Azure VM Stuck in Starting and Stopping States

Question

Azure VM Stuck in Starting and Stopping States

BA 120

Our Azure VM has been stuck in conflicting Starting and Stopping states for over 30 minutes. We are unable to start, stop, or manage the VM normally and require assistance resolving the issue.

RakeshReddy Gurram 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-28T01:53:52.2+00:00
Hello BA,

When an Azure VM remains stuck between Starting and Stopping for an extended period, it can be due to a pending or failed VM lifecycle operation, a provisioning/state mismatch, an underlying platform operation, or an OS-level shutdown/startup hang.

Please try the below checks:

Check Azure Service Health

Verify whether there is any active Azure platform issue in the region that may be affecting VM start/stop operations. Review the Activity Log

In the Azure portal, open the affected VM/resource group and check Activity Log for the failed Start/Stop/Restart operation.

Look for the exact error message, operation name, correlation ID, and timestamp.

Check Resource Health

Open the VM > Resource Health to confirm whether Azure has reported any platform or availability event for the VM.

Run Diagnose and solve problems

In the Azure portal, go to the VM > Diagnose and solve problems and run the available start/stop or availability diagnostics.

Try Redeploy + Reapply

If the VM is stuck in a failed or inconsistent provisioning state, go to the VM > Help > Redeploy + reapply and run Reapply first. If needed, you may try Redeploy, which moves the VM to a new Azure host.

Check Boot diagnostics

If the VM appears to be stuck at the OS level, review Boot diagnostics to see whether Windows/Linux is stuck during startup or shutdown.

Reference:

Troubleshoot deployment issues with restarting or resizing an existing Windows VM in Azure

Azure Windows VM shutdown is stuck on "Restarting", "Shutting Down", or "Stopping services"
BA 120 Reputation points

2026-07-28T18:32:25.1266667+00:00

Hi,

We are still experiencing unusually long processing times when stopping and redeploying a VM, which is currently impacting our services. We have also observed VMs in other subscriptions taking more than an hour to start. Could you please confirm whether there are any ongoing service issues affecting virtual machines in the Canada Central region?

Regards,
BA
RakeshReddy Gurram 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-29T18:48:46.6633333+00:00

Hello BA,

I’ve asked for a few details in the private message. Please update them there so we can validate them.

2 answers

Your answer

RakeshReddy Gurram 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-28T01:53:52.2+00:00

Hello BA,

When an Azure VM remains stuck between Starting and Stopping for an extended period, it can be due to a pending or failed VM lifecycle operation, a provisioning/state mismatch, an underlying platform operation, or an OS-level shutdown/startup hang.

Please try the below checks:

Check Azure Service Health

Verify whether there is any active Azure platform issue in the region that may be affecting VM start/stop operations. Review the Activity Log

In the Azure portal, open the affected VM/resource group and check Activity Log for the failed Start/Stop/Restart operation.

Look for the exact error message, operation name, correlation ID, and timestamp.

Check Resource Health

Open the VM > Resource Health to confirm whether Azure has reported any platform or availability event for the VM.

Run Diagnose and solve problems

In the Azure portal, go to the VM > Diagnose and solve problems and run the available start/stop or availability diagnostics.

Try Redeploy + Reapply

If the VM is stuck in a failed or inconsistent provisioning state, go to the VM > Help > Redeploy + reapply and run Reapply first. If needed, you may try Redeploy, which moves the VM to a new Azure host.

Check Boot diagnostics

If the VM appears to be stuck at the OS level, review Boot diagnostics to see whether Windows/Linux is stuck during startup or shutdown.

Reference:

Troubleshoot deployment issues with restarting or resizing an existing Windows VM in Azure

Azure Windows VM shutdown is stuck on "Restarting", "Shutting Down", or "Stopping services"
BA 120 Reputation points

2026-07-28T18:32:25.1266667+00:00

Hi,

We are still experiencing unusually long processing times when stopping and redeploying a VM, which is currently impacting our services. We have also observed VMs in other subscriptions taking more than an hour to start. Could you please confirm whether there are any ongoing service issues affecting virtual machines in the Canada Central region?

Regards,
BA
RakeshReddy Gurram 5 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-29T18:48:46.6633333+00:00

Hello BA,

I’ve asked for a few details in the private message. Please update them there so we can validate them.

Answer 1

Hello @BA,

Thank You for using Q & A forum

Azure VMs can get stuck when a previous operation didn't complete cleanly.

Resolution Steps

Force-Redeploy via Azure Portal (Easiest)

Navigate to your VM in the Azure Portal

Under Help → click Redeploy + Reapply

Click Redeploy — Azure moves the VM to a new host node and forces a clean state

This resolves the issue in most cases.

Force Stop via Azure CLI

Skip OS-level shutdown and force the VM off at the fabric level

az vm stop --resource-group <your-rg> --name <your-vm> --skip-shutdown

Then deallocate to fully release the compute allocation

az vm deallocate --resource-group <your-rg> --name <your-vm>

Confirm the state changed to "deallocated"

az vm get-instance-view --resource-group <your-rg> --name <your-vm> \

--query "instanceView.statuses[*].displayStatus"

Cancel the Stuck Operation via REST API

Find the stuck operation ID

az vm list-operations --resource-group <your-rg> --name <your-vm>

Cancel it (replace with actual subscription/rg/vm values)

az rest --method post \

--url "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<sub-id>/resourceGroups/<rg>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/<vm-name>/cancelVMAgentUpgrade?api-version=2023-03-01"

Restart the Azure VM Agent (if you have console access)

If you can reach the VM via Serial Console (Portal → VM → Serial Console):

Linux:

bash

sudo systemctl restart waagent

Windows:

powershell

Restart-Service WindowsAzureGuestAgent

Restart-Service WindowsAzureTelemetryService

If none of the above work after 60+ minutes:

Open an Azure Support ticket — Microsoft can force-reset the VM at the fabric level without data loss

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Up-Vote for the same. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Answer 2

Your VM appears to have a lifecycle operation stuck between Azure’s control plane and the guest OS, rather than simply being powered on or off. First, open the VM’s Activity log and Resource health, then note the failed operation, timestamp, error code, and correlation ID. Check Service Health for a regional compute incident.

If no incident is reported, go to Help > Redeploy + reapply and run Reapply first. Microsoft documents that Reapply reruns VM provisioning and can repair a failed VM state caused by an earlier action. If it remains stuck, confirm that important data is on managed disks and then use Redeploy. Redeploy moves the VM to a new host; temporary or ephemeral-disk data is lost, and dynamic NIC IP addresses can change.

If Azure will not accept Reapply or Redeploy, open a support request with the collected correlation ID because only Microsoft can clear a host-side operation.