Azure Files protection - Only snapshots, no backup copy?

[Stabz]

Hello Veeam community,

I'm currently using Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure to protect my Azure VMs successfully. I'm now looking to extend protection to my Azure Files shares.

However, when configuring a backup policy for Azure Files, I only see options for native Azure snapshots. In my view, snapshots differ from true backups because:

They remain within the same storage account
I cannot perform a backup copy job to another location (on-prem or different region)
This prevents compliance with the 3-2-1 backup rule
My questions are:

Is it possible to perform a real backup of Azure Files (not just snapshots) that can be copied to external repositories?
Is snapshot-only protection considered sufficient and reliable for production data in Veeam's architecture?
Thanks for your insights.

[nielsengelen]

Hi Philippe,

You can use Veeam Backup & Replication to take backups of your file shares but it's not build in natively into VB for Azure.

[Stabz]

So the term "backup" used in the console or documentation isn't really accurate... If I want to actually back it up, I have to use the NAS backup function if I understand correctly... That puts us on a completely different, much more expensive licensing system...

[nielsengelen]

In VB for Azure, it states "snapshots" to keep. Could you clarify where you see backups so we can review it?

[Stabz]

Sorry I forgot to answer here !

In the documentation: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbazu ... works.html : Azure Files Backup

[nielsengelen]

Hi,

Understood, we use the term backup as a standard for workloads in our user guide however the details state it's only snapshot protection for now.

[scott.anderson]

Annoyingly if you want to use the "in Azure" solution to get quick recovery points and also the VBR file share backup option to get a backup copy out of Azure it consumes twice the instance licenses as its not recognised as the same object instance.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Scott,

That's correct; not sure how per-TB licensing can be "merged" with per-instance licensing (1 VUL). Even if it is the same object, backups are different.

Thanks!

[scott.anderson]

So that suggests the licensing model is wrong or the functionality is wrong. Very difficult to stick with the Veeam 3-2-1 is all you can do with the Azure Files backup is a local Azure snapshot!

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, you have a point. The correct solution would be to install VSA in the cloud to back up Azure Files. Treat VB as a proxy of VBR; that's the direction we are going to.