Azure Virtual Machine (VM) is shutting down or stopping unexpectedly.

Question

Azure Virtual Machine (VM) is shutting down or stopping unexpectedly.

salman khan 0

Azure Virtual Machine (VM) is shutting down or stopping unexpectedly, even though Auto-shutdown is disabled in the "Operations" settings.

Sudheer Reddy 2,055 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-04-11T17:34:36.25+00:00

Hi salman khan,

Could you please share more details What is the current type, size and operating system (Windows/Linux) of the Azure Virtual Machine being used which helps to troubleshoot the issue.

Thank You.
salman khan 0 Reputation points

2025-04-13T09:00:47.0433333+00:00

Sure , please check attached screenshot if its help.
Sudheer Reddy 2,055 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-04-14T21:53:06.1+00:00

Hi salman khan,

Continuing the discussion in private message.
salman khan 0 Reputation points

2025-05-07T04:42:06.9433333+00:00

Hi Markapuram Sudheer Reddy can you help me to fix this asap why my Azure Virtual Machine (VM) is shutting down or stopping unexpectedly.
Sudheer Reddy 2,055 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-07T08:12:33.85+00:00

Hi salman khan,

Could you please confirm, how often does this issue occur for you?

Meanwhile, can you please check with below steps which might help to troubleshoot the issue.

Connect to the VM via SSH and check the Azure Linux Agent status

systemctl status waagent

systemctl restart waagent

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y walinuxagent

Try re-deploying the Linux ubuntu vm to a new Azure node. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/linux/redeploy-to-new-node-linux

If redeploy doesn't helps, try to resize the VM, recreating it with the existing disks.

If you have any queries, please do let us know, we will help you.

2 answers

Your answer

Sudheer Reddy 2,055 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-04-11T17:34:36.25+00:00

Hi salman khan,

Could you please share more details What is the current type, size and operating system (Windows/Linux) of the Azure Virtual Machine being used which helps to troubleshoot the issue.

Thank You.
salman khan 0 Reputation points

2025-04-13T09:00:47.0433333+00:00

Sure , please check attached screenshot if its help.
Sudheer Reddy 2,055 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-04-14T21:53:06.1+00:00

Hi salman khan,

Continuing the discussion in private message.
salman khan 0 Reputation points

2025-05-07T04:42:06.9433333+00:00

Hi Markapuram Sudheer Reddy can you help me to fix this asap why my Azure Virtual Machine (VM) is shutting down or stopping unexpectedly.
Sudheer Reddy 2,055 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-07T08:12:33.85+00:00

Hi salman khan,

Could you please confirm, how often does this issue occur for you?

Meanwhile, can you please check with below steps which might help to troubleshoot the issue.

Connect to the VM via SSH and check the Azure Linux Agent status

systemctl status waagent

systemctl restart waagent

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y walinuxagent

Try re-deploying the Linux ubuntu vm to a new Azure node. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/linux/redeploy-to-new-node-linux

If redeploy doesn't helps, try to resize the VM, recreating it with the existing disks.

If you have any queries, please do let us know, we will help you.

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Arko 4,150 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello salman khan, your VM is configured as a Spot VM, and unexpected shutdowns are expected behavior due to the nature of Spot allocation in Azure.

spot1

Based on the details you've shared so far I can see your VM is defined with the following properties- "priority": "Spot", "evictionPolicy": "Deallocate" and "billingProfile": { "maxPrice": -1}

These settings indicate your VM is a Spot instance, which is evicted automatically by Azure when there is insufficient capacity in your selected region or zone as Azure prioritizes regular (pay-as-you-go) VMs

The Spot price exceeds your max price (in your case, -1 means "always accept current price")

This is why your APIs suddenly went down and the VM was deallocated without notice, and this bypasses the auto-shutdown setting. If you want consistency with your VM then go for pay as you go VMs.

Reference document- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/spot-vms#eviction-policy

Hope I was able to clear your query here. It would be great if you could kindly accept the answer so that anyone else having similar query on MS QnA forum can refer to it. Thanks

Arko 4,150 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-15T04:28:06.6666667+00:00

Following up on this Salman, Hope I was able to clear your query here.
salman khan 0 Reputation points

2025-05-21T05:18:08.01+00:00

Thanks for your response. I have checked the response and the reference document, but the document contains a lot of information. Could you please share the specific steps on how I can fix this issue? This would be very helpful, as we could lose our clients because of it. Thank you.
Arko 4,150 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-22T06:45:43.9233333+00:00

To simplify for you, the overall fix is to move from spot VM to a standard (Pay-as-you-go) VM. This will stop all future unexpected evictions, without losing any data or disk.

Note, you cannot directly convert a Spot VM into a standard Pay-as-you-go VM, but you can absolutely recreate a new standard VM from the existing OS disk without losing any data
Arko 4,150 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-22T06:48:47.63+00:00

Hope I was able to simplify the fix for you and clear your query. Kindly accept the answer so that anyone else in Microsoft QnA forum having similar query regarding Spot instance can refer to it and get clarity. Thanks
Arko 4,150 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-23T04:59:37.68+00:00

Following up on this salman khan, Hope I was able to clear your query here. Please do not forget to "Accept the answer” and “up-vote” . Thanks
salman khan 0 Reputation points

2025-05-26T14:44:27.36+00:00

Thanks for your response. I have created a new disk in the existing VM machine according to the link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/linux/attach-disk-portal#create-a-vm-from-a-managed-disk you shared, but the Azure VM machine is still stopping unexpectedly. Now, what am I doing wrong?
Arko 4,150 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-27T07:40:23.9366667+00:00

I guess you interpreted the article as "create a new disk inside the existing Spot VM". But the correct fix is not to add a new data disk to the existing VM it’s to detach the OS disk from the existing Spot VM and then create a new Standard VM using that OS disk.

Simply adding a new disk to the Spot VM doesn’t stop evictions. The VM is still running under the Spot priority, and Azure will continue to shut it down unexpectedly due to the underlying Spot behavior.

Understand this salman khan- Your current VM is still using Spot priority, which means Azure can evict (stop/deallocate) the machine at any time — regardless of how many disks are attached.

To fix this completely, you need to stop using the Spot VM. Reuse the existing OS disk (not a new one) to create a new Pay-as-you-go VM.
Mallikarjuna Vardham 450 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-28T09:31:48.15+00:00

Hello salman khan, just checking if the issue is resolved or not. Please let us know how it goes according to Arko's suggestions.
salman khan 0 Reputation points

2025-06-03T13:55:15.22+00:00

Hi Mallikarjuna Vardham , the issue is still not fixed. I am unhappy with MS support, as I mentioned that it is really urgent to fix this issue. We have deployed some things on an Azure VM machine.
Mallikarjuna Vardham 450 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-03T14:59:31.86+00:00

Hello salman khan, Sorry for the inconvenience. As per Arko's suggestion, have you detached the OS disk from the existing Spot VM? Once it's detached, have you created a new Standard VM using the existing detached OS disk?

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Azure Virtual Machine (VM) is shutting down or stopping unexpectedly.

2 answers

Your answer