My azure recovery services vault has exceeded 10TB

Hello Damon Burkhart,

Based on your description, this appears to be Azure Files / Azure Storage protection through Azure Backup, where the storage account is registered with an existing Recovery Services vault.

A Recovery Services vault cannot be “split” by moving existing backup data from one vault to another. Microsoft documentation confirms that backup data stored in a vault cannot be moved to a different vault. However, the supported approach is to stop future protection in the current vault, retain the existing recovery points there, unregister the storage account from the current vault, and then configure future backups in a new Recovery Services vault. The old recovery points remain in the original vault and can be used for restore until they expire based on the retention configuration.

For your scenario, the practical approach would be:

1. Create a new Recovery Services vault in the same supported region/subscription scope required for the storage account.
2. In the current vault, stop backup for the file shares/storage account that you want to move, and select the option to retain backup data if you need to preserve existing recovery points.
3. After protection is stopped, go to the existing vault > Backup Infrastructure > Storage Accounts, and unregister the storage account from that vault.
4. Configure backup again for that storage account/file shares using the new vault.
5. Going forward, new recovery points will be created in the new vault, while the existing recovery points remain in the old vault for restore based on their retention.

Also, the storage account association is managed from the Recovery Services vault, not from the storage account overview page. This is why you may not see an option directly under the storage account blade. Microsoft documentation notes that a storage account already registered/protected with another vault must be unregistered before it can be discovered/protected by a different vault.

Please do not delete the old backup data unless you are certain those recovery points are no longer required. If the portal shows a destructive warning during unregister/stop backup, pause and verify that you are following the reconfigure backup to alternate vault workflow, because deleting backup data removes the recovery points associated with that file share/storage account.

Relevant Microsoft documentation:

• Azure Backup FAQ
• Reconfigure backup for data sources in an alternate vault
• Back up Azure Files FAQ
• Manage Azure Files backups