Azure Backup error VM is not in a state that allows backups.

If you get an error in you Azure backup saying “VM is not in a state that allows backups.”

then you can follow below steps to find a solution for this.

in the error window, Recommended action will say,

Please check if VM is in Running or Shut-down state. If VM is in a transient state, wait until it reaches Running or Shut-down state and retry the operation.

But when you checked, you can see that your VM is working fine an Internet is also there.

No blocking from the Network endpoint as well.

Then how we can start with the troubleshooting. Here I’m listed down the steps which worked for me and hope one or few steps will help you to fix your backup issue if follow these steps.

* First check whether is any blocking in the Network endpoints.

* Then check the VM extensions. VM extension details are mentioned below,

Rerun VM extensions

There may be cases in which a virtual machine extension needs to be rerun. You can do this by removing the extension and then rerunning the extension with an execution method of your choice. To remove an extension, run the following command with the Azure PowerShell module. Replace example parameter names with your own values.

An extension can also be removed using the Azure portal. To do so:

1. Select a virtual machine.
2. Select Extensions.
3. Choose the desired extension.
4. Select Uninstall.

* Then logged into the VM and checked the Azure Windows agent status. If this is not running, start that. If not restart this service and restart the VSS service as well.

Restart the server after this and tried to run the Azure backup. this will cure most of the issue.

* Next thing is to validate the VM agent version. To check this you can follow the below steps.

1. Log on to the Azure virtual machine and navigate to the folder C:\WindowsAzure\Packages. You should find the WaAppAgent.exe file present.
2. Right-click the file, go to Properties, and then select the Details tab. The Product Version field should be 2.6.1198.718 or higher

If this is not correct then update the  VM Agent binaries. However, you need to ensure that no backup operation is running while the VM Agent is being updated.

Once this is completed, restart the VM and then the backup job and run the backup.

This helps me to fix more than 6 client environment Azure backup issues.

How to view Diagnostic repots in Power BI

Microsoft introduces few solutions to analyze your data and specially the service which is hosted in Azure, you can use OMS to monitor and trigger alerts at the same time Azure notification also a good solution.

But when I'm tried to use this Azure Backup notification feature I had an issue with that and when I check got to know that still they also doing some further development to streamline that.

Then do we need to wait for that or will go with a another solution to achieve our target.

Power Bi is a good solution and you can use this to customize and get your reporting done.

I used this to monitor my Azure backups and enabled between couple of tenants.

To start, you can go into Azure search and search for Power BI Workspace Collection.

Then Select the Service from Microsoft AppService.

In the next window, you can search for the service that you want. in my case I searched for Microsoft Azure Backup. Then click on Get it now.

Give the correct Storage Account name which you have configured for the diagnostic logs.

To connect to the Azure backup, you need to give the authentication key. That you can find by go into the correct storage account and select Authentication keys. there you can find the assigned key. Copy and paste that in the Account configuration window.

Once click Sign in you will get the below information window and it will take more than 24 hour to run the first sync.

Once that is done, Power BI reporting is there for you to run and get the reports. In my case I’m using that to monitor my Azure Backups status .. 

Let me know if you need more information …

[Solved] Failed to update diagnostics for …. is not registered to use microsoft.insights

Failed to update diagnostics for …. “is not registered to use microsoft.insights”

This error will be popup when you tried to activate the Diagnostics under Microsoft Azure.  This service will be need to collect the data for Power BI reporting an the OMS log analysis.

Solution is mentioned in the notification itself and what you need to do is to  go into

Subscription > Resource Provider  then click on register for Microsoft.insights

Now you will be able to enable the Microsoft Diagnostics.

How to configure Storage account for Reports in Azure

This article will help you to create reports in  Azure Backup using Recovery Services vault.

Still there is an issue with the Azure Backup notification triggering and if you are concern about getting the Backup notification, then this will be a good solution for that.

The supported scenarios ,

1. Azure Backup reports are supported for Azure virtual machine backup and file/folder backup to cloud using Azure Recovery Services Agent.
2. Reports for Azure SQL, DPM and Azure Backup Server are not supported at this time.
3. Azure Backup Reports are currently not supported in National clouds.
4. The frequency of scheduled refresh for the reports is 24 hours in Power BI. You can also perform an ad-hoc refresh of the reports in Power BI, in which case latest data in customer storage account is used for rendering reports.
5. You can view reports across vaults and across subscriptions, if same storage account is configured for each of the vaults. Storage account selected should be in the same region as recovery services vault.

To start the configuration of the Azure backup reports, first you need to create a Storage Account for the Recovery service vault. To  do that,

Go into Hub Menu and search for “Recovery Services vault. ”

You can click on the Diagnostics Settings.

In the next page, you can enable the diagnostics.

Then you can give a Name and select the Archive to storage Account radio button. then Click on Configure Storage and configure a storage to collect the Diagnostics information.

Then Select the Send to Log Analytics radio button and the AzureBackupReport  from there.

If you want you can change the retention period of those reports.

Once you click Save, You will be able to collect the Azure backup related data in to the configured Storage account and you can use  the Power BI to get the reports. In my next post I'll try to cover that.