Known issues with managed identities for Azure resources

This article discusses a couple of issues around managed identities and how to address them. Common questions about managed identities are documented in our frequently asked questions article.

VM fails to start after being moved

If you move a VM in a running state from a resource group or subscription, it continues to run during the move. However, after the move, if the VM is stopped and restarted, it fails to start. This issue happens because the VM doesn't update the managed identity reference and it continues to use an outdated URI.

Workaround

Trigger an update on the VM so it can get correct values for the managed identities for Azure resources. You can do a VM property change to update the reference to the managed identities for Azure resources identity. For example, you can set a new tag value on the VM with the following command:

az vm update -n <VM Name> -g <Resource Group> --set tags.fixVM=1

This command sets a new tag "fixVM" with a value of 1 on the VM.

By setting this property, the VM updates with the correct managed identities for Azure resources URI, and then you should be able to start the VM.

Once the VM is started, the tag can be removed by using following command:

az vm update -n <VM Name> -g <Resource Group> --remove tags.fixVM

Transferring a subscription between Microsoft Entra directories

Managed identities don't get updated when a subscription is moved/transferred to another directory. As a result, any existent system-assigned or user-assigned managed identities will be broken.

Workaround for managed identities in a subscription that has been moved to another directory:

  • For system assigned managed identities: disable and re-enable.
  • For user assigned managed identities: delete, re-create, and attach them again to the necessary resources (for example, virtual machines)

For more information, see Transfer an Azure subscription to a different Microsoft Entra directory.

Error during managed identity assignment operations

In rare cases, you may see error messages indicating errors related to assignment of managed identities with Azure resources. Some of the example error messages are as follows:

  • Azure resource ‘azure-resource-id' does not have access to identity 'managed-identity-id'.
  • No managed service identities are associated with resource ‘azure-resource-id'

Workaround In these rare cases the best next steps are

  1. For identities no longer needed to be assigned to the resource, remove them from the resource.
  2. For User Assigned Managed Identity, reassign the identity to the Azure resource.
  3. For System Assigned Managed Identity, disable the identity and enable it again.

Note

To assign/unassign Managed identities please follow below links

Next steps

You can review our article listing the services that support managed identities and our frequently asked questions