Disaster Recovery Plan | How to Restore Azure SQL Database from One Resource Group to Another Across Regions

Question

Hi Team,

We recently encountered a limitation while trying to restore an Azure SQL Database from a source server in one resource group to a new SQL Server in another resource group (across regions) using Point-in-Time Restore.

Scenario:

• We have an Azure SQL Database hosted in a SQL Server under Resource Group A (Region 1).

Our goal is to restore this database into a new SQL Server in Resource Group B (Region 2) as part of our disaster recovery plan.

Problem:

When attempting to use create_mode = "PointInTimeRestore" in Terraform to restore the database, we received the following error:

"RestoreCrossServerDisabled": For point-in-time restores, the target logical server must be the same as the source logical server.

So, cross-server Point-in-Time Restore is not supported, especially across regions.

Workaround we found:

After some investigation, we discovered that we could:

Enable Geo-Replication on the primary database.

This creates a secondary read-only replica in the target region.

We can then initiate a failover or use the secondary replica to create a new primary database in another resource group if needed.

This approach works and is cost-effective, especially at lower DTUs (e.g., ~10 DTUs cost ~$15/month). If a disaster happens, we can quickly:

Use the secondary geo-replica to create a new database in a new region/resource group.

Scale up DTUs afterward to match performance needs (~50 DTUs cost ~$70/month).

Questions:

Is there any supported way to do a cross-server or cross-resource-group Point-in-Time Restore, perhaps via Azure CLI or API?

Are there any alternatives to Geo-Replication that offer better cost efficiency for DR readiness?

Are there plans in Azure roadmap to remove the current PITR cross-server limitation?

Appreciate any guidance, best practices, or official documentation links you can share.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hello Dinesh , Welcome to MS Q&A

To answer your above questions

• Cross-server/region PITR is not supported—use Geo-Replication for DR.
• LTR backups can be restored cross-region, but only to the backup point (not PITR).
• No public plans to change this limitation.
• Geo-Replication is the best practice for DR readiness in Azure SQL Database. Official Documentation & Guidance
  • Azure SQL Database business continuity
  • Restore a database to another server
  • Geo-Replication overview

Pls check and let me know if any further ques

Kindly accept if it helps

Thanks
Deepanshu