Azure Backup: Unable to delete Recovery Services vault due to existing Azure Site Recovery dependencies

Question

Azure Backup: Unable to delete Recovery Services vault due to existing Azure Site Recovery dependencies

Koudelia Nikolai (Futurice) 0

Problem description

I am trying to delete a Recovery Services vault in Azure Backup, but the operation fails with the error code 'BMSUserErrorVaultDeletionNotAllowed'. The error indicates that the vault still contains an existing resource, specifically a SQL-related item associated with the vault. Despite reviewing the vault in the Azure portal, I see no backup items or backup infrastructure entries, and the counts are zero. I also attempted to delete the vault using Azure CLI, but it still reports dependencies related to a SQL workload, particularly 'Sql;htfakturahotelldev-rg;htfhsqltest01'. I have already verified that there are no visible backup items, infrastructure entries, or soft-deleted items, and there are no private endpoints or resource locks on the vault.

Environment

Azure Backup with a Recovery Services vault in an unspecified region. The delete attempt was performed using Azure CLI with the command 'az backup vault delete --name {vault-name} --resource-group {resource-group} --yes'. The vault appears empty in the portal, but the error points to a SQL workload dependency.

What I've already tried

I reviewed the vault in the Azure portal and confirmed that there are no visible backup items or infrastructure entries, with counts showing zero. I also attempted to delete the vault through Azure CLI, which failed with the 'BMSUserErrorVaultDeletionNotAllowed' error, referencing a SQL-related resource. I verified that there are no soft-deleted items, private endpoints, or resource locks on the vault. Additionally, I ran commands to list Azure workload containers and backup items, which returned empty lists, indicating no visible backup objects. I suspect there might be a hidden or stale SQL workload registration still attached to the vault, which is preventing deletion.

Current status

I am seeking guidance on how to identify and remove any hidden or stale SQL workload dependencies attached to the vault so that I can successfully delete the Recovery Services vault.

VEMULA SRISAI 14,075 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-16T16:41:17.4333333+00:00
Hello Koudelia Nikolai (Futurice),

Thank you for the detailed troubleshooting steps confirming zero backup items, zero infrastructure entries, no soft-deleted items, no private endpoints, and no resource locks rules out the common causes and points to a stale backend registration.

The BMSUserErrorVaultDeletionNotAllowed error referencing Sql;htfakturahotelldev-rg;htfhsqltest01 indicates that while the backup item itself has been removed, the container/protectable-item** **registration for that SQL instance is still present in the backend metadata store. This registration layer is tracked independently of what the Backup Items and Backup Infrastructure blades display, which is why the portal shows zero items even though the dependency check still finds it.

Before this needs backend involvement, please try unregistering the container directly:

az

This acts on the container record itself rather than on visible backup items, so it can succeed even when the item list is empty.

If this command also fails (for example, with a service/internal error), the container registration is orphaned at the backend and will need a backend metadata cleanup this isn't something that can be resolved from the portal, CLI, or REST API at that point.

Could you share the exact error returned by the unregister command, along with the operation's correlation ID from the Activity Log? That will let us confirm whether this needs to be routed for backend cleanup.

Your answer

VEMULA SRISAI 14,075 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-16T16:41:17.4333333+00:00

Hello Koudelia Nikolai (Futurice),

Thank you for the detailed troubleshooting steps confirming zero backup items, zero infrastructure entries, no soft-deleted items, no private endpoints, and no resource locks rules out the common causes and points to a stale backend registration.

The BMSUserErrorVaultDeletionNotAllowed error referencing Sql;htfakturahotelldev-rg;htfhsqltest01 indicates that while the backup item itself has been removed, the container/protectable-item** **registration for that SQL instance is still present in the backend metadata store. This registration layer is tracked independently of what the Backup Items and Backup Infrastructure blades display, which is why the portal shows zero items even though the dependency check still finds it.

Before this needs backend involvement, please try unregistering the container directly:

az

This acts on the container record itself rather than on visible backup items, so it can succeed even when the item list is empty.

If this command also fails (for example, with a service/internal error), the container registration is orphaned at the backend and will need a backend metadata cleanup this isn't something that can be resolved from the portal, CLI, or REST API at that point.

Could you share the exact error returned by the unregister command, along with the operation's correlation ID from the Activity Log? That will let us confirm whether this needs to be routed for backend cleanup.