Complete Guide to Azure Backup Reports and Analytics

Azure Backup Reports and Analytics offer a comprehensive view of your backup and recovery data. This allows you to monitor and manage your backups more effectively.

Azure Backup Reports provide detailed information on backup jobs, including success and failure rates. You can also view reports on storage usage and network traffic.

With Azure Backup Analytics, you can track the performance of your backups and identify potential issues. This helps you optimize your backup strategy and ensure data integrity.

To get started with Azure Backup Reports and Analytics, you'll need to navigate to the Azure portal and select the appropriate resources. From there, you can access a range of reports and analytics tools.

Recommended read: Azure Immutable Backups

Reports in Azure Backup can be tailored to meet specific needs by utilizing the provided data model. You can create visuals, custom queries, and dashboards using the fields offered by this model.

The Azure Backup data model includes fields that can be used for reporting purposes. These fields can be leveraged to gain insights into backup and recovery operations.

By using these fields, you can create reports that are relevant to your organization's requirements and provide valuable information for decision-making.

You can view reports using the Azure Backup data model, which provides fields for creating visuals, custom queries, and dashboards according to your requirements.

The data model includes fields for ProtectedInstance, such as BackupItemUniqueId_s, ProtectedContainerUniqueId_s, and ProtectedInstanceCount_s.

These fields can help you track the count of protected instances for associated backup items or protected containers on a specific date-time.

To view recovery points, you can use the RecoveryPoint fields, including BackupItemUniqueId_s, OldestRecoveryPointTime_s, OldestRecoveryPointLocation_s, LatestRecoveryPointTime_s, and LatestRecoveryPointLocation_s.

These fields provide information about the date time and location of the oldest and latest recovery points for a backup item.

Here are the RecoveryPoint fields with their descriptions:

As you dive into the world of reports, it's essential to understand the conventions used to make sense of the data. Filters work from left to right and top to bottom on each tab, so any filter only applies to widgets positioned to the right of it or below it.

To get the most out of your reports, it's crucial to understand how tiles work. Selecting a colored tile filters the widgets below it to show data for records that pertain to the value of that tile.

You'll notice that tiles that aren't colored aren't selectable, so don't try to click on them. Data for the current partial day isn't shown in the reports, so when you select a time range like Last 7 days, the report will only show records for the last seven completed days.

Reports show details of jobs that were triggered in the selected time range, apart from log jobs. The values shown for Cloud Storage and Protected Instances are at the end of the selected time range.

Backup items displayed in the reports are those that exist at the end of the selected time range. This means that backup items that were deleted in the middle of the selected time range won't be displayed.

Here's a quick rundown of how charts are rendered in reports:

Policy Adherence grids also follow a similar aggregation logic, but with a few minor differences. For items with weekly backup policy, there's no daily view, and a 'month' is considered a 4-week period (28 days) to eliminate partial weeks from consideration.

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Storage Association is a crucial concept in understanding reports. It's essentially a connection between storage and other entities.

The unique ID used to identify the storage entity is called StorageUniqueId_s. This is a text field that's used to keep track of storage-related activities.

StorageAssociation also involves the backup item related to the storage entity, which is identified by the BackupItemUniqueId_s. This is another text field that helps in linking storage to its corresponding backup item.

The backup management server related to the storage entity is identified by the BackupManagementServerUniqueId_s. This field is also a text field that helps in establishing a connection between storage and backup management.

A vault related to the storage entity is identified by the VaultUniqueId_s. This is a text field that helps in linking storage to its corresponding vault.

Storage consumption is measured in megabytes (MBs) and is represented by the StorageConsumedInMBs_s field. This field is a number that keeps track of the storage consumed by the corresponding backup item.

A fresh viewpoint: Azure Backup Storage Account

Storage allocation is also measured in megabytes (MBs) and is represented by the StorageAllocatedInMBs_s field. This field is a number that keeps track of the storage allocated by the corresponding backup item.

Here's a quick summary of the storage-related fields:

The policy is a crucial component of Azure Backup, and it's essential to understand how it works. The policy field represents the name of the event, which is always AzureBackupCentralReport.

The policy has a unique ID, known as the PolicyUniqueId_g, which is used to identify it. This ID is unique to each policy.

The policy name, PolicyName_s, is a descriptive name given to the policy by the user. It's a text field that can be customized to reflect the specific backup policy.

Backup frequency is another critical aspect of the policy. The BackupFrequency_s field determines how often backups are run, such as daily or weekly.

The BackupTimes_s field specifies the date and time when backups are scheduled. This ensures that backups occur at the same time every day or week.

Retention duration is also an essential aspect of the policy. The RetentionDuration_s field determines how long backups are retained, which can be specified in days, weeks, or months.

Here's a summary of the backup retention durations:

These retention durations can be configured to meet specific business needs, ensuring that backups are retained for the required period.

If you notice data discrepancy issues in Backup Reports, start by ensuring all vaults are sending the required diagnostics logs to the Log Analytics workspace.

