Resource Health virtual machine Health Annotations

Virtual Machine (VM) health annotations inform any ongoing activity that influences the availability of VMs (see Resource types and health checks). Annotations carry metadata that help rationalize the exact impact to availability.

Here are more details on important attributes recently added to help understand below annotations you might observe in Resource Health, Azure Resource Graph and Event Grid System topics:

  • Context: Informs whether VM availability was influenced due to Azure or user orchestrated activity. It can assume values of Platform Initiated | Customer Initiated | VM Initiated | Unknown

  • Category: Informs whether VM availability was influenced due to planned or unplanned activity and is only applicable to ‘Platform-Initiated’ events. It can assume values of Planned | Unplanned | Not Applicable | Unknown

  • ImpactType: Informs the type of impact to VM availability. It can assume values of:

    • Downtime Reboot or Downtime Freeze: Informs when VM is Unavailable due to Azure orchestrated activity (for example, VirtualMachineStorageOffline, LiveMigrationSucceeded etc.). The reboot or freeze distinction can help you discern the type of downtime impact faced.
    • Degraded: Informs when Azure predicts a HW failure on the host server or detects potential degradation in performance. (for example, VirtualMachinePossiblyDegradedDueToHardwareFailure)
    • Informational: Informs when an authorized user or process triggers a control plane operation (for example, VirtualMachineDeallocationInitiated, VirtualMachineRestarted). This category also captures cases of platform actions due to customer defined thresholds or conditions. (for example, VirtualMachinePreempted)

Note

A VMs availability impact start and end time is only applicable to degraded annotations, and does not apply to downtime or informational annotations.

The below table summarizes all the annotations that the platform emits today:

