An Azure service that is used to provision Windows and Linux virtual machines.
Because Remote disk disconnected (Unplanned) has remained with VM state: Unknown for five hours, open a platform-event support request directly from the VM’s Resource health page now.
Immediate action
- In the Azure portal, open Virtual machines → affected VM → Resource health.
- Open the Remote disk disconnected (Unplanned) event and record:
- Start time
- Current health state
- Health annotation/event details
- Subscription, resource group, VM name, and region
- Select Contact support or Create support request from that pane.
- Choose the category for a VM that is unresponsive to start or stop operations, and state:
- The condition has persisted for more than five hours.
- The VM state remains Unknown.
- Whether start, stop, restart, or redeploy operations are pending or failing.
- Whether other VMs or disks in the same region are affected.
A Resource Health status of Unknown means Azure has stopped receiving enough information to determine the resource’s health. For platform availability events, a support request can be submitted from Resource Health without a support agreement.^1^
The corresponding VirtualMachineStorageOffline annotation means the VM is rebooting or frozen because it temporarily lost access to its disk, and Azure is working to restore disk connectivity. It is classified as Platform Initiated, Unplanned, with a downtime impact.^2^
Check incident scope
Open Azure Service Health → Service issues and filter by the VM’s subscription and region. Also review VM → Activity log for failed platform operations.
The public Azure Status page only represents broader incidents, so an empty public status page does not rule out a resource-specific or regional platform event.^1^
Conditional recovery: redeploy
If no recovery operation is currently running, the portal still accepts VM operations, and Microsoft support does not request that the VM remain unchanged for investigation, try:
- If accessible, back up or snapshot persistent OS and data disks first.
- Open VM → Help → Redeploy + reapply.
- Select Redeploy, not Reapply.
- Monitor Activity log until the operation succeeds or returns a specific error.
Redeploy shuts down the VM, moves it to another Azure host, and powers it on while retaining its configuration and associated resources.^3^
Warning: Redeployment discards data on temporary and Ephemeral OS disks, and dynamic private IP addresses can change. Persistent managed OS and data disks are retained.^3^
Do not detach and reattach the affected disk while Azure reports an active platform storage event unless Microsoft support specifically directs that action.
References