Azure Backup moving from default/standard policy to enhanced policy

Question

Hello Team,

I hope you're doing well,

I have a little question here,

I have a vm member of an Azure backup standard policy, and i want to move it to a new Azure backup enhanced policy.

I received the following error: UserErrorMigrationToEnhancedPolicyNotSupported

So if i understand if i want to do so i would need to :

-Stop backup for the machine that is using the default policy

-Delete the machine and it's backup from Azure Backup

-Once data is deleted (After 14 days) Re-add the VM and then add the VM to the enhanced policy

Is there a better way to do achive this goal? Because in this scenario, i won't have the backup of the machine for 14 days. And we can't anymore Disable the Soft Delete on the RSV...

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hello Schinas Florian

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

It looks like you’re looking to move your VM backup from a standard policy to an enhanced one, but you’re running into the UserErrorMigrationToEnhancedPolicyNotSupported issue. Your understanding of the process is mostly correct, but let’s see if we can streamline this for you.

Here’s what you can do:

Remove Current Backups:

You’ll indeed need to stop the backup and delete the current VM backup under the standard policy.

Moving the VM (Optional):

Instead of deleting the VM backup, you might consider moving the VM to another resource group. This allows you to retain your existing backups while enabling you to apply the enhanced policy.

To do this:

·         Navigate to the Azure portal.

·         Go to your VM, select Resource Group, and then choose Move to a different resource group.

Add Backup Again:

·         After deletion or the move is completed, you can re-add the VM to the enhanced policy.

A Few Important Considerations:

• Once you delete the backup, it triggers a retention period of 14 days, during which you won’t have a backup available.
• Always ensure that the backup jobs are not running during this operation to prevent any interruptions.

Alternative Option for Enhanced Policy:

• If the VM is crucial and you can’t afford the downtime, you might want to look into using Azure CLI or PowerShell commands to automate this process and make it smoother.

Here are some reference links to help you with specific steps:

• Migrate Azure VM backups from standard to enhanced policy
• Back up an Azure VM by using the Enhanced policy

Follow-Up Questions:

1. Can you confirm if you have any ongoing backups that might conflict with the move or deletion?
2. Are you considering moving the VM to another resource group, or do you prefer the deletion route for the backups?

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions or need further assistance.

Please do not forget to  and “up-vote” this helps other community members who may encounter a similar issue in the future.

Answer 2

You might want to consider using two different vaults:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-move-recovery-services-vault#move-an-azure-virtual-machine-to-a-different-recovery-service-vault

Must preserve previous backed-up data

If you need to keep the current protected data in the old vault and continue the protection in a new vault, there are limited options for some of the workloads:

For MARS, you can stop protection with retain data and register the agent in the new vault.

• Azure Backup service will continue to retain all the existing recovery points of the old vault.
  • You'll need to pay to keep the recovery points in the old vault.
    • You'll be able to restore the backed-up data only for unexpired recovery points in the old vault.
      • A new initial replica of the data will need to be created on the new vault.

For an Azure VM, you can stop protection with retain data for the VM in the old vault, move the VM to another resource group, and then protect the VM in the new vault. See guidance and limitations for moving a VM to another resource group.

A VM can be protected in only one vault at a time. However, the VM in the new resource group can be protected on the new vault as it's considered a different VM.

• Azure Backup service will retain the recovery points that have been backed up on the old vault.
• You'll need to pay to keep the recovery points in the old vault (see Azure Backup pricing for details).
• You'll be able to restore the VM, if needed, from the old vault.
• The first backup on the new vault of the VM in the new resource will be an initial replica.

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hth

Marcin