Reviewing diagnostics logs is a crucial step in identifying potential issues. Ensure you've selected the right filters in Backup Reports to get accurate results.

To further troubleshoot, review the following limits in Backup Reports: Ensure that all vaults are sending the required diagnostics logs to the Log Analytics workspace.Ensure that you've selected right filters in Backup Reports.Review the following limits in Backup Reports:

If none of these steps resolve the issue, don't hesitate to contact Microsoft Support for further assistance.

In Azure Backup Center, you can view backup reports for a wide range of supported scenarios. Azure VMs, SQL in Azure VMs, SAP HANA in Azure VMs, and Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent are all supported.

Backup reports can be viewed across all backup items, vaults, subscriptions, and regions as long as their data is being sent to a Log Analytics workspace that the user has access to. You don't need to have access to the individual vaults.

For Azure File share backup, data is displayed for records created on or after June 1, 2020. Data on protected instances is displayed for records created after Feb 1st, 2021 (defaults to zero for older records).

Here are the supported scenarios for Azure Backup Center:

Note that backup reports can be viewed for a maximum of 100 Log Analytics Workspaces (across tenants). It's recommended to limit the number of workspaces being queried at a time to avoid errors.

Troubleshooting can be a frustrating process, but there are some simple steps you can take to identify the issue. Ensure that all vaults are sending the required diagnostics logs to the Log Analytics workspace.

If you're still having trouble, check that you've selected the right filters in Backup Reports. This can make a big difference in what data you see.

Review the following limits in Backup Reports: Ensure that all vaults are sending the required diagnostics logs to the Log Analytics workspace.Ensure that you've selected right filters in Backup Reports.Review the following limits in Backup Reports: If none of these steps resolve the issue, it's time to contact Microsoft Support.

Alerts are a crucial part of troubleshooting and optimization, as they help identify issues and potential problems before they become major concerns.

The type of alert, for example, Backup, can give you an idea of what's going on. Alerts can be categorized into different types, such as Backup, which can help you focus on the specific issue at hand.

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The status of the alert, for example, Active, can indicate whether the issue is ongoing or has been resolved. This information can help you prioritize your troubleshooting efforts.

The severity of the alert, for example, Critical, can give you an idea of the potential impact of the issue. Critical alerts require immediate attention, while less severe alerts can be addressed at a later time.

Here are some key alert-related fields to keep in mind:

By understanding these alert-related fields, you can better navigate the troubleshooting and optimization process, and make informed decisions about how to address potential issues.

To effectively monitor your Azure Backup and Site Recovery events, you need to determine which Log Analytics workspace they will be forwarded to.

In Azure, the Log Analytics workspace retains the forwarded diagnostic event data, making it available for LogicMonitor to query.

Creating a new separate Log Analytics workspace is recommended to retain all Backup and Site Recovery events, as reusing an existing table may hit the 500 column limit for AzureDiagnostics tables.

For another approach, see: Aws S3 Disaster Recovery

LogicMonitor does not require a specific Log Analytics workspace architecture, but Recovery Services vaults must forward events to at least one Log Analytics workspace within the Azure account.

You can create a single Log Analytics workspace to retain all Backup events and Site Recovery events, or leverage an existing workspace architecture if you already have one in place.

Explore further: Recovery Services Vault Azure

To write effective queries on Azure Backup data, you need to be familiar with the Azure Diagnostics table. This table contains a wealth of information, including successful and failed backup jobs.

You can use the following sample queries to get started: All successful backup jobs: AzureDiagnostics | where Category == "AzureBackupReport" | where SchemaVersion_s == "V2" | where OperationName == "Job" and JobOperation_s == "Backup" | where JobStatus_s == "Completed"All failed backup jobs: AzureDiagnostics | where Category == "AzureBackupReport" | where SchemaVersion_s == "V2" | where OperationName == "Job" and JobOperation_s == "Backup" | where JobStatus_s == "Failed"

It's also a good idea to modify your queries to use the V2 schema, which is the recommended schema for Azure Backup diagnostic data. To do this, you can follow these steps: Identify if your query is using any field that's only applicable to the V1 schema.Update the query to use the V2 schema field names and include the filter where SchemaVersion_s=="V2" to only parse records corresponding to V2 schema.

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Query load times can be a bit of a challenge, especially when dealing with large amounts of data.

The widgets in the Backup report are powered by Kusto queries, which run on the user's Log Analytics workspaces. These queries typically involve the processing of large amounts of data, with multiple joins to enable richer insights.

For a report with ~5 K data sources and a 1-month time horizon, you can expect tiles, grids, and charts to load in 5-10 seconds. Report-level filters will also load in 5-10 seconds.

If the time horizon is extended to 3 months, the load times remain the same: 5-10 seconds for tiles, grids, and charts, and 5-10 seconds for report-level filters.

However, if the number of data sources increases to ~10 K and the time horizon is 3 months, the load times increase to 15-20 seconds for tiles and grids, and 1-2 minutes for charts.

