Role instance name is not valid while restarting the VM

Question

I an have 8 node cluster setup in the Azure virtual network.

It was working fine until I shut down the virtual machines from the Azure Management Portal (shutdown icon/button).

After I stopped two virtual machines last week, I could not re-start them.

Friday evening I shutdown one more virtual machine to save on the costs, but today I am unable to start this virtual machine as well.

I see the following error:

Failed to start virtual machine VM_NAME_HERE.

Role instance name is not valid

Could anyone please suggest how to fix it?

I have also tried from Powershell with the same result.

Here is the console output:

VERBOSE: 1:33:16 PM - Completed Operation: Get Deployment
VERBOSE: 1:33:16 PM - Begin Operation: Start-AzureVM
Start-AzureVM : ResourceNotFound : Role instance name is not valid.
At line:1 char:1
+ Start-AzureVM -ServiceName MyServiceName -Name VMName
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : CloseError: (:) [Start-AzureVM], ComputeCloudException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Commands.ServiceManagement.IaaS.StartAzureVMCommand

VERBOSE: 1:33:49 PM - Completed Operation: Start-AzureVM

Any help on this is highly appreciated.

Regards, JE

while this is pending, have you submitted an incident in the azure portal? — Adam Tuliper, Dec 07 '15 at 08:02
In fact we bought subscription also so that they can reply :) But no use. They did not meet 8 hours SLA for replying! — java_enthu, Dec 07 '15 at 09:59
You are saying 8 node cluster set, it Means you have created all VMs in same Cloud Service or you have created 8 VMs and configure traffic manager or setup any thing else — subhash singh, Dec 09 '15 at 12:49

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 05 '16 at 19:50

1

I had the same issue when resizing a VM. My problem was resolved by going into Azure Portal->Virtual Machines->Disks then selecting the disk attached to the VM in question(mine has only one disk) and finally selecting 'edit cache' at the bottom. I just accepted what was already present in the popup and that was it. The VM updated and restarted on its own.

answered Feb 05 '16 at 19:50

RaySod

11
2

Was facing the same issue... Kinda worked for me... thanks! @RaySod – Vedant Kashyap Mar 02 '20 at 07:52

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 22 '15 at 21:17

0

It looks very weird, nevertheless the unique important thing in the VM is the disk (data) all other stuff is 'deletable' .

Try just creating another VMs with a compliant name and attach your current VM disk as main disk in the new ones.

Don't forget to delete the old VMs once the new start working.

answered Dec 22 '15 at 21:17

JuanK

2,056
19
32

Hi Juan, for this issue, we had to purchase the Azure support subscription and they fixed internally. I asked team acknowledged that it was an internal Issue of Azure and they are looking into option to reduce the occurrence of this known issue. Very very weird. :) – java_enthu Dec 22 '15 at 21:50

Role instance name is not valid while restarting the VM

2 Answers2