Merge pull request #245274 from AjKundnani/main

Public Preview | Crash consistent restore points | Docs update

Author: prmerger-automator[bot]

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

@@ -53,11 +53,13 @@ The following table summarizes the support matrix for VM restore points.
 **VMs using Accelerated Networking** | Yes
 **Minimum Frequency at which App consistent restore point can be taken** | 3 hours
 **Minimum Frequency at which [crash consistent restore points (preview)](https://github.com/Azure/Virtual-Machine-Restore-Points/tree/main/Crash%20consistent%20VM%20restore%20points%20(preview)) can be taken** | 1 hour
+**API version for Application consistent restore point** | 2021-03-01 or later
+**API version for Crash consistent restore point (in preview)** | 2021-07-01 or later
 
 > [!Note]
 > Restore Points (App consistent or crash consistent) can be created by customer at the minimum supported frequency as mentioned above. Taking restore points at a frequency lower than supported would result in failure.
 
-## Operating system support
+## Operating system support for application consistency 
 
 ### Windows
 
@@ -83,12 +85,17 @@ For Azure VM Linux VMs, restore points support the list of Linux [distributions
 - Other bring-your-own Linux distributions might work as long as the [Azure VM agent for Linux](../virtual-machines/extensions/agent-linux.md) is available on the VM, and as long as Python is supported.
 - Restore points don't support a proxy-configured Linux VM if it doesn't have Python version 2.7 or higher installed.
 - Restore points don't back up NFS files that are mounted from storage, or from any other NFS server, to Linux or Windows machines. It only backs up disks that are locally attached to the VM.
+ 
+## Operating system support for crash consistency (in preview)
+
+- All Operating systems are supported.
 
 ## Other limitations
 
 - Restore points are supported only for managed disks. 
 - Ultra-disks, Ephemeral OS disks, and Shared disks aren't supported. 
-- Restore points APIs require an API of version 2021-03-01 or later. 
+- Restore points APIs require an API of version 2021-03-01 or later for application consistency. 
+- Restore points APIs require an API of version 2021-03-01 or later for crash consistency. (in preview)
 - A maximum of 500 VM restore points can be retained at any time for a VM, irrespective of the number of restore point collections. 
 - Concurrent creation of restore points for a VM isn't supported. 
 - Movement of Virtual Machines (VM) between Resource Groups (RG), or Subscriptions isn't supported when the VM has restore points. Moving the VM between Resource Groups or Subscriptions won't update the source VM reference in the restore point and will cause a mismatch of ARM processor IDs between the actual VM and the restore points. 

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

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ To create a restore point collection, call the restore point collection's [Creat
 
 ### Step 2: Create a VM restore point
 
-After you create the restore point collection, the next step is to 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.
+After you create the restore point collection, the next step is to 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. For creating crash consistent restore points (in preview) "consistencyMode" property has to be set to "CrashConsistent" in the creation request. 
 
 > [!TIP]
 > 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.
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ Restore point creation in your local region will be completed within a few secon
 
 ## 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.
+Copying the first VM restore point to another region 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` is set to `Failed`.
 

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

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ To track the status of the copy operation, follow the guidance in the [Get resto
 
 ## 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.
+Copying the first VM restore point to  another region 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` is set to `Failed`.
 

articles/virtual-machines/restore-point-troubleshooting.md

@@ -30,13 +30,13 @@ Most common restore point failures can be resolved by following the troubleshoot
 
 - Navigate to **services.msc** and ensure **Windows Azure VM Guest Agent service** is up and running. Also, ensure the [latest version](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=394789&clcid=0x409) is installed. [Learn more](#the-agent-is-installed-in-the-vm-but-its-unresponsive-for-windows-vms).
 - The Azure VM Agent is installed by default on any Windows VM deployed from an Azure Marketplace image from the portal, PowerShell, Command Line Interface, or an Azure Resource Manager template. A [manual installation of the Agent](../virtual-machines/extensions/agent-windows.md#manual-installation) may be necessary when you create a custom VM image that's deployed to Azure.
-- Review the support matrix to check if VM runs on the [supported Windows operating system](concepts-restore-points.md#operating-system-support).
+- Review the support matrix to check if VM runs on the [supported Windows operating system](concepts-restore-points.md#operating-system-support-for-application-consistency).
 
