Azure automation account Hybrid Worker - failed to connect to MSI

Question

Azure automation account Hybrid Worker - failed to connect to MSI

Charles Thivierge 4,181

Hi,

I want to convert my PS runbook to Azure CLI and it has to run on a Hybrid Worker.

The PS login is like this
$AzureContext = (Connect-AzAccount -Identity).context

Now, with Azure CLI, i suppose it's the following...

$AzureContextcli = (az login --identity | convertfrom-json)

But i receive the following error:

ERROR: Failed to connect to MSI. Please make sure MSI is configured correctly.

Get Token request returned: <Response [401]>

But if i execute in Azure (not on the hybrid worker), it works well

On the hybrid worker, the az cli is installed (2.63.0)

Any idea ?

Naveena Patlolla 9,390 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-03-03T08:30:31.4766667+00:00

Hi Charles Thivierge
Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum, thank you for posting your query here!

As per the error it looks like Managed identity not configured successfully.

There are two ways to use the Managed Identities in Hybrid Runbook Worker scripts. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/automation/automation-hrw-run-runbooks?tabs=win-extn-hrw%2CLin-extn-hrw%2Cua-mi#runbook-auth-managed-identities

Option 1

Use the system-assigned Managed Identity for the Automation account

Note:

It is Not possible to use the Automation Account's User Managed Identity on a Hybrid Runbook Worker, it must be the Automation Account's System Managed Identity.

Option 2

For an Azure VM running as a Hybrid Runbook Worker, use the VM Managed Identity. In this case, you can use either the VM’s User-assigned Managed Identity OR the VM’s System-assigned Managed Identity.

Note:

This will NOT work in an Automation Account which has been configured with an Automation account Managed Identity. As soon as the Automation account Managed Identity is enabled, it is no longer possible to use the VM Managed Identity and then, it is only possible to use the Automation Account System-Assigned Managed Identity as mentioned in option 1 above.

let us know if you have any further queries. I’m happy to assist you further.

Please "upvote" if the comment is helpful
Naveena Patlolla 9,390 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-03-04T18:34:23.01+00:00

Hi Charles Thivierge

Please do consider to “up-vote” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.
Naveena Patlolla 9,390 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-03-05T18:44:10.1733333+00:00

Hi Charles Thivierge

Please do consider to “up-vote” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.
Hannes Skoglund 25 Reputation points

2025-03-24T15:40:57.2266667+00:00

Hi Charles Thivierge,
We are running in to a similar problem, did you manage to solve this somehow?

BR