endpoint connection during the first run, which will initially fail. You must approve this connection request in the Azure portal for future policy runs to succeed; otherwise, the policy will continue to fail.
• If public access is enabled, the backup policy will use the public endpoint, which requires port 3342 to be open for inbound connections, regardless of whether a private endpoint is also configured.

• Due to export process limitations, it is recommended that you back up Azure SQL databases up to 1 TB in size for optimal reliability. Backup of larger databases has not been tested and may not be supported.
• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support backup of databases hosted by Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instances and SQL Servers on Azure Arc-enabled servers.
• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support using staging servers to back up free offer Azure SQL databases.
• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure uses BACPAC files to back up SQL databases. BACPAC export of databases with external references is not supported. If a SQL database was migrated to an Azure SQL Database Server or Azure SQL Managed Instance, make sure to clear legacy references, orphaned database users and credentials set up with authentication types not supported by Azure SQL, to avoid BACPAC export errors. To learn more about BACPAC files, see Microsoft Docs.

Azure Cosmos DB

Consider the following about backup and restore of Cosmos DB:

• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure allows you to protect only Cosmos DB accounts created using the following APIs: NoSQL, MongoDB RU-based, Apache Gremlin, Table and PostgreSQL.
• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support backup of Cosmos DB accounts that have periodic backup or multi-region writes enabled.

• Database accounts used to back up Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL accounts must have any role that has administrative permissions assigned; it is recommended that you use an account that has the built-in citus role assigned. For more information on native PostgreSQL roles, see Microsoft Docs.

• Due to Microsoft Azure limitations, Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support restore of Cosmos DB accounts encrypted using customer-managed keys.

Azure Files

Consider the following about backup and restore of Azure File shares:

• If you delete a file share from Microsoft Azure, all the snapshots of this file share will be deleted as well. To protect your snapshots from accidental deletion, you can use the file share soft delete option. For more information on the soft delete option for Azure Files, see Microsoft Docs.

• Before you create an Azure files backup policy, make sure that the Allow storage account key access option for Shared Key authorization is enabled for the storage accounts where the file shares that you plan to protect reside — otherwise, backup operations will fail. For more information on Shared Key authorization, see Microsoft Docs.
• Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support backup of Azure Files file shares when the associated storage account is configured with network restrictions.
• Due to Microsoft Azure limitations, Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Azure does not support backup of NFS Azure file shares.