Before delving into the process of configuring backup and recovery, one needs to understand what Azure Key Vault is and what it offers.
Azure Key Vault is a service provided by Microsoft that helps you safeguard cryptographic keys and other secrets that your applications use.
Besides storing certificates and secrets, Azure Key Vault allows you to manage them, providing limited access to users, applications or other Azure resources. It entirely takes the burden of storing the secrets off you and lets you focus on your business applications.
Key Vault’s Entities: Certificates, Keys, and Secrets
To better understand how backup and recovery works, let’s highlight the three entities in the Azure Key Vault:
- Keys: These are cryptographic keys that the Azure key vault generates or imports.
- Secrets: These are primarily used for storing sensitive data which applications need but should not be in the clear text.
- Certificates: Certificates are a set of public and private keys along with metadata generally used for secure communication.
Step-By-Step: Backing Up your Certificates, Secrets, and Keys
The step-by-step process to backup your certificates, secrets, and keys is quite straightforward, and it involves the following:
- Accessing the Key Vault: First, access the Key Vault via Azure portal or Azure CLI (Command Line Interface) that contains the key, secret, or certificate you want to back up.
- Backing Up: Run the “backup” command to back up a key, secret, or certificate. Azure will generate a backup file in a binary format for you.
For example, if you are using Azure CLI, the typical command structure is:
az keyvault key backup --name/--id --file/-f --vault-name
Here,
- `name` specifies the name of the key, secret, or certificate.
- `file` specifies the local file path where the backup will be stored.
- `vault-name` specifies the name of the Key Vault.
Validate Backup: Remember to validate if the backup has been created successfully by checking the local file path.
Step-By-Step: Restoring your Certificates, Secrets, and Keys
The process of restoring your certificates, secrets, and keys is reverse of backup. You can follow the steps given below:
- Accessing the Key Vault: Access the Key Vault where you want to restore keys, secrets, or certificates.
- Restoring: Run the “restore” command along with the path to the backup file.
For Azure CLI, the command structure should look like this:
az keyvault key restore --file/-f --vault-name
Here,
- `file` specifies the local file path where the backup is stored.
- `vault-name` specifies the name of the Key Vault.
Validate Restoration: After executing the restore command, make sure to validate the restoration by checking into the key vault.
Conclusion
Safeguarding your keys, secrets, and certificates in Azure can be accomplished efficiently using Key Vault. Regular backup and recovery empower your business to deal with data losses due to accidental deletion or malicious activities. We recommend establishing a regular backup procedure and testing the recovery process to prepare your business for any unforeseen events.
Practice Test
True or False: The Azure Key Vault is a service for securely storing and accessing secrets.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that provides a secure store for secrets. It allows you to securely store and tightly control access to tokens, passwords, certificates, API keys, and other secrets.
In order to configure backup and recovery of certificates, secrets, and keys in Azure, you need to use:
- a) Azure Key Vault
- b) Azure Data Factory
- c) Azure Monitoring
- d) None of the above
Answer: a) Azure Key Vault
Explanation: Azure Key Vault is the service that allows you to securely store and control access to tokens, passwords, certificates, API keys, and other secrets.
True or False: You can recover deleted resources in Azure Key Vault immediately after deletion.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Deleted resources in Azure Key Vault enter a soft-delete state for a retention period, during which they can be recovered.
Which of the following can be backed up in Azure Key Vault?
- a) Certificates
- b) Keys
- c) Secrets
- d) All of the above
Answer: d) All of the above
Explanation: Azure Key Vault supports the backup of certificates, keys, and secrets.
True or False: Azure Key Vault supports versioning for secrets and certificates.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Key Vault does support versioning, this way you can retrieve previous versions of a secret or certificate, if needed.
Which Azure PowerShell cmdlet can be used to back up a key in Azure Key Vault?
- a) Backup-AzureKeyVaultKey
- b) Backup-AzureKey
- c) Save-AzureKeyVaultKey
- d) None of the above
Answer: a) Backup-AzureKeyVaultKey
Explanation: Backup-AzureKeyVaultKey cmdlet can be used to back up a key in Azure Key Vault.
True or False: It is not possible to automate the process of backup and recovery of certificates, secrets, and keys in Azure.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Automation and Azure Functions can be used to automate the process of backup and recovery in Azure Key Vault.
Which cmdlet can be used to restore a backed-up key in Azure Key Vault?
- a) Restore-AzureKey
- b) Restore-AzureKeyVaultKey
- c) Recover-AzureKeyVaultKey
- d) Recover-AzureKey
Answer: b) Restore-AzureKeyVaultKey
Explanation: The cmdlet that is used to restore a backed-up key in Azure Key Vault is the Restore-AzureKeyVaultKey.
In Azure Key Vault, what is the maximum retention period for deleted vaults in a soft-deleted state?
- a) 30 days
- b) 90 days
- c) 60 days
- d) 120 days
Answer: b) 90 days
Explanation: Deleted vaults in Azure Key Vault are retained in a soft-deleted state for 90 days before they are permanently deleted.
True or False: The Azure Managed Identity cannot be used to authenticate to Azure Key Vault for recovering secrets, keys, and certificates.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: The Azure Managed Identity can indeed be used to authenticate to Azure Key Vault for the purpose of recovering secrets, keys, and certificates.
Interview Questions
What is the purpose of Azure Key Vault in managing keys, secrets and certificates?
Azure Key Vault is a cloud service designed to safeguard cryptographic keys and secrets like tokens, passwords, certificates, API keys, and connection strings. By using Azure Keyvault, we can manage, recover, and back up sensitive information.
How can I backup an Azure Key Vault?
Using PowerShell, CLI or the Azure portal, you can backup a key vault by exporting the whole Key vault as a JSON file or individual secrets/certificates as a .pfx file.
What is Azure backup and how does it ensure recovery of data?
Azure Backup is a service that you use to back up and recover your data in the Microsoft cloud. It replaces the existing on-premises or off-site backup strategy with a cloud-based solution. It offers various types of backup like Files, Folders, VMs, Azure file shares, SQL Server in Azure VM, SAP HANA databases, etc.
How to recover deleted Azure Key Vaults?
If the soft-delete feature is enabled in Azure Key Vault, you can recover deleted vaults using PowerShell or Azure CLI.
Is it possible to change the backup retention period in Azure?
Yes, Azure Backup provides flexible backup retention policies, allowing you to set the retention period for your backups as per your compliance requirements.
What is the Azure Recovery Services vault?
An Azure Recovery Services vault is a storage entity in Azure that stores recovery points created over time and provides an interface to perform backup related operations. These operations include taking on-demand backups, performing restores, and creating backup policies.
Can we backup secrets in Azure Key Vault?
Yes, we can backup secrets in Azure Key Vault. Backups can be taken using Azure Portal, PowerShell, or Azure CLI.
Which Azure command is used to restore a key in Azure Key Vault?
The ‘az keyvault key restore’ command is used to restore a key in Azure Key Vault.
What is soft-delete in Azure Key Vault?
The soft-delete feature allows recovery of deleted vaults and vault objects, providing protection against accidental deletion.
What types of keys and secrets can be managed with Azure Key Vault?
Azure Key Vault can manage symmetric keys, asymmetric keys, secrets such as passwords and connection strings, and certificates.