Trying to enable backup of vm in Subscription A to RSV in Subscription B. Cross subscription Backup options

Hi ,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

This is expected behaviour, not a misconfiguration.

Cross-subscription Azure VM backup (VM in Subscription A → Recovery Services Vault in Subscription B) is still a region-dependent preview feature. It is not globally available, and regions like Qatar Central currently do not support this preview, while regions such as West Europe do.

Because of that, the Azure portal will not show the option to select a different subscription when configuring backup in unsupported regions.

What you can do:

Use a Recovery Services Vault in the same subscription (supported everywhere)

Or deploy/move workload to a supported region (like West Europe) if cross-subscription backup is required

Alternatively, consider cross-region restore or replication strategies instead of cross-subscription backup

Bottom line: If the option is not visible in Qatar Central, it means the feature is simply not enabled in that region yet.

Please 'Upvote'(Thumbs-up) and 'Accept' as answer if the reply was helpful. This will be benefitting other community members who face the same issue.

Hello mohan yatam

Thank you for reaching out.

What you're looking for — Cross-Subscription Backup for Azure VMs — is a preview feature that was announced in April 2026. It allows you to protect an Azure VM using a Recovery Services Vault (RSV) in a different subscription, as long as both the VM and the vault are in the same Azure AD tenant and same region.

Why you see this option in West Europe but not in Qatar Central:

Since this feature is currently in preview, it is being rolled out progressively and may not be available in all Azure regions yet. This is why you can see the cross-subscription option when working with a vault in West Europe, but the same option does not appear for your vault in Qatar Central. This is expected behavior for a preview feature it does not indicate a misconfiguration on your end.

Current limitations for Cross-Subscription Backup (preview):

• The VM and the Recovery Services Vault must be in the same region and same Azure AD tenant.
• Cross-subscription backup is not supported for Confidential VMs (CVMs), including ADE-encrypted CVMs.
• Moving a Recovery Services Vault across subscriptions is not supported when it contains cross-subscription protected VM backup items.

What you can do in the meantime:

1. Back up the VM to an RSV in the same subscription (Qatar Central) — Create a Recovery Services Vault in the same subscription as your VM. This is fully supported in all regions including Qatar Central.
2. Use Cross-Subscription Restore (GA) — You can back up the VM locally and then use Cross-Subscription Restore to restore data to a different subscription when needed. This feature is generally available. You can enable it under Vault → Properties → Cross Subscription Restore.
3. Monitor for region expansion — Since the cross-subscription backup feature is in preview, Microsoft is progressively expanding regional support. You can track updates on the What's new in Azure Backup page.

Official Microsoft Documentation:

• What's new in Azure Backup – Cross-subscription backup for Azure VMs (preview)
• Support matrix for Azure VM backups
• Create and configure a Recovery Services vault

I hope this clarifies the situation. Please let us know if you have any further questions — happy to help!

Thanks,

Suchitra.