Restore Azure Blobs using Azure PowerShell

Fetch the valid time range for restore

As the operational backup for blobs is continuous, there are no distinct points to restore from. Instead, we need to fetch the valid time-range under which blobs can be restored to any point-in-time. In this example, let's check for valid time-ranges to restore within the last 30 days.

$startDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(-30)
$endDate = Get-Date

First fetch all instances using Get-AzDataProtectionBackupInstance command and identify the relevant instance.

$AllInstances = Get-AzDataProtectionBackupInstance -ResourceGroupName "testBkpVaultRG" -VaultName $TestBkpVault.Name

You can also use Az.Resourcegraph and the Search-AzDataProtectionBackupInstanceInAzGraph command to search across instances in many vaults and subscriptions.

$AllInstances = Search-AzDataProtectionBackupInstanceInAzGraph -ResourceGroupName "testBkpVaultRG" -VaultName $TestBkpVault.Name -DatasourceType AzureBlob -ProtectionStatus ProtectionConfigured

Once the instance is identified then fetch the relevant recovery range using the Find-AzDataProtectionRestorableTimeRange command.

Find-AzDataProtectionRestorableTimeRange -ResourceGroupName "testBkpVaultRG" -VaultName $TestBkpVault.Name -BackupInstanceName $AllInstances[2].BackupInstanceName -StartTime $startDate -endTime $endDate

EndTime    : 2021-04-24T08:57:36.4149422Z
ObjectType : RestorableTimeRange
StartTime  : 2021-03-25T14:27:31.0000000Z

$DesiredPIT = (Get-Date -Date "2021-04-23T02:47:02.9500000Z")

Prepare the restore request

Once the point-in-time to restore is fixed, there are multiple options to restore. Use the Initialize-AzDataProtectionRestoreRequest command to prepare the restore request with all relevant details.

Restore all the blobs to a point-in-time

You can restore all block blobs in the storage account by rolling them back to the selected point in time. Storage accounts containing large amounts of data or witnessing a high churn may take longer times to restore.

$restorerequest = Initialize-AzDataProtectionRestoreRequest -DatasourceType AzureBlob -SourceDataStore OperationalStore -RestoreLocation $TestBkpVault.Location  -RestoreType OriginalLocation -PointInTime (Get-Date -Date "2021-04-23T02:47:02.9500000Z") -BackupInstance $AllInstances[2]

Restore selected containers

You can browse and select up to 10 containers to restore.

$restorerequest = Initialize-AzDataProtectionRestoreRequest -DatasourceType AzureBlob -SourceDataStore OperationalStore -RestoreLocation $TestBkpVault.Location  -RestoreType OriginalLocation -PointInTime (Get-Date -Date "2021-04-23T02:47:02.9500000Z") -BackupInstance $AllInstances[2] -ItemLevelRecovery -ContainersList "abc","xyz"

Restore containers using a prefix match

You can restore a subset of blobs using a prefix match. You can specify up to 10 lexicographical ranges of blobs within a single container or across multiple containers to return those blobs to their previous state at a given point in time. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• You can use a forward slash (/) to delineate the container name from the blob prefix
• The start of the range specified is inclusive, however the specified range is exclusive.

Learn more about using prefixes to restore blob ranges.

$restorerequest = Initialize-AzDataProtectionRestoreRequest -DatasourceType AzureBlob -SourceDataStore OperationalStore -RestoreLocation $TestBkpVault.Location  -RestoreType OriginalLocation -PointInTime (Get-Date -Date "2021-04-23T02:47:02.9500000Z") -BackupInstance $AllInstances[2] -ItemLevelRecovery -FromPrefixPattern "containerabc/aaa","containerabc/ccc" -ToPrefixPattern "containerabc/bbb","containerabc/ddd"

To restore from vaulted blob backup, run the following commands:

1. Fetch the backup instance for which you want to perform the restore.

   $instance = Get-AzDataProtectionBackupInstance -SubscriptionId "aaaa0a0a-bb1b-cc2c-dd3d-eeeeee4e4e4e" -ResourceGroupName "StorageRG" -VaultName "contosobackupvault" -Name “abc”
   

2. Fetch the recovery point you want to use for restoring the data.

   $rp = Get-AzDataProtectionRecoveryPoint -SubscriptionId "aaaa0a0a-bb1b-cc2c-dd3d-eeeeee4e4e4e" -ResourceGroupName "StorageRG" -VaultName "contosobackupvault" -BackupInstanceName $instance.Name
   

3. Use the Initialize-AzDataProtectionRestoreRequest command to prepare the restore request with all the relevant details. The target resource ID is the ARM ID of the alternate storage account where the contents should be restored.

   $ResourceId="/subscriptions/xxxxxx /resourceGroups/StorageRG/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/xxxx "
   $restorerequest =Initialize-AzDataProtectionRestoreRequest -DatasourceType AzureBlob -SourceDataStore VaultStore -RestoreType AlternateLocation -BackupInstance $instance -RecoveryPoint $rp[0].Name -TargetResourceId $ResourceId
   

4. To restore specific containers, pass the container list explicitly to the -ContainersList parameter and also pass the parameter -ItemLevelRecovery.

   $restorerequest = Initialize-AzDataProtectionRestoreRequest -DatasourceType AzureBlob -SourceDataStore VaultStore -RestoreType AlternateLocation -RecoveryPoint $rp[0].Name -TargetResourceId $ResourceId -ContainersList "test1" -RestoreLocation "chinanorth" -ItemLevelRecovery
   

5. Trigger the restore with the restore request prepared in the above steps.

   Start-AzDataProtectionBackupInstanceRestore -BackupInstanceName $instance.Name -ResourceGroupName "StorageRG" -VaultName $TestBkpVault.Name -Parameter $restorerequest
   

6. Restore specific blobs based on the prefix match in each container.

To restore specific blobs from vaulted backup, see this example.