Azure DevOps Backup and Recovery - TSLS

I have been asked on a number of occasions if a third-party backup solution for Azure Azure DevOps would be required.

Hopefully this article helps to resolve that mystery, or gives you something more to think about as the answer will depend on your situation.

First of all lets look at the recovery options already available. The table below highlights the key backup and recovery features.

Feature	Details	Useful Reading
Azure DevOps SLA	99.9%	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/security/data-protection?view=azure-devops
HA	Replicated to regional pair i.e. if the primary location was UK South the replica would be in UK West – the data is not transferred outside of the geographical regions	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/security/data-protection?view=azure-devops
HA Failover	Microsoft Initiated (not automated and can’t be requested)	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/security/data-protection?view=azure-devops
Organisation Backup	28 Days from the point of deletion	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/accounts/recover-your-organization?view=azure-devops
Project Backup	28 Days from the point of deletion	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/projects/delete-project?view=azure-devops&tabs=browser#restore-a-deleted-project
Built-in service asset recovery solution’s:	–	–
Pipeline items*	30 Days and is restored from the Recycle Bin or YAML imported from Repo	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/release-notes/2019/pipelines/sprint-147-update#restore-deleted-release-pipelines
Board items*	30 Days and is restored from the Recycle Bin	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/boards/backlogs/remove-delete-work-items?view=azure-devops
Artifacts*	30 Days and is restored from the Recycle Bin	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/artifacts/how-to/delete-and-recover-packages?view=azure-devops&tabs=nuget
Test Plan items	No
Repo’s	Git based revert/commit/Branch TFVC Rollback Change	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/repos/git/undo?view=azure-devops&tabs=visual-studio-2022 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/repos/tfvc/roll-back-changesets?view=azure-devops

Note: If the user (with the correct level of permissions) enters the recycle bin and selects permanently delete item then the asset/item will be removed and can’t be recovered

What have we learnt. Backups are retained for 28-days after a project or organisation is deleted. Asset recovery is available by using the recycle-bin and is kept for 30-days or your source code can be reverted or rolled back. Therefore your business will need to answer the following questions.

Is it important to be able to restore accidently deleted DevOps Projects and Organisations beyond the 28-day window
Do you need to be able to restore Pipelines and Board Assets/Items beyond the 30-day recycle Bin
Do you need the ability to granularly restore Test Plans?
1. Note: Although these will be in a deleted Organisation and Project Backup – Granular asset restores are not part of the built in service. so, once a test is deleted it can’t be recovered
For Repos are you looking for a recycle bin restore? rather than using the built in Git capabilities

If you answer yes to any of the questions from points 1-4 then you will need a third-party backup solution from the likes of Keepit (https://www.keepit.com) or Backrightup (https://backrightup.com).