 # [On Linux VM](#tab/linux)
 
 - Ensure the Azure VM Guest Agent service is running by executing the command `ps -e`. Also, ensure the [latest version](../virtual-machines/extensions/update-linux-agent.md) is installed. [Learn more](#the-agent-installed-in-the-vm-is-out-of-date-for-linux-vms).
 - Ensure the [Linux VM agent dependencies on system packages](../virtual-machines/extensions/agent-linux.md#requirements) have the supported configuration. For example: Supported Python version is 2.6 and above.
-- Review the support matrix to check if VM runs on the [supported Linux operating system.](concepts-restore-points.md#operating-system-support).
+- Review the support matrix to check if VM runs on the [supported Linux operating system.](concepts-restore-points.md#operating-system-support-for-application-consistency).
 
 ---
 

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

@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ Create a VM restore point with the [az restore-point create](/cli/azure/restore-
 ```
 az restore-point create --resource-group "ExampleRg" --collection-name "ExampleRpc" --name "ExampleRp"
 ```
+To create a crash consistent restore point set the optional parameter "consistency-mode" to "CrashConsistent". This feature is currently in preview.
+
 ### Exclude disks when creating a restore point
 Exclude the disks that you do not want to be a part of the restore point with the `--exclude-disks` parameter, as follows:
 ```

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

@@ -41,9 +41,11 @@ New-AzRestorePointCollection -ResourceGroupName ExampleRG -Name ExampleRPC -VmId
 
 ## Step 2: Create a VM restore point
 Create a VM restore point with the [New-AzRestorePoint](/powershell/module/az.compute/new-azrestorepoint) cmdlet as shown below:
+
 ```
 New-AzRestorePoint -ResourceGroupName ExampleRG -RestorePointCollectionName ExampleRPC -Name ExampleRP
 ```
+To create a crash consistent restore point set the optional parameter "ConsistencyMode" to "CrashConsistent". This feature is currently in preview.
 
 ### Exclude disks from the restore point
 Exclude certain disks that you do not want to be a part of the restore point with the `-DisksToExclude` parameter, as follows:

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

@@ -20,7 +20,10 @@ You can protect your data and guard against extended downtime by creating virtua
 
 An individual VM restore point is a resource that stores VM configuration and point-in-time application consistent snapshots of all the managed disks attached to the VM. You can use VM restore points to easily capture multi-disk consistent backups.  VM restore points contain a disk restore point for each of the attached disks and a disk restore point consists of a snapshot of an individual managed disk.
 
-VM restore points support application consistency for VMs running Windows operating systems and support file system consistency for VMs running Linux operating system. Application consistent restore points use VSS writers (or pre/post scripts for Linux) to ensure the consistency of the application data before a restore point is created. To get an application consistent restore point, the application running in the VM needs to provide a VSS writer (for Windows), or pre and post scripts (for Linux) to achieve application consistency.
+VM restore points supports both application consistency and crash consistency (in preview).
+Application consistency is supported for VMs running Windows operating systems and support file system consistency for VMs running Linux operating system. Application consistent restore points use VSS writers (or pre/post scripts for Linux) to ensure the consistency of the application data before a restore point is created. To get an application consistent restore point, the application running in the VM needs to provide a VSS writer (for Windows), or pre and post scripts (for Linux) to achieve application consistency.
+
+Crash consistent VM restore point stores the VM configuration and point-in-time write-order consistent snapshots for all managed disks attached to a Virtual Machine. This is same as the status of data in the VM after a power outage or a crash. "consistencyMode" optional parameter has to be set to "crashConsistent" in the creation request. This feature is currently in preview.
 
 VM restore points are organized into restore point collections. A restore point collection is an Azure Resource Management resource that contains the restore points for a specific VM. If you want to utilize ARM templates for creating restore points and restore point collections, visit the public [Virtual-Machine-Restore-Points](https://github.com/Azure/Virtual-Machine-Restore-Points) repository on GitHub.
 
@@ -42,7 +45,8 @@ Currently, restore points can only be created in one VM at a time, that is, you
 
 - Restore points are supported only for managed disks. 
 - Ultra-disks, Ephemeral OS disks, and Shared disks are not supported. 
-- Restore points APIs require an API of version 2021-03-01 or later. 
+- API version for application consistent restore point is 2021-03-01 or later.
+- API version for crash consistent restore point is 2021-07-01 or later. (in preview)
 - A maximum of 500 VM restore points can be retained at any time for a VM, irrespective of the number of restore point collections. 
 - Concurrent creation of restore points for a VM is not supported. 
 - Restore points for Virtual Machine Scale Sets in Uniform orchestration mode are not supported.