Cis Azure Storage 5.1.5

5.1.5 Ensure 'Cross Region Restore' is set to 'Enabled' on Backup vaults (Automated)

Description

Cross region restore enables data restoration in a secondary Azure paired region, even when the primary region is fully operational. This allows organizations to conduct drills and validate regional resiliency, thereby ensuring preparedness for potential outages.

Rationale

Enabling cross region restore facilitates proactive resilience testing and disaster recovery planning by allowing data restoration drills in a secondary region without needing a primary region outage. This capability helps organizations validate recovery processes, identify gaps in regional failover, and ensures critical data can be accessed and restored during real disruptions.

Impact

Enabling cross region restore on a Backup vault incurs additional costs, and once it is enabled, it cannot be disabled.

• Cross region restore is an irreversible storage property.
• Cross region restore is currently supported for limited workloads.
• Cross region restore can only be enabled if the redundancy of the vault is GRS.

Audit Procedure

Audit from Azure Portal

1. Go to Backup vaults.
2. Click the name of a Backup vault.
3. Under Manage, click Properties.
4. Under Vault Settings, ensure that Cross Region Restore is set to Enabled.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 for each Backup vault.

Audit from Azure CLI

Run the following command to list Backup vaults:

az dataprotection backup-vault list

For each Backup vault, run the following command:

az dataprotection backup-vault show --resource-group <resource-group> --vault-name <backup-vault>

Ensure that under properties > featureSettings > crossRegionRestoreSettings, state is set to Enabled.

Audit from PowerShell

Run the following command to list Backup vaults:

Get-AzDataProtectionBackupVault

Run the following command to get the Backup vault in a resource group with a given name:

$vault = Get-AzDataProtectionBackupVault -ResourceGroupName <resource-group> -VaultName <backup-vault>

Run the following command to get the cross region restore setting for the Backup vault:

$vault.CrossRegionRestoreState

Ensure that the command returns Enabled. Repeat for each Backup vault.

Expected Result

Cross Region Restore should be Enabled in the Azure Portal, or properties.featureSettings.crossRegionRestoreSettings.state should be Enabled in CLI output, or $vault.CrossRegionRestoreState should return Enabled in PowerShell.

Remediation

Remediate from Azure Portal

1. Go to Backup vaults.
2. Click the name of a Backup vault.
3. Under Manage, click Properties.
4. Under Vault Settings, next to Cross Region Restore, click Update.
5. Click the toggle switch under Cross Region Restore to set it to Enable.
6. Click Apply.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 for each Backup vault requiring remediation.

Remediate from Azure CLI

For each Backup vault requiring remediation, run the following command to enable cross region restore:

az dataprotection backup-vault update --resource-group <resource-group> --vault-name <backup-vault> --cross-region-restore-state Enabled

Remediate from PowerShell

For each Backup vault requiring remediation, run the following command to enable cross region restore:

Update-AzDataProtectionBackupVault -ResourceGroupName <resource-group> -VaultName <backup-vault> -CrossRegionRestoreState Enabled

Default Value

Cross region restore is disabled by default on Backup vaults.

References

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/backup/backup-vault-overview#cross-region-restore-support-for-postgresql-using-azure-backup
2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/tutorial-cross-region-restore
3. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/details/backup/
4. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/dataprotection/backup-vault
5. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.dataprotection/get-azdataprotectionbackupvault
6. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.dataprotection/update-azdataprotectionbackupvault

CIS Controls

Profile

Level 2 | Automated