Azure AI Search: Persistent HTTP 500 Errors During Queries and Indexing in West Central US

Problem description

I am experiencing consistent HTTP 500 Internal Server Errors across multiple operations on my production Azure AI Search service in West Central US. These errors occur during queries, index management, and portal access, starting from the failure documented on 8 November 2026. Despite content validation and successful checks on a development service, the production environment remains unresponsive to management and data-plane calls.

Environment

Azure AI Search service in West Central US, with at least one production index used by an ingestion pipeline. The environment includes index creation, document upload, and pruning processes. Testing on a separate development service shows normal responses.

What I've already tried

I have checked the index schema, statistics, document count, and search endpoints directly; all return HTTP 500 errors. I also verified the environment by testing the development Azure AI Search service, which responded successfully. I attempted to run an 'az search service update' command on the production service, but it resulted in a truncated response, and no changes were applied. Additionally, I reviewed recent activity logs, resource health, and Azure Monitor metrics, but found no conclusive evidence of service throttling or resource exhaustion.

Current status

The service continues to return HTTP 500 errors across all management and data-plane operations. I seek guidance on diagnosing the underlying cause of this persistent failure and restoring service functionality without destructive changes.