Upgraded ubuntu on VM, the VM stops working after 15 mins of uptime and has to be restarted

Question

Upgraded ubuntu on VM, the VM stops working after 15 mins of uptime and has to be restarted

Saral Joshi 20

Hello everyone.

I received an email from azure "Action recommended: Upgrade to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, or Ubuntu Pro before 31 May 2025"

So I followed the link in the documentation to upgrade my ubuntu from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS https://documentation.ubuntu.com/server/how-to/software/upgrade-your-release/index.html

I normally ssh into this machine and do development work on it. The upgrade went normally, and I was able to connect via ssh. However, when I actually started working on it, after 15-20 mins the connection broke. I checked the portal and saw the warning "virtual machine agent status is not ready". This machine was working normally prior to the upgrade. I debugged the ssh settings/ ssh config etc. but found no issues.

I then deallocated the machine, and started it again. The warning went away and I was able to connect and work again for 15/20 more mins until the warning came back. This time I restarted the machine, and got the same results (able to connect for 15/20 mins) until the warning came back. I then went into the troubleshooter, it recommended redeploy, I did that and then reapply -- I did those separately. But the issue still persists.

I've been working on this machine for around 2 years, only after the upgrade the issue has come up. I came across this post where it is recommended to create a new VM rather than follow ubuntu upgrade process. However, there was no mention of a possible problem in the email from azure, similar for the 18 to 20 upgrade.

What can I do to troubleshoot this issue? I have other VM's where I need to upgrade, so I need to make a solid process. Thank you.

Saral Joshi 20 Reputation points

2025-04-16T07:26:08.4066667+00:00
Thanks for your detailed response. I have a couple of follow up questions.

Is it still possible to salvage the current machine if I upgrade it to ubuntu Pro, will the azure control plane start working again?

When you say walinuxagent related process, that is for new VM's or the existing VM with the issue?
Dharani Reguri 345 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-16T11:14:46.77+00:00

Hi Saral Joshi,

Is it still possible to salvage the current machine if I upgrade it to ubuntu Pro, will the azure control plane start working again?

Ubuntu pro comes with security updates and support for up to 10 years. It just provides Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) for infrastructure and applications support, providing kernel patching but not agent issue.

When you say walinuxagent related process, that is for new VM's or the existing VM with the issue?
This is for the VM where you have done the in-place upgrade. As said, when we perform the in-place upgrade of an Azure VM, it can break the connection between the VM’s data plane and Azure’s control plane. As a result, Automatic guest patching, Automatic OS image upgrades may no longer function as expected on the upgraded VM. So please install the latest update on agent.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Thank you.
Saral Joshi 20 Reputation points

2025-04-17T07:31:39.1+00:00

Hi Dharani, thanks for the input. The walinuxagent was latest version when I checked, I reinstalled and restarted it anyway. The machine ran for longer this time (almost an hour) .

At this stage I will switch to a new VM and do more research on this topic. Since I do need to upgrade more machines. At this stage, the only way seems to be to create new VM.
Dharani Reguri 345 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-17T08:42:51.03+00:00

Hi Saral Joshi,

Yes, creating a new VM is the best option instead of doing in-place upgrade on the VM.

Accepted answer

0 additional answers

Your answer

Saral Joshi 20 Reputation points

2025-04-16T07:26:08.4066667+00:00

Thanks for your detailed response. I have a couple of follow up questions.

Is it still possible to salvage the current machine if I upgrade it to ubuntu Pro, will the azure control plane start working again?

When you say walinuxagent related process, that is for new VM's or the existing VM with the issue?
Dharani Reguri 345 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-16T11:14:46.77+00:00

Hi Saral Joshi,

Is it still possible to salvage the current machine if I upgrade it to ubuntu Pro, will the azure control plane start working again?

Ubuntu pro comes with security updates and support for up to 10 years. It just provides Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) for infrastructure and applications support, providing kernel patching but not agent issue.

When you say walinuxagent related process, that is for new VM's or the existing VM with the issue?
This is for the VM where you have done the in-place upgrade. As said, when we perform the in-place upgrade of an Azure VM, it can break the connection between the VM’s data plane and Azure’s control plane. As a result, Automatic guest patching, Automatic OS image upgrades may no longer function as expected on the upgraded VM. So please install the latest update on agent.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Thank you.
Saral Joshi 20 Reputation points

2025-04-17T07:31:39.1+00:00

Hi Dharani, thanks for the input. The walinuxagent was latest version when I checked, I reinstalled and restarted it anyway. The machine ran for longer this time (almost an hour) .

At this stage I will switch to a new VM and do more research on this topic. Since I do need to upgrade more machines. At this stage, the only way seems to be to create new VM.
Dharani Reguri 345 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-04-17T08:42:51.03+00:00

Hi Saral Joshi,

Yes, creating a new VM is the best option instead of doing in-place upgrade on the VM.

Answer 1

Hi Saral Joshi,

I understood that you have done in-place upgrade from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to one of your VMs and after upgrading you have notified that VM agent is not ready but after deallocation of the machine it worked but only for 15-20 min.

An in-place upgrade to a new major version breaks the connection between the data plane and the control plane of the VMs. Consequently, Azure capabilities such as Auto guest patching, Auto OS image upgrades, Hotpatching, and Azure Update Manager won't be available. To access these features, we recommend that you create a VM instead of performing an in-place upgrade for the other VMs. Before creating new VM, please take a disk backup of old VM and attach it to new VM.

So, I suggest checking the current version of the walinuxagent and installing the latest update and also configure auto update for agent and then restart the waagent service.

Please refer to the documents below:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/linux/upgrade-canonical-ubuntu-18dot04-lts#upgrade-to-ubuntu-2004-lts-or-ubuntu-2204

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/extensions/update-linux-agent?tabs=ubuntu

Please let me know if you have further questions.

If it was helpful, please click "Upvote" on this post and "Accept" the answer for the benefit of community.

User's image

Thank you.

Share via

Upgraded ubuntu on VM, the VM stops working after 15 mins of uptime and has to be restarted

0 additional answers

Your answer