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Can you please unlock recovery service vault, they are protected by immutability lock.

Admin Academies Central 0 Reputation points
2026-04-02T08:43:06.4066667+00:00

Can you please unlock recovery service vault, they are protected by immutability lock. We require the following to be unlocked Onprem-Servers Onprem-Servers2 This is required so we can delete some older backups for services who have left the organisation.

Azure Backup
Azure Backup

An Azure backup service that provides built-in management at scale.

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  1. Bharath Y P 7,240 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-04-06T06:21:46.79+00:00

    You are requesting to unlock or disable immutability on the Azure Recovery Services Vaults Onprem-Servers and Onprem-Servers2 so that older backups can be deleted for services that are no longer in use. Both vaults currently have Immutable Vault enabled and locked.

    The Recovery Services Vaults are protected with locked immutability, once immutability is locked, it is permanent and irreversible. Backup data cannot be deleted before the retention period expires. Microsoft cannot unlock or override a locked immutable vault. Older backups must remain until they naturally age out. This behavior is by design and applies to all protected items in the vault.

    Concept of Immutable Vault for Azure Backup - Azure Backup | Microsoft Learn

    Although unlocking is not supported, you can take the following supported actions:

    • Stop protection for workloads that are no longer required; existing backups will remain immutable and will expire naturally based on the configured retention period.
    • Review retention policies carefully; retention can be increased for future backups but cannot be reduced for existing recovery points.
    • Use separate Recovery Services Vaults for workloads that require shorter retention periods before enabling immutability.
    • Allow backups to age out naturally, as this is the only supported method for removing older backups from an immutable vault.

    No manual deletion or exception process exists for locked immutable vaults

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