Microsoft Azure for Beginners: Safeguarding Azure Configurations with BDRSuite and ARM Templates : Part 33

In today’s cloud-centric environment, protecting data and configurations is of utmost importance. Many of us rely on BDRSuite to back up Azure VMs, and for a good reason — it’s reliable, efficient, and specifically designed for the job. But what about your complete Azure setup?

Delving into Azure Resource Manager and ARM Templates

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is at the heart of Azure. It acts as the interface through which you communicate, manage, and, most notably, structure your Azure resources. The true magic, however, emerges with ARM templates. ARM isn’t just a deployment and management service from Microsoft Azure, but it also provides a consistent management layer that allows users to create, update, and delete Azure resources.

Regarding ARM templates, they are JSON files that define the resources you want to deploy in Azure. By using these templates, you can deploy infrastructure in a decentralized way as code, which is crucial for automated, consistent, and reproducible deployments.

What Can You Safeguard with ARM?

Beyond the undeniable value of direct data backups, such as what BDRSuite offers for VMs, ARM templates are uniquely positioned to capture the essential configurations of a variety of Azure resources:

• Azure Virtual Machines and their configurations
• Azure SQL Database configurations
• Azure Storage Accounts and their containers
• Azure Web Apps and associated settings
• Resource Groups and their structural layouts
• Virtual Networks and their related settings

and numerous other services.

While BDRSuite excels in ensuring direct data recovery, ARM templates expand this coverage, ensuring resource configurations are also captured. This dual approach gives businesses a comprehensive backup strategy.

Exporting and Importing a Resource Group inclusive of VNETs

Exporting a Resource Group’s configuration, including all its Virtual Networks (VNETs), can be easily achieved using Azure CLI or PowerShell.

Read this article to know more…