Annotation Description Attributes
VirtualMachineRestarted The Virtual Machine is undergoing a reboot as requested by a restart action triggered by an authorized user or process from within the Virtual Machine. No other action is required at this time. For more information, see understanding Virtual Machine reboots in Azure.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineCrashed The Virtual Machine is undergoing a reboot due to a guest OS crash. The local data remains unaffected during this process. No other action is required at this time. For more information, see understanding Virtual Machine crashes in Azure.
  • Context: VM Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Downtime Reboot
VirtualMachineStorageOffline The Virtual Machine is either currently undergoing a reboot or experiencing an application freeze due to a temporary loss of access to disk. No other action is required at this time, while the platform is working on reestablishing disk connectivity.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Reboot
VirtualMachineFailedToSecureBoot Applicable to Azure Confidential Compute Virtual Machines when guest activity such as unsigned booting components leads to a guest OS issue preventing the Virtual Machine from booting securely. You can attempt to retry deployment after ensuring OS boot components are signed by trusted publishers. For more information, see Secure Boot.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
LiveMigrationSucceeded The Virtual Machine was briefly paused as a Live Migration operation was successfully performed on your Virtual Machine. This operation was carried out either as a repair action, for allocation optimization or as part of routine maintenance workflows. No other action is required at this time. For more information, see Live Migration.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Freeze
LiveMigrationFailure A Live Migration operation was attempted on your Virtual Machine as either a repair action, for allocation optimization or as part of routine maintenance workflows. This operation, however, couldn't be successfully completed and may have resulted in a brief pause of your Virtual Machine. No other action is required at this time.
Also note that M Series, L Series VM SKUs aren't applicable for Live Migration. For more information, see Live Migration.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Freeze
VirtualMachineAllocated The Virtual Machine is in the process of being set up as requested by an authorized user or process. No other action is required at this time.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineDeallocationInitiated The Virtual Machine is in the process of being stopped and deallocated as requested by an authorized user or process. No other action is required at this time.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineHostCrashed The Virtual Machine has unexpectedly crashed due to the underlying host server experiencing a software failure or due to a failed hardware component. While the Virtual Machine is rebooting, the local data remains unaffected. You may attempt to redeploy the Virtual Machine to a different host server if you continue to experience issues.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Reboot
VirtualMachineMigrationInitiatedForPlannedMaintenance The Virtual Machine is being migrated to a different host server as part of routine maintenance workflows orchestrated by the platform. No other action is required at this time. For more information, see Planned Maintenance.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Planned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Reboot
VirtualMachineRebootInitiatedForPlannedMaintenance The Virtual Machine is undergoing a reboot as part of routine maintenance workflows orchestrated by the platform. No other action is required at this time. For more information, see Maintenance and updates.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Planned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Reboot
VirtualMachineHostRebootedForRepair The Virtual Machine is undergoing a reboot due to the underlying host server experiencing unexpected failures. While the Virtual Machine is rebooting, the local data remains unaffected. For more information, see understanding Virtual Machine reboots in Azure.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Reboot
VirtualMachineMigrationInitiatedForRepair The Virtual Machine is being migrated to a different host server due to the underlying host server experiencing unexpected failures. Since the Virtual Machine is being migrated to a new host server, the local data won't persist. For more information, see Service Healing.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Reboot
VirtualMachinePlannedFreezeStarted This virtual machine is undergoing freeze impact due to a routine update. This update is necessary to ensure the underlying platform is up to date with the latest improvements. No action is required at this time.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Planned
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachinePlannedFreezeSucceeded This virtual machine has successfully undergone a routine update that resulted in freeze impact. This update is necessary to ensure the underlying platform is up to date with the latest improvements. No action is required at this time.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Planned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Freeze
VirtualMachinePlannedFreezeFailed This virtual machine underwent a routine update that may have resulted in freeze impact. However this update failed to successfully complete. The platform will automatically coordinate recovery actions, as necessary. This update was to ensure the underlying platform is up to date with the latest improvements. No action is required at this time.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Planned
  • ImpactType: Downtime Freeze
VirtualMachineRedeployInitiatedByControlPlaneDueToPlannedMaintenance The Virtual Machine is being migrated to a different host server as part of routine maintenance workflows triggered by an authorized user or process. Since the Virtual Machine is being migrated to a new host server, the local data won't persist. For more information, see Maintenance and updates.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineMigrationScheduledForDegradedHardware The Virtual Machine is experiencing degraded availability as it is running on a host server with a degraded hardware component which is predicted to fail soon. Live Migration will be attempted to safely migrate your Virtual Machine to a healthy host server; however, the operation may fail depending on the degradation of the underlying hardware.
We strongly advise you to redeploy your Virtual Machine to avoid unexpected failures by the redeploy deadline specified. For more information, see Advancing failure prediction and mitigation.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Degraded
VirtualMachinePossiblyDegradedDueToHardwareFailure The Virtual Machine is experiencing an imminent risk to its availability as it is running on a host server with a degraded hardware component that will fail soon. Live Migration will be attempted to safely migrate your Virtual Machine to a healthy host server; however, the operation may fail.
We strongly advise you to redeploy your Virtual Machine to avoid unexpected failures by the redeploy deadline specified. For more information, see Advancing failure prediction and mitigation.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Degraded
VirtualMachineScheduledForServiceHealing The Virtual Machine is experiencing an imminent risk to its availability as it is running on a host server that is experiencing fatal errors. Live Migration will be attempted to safely migrate your Virtual Machine to a healthy host server; however, the operation may fail depending on the failure signature encountered by the host server.
We strongly advise you to redeploy your Virtual Machine to avoid unexpected failures by the redeploy deadline specified. For more information, see Advancing failure prediction and mitigation.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Degraded
VirtualMachinePreempted If you're running a Spot/Low Priority Virtual Machine, it has been preempted either due to capacity recall by the platform or due to billing-based eviction where cost exceeded user defined thresholds. No other action is required at this time. For more information, see Spot Virtual Machines.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineRebootInitiatedByControlPlane The Virtual Machine is undergoing a reboot as requested by an authorized user or process from within the Virtual machine. No other action is required at this time.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineRedeployInitiatedByControlPlane The Virtual Machine is being migrated to a different host server as requested by an authorized user or process from within the Virtual machine. No other action is required at this time. Since the Virtual Machine is being migrated to a new host server, the local data won't persist.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineSizeChanged The Virtual Machine is being resized as requested by an authorized user or process. No other action is required at this time.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineConfigurationUpdated The Virtual Machine configuration is being updated as requested by an authorized user or process. No other action is required at this time.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineStartInitiatedByControlPlane The Virtual Machine is starting as requested by an authorized user or process. No other action is required at this time.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineStopInitiatedByControlPlane The Virtual Machine is stopping as requested by an authorized user or process. No other action is required at this time.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineStoppedInternally The Virtual Machine is stopping as requested by an authorized user or process, or due to a guest activity from within the Virtual Machine. No other action is required at this time.
  • Context: Customer Initiated
  • Category: Not Applicable
  • ImpactType: Informational
VirtualMachineProvisioningTimedOut The Virtual Machine provisioning has failed due to Guest OS issues or incorrect user run scripts. You can attempt to either re-create this Virtual Machine or if this Virtual Machine is part of a virtual machine scale set, you can try reimaging it.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Informational
AccelnetUnhealthy Applicable if Accelerated Networking is enabled for your Virtual Machine – We have detected that the Accelerated Networking feature isn't functioning as expected. You can attempt to redeploy your Virtual Machine to potentially mitigate the issue.
  • Context: Platform Initiated
  • Category: Unplanned
  • ImpactType: Degraded