Windows VMs won't start because the GuestAgent extension can't be found

Sergey Borovoy 541 Reputation points
2021-10-13T07:13:46.46+00:00

Hi, I have a bunch of Windows Server 2019 VMs and they were working fine just yesterday, but this morning none of them can be started. Provisioning state becomes "failed" and the error message is "No version found in the artifact repository that satisfies the requested version '' for VM extension with publisher 'Microsoft.WindowsAzure.GuestAgent' and type 'CRPProd'"

So I called a colleague who also has a bunch of similar Windows Server VMs in a different subscription (created independently, those are not copies of my VMs) and he has the same problem.

Looks like some kind of Azure outage, GuestAgent extension became inaccessible? On the other had, I'm worried about the fact that the requested version is shown as an empty string. If this is what my VM requests for some reason, no wonder it can't find it.

The region is Western Europe, in case it matters.

Tried googling the error message, nothing really useful.

I'll appreciate your help.

Azure Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Machines

An Azure service that is used to provision Windows and Linux virtual machines.

Windows for business | Windows Server | User experience | Other

130 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Pratik Soni 21 Reputation points
    2021-10-13T11:27:47.84+00:00

    Seems the issue has been resolved. VMs are now up and running in West US 2.

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Johan Groenewald 166 Reputation points
    2021-10-13T08:25:00.28+00:00

    Watching the health page and Twitter account is just infuriating at this point.

    Health page says no issues. So you start redeploying VMs and getting the same error messages.

    Then the response from Twitter : "Have you tried a different browser? Did you clear the cache?"

    "No, we just felt like complaining without checking our side of Azure." Not sure why I have a certification from MS if I have to be told to try a different browser.

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
  3. Marius Sandbu 56 Reputation points MVP
    2021-10-13T08:02:05.157+00:00

    This issue affects all Windows Servers across all Azure regions. Azure CRP = Compute Resource Provider (Which is responsible for all VM actions by default uses the built-in extension WindowsAzureGuestAgent to communicate with the VM. Seems like Microsoft made some changes on the backend artifact so there is a version mismatch. As long as the version mismatch is there it is hard to make some changes.

    Note that reregistering the resource provider for compute does not help and since this only affects the windows agents, linux servers are not affected. Or other VM's that does not use the Windows Guest Agent.

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. David Whitham 21 Reputation points
    2021-10-13T07:37:31.327+00:00

    Hi exactly the same issue here - 11 servers offline with the same error, North Europe and UK South.

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2021-10-13T07:38:00.383+00:00

    We have the same issue here how ever some VM's were started successfully just prior to 07:00 UK time.

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.