Select Finish. The agent is now installed and your computer is registered in the vault. You can configure and schedule your backup. The data available for backup depends on where the agent is installed. Now, let`s follow each step. To back up files and folders from on-premises virtual machines, you must use the Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent. The MARS agent can be installed from the Recovery Services vault. We may also receive logs regarding backup in the agent and MARS portal. Therefore, we successfully configured Azure MARS to perform data backups and restores for our on-premises servers. Windows Server Backup (WSB) is a simple yet reliable solution for backing up Hyper-V virtual machines. It is quite fast and allows you to manage the backup schedule. It is only suitable for small environments with 1-3 Hyper-V hosts, and by integrating with the Azure Backup Agent (MARS), you ensure that your data is protected offsite for business continuity and disaster recovery, especially for small and branch office scenarios. 2) Windows Server Hyper-V 2012 R2 or later is running (standalone host and NO cluster).

Note that the MARS agent does NOT support Windows Server/Hyper-V Core SKUs. You need the Windows Server with Desktop Experience SKU. After selecting the appropriate workload and backup, click Prepare Infrastructure. You will then receive steps to configure the agent and install it on your local server. In the MARS Agent Installation Wizard, select Installation Settings. Select the location where you want to install the agent and select a location for the cache. Then choose Next. We can now back up the Hyper-V VHDX VM file to Azure Backup using the MARS agent.

2) Second, schedule the backup with MARS in Azure Recovery Services Vault. As mentioned earlier, the MARS agent does not yet support native backup of Hyper-V virtual machines. Finally, you must create a policy on each Hyper-V host on which the MARS agent is installed. 1. Download the MARS agent so you can install it on the machines you want to back up.2. In the vault, select Backup.3. Select Local for „Where is your workload running?“ 4. Select Files and Folders for „What do you want to back up?“ 5. Select „Prepare Infrastructure“. Typically, you back up an Azure VM to the VM using an Azure Backup extension.

This method backs up the entire virtual machine. If you want to back up specific files and folders on the virtual machine, install and use the MARS agent with the extension. For more information, see Azure Integrated VM Backup Architecture. 2) Run the agent on Azure IaaS VMs running Windows (side-by-side with Azure VM backup extension) to back up specific files and folders on the VM. 5. Check the installation and select „Install“.6. After installing the agent, select „Proceed with Registration“. Azure Backup uses the MARS agent to back up data from on-premises machines and Azure VMs to a Recovery Services backup vault in Azure. The MARS agent can: This article describes how to install the Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent. MARS is also known as the Azure Backup agent. Once you click on Download Agent, you will be redirected to the MS download page and the MARS Agent download will begin.

By default, Azure VMs enabled for backup have an Azure Backup extension installation. This extension backs up the entire virtual machine. You can install and run the MARS agent on an Azure VM with the extension if you want to back up specific folders and files instead of the entire VM. When you run the MARS agent on an Azure VM, files or folders that are in temporary storage on the VM are backed up. Backups fail if files or folders are removed from temporary storage or if temporary storage is deleted. Please note that it is important to store the backup locally on an NTFS volume and not on ReFS. At the time of writing, Azure Backup (MARS agent) does not support ReFS volumes or network shares documented by Microsoft. The MARS agent requires access to Azure Active Directory service endpoints, Azure Storage, and Azure Backup. For more information about obtaining public IP address ranges, see the JSON file. Allow access to IP addresses that match Azure Backup, Azure Storage (Storage), and Azure Active Directory.

Depending on your version of Windows, operating system network connectivity checks require access to www.msftconnecttest.com or www.msftncsi.com. The MARS agent does not support Windows Server Core SKUs. We hope this article has given you a comprehensive overview of using the Azure Backup Agent (MARS) to protect on-premises Hyper-V so you can move your offsite backup and long-term retention to the cloud while minimizing operational overhead, reducing licensing and hardware costs, and improving data protection from security threats. Directly on local Windows computers. These machines can be backed up directly to a Recovery Services vault in Azure. On Azure VMs running Windows side-by-side with the Azure VM Backup Extension. The agent backs up specific files and folders on the virtual machine. The backup policy specifies when to take snapshots of data to create recovery points.