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In some cases, like a report with ~15 K data sources and a 1-month time horizon, charts can take up to 50-60 seconds to load.

Here's a rough estimate of the load times for different scenarios:

To query and modify item associations, you need to understand the fields involved. The EventName_s field is always AzureBackupCentralReport.

Item associations are connected to various entities, including backup items, management servers, and vaults. The BackupItemUniqueId_s field uniquely identifies a backup item.

The State_s field shows the current state of the backup item association object, which can be Active or Deleted. This is useful when you're trying to figure out why an association isn't working.

Here are the fields you'll typically see in an item association query:

The BackupManagementServerUniqueId_s field uniquely identifies the backup management server related to the storage entity. This is important to keep in mind when you're trying to troubleshoot issues with associations.

Modifying queries to use the V2 schema is a crucial step in working with Azure Backup diagnostic data. It's recommended to use only the V2 schema in all custom queries.

The V1 schema is on a deprecation path, so it's essential to update your queries to remove dependency on it. To do this, identify if your query is using any field that's only applicable to the V1 schema. For example, the query to list all backup items and their associated protected servers uses the field ProtectedServerUniqueId_s, which is only applicable to V1 schema.

Update the query to use the V2 schema field names, such as ProtectedContainerUniqueId_s. It's also a good practice to use the filter where SchemaVersion_s=="V2" in all your queries, so that only records corresponding to V2 schema are parsed by the query.

Here are the steps to modify a query to use the V2 schema:

For instance, the updated query to list all backup items and their associated protected servers would be:

AzureDiagnostics

| where Category=="AzureBackupReport"

| where OperationName=="BackupItemAssociation"

| where SchemaVersion_s=="V2"

| distinct BackupItemUniqueId_s, ProtectedContainerUniqueId_s

Azure Backup reports provide a centralized view of your backup data, allowing you to monitor and manage your backups more efficiently.

You can customize Azure Backup reports to meet your specific needs, including filtering by date, backup status, and more. This feature is particularly useful for large-scale backup operations.

Regularly reviewing Azure Backup reports helps identify potential issues before they become major problems, ensuring your data remains protected and accessible.

The Backup Management Server is a crucial component in the Azure Backup system. It's the central hub that oversees the backup and recovery process for all your data.

The Backup Management Server can be either a Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS) or a System Center Data Protection Manager (SC DPM) server. This is determined by the BackupManagementServerType_s field, which is either MABS or SC DPM.

Here are the basic fields about Backup Management Servers:

The Backup Management Server also has a unique identifier, which is stored in the BackupManagementServerUniqueId_s field. This identifier is essential for tracking and managing your Backup Management Server.

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By using Task Timeline, our team has been able to adjust their workflow and prioritize tasks more effectively, resulting in faster project completion times and improved overall performance.

Azure Backup Center is a centralized management platform that enables you to manage and monitor backups for multiple Azure subscriptions and regions from a single pane of glass.

Centralized management is a key feature of Azure Backup Center, making it easier to track backup status and perform management tasks.

Backup Health Monitoring provides insights into the health of your backups, including backup job status, backup success rates, and data transfer metrics.

This feature allows you to identify any issues or failures and take appropriate actions quickly, minimizing downtime and data loss risks.

Alerting and Notifications send proactive alerts and notifications for backup-related events and issues, ensuring timely response to backup failures or configuration problems.

Proactive alerts and notifications help minimize downtime and data loss risks by ensuring timely response to backup failures or configuration problems.

Backup Policy Configuration enables you to create and manage backup policies for different workloads and resources, providing a centralized location to define backup schedules, retention policies, and other configuration settings.

Backup policies can be defined for different workloads and resources, making it easier to manage backups and ensure data protection.

Compliance and Reporting offers built-in compliance reports and auditing capabilities, helping organizations meet regulatory requirements by providing insights into backup compliance and data protection practices.

Built-in compliance reports and auditing capabilities help organizations meet regulatory requirements by providing insights into backup compliance and data protection practices.

Backup Recommendations provide intelligent recommendations to optimize your backup infrastructure, suggesting improvements and best practices for backup configurations, storage utilization, and cost optimization.

Intelligent recommendations help optimize backup infrastructure and improve backup configurations, storage utilization, and cost optimization.

Integration with Azure Monitor enables proactive monitoring and troubleshooting of backup-related issues, allowing you to leverage its monitoring and alerting capabilities.

Proactive monitoring and troubleshooting of backup-related issues help minimize downtime and data loss risks by ensuring timely response to backup failures or configuration problems.

Cost Management provides insights into backup costs, helping you understand and manage backup-related expenses, track usage, analyze cost trends, and optimize backup configurations to reduce costs.

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Understanding and managing backup-related expenses is essential to optimize backup configurations and reduce costs.

Multi-Tenant Support enables Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to manage backups for multiple customers from a single interface efficiently, streamlining backup operations and delivering backup services to their clients.

Multi-tenancy support enables MSPs to manage backups for multiple customers efficiently, streamlining backup operations and delivering backup services to their clients.

Discover more: Managed Backup Services