How do I configure long-term retention for Azure VM backups?

Question

How do I configure long-term retention for Azure VM backups?

Priyadarshini 60

Suchitra Suregaunkar 15,130 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-02T00:56:33.2066667+00:00
Hello Priyadarshini

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Q&A platform.

Long-term retention for Azure VM backups is controlled by the backup policy attached to your VM inside a Recovery Services vault. Azure Backup lets you define retention across four tiers : Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly where Weekly / Monthly / Yearly points are what Microsoft classifies as Long-Term Retention (LTR).

Step 1 — Open your Recovery Services vault

Sign in to the Azure portal.

Go to the Recovery Services vault protecting your VM.

Under Manage, select Backup policies.

Step 2 — Create or edit a backup policy

Select + Add to create a new policy, or select an existing one and choose Modify.

Policy type: Azure Virtual Machine.

Policy sub-type: Choose Standard or Enhanced:

Standard — one backup per day; snapshot (Instant Restore) retention 1–5 days (default 2).

Enhanced — multiple backups per day (as frequent as every 4 hours), snapshot retention up to 30 days, and required for Trusted Launch VMs, Ultra Disks, and Premium SSD v2.

Step 3 — Configure the backup schedule

Frequency: Daily or Weekly (Standard). Hourly / Daily / Weekly for Enhanced.

Pick a time and time zone (backup time is stored in UTC internally).

Step 4 — Configure Instant Restore (snapshot / operational tier)

Standard policy: 1–5 days (default 2).

Enhanced policy: 1–30 days (default 7). Instant Restore retention cannot exceed vault retention.

Step 5 — Configure Long-Term Retention (this is the key part)

Under Retention range, enable and set the tiers you need:

Retention Tier Typical Range Enhanced Policy Default

Daily 7–9999 days 180 days

Weekly 1–5163 weeks 12 weeks

Monthly 1–1188 months 60 months

Yearly 1–99 years 10 years

For each of Weekly / Monthly / Yearly, you select which recovery point to retain (for example, the backup taken on the First Sunday, in the month of January, and how many weeks / months / years to keep it). The same physical recovery point can satisfy multiple tiers simultaneously.

For compliance-driven retention (HIPAA, SOX, PCI DSS, etc.), Azure Backup supports LTR up to 99 years, and monthly/yearly points can be moved to the Archive tier to significantly reduce cost.

Step 6 — Save and apply the policy

Click Create / Save.

Assign it to the VM via Backup items in the vault, or from the VM blade → Backup → select this policy.

Step 7 — (Optional) Automate via PowerShell / CLI / ARM

PowerShell: Use New-AzRecoveryServicesBackupProtectionPolicy along with Get-AzRecoveryServicesBackupSchedulePolicyObject and Get-AzRecoveryServicesBackupRetentionPolicyObject to build schedule + retention objects programmatically.

CLI (2.73.0+) and REST API (2025-01-01+) are also supported (required versions for Trusted Launch VM under Standard policy).

Important behavior to remember:

Extending retention — existing recovery points are relabeled and kept per the new policy.

Reducing retention — older recovery points are pruned in the next cleanup job.

On-demand backups are not governed by the policy — you specify custom retention when you trigger them, and that retention won't be affected by later policy changes.

Once a VM backup is enabled with an Enhanced policy, it cannot be switched back to Standard.

100 VMs maximum can share a single backup policy.

References:

Back up Azure VMs in a Recovery Services vault

Back up an Azure VM using the Enhanced policy

Guidance and best practices – Azure Backup

Manage and monitor Azure VM backups

Back up and recover Azure VMs with PowerShell

FAQ – Backing up Azure VMs

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Thanks,

Suchitra.

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

To configure long-term retention for Azure VM backups, define and apply an Azure Backup policy that includes long-term (weekly/monthly/yearly) retention for VM recovery points. This is done through a Recovery Services vault and its backup policies.

Use these steps in the Azure portal (classic/custom policy) for Azure VMs:

Open the Recovery Services vault
- In the Azure portal, go to the Recovery Services vault that protects the VM.
- Under Backup, select Backup policies.
Create or edit a backup policy
- To create a new policy, select + Add (or Create a custom policy depending on the experience).
- Policy type: choose Azure Virtual Machine.
- Set Policy name to something meaningful.
Configure backup schedule
- Under Backup schedule, choose Daily or Weekly backups for the VM.
- This schedule defines how often recovery points are created.
Configure Instant Restore (short-term snapshot retention)
- In Instant Restore, specify how long to retain snapshots locally for instant restore.
- For standard/custom VM backup policies, snapshots can typically be retained from 1 to 5 days (default 2 days).
- For Enhanced policies, snapshot retention can be from 1 to 30 days, with a default of 7 days, but it cannot exceed the vault retention duration.
Configure long-term retention (LTR)
- In Retention range, configure how long to keep:
  - Daily or Weekly backup points (short-term retention).
  - Retention of monthly backup point – enable and set how many months to retain selected monthly points.
  - Retention of yearly backup point – enable and set how many years to retain selected yearly points.
- These monthly and yearly retention settings are the long-term retention for VM backups.
- For Enhanced policies, default retention values are:
  - Daily: 180 days
  - Weekly: 12 weeks
  - Monthly: 60 months
  - Yearly: 10 years and can be customized as required.
Save and apply the policy
- Select OK or Create to save the policy.
- Associate the policy with the VM (if not already) via Backup → Enable backup on the VM or via the vault’s Backup items / Backup workflow.
- When backup is enabled, the policy is deployed to the vault and the VM, and the backup extension is installed on the VM agent. Backups then run according to the schedule and retention settings, creating recovery points that are kept for the configured long-term periods.

Key considerations for long-term retention

Use weekly/monthly/yearly retention options for compliance-driven long-term retention.
Ensure vault retention (daily/weekly/monthly/yearly) is at least as long as any Instant Restore snapshot retention configured.
Plan retention based on RTO/RPO and regulatory requirements; long-term retention is typically for planned compliance scenarios.

References:

Retention Tier	Typical Range	Enhanced Policy Default
Daily	7–9999 days	180 days
Weekly	1–5163 weeks	12 weeks
Monthly	1–1188 months	60 months
Yearly	1–99 years	10 years