Cannot delete Azure Service Bus premium namespace in portal or CLI

Question

Cannot delete Azure Service Bus premium namespace in portal or CLI

David Boike 25

I can't delete an Azure Service Bus Premium namespace. Whether through the Portal or in the CLI with az servicebus namespace delete -n NAMESPACE -g RESOURCEGROUP, it won't work, the request just spins for a long time. In the Portal, I've watched the item in the Notifications drawer spin for over an hour with no results. I've been watching the CLI spin for at least an hour as well.

az servicebus namespace show does show details for the namespace, including "status": "Failed",.

Premium namespaces are not cheap, I would like to not be charged for it. I tried to raise a support case within the portal but apparently that's not possible anymore? I don't want to put private information on a public forum but I see no other option than to raise it here.

For full context, I created the namespace to test the differences between Geo-Recovery and Geo-Replication. In this namespace, I set it up for Geo-Replication, realized I was actually trying to test Geo-Recovery, and tried to break the replication in order to pair using Geo-Recovery instead. I think something in that process is what "broke" the namespace and is probably the root issue in why I can't delete it myself.

Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-11T21:37:07.37+00:00

Hello David Boike,

Before deleting the service bus, you need to stop the geo-replication. This can typically be done through the Azure portal or using Azure CLI/PowerShell commands.

az servicebus georecovery-alias break-pair \

    --resource-group <ResourceGroupName> \

    --namespace-name <NamespaceName> \

    --alias <AliasName>

after breaking geo-replication, please restart your service bus.
once geo-replication is stopped, you can proceed to delete the service bus. This can also be done through the Azure portal or using Azure CLI/PowerShell commands.

az servicebus namespace delete \

    --resource-group <ResourceGroupName> \

    --name <NamespaceName>
David Boike 25 Reputation points

2025-04-11T21:47:47.0233333+00:00
Georecovery is already broken. The following already returns []:

az servicebus georecovery-alias list --resource-group GROUP --namespace-name NAMESPACE

Note that trying to view the resource in the Portal results in two of the following pop-up notifications:

Error: 400

The namespace {NAMESPACE} in subscription {GUID} is not active, its current state is Deleting.

So I don't think this is a "I forgot to do something first" type of problem. I think there is really a problem on the backend that I cannot resolve myself.
Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-11T22:37:37.5066667+00:00

Hello David Boike,

Please check the activity log and operational log in the Azure portal for any errors or warnings related to the deletion process. This can provide insights into what might be going wrong.

Provide the activity logs with us to proceed further.
David Boike 25 Reputation points

2025-04-14T14:20:25.3066667+00:00

Filtering Activity Logs by my subscription, Event severity All, Timespan Last Week, Resource Group (my RG), Resource (the ServiceBus namespace), I get so many Get Namespace operations it's hard load everything. Filtering further to Operation: Delete Namespace (Microsoft.ServiceBus/namespaces/Delete) there are 9 separate events, all with Status = Accepted except for one from Thursday that is Failed, and for that one the Summary's Message says "The namespace <name> in subscription <Guid> is in transitioning state, its current state is Deleting".

All 9 events (including the failed one) have a single sub-item with a status of Started.

And even though the message implies that the namespace's current state is "Deleting" the resource group's cost analysis blade still shows I'm getting charged for it over the weekend.
Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-14T18:24:42.82+00:00

Hello David Boike,

Following up to see if you have chance to check my previous response and help us with requested information to check and assist you further on this.
David Boike 25 Reputation points

2025-04-14T18:28:21.5933333+00:00

Hi Praveen,

I don't understand, I provided details related to your previous response in my last comment. Did you not see them? Here they are again, quoted:

Filtering Activity Logs by my subscription, Event severity All, Timespan Last Week, Resource Group (my RG), Resource (the ServiceBus namespace), I get so many Get Namespace operations it's hard load everything. Filtering further to Operation: Delete Namespace (Microsoft.ServiceBus/namespaces/Delete) there are 9 separate events, all with Status = Accepted except for one from Thursday that is Failed, and for that one the Summary's Message says "The namespace <name> in subscription <Guid> is in transitioning state, its current state is Deleting".

All 9 events (including the failed one) have a single sub-item with a status of Started.

And even though the message implies that the namespace's current state is "Deleting" the resource group's cost analysis blade still shows I'm getting charged for it over the weekend.
LeelaRajeshSayana-MSFT 17,521 Reputation points

2025-04-16T23:18:59.29+00:00

@David Boike I have requested some additional information to assist you further on this issue. Please respond through the private messages with the information.

