Azure Virtual Machine: Cross-Subscription Move Fails Due to Disk Restore Points — UnsupportedMoveOfDiskWithIncrementalRestorePoints

Question

Azure Virtual Machine: Cross-Subscription Move Fails Due to Disk Restore Points — UnsupportedMoveOfDiskWithIncrementalRestorePoints

AA-8688 0

Problem description

I am attempting to move an Azure Virtual Machine running Ubuntu from one subscription to another within the same region, but the move fails during validation. The error indicates that a managed disk attached to the VM has restore points, specifically mentioning "UnsupportedMoveOfDiskWithIncrementalRestorePoints." The validation message suggests that disks with restore points cannot be moved across resource groups or subscriptions.

Environment

Azure Virtual Machine running Ubuntu in West Europe, within Availability Zone 1, involving a cross-subscription move scenario. The VM has an attached managed disk with restore points, and the move validation fails before the move starts.

What I've already tried

Based on the case details, I have not performed any troubleshooting steps myself. The issue occurred during an attempted cross-subscription move, and the validation was blocked due to the presence of restore points on the managed disk.

Current status

I am seeking guidance on how to resolve this issue. Specifically, I want to understand how to remove or address the restore points or dependencies on the disk to enable the VM to be moved across subscriptions. Any recommended procedures or steps to clear these dependencies while preserving necessary backups would be appreciated.

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1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Hi,

This usually means the VM is protected by Azure Backup. Its instant recovery snapshots live in a Restore Point Collection, and Azure won't move the disk across subscriptions while that collection exists. You can remove it without losing the backups already in your vault (Microsoft doc).

In the Recovery Services vault, Stop backup for the VM and choose Retain backup data.
Find and delete the restore point collection (named AzureBackup_<vm-name>_<number>, usually in AzureBackupRG_westeurope_1). This removes only the instant snapshots, not the vault data.

az resource list --resource-type Microsoft.Compute/restorePointCollections \
  --query "[?starts_with(name, 'AzureBackup_<vm-name>')].id" -o tsv
az resource delete --ids <id-from-above>

Run the move again, including the VM's NIC, VNet, and public IP if they aren't already in the target subscription.
Enable backup again with a vault in the new subscription. Your old recovery points stay in the original vault until you delete them.

If validation still fails after the delete, soft delete may be holding the restore points. In that case, disable soft delete or wait 14 days.

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