Troubleshooting in Azure carbon optimization (Preview)

Article
04/02/2024

This article helps you with the diagnosis and troubleshooting of some of the common issues you might encounter when using Azure carbon optimization (Preview).

Access Denied on Carbon Optimization

If you encounter permissions issues when accessing the Carbon Optimization blade, you might need to request appropriate permissions from your administrator. Carbon emissions data within Carbon Optimization is accessible to Carbon Optimization Reader, 'Subscription Owner', and 'Subscription Contributor' roles. This role allows you to view carbon emissions data on the Emission Trends and Emission Details pages.

Permissions are set at the subscription level. To assign the Carbon Optimization Reader role, you must be a subscription owner or contributor.

To assign the Carbon Optimization Reader role to a user or group follow these steps:

Navigate to the Subscriptions page in the Azure portal.
Select the subscription you want to assign the role to.
Select Access control (IAM).
Select Add role assignment.
Select Carbon Optimization Reader from the Role drop-down list.
Select the user or group you want to assign the role to.
Select Save.

Select a maximum of 100 subscriptions to view carbon optimization data

Data is available for a maximum of 100 subscriptions selected at a time when viewing carbon emissions data within the Azure carbon optimization blade. If you select more than 100 subscriptions, data is only displayed for the first 100 subscriptions selected. By selecting a maximum of 100 subscriptions in the subscriptions selector, you can ensure that the carbon optimization data displayed in the Azure portal is accurate and complete for your selected subscriptions.

How to select the most relevant subscriptions for my analysis

To select the most relevant subscriptions for your analysis, consider the following tips:

Review your selection and make sure that you haven't selected more than 100 subscriptions. The subscriptions selection filter displays the number of subscriptions selected.
Select the subscriptions that are most important or relevant for your carbon optimization goals, such as the ones that have the highest usage or emissions.
Perform your analysis in multiple steps. Select 100 or fewer subscriptions, remove any subscriptions with minimal or irrelevant emissions, then change your selection to add more subscriptions or to the next 100.

Can’t display data for the selected subscriptions in the Carbon Optimization page

The error message Data cannot be displayed for the selected subscriptions, might be displayed for a number of reasons:

You might be missing the Carbon Optimization Reader role for some of the subscriptions. You need to have the Carbon Optimization Reader role to view the Carbon Optimization page. For more information, see Access Denied on Carbon Optimization.
Some of the subscriptions are new and have no data available yet. The carbon optimization data in the Azure portal is based on the usage and emissions data collected from the Azure resources in your subscriptions. It takes at least a month for the usage and emissions data to be available for new subscriptions. If you have selected any new subscriptions, you need to wait for at least a month to see the carbon optimization data in the Azure portal. You can also check the usage for your subscriptions in the Cost Management service.
Some subscriptions have no usage so there's no emissions data to display. There might not be any data available because the subscription has no resource usage for the period and therefore no carbon emissions. The carbon optimization data in the Azure portal is based on the usage and emissions data collected from the Azure resources in your subscriptions. If you selected some subscriptions that have no usage, no action is required. This is the expected behavior. You can check the usage for your subscriptions in the Cost Management service.

Known Limitations

Date scope supported in API Report types

ItemDetailReport and TopItemsSummaryReport only support single month at a time, which means start and end date month must be equal. For example, if you request data from November to December, the following error is returned:

"error": {
          "code": "InvalidRequestPropertyValue",
          "message": "The start date 11/01/2023 00:00:00 and end date 12/01/2023 00:00:00 should be equal for report type ItemDetailReport."
        }

To avoid this error, query data for a single month when using the ItemDetailReport and TopItemsSummaryReport API report types.

Maximum results returned

For any API query, the result set returns a maximum of 5,000 items, even with pagination. We recommend that if request data that potentially has more than 5,000 results, limit the input parameters in your query as follows:

Query for a single subscription at a time.
If subscription is large or has more than 5,000 resources, query for a single or a subset of resource groups.
Query for one month at a time.

Request Throttling

There's a limit of 100 queries per minute (QPM) per tenant when calling the API. Exceeding this limit may result in throttling and additional requests may be queued or rejected until the rate drops below the limit. As a result, you may experience slower response times or delays in processing, especially during periods of high demand when the QPM limit is reached.

One hour wait time for tenant registration at first time visit

If you are on a tenant that is viewing the Azure carbon optimization blade for the first time, there is a 30 minute to one hour wait time for your tenant to be registered in the system. During this time, you may see a message indicating that tenant registration is in progress, or a blank page may be shown. When the registration is complete, you will be able to see your data. Once your tenant is registered, other users in your organization on the same tenant have access to the data without any wait time.

Data limitation - 12 months lookback period

There is a limitation on the data access that restricts retrieval beyond a 12-month lookback period. Additionally, it's important to note that data beyond this timeframe is purged. There are no workarounds available to access data older than the previous 12 months.