Azure AD Backup and Recovery Best Practices

When backing up Azure AD, it's essential to consider the frequency of backups. Backups should be performed daily to ensure data integrity.

Daily backups can be achieved by scheduling Azure AD Connect to run at least once a day. This ensures that all changes made to user accounts and group memberships are captured.

Azure AD Connect should be installed on a server that is not a domain controller to avoid any potential conflicts. This is a best practice to ensure a smooth backup process.

Regular backups can be verified by checking the Azure AD Connect logs for successful backups.

Worth a look: Azure Immutable Backups

You need to back up your Azure Active Directory tenants, yes, you really do. It's the primary identity provider for organizations running on Microsoft 365, controlling access to all your apps, resources, and integrations.

If something were to happen to your Azure AD tenant, employees would lose access to all your data and applications for an extended period. You wouldn't want to be in a situation where you're paying £400k to resolve an issue like the company that had a disgruntled employee delete 1,200 Office 365 accounts.

Suggestion: Azure Ad and Office 365

Azure AD stores configuration files, settings, and policies that are highly critical for business continuity. This includes custom domains, conditional access policies, app registrations, and more.

Having your own backup provides a much longer safety net than relying on Microsoft's 30-day recovery window. After 30 days, data is permanently lost, so it's crucial to have a backup in place.

Mistakes happen, and being able to selectively revert changes is invaluable. An audit trail and the option to restore the object to its prior state can be a lifesaver when something critical goes awry.

The ability to look back at specific points in time to analyze permissions, users, groups, and role assignments is not only valuable for forensic investigations but also for governance and compliance. Regulatory and legal demands often come unexpectedly, requiring historical data.

Native solutions for Azure AD backup have their limitations. Microsoft offers some built-in features, but they don't meet the comprehensive needs of businesses.

The Recycle Bin and Soft-Delete Functionality in Azure AD stores deleted items for a 30-day period, but it doesn't offer version history or backup configurations prior to alterations. This means you can only restore items within that window, and after 30 days, they're irretrievably lost.

Not all object types are supported, such as application registrations or conditional access policies. You're left with a partial backup, which isn't ideal.

Azure AD Connect is designed to synchronize your local Active Directory database with Azure AD, but it's not intended as a backup solution. It allows you to restore Azure AD by re-syncing it with your on-premises AD, but this method has its own set of drawbacks.

It presupposes the existence of an on-premises Active Directory setup, which isn't always the case. It also doesn't extend to cloud-only objects like guest accounts or cloud-native apps.

Here are the limitations of native solutions at a glance:

These limitations highlight the need for a more comprehensive Azure AD backup solution.

You can export Azure AD configurations using the Export-M365DSCConfiguration command, which allows you to extract a range of components such as users, groups, applications, and service principals.

This method is useful for backing up your Azure AD configurations, and you can tailor the components list to your organization's specific needs.

The Export-M365DSCConfiguration command can export up to 10 different components, including AADApplication, AADGroup, and AADTenantDetails.

To automate the backup process, create a PowerShell script file that contains the necessary steps and save it with a ".ps1" extension.

You can save the script with a name like "AzureADBackup.ps1" or "AzureADBackupM365DSC.ps1" as shown in the examples.

To schedule regular backups, use Windows Task Scheduler or an alternative scheduling tool.

You can open Windows Task Scheduler and create a new task to schedule your backups. Set a name and description for the task to keep track of it.

In the "Triggers" tab, create a new trigger and define the schedule, such as daily, weekly, or monthly. This will determine when the backup process will run.

In the "Actions" tab, create a new action with the following settings:

Configure any additional settings, such as security options or conditions, as needed.

You should back up your Azure AD tenant, as it's the primary identity provider for Microsoft 365 and stores critical configuration files and user directories.

Incremental backups are a good approach, as they only save changes made since the last backup cycle and allow you to restore any object to a previous version.

This type of backup is especially useful for storing custom domains, conditional access policies, app registrations, and role-based access control settings, which are all highly critical for business continuity.

Azure-native Data Protection is available across all deployment options, giving you flexibility in how you set up your backup system.

Backup software, like Veeam Data Platform, offers fully customizable architecture, allowing you to tailor your backup solution to your specific needs.

A managed services approach, such as BaaS for Microsoft Azure, provides a solution designed end-to-end by the service provider, taking the burden off your shoulders.

Control of infrastructure is also fully customizable with backup software, but with managed services, the infrastructure is managed by the provider.

A unique perspective: Azure Backup Software

Data compression is available across all deployment options, helping to reduce the amount of storage space needed for your backups.

Policy-based automation is available with some mapping required by the end user with backup software, but with managed services, it's fully automated through a drag-and-drop wizard.

Here's a comparison of the different delivery models:

This table highlights the key differences between the different delivery models, helping you make an informed decision about which one is right for your organization.

Exporting group memberships is a crucial step in backing up your Azure Active Directory. This can be done using the Get-AzureADGroup cmdlet, which retrieves all groups in the directory.

To export group memberships, you need to use the Get-AzureADGroupMember cmdlet to get the members of each group. This cmdlet is used in conjunction with the Get-AzureADGroup cmdlet to retrieve the group members.

The resulting data can be exported to a CSV file using the Export-Csv cmdlet. This cmdlet is used with the group memberships data to create a file named "AzureADGroupMemberships.csv". This file will contain all the group memberships in a format that's easy to read and manage.

The code snippet provided shows how to export group memberships to a CSV file. It uses a loop to iterate through each group and its members, and then exports the data to a CSV file.

If this caught your attention, see: How to Create a Group in Azure Ad

Exporting directory roles and memberships is a crucial step in backing up your Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant. You can export this information to CSV files using the Get-AzureADDirectoryRole and Get-AzureADDirectoryRoleMember cmdlets.

To export directory roles, use the Get-AzureADDirectoryRole -All $true cmdlet, as seen in Example 2. This cmdlet retrieves all directory roles and exports them to a CSV file.

Exporting directory roles and their memberships to CSV files is done by first getting all directory roles and then getting the members of each role. The members are then added to a new object, which is then exported to a CSV file.

Exporting directory roles and their memberships is a two-step process. First, you get all directory roles and export them to a CSV file. Then, you get the members of each role and export them to another CSV file.

The resulting CSV files will contain the role object IDs, display names, and member information. This information is critical for business continuity and should be backed up securely in a third-party storage location.

Expand your knowledge: Azure Ad Directory Roles