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This article describes how soft delete for virtual machines (VMs) in Azure Backup helps safeguard your backup data against accidental or malicious deletion. When a VM backup is deleted, the backup data is retained in a soft-delete state for 14 days, allowing you to recover it if needed. This feature enhances data resilience and ensures that you have a window to restore critical backup data before it's permanently removed.
Note
Soft delete only protects deleted backup data. If a VM is deleted without a backup, the soft delete feature won't preserve the data. All resources should be protected with Azure Backup to ensure full resilience.
Soft delete Azure VM backups
Choose a client:
To delete the backup data of a Virtual Machine (VM), the backup must be stopped. In the Azure portal, go to your Recovery Services vault, right-click on the backup item and choose Stop backup.
In the following window, you can choose to delete or retain the backup data. If you choose Retain backup data and then Stop backup, the VM backup won't be permanently deleted. Rather, this stops all scheduled backup jobs and retains backup data. In this scenario, retention range set in the policy doesn't apply to the backup data. It continues the pricing as is until you remove the data manually. If Delete backup data is chosen, a delete email alert is sent to the configured email ID informing the user that 14 days remain of extended retention for backup data. Also, an email alert is sent on the 12th day informing that there are two more days left to resurrect the deleted data. The deletion is deferred until the 15th day, when permanent deletion will occur and a final email alert is sent informing about the permanent deletion of the data.
During those 14 days, in the Recovery Services vault, the soft deleted VM will appear with a red "soft-delete" icon next to it.
Note
If any soft-deleted backup items are present in the vault, the vault can't be deleted at that time. Try deleting the vault after the backup items are permanently deleted, and there are no items in soft deleted state left in the vault.
To restore the soft-deleted VM, it must first be undeleted. To undelete, choose the soft-deleted VM, and then select the option Undelete.
A window will appear warning that if the undelete option is chosen, all restore points for the VM will be undeleted and available for performing a restore operation. The VM will be retained in a "stop protection with retain data" state with backups paused and backup data retained forever with no backup policy effective.
At this point, you can also restore the VM by selecting Restore VM from the chosen restore point.
Note
Garbage collector will run and clean expired recovery points only after the user performs the Resume backup operation.
After the undelete process is completed, the status will return to "Stop backup with retain data" and then you can choose Resume backup. The Resume backup operation brings back the backup item in the active state, associated with a backup policy selected by the user defining the backup and retention schedules.
How to disable soft delete
Disabling this feature isn't recommended. The only circumstance where you should consider disabling soft delete is if you're planning on moving your protected items to a new vault, and can't wait the 14 days required before deleting and reprotecting (such as in a test environment.) For instructions on how to disable soft delete, see Enabling and disabling soft delete.
Next steps
- Read the frequently asked questions about soft delete
- Read about all the security features in Azure Backup