Private Preview: Instant Access via Application‑Consistent Restore Points on Premium SSD v2 & Ultra Disks

Overview

This document explains how to create and manage Instant Access (IA) application consistent restore points for VMs having Premium SSD v2 and Ultra disks, leveraging the latest API features. Instant Access enables rapid disk restoration from snapshots, with configurable access duration and enhanced performance.

NOTE: This feature should not be used for production workloads until General Availability (GA). Microsoft Privacy Statement: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement

Enable subscritpion with this feature

• Open the Cloud shell (PowerShell) from portal. Direct link -> https://shell.azure.com/
• Ensure your using the subscription which will be used for testing this feature.
• Run Register-AzProviderFeature -FeatureName 'AppConsistentInstantAccessSnapshotForDirectDriveDisks' -ProviderNamespace 'Microsoft.Compute'
• API version 2025-04-01 or later is supported.
• Regions Supported: EASTUS2EUAP.
• Client tools supported: REST API and SDK.
• Please check below on how to disable the feature along with unregistering this feature.

Unsupported Configurations

• More than 50 restore points should not be created concurrently at a given time per subscription per region.

Key Concepts

• ConsistencyMode: Restore points supports 2 consistency modes app consistent and crash consistent. This document is specifically for application consistent mode.
• Instant Access (IA): Allows immediate restoration of disks from snapshots, with a default duration of 5 hours (configurable between 60 and 300 minutes). Its a boolean property to be enabled at the restore point collection level.
• instantAccessDurationMinutes: Integer property to set InstantAccess duration (in minutes) at the restore point level.
• InstantAccessState: Indicates the access status of all disk restore points within a restore point (possible values are: Pending, Available, InstantAccess, AvailableWithInstantAccess). Detailed table for each of the state is mentioned in step 3 below.
• SnapshotAccessState: Indicates the access status of single disk restore points within a restore point (possible values are: Pending, Available, InstantAccess, AvailableWithInstantAccess).

Steps to be followed

Step 1: Create a VM with Premium SSD v2 and/or Ultra disks as data disks and Premium SSD v1 OS disk.

Step 2: Enable Instant Access on Restore Point Collection

Use the following REST API call to create a restore point collection with instantAccess enabled on the VM that was created as mentioned in the perquisites above.

PUT https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/restorePointCollections/{restorePointCollectionName}?api-version=2025-04-01

Request Body Example:

  {
    "location": "<region>",
    "properties": {
      "source": {
        "id": "<VM Arm Id>"
      },
      "instantAccess": true
    },
    "tags": {
      "myTag1": "tagValue1"
    }
  }

• instantAccess: Set to true to enable InstantAccess. Default is false if not provided.
• You can update this property later using a PATCH call if needed to disable the feature.

Step 3: Create a Application consistent restore point with Custom InstantAccess Duration

Create a application consistent restore point and specify the InstantAccess duration (between 60 and 300 minutes):

PUT https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/restorePointCollections/{restorePointCollectionName}/restorePoints/{restorePointName}?api-version=2025-04-01

Request Body Example:

  {
    "name": "<restorePointName>",
    "properties": {
     "instantAccessDurationMinutes": 120,
      "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    }
  }

• instantAccessDurationMinutes: Optional. Default is 300 (5 hours). Can be set to a lower value, but not higher than 300.

Note: Use only PUT restore point without InstantAccess duration in the body if you prefer to use the default 5 hours.

Step 4: Validate Restore Point Creation

To verify the InstantAccess status and duration, use the GET API:

GET https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/restorePointCollections/{restorePointCollectionName}/restorePoints/{restorePointName}?api-version=2025-04-01

Response Example:

{
  "name": "<Restore Point Name>",
  "id": "<Restore Point Arm Id>",
  "properties": {
    "instantAccessDurationMinutes": 120,
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "instantAccessStatus": "AvailablewithInstantAccess"
  }
}

• Check instantAccessDurationMinutes , provisioningState and InstantAccessStatus.

ParameterName	Description
instantAccessDurationMinutes	1 – 300 [default is 300]
provisioningState	Creating – The restore point is being created. Succeeded – The restore point was successfully created and is ready. Failed – The creation failed. Deleting – The restore point is being deleted. Cancelled – The operation was cancelled. Updating – The restore point is being updated. InProgress – The operation is still ongoing (sometimes seen in older SDKs).
InstantAccessStatus	Pending – Restore points in this state cannot be used for restore, copy, or offline download. A restore point is marked as Pending if any disk restore point within it has a snapshotAccessState of pending. Available – Restore points in this state can be used for restore, copy to a different region, and offline download. A restore point becomes Available when all disk restore points within it have a snapshotAccessState of available. This typically occurs after the instantAccessDuration has expired. InstantAccess - Restore points in this state allow fast disk restore but cannot be copied or downloaded. A restore point is marked as InstantAccess when all disk restore points within it have a snapshotAccessState of InstantAccess. AvailablewithInstantAccess - Restore points in this state allow fast disk restore, and they can also be copied and downloaded. A restore point is marked as AvailableWithInstantAccess when all disks restore points within it have a snapshotAccessState of AvailableWithInstantAccess. This applies when the instantAccessDuration has not yet expired.

Step 5: Restore Disk from Disk Restore Point

Before restoring the disk check the instantAcessStatus at restore point. Depending on the operation you intend to perform, please verify its status against the table in Step 3.

GET https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/restorePointCollections/{restorePointCollectionName}/restorePoints/{restorePointName}?api-version=2025-04-01

Response Example:

{
  "name": "<Restore Point Name>",
  "id": "<Restore Point Arm Id>",
  "properties": {
    "instantAccessDurationMinutes": 120,
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "instantAccessStatus": "AvailablewithInstantAccess"
  }
}

Step 6: Check Instance View for Disk Restore Point Status

To get detailed status, including InstantAccess availability, use the instance view expansion:

GET https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/restorePointCollections/{restorePointCollectionName}/restorePoints/{restorePointName}?$expand=instanceView&api-version=2025-04-01

Instance View Example:

{
  "instanceView": {
    "diskRestorePoints": [
      {
        "id": "<disk restore point Arm Id>",
        "snapshotAccessState": "Pending/Available/InstantAccess/AvailableWithInstantAccess ",
        "replicationStatus": {
          "status": {
            "code": "ReplicationState/succeeded",
            "level": "Info",
            "displayStatus": "Succeeded"
          },
          "completionPercent": 100
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

• snapshotAccessState: Indicates InstantAccess status of individual disk restore point.

Step 7: Disable Instant Access on Restore Point Collection

Use the following REST API call to disable IA enabled on the VM.

PATCH https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/restorePointCollections/{restorePointCollectionName}?api-version=2025-04-01

Request Body Example:

  {
    "location": "<region>",
    "properties": {
      "source": {
        "id": "<VM Arm Id>"
      },
      "instantAccess": false
    },
    "tags": {
      "myTag1": "tagValue1"
    }
  }

To unregister this feature. Open the Cloud shell (PowerShell) from portal. Direct link -> https://shell.azure.com/ and run the below commands:

• Run Unregister-AzProviderFeature -FeatureName 'AppConsistentInstantAccessSnapshotForDirectDriveDisks' -ProviderNamespace 'Microsoft.Compute'

Next Steps

Learn more about Backup and restore options for virtual machines in Azure.