Incorporated Vinay's feedback

Author: haileytap

articles/search/search-multi-region.md

@@ -6,22 +6,24 @@ author: haileytap
 ms.author: haileytapia
 ms.service: azure-ai-search
 ms.topic: conceptual
-ms.date: 06/23/2025
+ms.date: 07/11/2025
 ---
 
 # Multi-region deployments in Azure AI Search
 
-Although Azure AI Search is a single-region service, you can achieve higher availability and resiliency by deploying multiple search services with identical configurations and content across multiple regions. This article describes the components of a multi-region solution, which relies on your custom script or code to handle failover if a service becomes unavailable.
+Although Azure AI Search is a single-region service, you can achieve higher availability and resiliency by deploying multiple search services with identical configurations and content across multiple regions.
+
+This article describes the components of a multi-region solution, which relies on your custom script or code to handle failover if a service becomes unavailable.
 
 For more information about the reliability features of Azure AI Search, including intra-regional resiliency via availability zones, see [Reliability in Azure AI Search](search-reliability.md).
 
 ## Why use multiple regions?
 
 If you need two or more search services, creating them in different regions can meet the following operational requirements:
 
-+ Resiliency to region outages. If there's an outage, Azure AI Search doesn't provide instant failover to another region.
++ **Resiliency to region outages**. If there's an outage, Azure AI Search doesn't provide instant failover to another region.
 
-+ Fast performance for a globally distributed application. If indexing and query requests come from around the world, users who are closest to the host data center experience faster performance. Creating more services in regions with close proximity to these users can equalize performance for everyone.
++ **Fast performance for a globally distributed application**. If indexing and query requests come from around the world, users who are closest to the host data center experience faster performance. Creating more services in regions with close proximity to these users can equalize performance for everyone.
 
 ## Multi-region architecture
 

articles/search/search-reliability.md

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ author: haileytap
 ms.author: haileytapia
 ms.service: azure-ai-search
 ms.topic: reliability-article
-ms.date: 07/02/2025
+ms.date: 07/11/2025
 ms.custom:
   - subject-reliability
   - ignite-2023
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Reliability is a shared responsibility between you and Microsoft, so this articl
 
 In Azure AI Search, you can achieve reliability by:
 
-+ **Scaling a single search service**. Add multiple [replicas](search-capacity-planning.md#concepts-search-units-replicas-partitions) to increase availability and handle higher indexing and query workloads. If your region supports availability zones, replicas are automatically provisioned in different physical data centers for extra resiliency.
++ **Scaling a single search service**. Add multiple [replicas](search-capacity-planning.md#concepts-search-units-replicas-partitions) to increase availability and handle higher indexing and query workloads. If your region supports availability zones, replicas are distributed across different physical data centers on a best-effort basis for extra resiliency.
 
 + **Deploying multiple search services across different regions**. Each service operates independently within its region. However, in a multi-service scenario, you have options for synchronizing content across all services. You can also use a load-balancing solution to redistribute requests or fail over if there's a service outage.
 
@@ -44,7 +44,10 @@ Availability zones are physically separate groups of datacenters within each Azu
 
 Azure AI Search is a zone-redundant service that spreads your replicas across availability zones. A search service runs in one region, while its replicas run in zones within that region.
 
-When you add two or more replicas to your service, Azure AI Search automatically places each replica in a different availability zone. If your service has more than three replicas, they're distributed across zones as evenly as possible.
+When you add two or more replicas to your service, Azure AI Search strives to place each replica in a different availability zone. For services with more replicas than available zones, replicas are distributed across zones as evenly as possible.
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> Azure AI Search doesn't guarantee the exact placement of replicas, which are subject to capacity constraints, scaling operations, and other factors.
 
 ### Region support
 
@@ -68,7 +71,7 @@ Each search service starts with one replica. Zone redundancy requires two or mor
 
 ### Configure availability zone support
 
-If your search service meets the [requirements for zone redundancy](#requirements), no extra configuration is necessary. Azure AI Search automatically places your replicas in different availability zones.
+If your search service meets the [requirements for zone redundancy](#requirements), no extra configuration is necessary. Whenever possible, Azure AI Search attempts to place your replicas in different availability zones.
 
 ### Zone-down experience
 
@@ -82,7 +85,7 @@ When an availability zone experiences an outage, your search service continues t
 
 + **Expected data loss**: A zone failure isn't expected to cause data loss.
 
-+ **Expected downtime**: A zone failure isn't expected to cause downtime to your search service, but it can temporarily reduce your service's overall capacity. To maintain optimal performance, consider provisioning more replicas than you typically need.
++ **Expected downtime**: A zone failure isn't expected to cause downtime to your search service, but it can temporarily reduce your service's overall capacity. To maintain optimal performance, consider provisioning more replicas than you typically need. Adding replicas during an outage is challenging, so overprovisioning helps ensure that your service can handle normal request volumes, even with reduced capacity.
 
 + **Traffic rerouting**: When a zone fails, Azure AI Search detects the failure and routes requests to active replicas in the surviving zones.