Azure storage account backup (tables and blobs)

I've recently put together a simple solution to backup table storage. It uses the AzCopy tool and the Storage Rest Api to pull down a list of all the tables and do a backup to JSON.

Hope it's useful!

param(
[parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[string]$Account,
[parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[string]$SASToken,
[parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[string]$OutputDir
)
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"

##Example Usage
#.\Backup-TableStorage.ps1 -OutputDir "d:\tablebackup" -Account "examplestorageaccount" -SASToken "?sv=2015-04-05&ss=t&srt=sco&sp=rl&st=2016-04-08T07%3A44%3A00Z&se=2016-04-09T07%3A55%3A00Z&sig=CNotAREALSIGNITUREBUTYOURESWOUDLGOHERE3D"

if (-not (Test-Path "${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy\AzCopy.exe"))
{
    throw "Azcopy not installed - get it from here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/documentation/articles/storage-use-azcopy/"
}

Write-host ""
Write-Host "Starting backup for account" -ForegroundColor Yellow 
Write-host "--------------------------" -ForegroundColor Yellow
Write-Host " -Account: $Account"
Write-Host " -Token: $SASToken"

$response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://$Account.table.core.windows.net/Tables/$SASToken"
[xml]$tables = $response.Content
$tableNames = $tables.feed.entry.content.properties.TableName

Write-host ""
Write-host "Found Tables to backup" -ForegroundColor Yellow
Write-host "--------------------------" -ForegroundColor Yellow
foreach ($tableName in $tableNames)
{
    Write-Host " -Table: $tableName"
}


foreach ($tableName in $tableNames)
{
    $url = "https://$Account.table.core.windows.net/$tableName"

    Write-host ""
    Write-Host "Backing up Table: $url"-ForegroundColor Yellow
    Write-host "--------------------------" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    Write-host ""

    & "${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy\AzCopy.exe" /Source:$url /Dest:$OutputDir\$account\ /SourceSAS:$SASToken /Z:"$env:temp\$([guid]::NewGuid()).azcopyJournal"   

    Write-host ""
    Write-host "Backup completed" -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-host ""
    Write-host ""

}

For more details on usage have a look here:

https://gripdev.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/backup-azure-table-storage-quick-powershell-script/

There are a variety of ways this can be handled.

If you want to do this on your own you can use the storage libraries and write code to just run through the table and pull down the data.

There are also a few services that can do this for you as well (FULL Disclosure: I work for a company that provides this as a service). Here is an article by Troy Hunt talking about our option: http://www.troyhunt.com/2014/01/azure-will-save-you-from-unexpected_28.html. We also have PowerShell Cmdlets that can pull table data down for you (cerebrata.com). To be fair we are not the only players in this space and there are others who have similar services.

Finally, at Tech Ed they announced that the AZCopy tool will be updated later this year so that it can pull down entire tables, which is just automating the reading through tables and pulling them down. There is currently no way to "Snapshot" a table so all of the methods above will result in a copy as the data is copied over, it might have changed in the source table by the time the copy is completed.