Azure Portal Error: Failed to start virtual machine 'xxxx'. Error: The Key Vault secret referenced with the URL 'xxxx' does not exist

Question

I have deleted some Key Vaults from my resource manager after assuming that they are not used anywhere in my configuration and that those were some leftovers from my testing. Now I can't start my virtual machines and this error message appears.

Failed to start virtual machine 'xxxx'. Error: The Key Vault secret referenced with the URL 'xxxx' does not exist.

Could you please advise me how to put my virtual machines back on track since I can't afford the time building them again?

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

I had a similar issue except my SSL certificate needed to be renewed. If you use https://resources.azure.com, you can see the old URL listed in the secrets property of the osProfile.

I couldn't update the new vault certificate with my ARM template so I had to fix it with Powershell first. This removes the old vault so my template could add the new one.

$vaultName = "<your vault name>"
$vmName = "<your vm name>"
$rg = "<your resource group>"

$vaultId = (Get-AzKeyVault -VaultName $vaultName).ResourceId
$vm = Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rg -Name $vmName

Remove-AzVMSecret -VM $vm -SourceVaultId $vaultId
Update-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rg -VM $vm

This worked for me so I wanted to document it in case it helps somebody else.