Merge pull request #305431 from MicrosoftDocs/release-asr-alternate-vm-size

release-asr-alternate-vm-size -> main

Author: PhilKang0704

articles/site-recovery/alternative-vm-size-failover-flow.md

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+---
+title: Alternative Virtual machine size recommendation in Azure Site Recovery failover flow
+description: Summarizes guidance for alternative virtual machine size recommendation in Azure Site Recovery failover flow.
+services: site-recovery
+author: jyothisuri
+ms.service: azure-site-recovery
+ms.topic: concept-article
+ms.date: 09/11/2025
+ms.author: jsuri
+---
+
+# Alternative virtual machine size recommendation in Azure Site Recovery failover flow 
+
+Azure Site Recovery now provides alternative virtual machine (VM) size guidance to help you improve the chances of successful VM allocation in your target location during disaster recovery events or drills. This helps you assess the VM capacity and increase the chances of VM allocation during failover process by providing you with alternative VM size recommendations in your target location, in case current configured target VM size has less likelihood of allocation success. 
+
+## How alternative VM size capacity guidance works 
+
+:::image type="content" source="./media/alternative-vm-size-failover-flow/failover-recommendations-inline.png" alt-text="Diagram that shows the failover-recommendations screen." lightbox="./media/alternative-vm-size-failover-flow/failover-recommendations-expanded.png":::
+*Select any one of the alternatives as per your preference, and then select **Save**. You can then proceed with the failover or test failover.*
+
+- **Capacity validation**: When you reach failover or test failover screen in the Azure Site Recovery portal experience, Azure Site Recovery checks whether target location has sufficient capacity for configured VM size. 
+
+- **Alternative recommendations**: If the chances of success are low, Azure Site Recovery determines if there are alternative VM size recommendations that can be suggested to you that can increase your chances of allocation in the target location. 
+
+- **Selection and proceeding**: You can choose to select an alternative recommendation and proceed with failover or test failover. 
+
+- **Pricing information**: Prices for recommended VM sizes are shown and may vary. We recommend you to verify the price from the Azure price page.  
+
+>[!NOTE]
+>- If you select a recommendation, that VM size is used for all further failovers and test failovers. You can choose to change the target VM size by navigating to the Compute section of Azure Site Recovery protected item. 
+> :::image type="content" source="./media/alternative-vm-size-failover-flow/replicated-items.png" alt-text="Diagram that shows the replicated items screen.":::
+> - Sometimes, the capacity issues might be temporary and retrying the failover after a short period can resolve the problem. This is because enough resources may have been freed in the cluster, region, or zone to accommodate your request. 
+
+## Limitations 
+
+Recommendations aren't provided: 
+
+- If there is target Availability Sets, target Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS), or target Proximity Placement Groups (PPG) configured. 
+- In case there's on-demand capacity reservation configured for target. 
+- When failover is triggered via Recovery plans.  
+- For VMware-to-Azure Site Recovery, Hyper-V-to-Azure Site Recovery. 
+
+>[!NOTE]
+>Only Azure-to-Azure scenario is currently supported. 
+
+## Best Practices 
+
+- For critical workloads, consider using On-Demand capacity reservations to guarantee VM availability during failover. You can also [combine it with Reserved Instances to reduce the cost](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azuregovernanceandmanagementblog/ensure-failover-capacity-at-optimal-cost-with-azure-site-recovery/4337357).
+- Monitor failover health using ASR validator and take necessary actions in case failover health isn't Green. 

articles/site-recovery/azure-to-azure-tutorial-dr-drill.md

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title:  Tutorial to run an Azure VM disaster recovery drill with Azure Site Reco
 description: In this tutorial, run an Azure VM disaster recovery drill to another region using Site Recovery.
 services: site-recovery
 ms.topic: tutorial
-ms.date: 03/29/2024
+ms.date: 09/08/2025
 ms.custom: mvc
 ms.author: jsuri
 #Customer intent: As an Azure admin, I want to run a drill to check that VM disaster recovery is working.
@@ -70,6 +70,9 @@ Before you start this tutorial, you must enable disaster recovery for one or mor
 
 5. After the failover finishes, the Azure VM created in the target region appears in the Azure portal **Virtual Machines**. Make sure that the VM is running, sized appropriately, and connected to the network you selected.
 
+>[!NOTE]
+>You may also get alternative virtual machine SKU recommendation during test failover. [Learn more](alternative-vm-size-failover-flow.md).
+
 ## Clean up resources
 
 1. In the **Essentials** page, select **Cleanup test failover**.

articles/site-recovery/azure-to-azure-tutorial-failover-failback.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 title: Tutorial to fail over Azure VMs to a secondary region for disaster recovery with Azure Site Recovery.
 description: Tutorial to learn how to fail over and reprotect Azure VMs replicated to a secondary Azure region for disaster recovery, with the Azure Site Recovery service.
 ms.topic: tutorial
-ms.date: 03/29/2024
+ms.date: 09/08/2025
 ms.custom: mvc
 ms.service: azure-site-recovery
 ms.author: jsuri
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ Learn how to fail over Azure VMs that are enabled for disaster recovery with [Az
 > * Run a failover to the secondary region
 > * Start replicating the VM back to the primary region.
 
-
 > [!NOTE]
 > This tutorial shows you how to fail over VMs with minimal steps. If you want to run a failover with full settings, learn about Azure VM [networking](azure-to-azure-about-networking.md), [automation](azure-to-azure-powershell.md), and [troubleshooting](azure-to-azure-troubleshoot-errors.md).
 
@@ -50,7 +49,6 @@ Before you start this tutorial, you should have:
 
 ## Run a failover
 
-
 1. On the VM **Overview** page, select **Failover**.
 
     ![Failover button for the replicated item](./media/azure-to-azure-tutorial-failover-failback/failover-button.png)
@@ -87,6 +85,10 @@ Before you start this tutorial, you should have:
     ![Commit progress notification](./media/azure-to-azure-tutorial-failover-failback/notification-commit-start.png)
     ![Commit success notification](./media/azure-to-azure-tutorial-failover-failback/notification-commit-finish.png)    
 
+
+>[!NOTE]
+>You may also get alternative virtual machine SKU recommendation during test failover. [Learn more](alternative-vm-size-failover-flow.md).
+
 ## Reprotect the VM
 
 After failover, you reprotect the VM in the secondary region, so that it replicates back to the primary region. 

articles/site-recovery/media/alternative-vm-size-failover-flow/failover-recommendations-expanded.png

@@ -182,6 +182,8 @@
       href: concepts-azure-to-azure-high-churn-support.md
     - name: About moving Azure VMs to another region
       href: azure-to-azure-move-overview.md
+    - name: Alternative virtual machine size guidance
+      href: alternative-vm-size-failover-flow.md
   - name: About VMware VM disaster recovery
     items:
     - name: Deprecation of classic experience