Hi,

Leveraging the cerebrata cmdlets for Azure, we can easily backup our blob containers via snapshot, this will prove useful for Page Blobs that are Random Access i.e. VHD’s on Cloud Drive

Here is how Purging Snapshots works

#requires -version 2.0
param (
	[parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string]$AzureAccountName,
	[parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string]$AzureAccountKey,
	[parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [array]$BlobContainers
)

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"

if ((Get-PSSnapin -Registered -Name AzureManagementCmdletsSnapIn -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null)
{
	throw "AzureManagementCmdletsSnapIn missing. Install them from Https://www.cerebrata.com/Products/AzureManagementCmdlets/Download.aspx"
}

Add-PSSnapin AzureManagementCmdletsSnapIn -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

function SnapShotBlobContainer 
{
	param ( $containers, $blobContainerName )
	Write-Host "Starting snapshot $blobContainerName"

	$container = $containers | Where-Object { $_.BlobContainerName -eq $blobContainerName }

	if ($container -eq $null)
	{
		Write-Host  "Container $blobContainerName doesn't exist, skipping snapshot"
	}
	else
	{
        Write-Host  "Found blob container $blobContainerName"
Checkpoint-BlobContainer -Name $container.BlobContainerName -SaveSnapshotInformation -AccountName $AzureAccountName -AccountKey $AzureAccountKey
	Write-Host  "Snapshot complete for $blobContainerName"
	}
}

$containers = Get-BlobContainer -AccountName $AzureAccountName -AccountKey $AzureAccountKey
foreach($container in $BlobContainers)
{
	SnapShotBlobContainer $containers $container
}

Then just call the script with the params. remember an array of items is parsed in like this:

-BlobContainers:@(‘container1’, ‘contaner2’) -AzureAccountName romikoTown -AzureAccountKey blahblahblahblahblehblooblowblab==

• .Net Development
• Windows Azure