It also specifies how long restore points are kept. You use the MARS agent to configure a backup policy. Now let`s configure our Azure MARS agent for backup. Go to the Overview pane and select Save as in the image below. After installing the agent, select Continue to Registration. 3) Run the agent on the Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS) or System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM). In this scenario, the workload is first backed up to MABS/SCDPM, and then MABS/SCDPM uses the MARS agent to transfer your backup to Recovery Services vaults in Azure. So what you can back up depends on where the agent is installed.

1) After downloading and registering the MARS agent, open the console (wbadmin.msc). Or you can find it by searching for Microsoft Azure Backup on your computer. 5) Check the Internet access on your Windows Server Hyper-V by checking the URL and IP access as documented by Microsoft. The MARS agent requires access to Azure Active Directory service endpoints, Azure Storage, and Azure Backup. 1. Open the MARS Agent.2 console. Under Actions, select Schedule backup. Versions of the MARS agent with minor reliability and performance improvements do not have a Knowledge Base article.

To Prepare the infrastructure, under Install the Recovery Services agent, download the MARS agent. In Proxy Configuration, specify how the agent running on the Windows computer connects to the Internet. Then choose Next. Learn how to configure the Azure MARS agent to back up our files and folders on a daily basis. 4) Download the latest MARS agent from the following location and install it on your Windows Server Hyper-V host. At the time of writing, we are running version 2.0.9226.0. Download the MARS agent so that you can install it on the computers you want to back up. 6) Download the vault credentials from the Recovery Services vault and register the MARS agent in the vault as documented by Microsoft. Be sure to save the passphrase in a safe place. You need it to restore a backup.

If you lose or forget the passphrase, Microsoft won`t be able to help you restore the backup data. You can use the MARS agent to back up directly to Azure on the operating systems listed below running on the following operating systems: * Ensure that the MARS agent has access to the certificates needed to access encrypted files. Inaccessible files are ignored. From the download menu, select Save. By default, the MARSagentinstaller.exe file is saved in the Downloads folder. In this article, we`ll focus on protecting and backing up Hyper-V VMs running on-premises in Azure Backup using the MARS agent, and then review the recovery process. Now we have an agent and a key with us. Let`s move on to the local server. Your backup options depend on where the agent is installed. For more information, see Azure Backup Architecture with the MARS Agent. For more information about MABS and DPM backup architecture, see Backing Up in DPM or MABS.

See also Backup architecture requirements. When it comes to choosing a backup solution for your on-premises servers, which remains one of the most important workloads for many organizations, there are many options to choose from, which can also vary depending on your scenario and needs. MARS is a standalone agent used by Azure Backup to back up your files, folders, and system state of individual on-premises machines and Azure IaaS VMs to Recovery Services vaults in Azure. If you have already installed the agent on a computer, make sure that you are running the latest version of the agent. Find the latest version on the portal or download it here. 1) Run the agent directly locally on Windows computers so that they can back up directly to Recovery Services vaults in Azure. You can choose MARS agent as a backup solution to protect your file server in the cloud for long-term retention. You can also run the on-demand backup by using the MARS agent`s Back Up Now option to test the entire process. This example completes the backup and transfers 41 GB (compressed and with metadata) to Azure, as shown in the following figure.

The good news is that in this example, the original folder size of (WindowsImageBackup) is 74 GB, the MARS agent compressed the VHDX file and sent only 41 GB. Instant Backup MARS Wizard You can use the Azure Backup service to back up on-premises machines and applications, as well as Azure virtual machines. This article summarizes the support settings and limitations when you use the Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent to back up computers.