“No version found in the artifact repository that satisfies the requested version ” for VM extension with publisher ‘Microsoft.WindowsAzure.GuestAgent’ and type ‘CRPProd’.”
Did you wake up to see this today and realise that you cannot start your Azure Windows Virtual Desktop? Currently this is a four-hour outage and impacting all VMs globally that have been turned off overnight which most are as a cost saving issue.
So, what can you do about it?
Most firms will be contacting their IT Provider to complain, hassle, and get updates on when it is likely to be fixed. In truth there is little to nothing they can do to resolve the problem. It is entirely with Microsoft to resolve and until they do the only option you have is wait.
What about compensation for lost time?
Microsoft is on the hook for compensation if they breach their own SLAs, but it is difficult to claim and requires you to follow a lengthy process. Even then the compensation amounts to the charges that you would pay for normal costs, no consideration is given for any subsequent losses you have incurred. So, the short answer is there isn’t any.
How can you stop this happening again?
In truth you can’t these outages thankfully rare, are a feature of using this type of service where you don’t really control the fundamental elements, and neither does your reseller. Traditional Hosted Desktop providers with their own kit and own datacentres are less likely to suffer from these types of problems, but they still have their own to contend with.
Invest some time in disaster recovery planning
The answer is really to focus on trying to keep the team productive. So, plan activities that can be completed without the system, if you don’t have access to key data on alternative systems look at your disaster recovery planning. You should be able to access key client data from multiple sources. Take the time to call clients send a few emails these are unaffected by this outage. If the downtime looks like it could be longer than hours and possibly stretch into days look at alternatives. Could you move a critical system to another provider? How long would it take to deploy, what would the cost be.
If you would like some help examining your options get in touch, we are happy to help give you some pointers or develop your Disaster Recovery plan. In the meantime, the Azure status page is here https://status.azure.com/en-us/status