Merge pull request #312813 from MicrosoftDocs/main

Auto Publish – main to live - 2026-03-09 06:00 UTC

Author: learn-build-service-prod[bot]

articles/backup/backup-architecture.md

@@ -140,6 +140,7 @@ Back up deduplicated disks | | | ![Partially][yellow]<br/><br/> For DPM/MABS ser
 - **Retention duration is increased / decreased:** When the retention duration is changed, the new retention duration is applied to the existing recovery points as well. As a result, some of the recovery points will be cleaned up. If the retention period is increased, the existing recovery points will have an increased retention as well.
 - **Changed from daily to weekly:** When the scheduled backups are changed from daily to weekly,  the existing daily recovery points are cleaned up.
 - **Changed from weekly to daily:** The existing weekly backups will be retained based on the number of days remaining according to the current retention policy.
+- **Schedule days/tags are changed, but retention is unchanged:** Existing recovery points continue to expire according to their current retention settings. New recovery points are no longer created for the removed schedule days/tags. Because Azure VM backup is incremental, storage reduction is gradual and depends on how much data in expired recovery points was overwritten by newer retained recovery points.
 
 ### Additional reference
 

articles/backup/backup-mabs-protection-matrix.md

@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ The following sections details the protection support matrix for MABS:
 | **Workload**                                                 | **Version**                                             | **Azure  Backup Server   installation**                      | **Supported  Azure Backup Server** | **Protection  and recovery**                                 |
 | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
 | Hyper-V  host - MABS protection agent on Hyper-V host server, cluster, or VM | Windows  Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012 R2, 2012               | Physical  server  <br><br>    Hyper-V virtual machine <br><br>    VMware  virtual machine | V4                                 | Protect:  Virtual machines, cluster shared volumes (CSVs)  <br><br>    Recover: Virtual machine, Item-level recovery of files and folders available  only for Windows, volumes, virtual hard drives <br><br> Note that Item Level Recovery isn't supported for Virtual Machine volumes that have BitLocker enabled. |
-| Azure Local  |       V1, 20H2, 21H2, 22H2, and 23H2      |    Physical server        <br><br>     Hyper-V / Azure Local virtual machine     <br><br>    VMware virtual machine     |    V4   | Protect: Virtual machines, cluster shared volumes (CSVs)      <br><br>     Recover: Virtual machine, Item-level recovery of files and folders available only for Windows, volumes, virtual hard drives <br><br> Recovery of Arc VMs is supported in a limited capacity in Azure Local, version 23H2. [Learn more](back-up-azure-stack-hyperconverged-infrastructure-virtual-machines.md). |
+| Azure Local  |       Lastest Major Release [Learn More](/azure/azure-local/release-information-23h2?view=azloc-2602&preserve-view=true&tabs=OS-build-26100-xxxx%2COS-build-25398-xxx)       |    Physical server        <br><br>     Hyper-V / Azure Local virtual machine     <br><br>    VMware virtual machine     |    V4   | Protect: Virtual machines, cluster shared volumes (CSVs)      <br><br>     Recover: Virtual machine, Item-level recovery of files and folders available only for Windows, volumes, virtual hard drives <br><br> Recovery of Arc VMs is supported in a limited capacity in Azure Local, version 23H2. [Learn more](back-up-azure-stack-hyperconverged-infrastructure-virtual-machines.md). <br><br> Note that Application Control should be in audit mode for agent installation.|
 | VMware  VMs                                                  | VMware  server 6.5, 6.7, 7.0, 8.0 (Licensed Version) | Hyper-V  virtual machine  <br><br>   VMware  virtual machine         | V4                             | Protect:  VMware VMs on cluster-shared volumes (CSVs), NFS, and SAN storage   <br><br>     Recover:  Virtual machine, Item-level recovery of files and folders available only for  Windows, volumes, virtual hard drives <br><br>    Note that Item Level Recovery isn't supported for Virtual Machine volumes that have BitLocker enabled. <br><br> VMware  vApps aren't supported.        <br><br> vSphere 8.0 DataSets feature isn't supported for backup. |
 
 >[!NOTE]
@@ -159,4 +159,4 @@ MABS doesn't support protecting the following data types:
 - [Run an unattended installation of MABS](backup-mabs-unattended-install.md).
 - [Back up a SharePoint farm on Azure Stack](backup-mabs-sharepoint-azure-stack.md).
 - [Back up SQL Server on Azure Stack](backup-mabs-sql-azure-stack.md).
-- [Azure Backup Server V3 RTM protection matrix](microsoft-azure-backup-server-protection-v3.md).
+- [Azure Backup Server V3 RTM protection matrix](microsoft-azure-backup-server-protection-v3.md).

articles/backup/manage-recovery-points.md

@@ -75,6 +75,9 @@ When the initial recovery point expires, it merges with the next incremental rec
 
 - If *Recovery Point 2* expires before *Recovery Point 1*, the data from *Recovery Point 2* is merged with the next available recovery point: *Recovery Point 3*. So block D3 is merged with *Recovery Point 3*.
 - *Recovery Point 1* is still the full backup with block D1 and D2.
+- When an in-between incremental recovery point expires, Azure Backup frees only the data blocks that are overwritten in a subsequent retained recovery point.
+- Data blocks that aren't overwritten are required to maintain the incremental chain and are carried forward (merged) into the next available retained recovery point.
+- Because of this behavior, storage reduction can be gradual and might not map 1:1 to the number of expired recovery points.
 
 ![Second case](./media/manage-recovery-points/second-case.png)