Accepted answer

1 additional answer

Your answer

Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-11T21:37:07.37+00:00

Hello David Boike,

Before deleting the service bus, you need to stop the geo-replication. This can typically be done through the Azure portal or using Azure CLI/PowerShell commands.

az servicebus georecovery-alias break-pair \

--resource-group <ResourceGroupName> \

--namespace-name <NamespaceName> \

--alias <AliasName>

after breaking geo-replication, please restart your service bus.
once geo-replication is stopped, you can proceed to delete the service bus. This can also be done through the Azure portal or using Azure CLI/PowerShell commands.

az servicebus namespace delete \

--resource-group <ResourceGroupName> \

--name <NamespaceName>
David Boike 25 Reputation points

2025-04-11T21:47:47.0233333+00:00

Georecovery is already broken. The following already returns []:

az servicebus georecovery-alias list --resource-group GROUP --namespace-name NAMESPACE

Note that trying to view the resource in the Portal results in two of the following pop-up notifications:

Error: 400

The namespace {NAMESPACE} in subscription {GUID} is not active, its current state is Deleting.

So I don't think this is a "I forgot to do something first" type of problem. I think there is really a problem on the backend that I cannot resolve myself.
Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-11T22:37:37.5066667+00:00

Hello David Boike,

Please check the activity log and operational log in the Azure portal for any errors or warnings related to the deletion process. This can provide insights into what might be going wrong.

Provide the activity logs with us to proceed further.
David Boike 25 Reputation points

2025-04-14T14:20:25.3066667+00:00

Filtering Activity Logs by my subscription, Event severity All, Timespan Last Week, Resource Group (my RG), Resource (the ServiceBus namespace), I get so many Get Namespace operations it's hard load everything. Filtering further to Operation: Delete Namespace (Microsoft.ServiceBus/namespaces/Delete) there are 9 separate events, all with Status = Accepted except for one from Thursday that is Failed, and for that one the Summary's Message says "The namespace <name> in subscription <Guid> is in transitioning state, its current state is Deleting".

All 9 events (including the failed one) have a single sub-item with a status of Started.

And even though the message implies that the namespace's current state is "Deleting" the resource group's cost analysis blade still shows I'm getting charged for it over the weekend.
Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-14T18:24:42.82+00:00

Hello David Boike,

Following up to see if you have chance to check my previous response and help us with requested information to check and assist you further on this.
David Boike 25 Reputation points

2025-04-14T18:28:21.5933333+00:00

Hi Praveen,

I don't understand, I provided details related to your previous response in my last comment. Did you not see them? Here they are again, quoted:

Filtering Activity Logs by my subscription, Event severity All, Timespan Last Week, Resource Group (my RG), Resource (the ServiceBus namespace), I get so many Get Namespace operations it's hard load everything. Filtering further to Operation: Delete Namespace (Microsoft.ServiceBus/namespaces/Delete) there are 9 separate events, all with Status = Accepted except for one from Thursday that is Failed, and for that one the Summary's Message says "The namespace <name> in subscription <Guid> is in transitioning state, its current state is Deleting".

All 9 events (including the failed one) have a single sub-item with a status of Started.

And even though the message implies that the namespace's current state is "Deleting" the resource group's cost analysis blade still shows I'm getting charged for it over the weekend.
LeelaRajeshSayana-MSFT 17,521 Reputation points

2025-04-16T23:18:59.29+00:00

@David Boike I have requested some additional information to assist you further on this issue. Please respond through the private messages with the information.

Answer 1

@David Boike The incident could likely be caused because the resource might have ended up in a bad configuration state as the geo-replication flow was interrupted before the process was completed. Once the missing configurations are injected from the backend, the resource would be in a healthy state and could be deleted successfully.

If you have any concerns with the billing, you can create a free support ticket from the Azure portal with the following flow: Cost Management + Billing --> Support + Troubleshooting --> New Support Request --> Service Bus Billing Issue --> Here you can opt for creating a new support ticket and share more details.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.

If the response answers your query, please do click Accept Answer and Yes, as it might be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. If you have any further query, do let us know. Thank you

Answer 2

David Boike 25

Microsoft support stepped in and deleted the namespace on the back end.

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Cannot delete Azure Service Bus premium namespace in portal or CLI

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