Windows Azure Virtual Machine is deleted after reaching the limit reached - How can I return it?

Question

As you can tell from the name, I set up a virtual machine on Azure and installed the site and database that my company hosts for the client. The cost limit was not removed, and after it was reached, my virtual machine was deleted.

Since then I have removed the spending limit, but I do not know how to return the VM, or if at all possible. What steps should I take to get back to where it was? Is the database that was on this server gone forever? I spent a lot of time updating this server with the updates and software of the Web Platform Installer. It would be pretty cruel if everything was lost.

Answer 1

Are you sure the virtual machine was actually deleted or the deployment was deleted? Check the portal on the Virtual Machines tab. Take a look at the "Drives" section and see if there is a disk that represents the server that was running.

If so, you should be able to create a new instance of the virtual machine using the "Create" button at the bottom of the portal. Click the Create button and choose Calculate> Virtual Machine> From Gallery. Then click “My Drives” in the pop-up window. This will allow you to select the drive representing the OS drive from your server.

You can also check if the cloud service container that started the server was deleted. When you create a virtual machine, a cloud service is created that will act as a container for this instance of the machine. You can also add additional machines to the same container. Take a look at the Cloud Services section of the portal and see if what you created for the virtual machine is called. If so, you will either have to remove it so that you can reuse the name, or you can use PowerShell cmdlets to start the virtual machine and put it in an existing cloud services container.

Answer 2

I had the same experience. Our Azure Virtual Machine disappeared, and I really got scared when it was also missing on the management portal. I decided it like that.

• Remove your credit card spending limit from your Azure account portal.
• Remove the cloud service with the same name as the virtual machine. Now the cloud service was just an empty container when the VM disappeared.
• Easily recover a missing virtual machine by creating a new virtual machine. Choose to create a new virtual machine from the gallery, and in the "Gallery" section you can find your missing hard drive in the "My Drives" section.
• Wait until the machine is restored, and then start it.
• Now you need to manually recreate all the endpoints of the network. It was a pain since I had quite a few different streaming servers.

I wish Azure only stopped the virtual machine instead of silently deleting it when the client did not pay. Moreover, it is quite difficult to understand which services are free, which services are free and what services you should pay for.