Azure VM Resource Deployment Failed: “The system is not authoritative for the specified account”

Question

I have been using an Azure VM for several weeks: (Windows 10, Visual Studio Developer VM), But have been unable to login for several hours.

The machine is reported as running, RDP finds the machine and presents the login box, but Login fails: (Your credentials did not work)

The VM can be restarted, but the same error occurs. Boot diagnostics shows the Windows 10 'beach cave' image

Attempts to reset the password give errors in the event log:

Failed to reset password At lease one resource deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details. see https://aka.ms/arm-debug for usage details.

Then Deployment operations has this error:

Deployment failed Deployment to resource group 'MY_AZURE_GROUP' failed. Additional details from the underlying API that may be helpful. At least one deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details.

Then this error expands to:

Status: Conflict Provisioning State: Failed

Type: Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions

StatusMessage:

{
  "status": "Failed",
  "error": {
    "code": "ResourceDeploymentFailure",
    "message": "The resource operation completed with terminal provisioning state 'Failed'.",
    "details": [
      {
        "code": "VMExtensionProvisioningError",
        "message": "VM has reported a failure when processing extension 'enablevmaccess'. Error message: \"Cannot update Remote Desktop Connection settings for built-in Administrator account. Error: The system is not authoritative for the specified account and therefore cannot complete the operation. Please retry the operation using the provider associated with this account. If this is an online provider please use the provider's online site.\r\n\"."
      }
    ]
  }
}

So I then tried Redeploying the VM: Which gave this error Failed to redeploy the virtual machine 'MY_AZURE_VM'. Error: VM has reported a failure when processing extension 'enablevmaccess'. Error message: "Cannot update Remote Desktop Connection settings for built-in Administrator account. Error: The system is not authoritative for the specified account and therefore cannot complete the operation. Please retry the operation using the provider associated with this account. If this is an online provider please use the provider's online site.

The message "The system is not authoritative for the specified account" hints at some permissions failure somewhere.

What does this mean - and how can I fix it?

Tom Brown Tom Brown · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-20T20:34:39

Turns out the answer was not obvious and is still a little perplexing.

On first use Cortana had asked for a Microsoft account - so I had supplied details of one I rarely use (Lets call it [email protected]) In the background Windows had changed my MY_AZURE_VM\MyLogin (my only login - and the admin user on that VM) to the Microsoft account [email protected]!

So now I login with that Microsoft account - and all is well.

If I look in the Computer Management Users - MyLogin still exists - as the only user on the system - but If I try adding it to a Group, Check-Names converts it to [email protected]

Azure VM Resource Deployment Failed: “The system is not authoritative for the specified account”

1 Answers