Merge pull request #188466 from stevenmatthew/restorePoints

Added cross-region updates per PM

Author: tamarakhader

articles/virtual-machines/virtual-machines-create-restore-points.md

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ ms.author: cynthn
 ms.service: virtual-machines
 ms.subservice: recovery
 ms.topic: how-to
-ms.date: 10/22/2021
+ms.date: 02/14/2022
 ms.custom: template-how-to
 ---
 
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ The following image illustrates the relationship between restore point collectio
 
 :::image type="content" source="media/virtual-machines-create-restore-points-api/restore-point-hierarchy.png" alt-text="A diagram illustrating the relationship between the restore point collection parent and the restore point child objects.":::
 
+You can use the APIs to create restore points for your source VM in either the same region, or in other regions. You can also copy existing VM restore points between regions.
+
 VM restore points are incremental. The first restore point stores a full copy of all disks attached to the VM. For each successive restore point for a VM, only the incremental changes to your disks are backed up. To reduce your costs, you can optionally exclude any disk when creating a restore point for your VM.
 
 Keep the following restrictions in mind when you work with VM restore points:
@@ -34,26 +36,64 @@ Keep the following restrictions in mind when you work with VM restore points:
 - Ultra disks, Ephemeral OS Disks, and Shared Disks aren't supported.
 - The restore points APIs require API version 2021-03-01 or better.
 - There is a limit of 200 VM restore points that can be created for a particular VM.
-- Concurrent creation of restore points for a VM is not supported
+- Concurrent creation of restore points for a VM is not supported.
+- Private links are not supported when:
+    - Copying restore points across regions.
+    - Creating restore points in a region other than the source VM.
+- Currently, cross-region creation and copy of VM restore points are only available in the following regions:
+
+  |                 |                                              |
+  |-----------------|----------------------------------------------|
+  |**Americas**     | East US, East US 2, Central US, North Central US, <br/>South Central US, West Central US, West US, West US 2 |
+  |**Asia Pacific** | Central India, South India |
+  |**Europe**       | Germany West central, North Europe, West Europe |
 
 ## Create VM restore points
 
 The following sections outline the steps you need to take to create VM restore points with the Azure Compute REST APIs.
 
-You can find more information in the [Restore Points](/rest/api/compute/restore-points) and [Restore Point Collections](/rest/api/compute/restore-point-collections) API documentation.
+You can find more information in the [Restore Points](/rest/api/compute/restore-points), [PowerShell](/powershell/module/az.compute/new-azrestorepoint), and [Restore Point Collections](/rest/api/compute/restore-point-collections) API documentation.
 
 ### Step 1: Create a VM restore point collection
 
-Before you create VM restore points, you must create a restore point collection. A restore point collection holds all of the restore points for a specific VM. 
-
+Before you create VM restore points, you must create a restore point collection. A restore point collection holds all of the restore points for a specific VM. Depending on your needs, you can create VM restore points in the same region as the VM, or in a different region.
+To create a restore point collection, call the restore point collection's Create or Update API. If you're creating restore point collection in the same region as the VM, then specify the VM's region in the location property of the request body. If you're creating the restore point collection in a different region than the VM, specify the target region for the collection in the location property, but also specify the source restore point collection ARM resource ID in the request body.
+ 
 To create a restore point collection, call the restore point collection's [Create or Update](/rest/api/compute/restore-point-collections/create-or-update) API.
 
 ### Step 2: Create a VM restore point
 
 After the restore point collection is created, create a VM restore point within the restore point collection. For more information about restore point creation, see the [Restore Points - Create](/rest/api/compute/restore-points/create) API documentation.
 
 > [!TIP]
-> To save space and costs, you can exclude any disk from your VM restore points. To exclude a disk, add its identifier to the `excludeDisks` property in the request body.
+> To save space and costs, you can exclude any disk from either local region or cross-region VM restore points. To exclude a disk, add its identifier to the `excludeDisks` property in the request body.
+
+### Step 3: Track the status of the VM restore point creation
+
+Restore point creation in your local region will be completed within a few seconds. Scenarios which involve the creation of cross-region restore points will take considerably longer. To track the status of the creation operation, follow the guidance within the [Get restore point copy or replication status](#get-restore-point-copy-or-replication-status) section below. This is only applicable for scenarios where the restore points are created in a different region than the source VM.
+
+## Copy a VM restore point between regions
+
+The VM restore point APIs can be used to restore a VM in a different region than the source VM.
+
+### Step 1: Create a destination VM restore point collection
+
+To copy an existing VM restore point from one region to another, your first step is to create a restore point collection in the target or destination region. To do this, reference the restore point collection from the source region. Follow the guidance within the [Step 1: Create a VM restore point collection](#step-1-create-a-vm-restore-point-collection) section above.
+
+### Step 2: Create the destination VM restore point
+
+After the restore point collection is created, trigger the creation of a restore point in the target restore point collection. Ensure that you've referenced the restore point in the source region that you want to copy. Ensure also that you've specified the source restore point's identifier in the request body. The source VM's location will be inferred from the target restore point collection in which the restore point is being created.
+Refer to the [Restore Points - Create](/rest/api/compute/restore-points/create) API documentation to create a `RestorePoint`.
+
+### Step 3: Track copy status
+
+To track the status of the copy operation, follow the guidance within the [Get restore point copy or replication status](#get-restore-point-copy-or-replication-status) section below. This is only applicable for scenarios where the restore points are copied to a different region than the source VM.
+
+## Get restore point copy or replication status
+
+Creation of a cross-region VM restore point is a long running operation. The VM restore point can be used to restore a VM only after the operation is completed for all disk restore points. To track the operation's status, call the [Restore Point - Get](/rest/api/compute/restore-points/get) API on the target VM restore point and include the `instanceView` parameter. The return will include the percentage of data that has been copied at the time of the request.
+
+During restore point creation, the `ProvisioningState` will appear as `Creating` in the response. If creation fails, `ProvisioningState` will be set to `Failed`.
 
 ## Create a disk using disk restore points
 
@@ -79,4 +119,4 @@ For more information about granting access to snapshots, see the [Grant Access](
 
 ## Next steps
 
-Read more about [Backup and restore options for virtual machines in Azure](backup-recovery.md).
+Read more about [Backup and restore options for virtual machines in Azure](backup-recovery.md).