Skip to content

Connectivity Checklist

Use this checklist during the first 10 minutes of incidents where RDP, SSH, DNS, routes, or extension operations fail.

Initial response flow

graph TD
    A[Connectivity symptom] --> B[Confirm VM power and provisioning state]
    B --> C[Check NSG, effective routes, and IP path]
    C --> D[Check DNS and peering if name-based failure]
    D --> E[Check guest firewall, credentials, VM agent]
    E --> F[Open connectivity playbook]

Checklist

  1. Confirm the exact symptom: timeout, refused, auth failure, or name resolution.
  2. Verify VM power state and provisioning state in portal or az vm get-instance-view.
  3. Check NSG effective rules, public/private IP path, and effective routes.
  4. If DNS is involved, validate VNet DNS settings and guest resolver behavior.
  5. If extension or Run Command is involved, confirm VM agent is healthy.
  6. Preserve the first error text before changing rules.

Route to playbook

Situation Playbook
Cannot connect via RDP/SSH Cannot RDP or SSH
DNS or internal connectivity issue DNS and Connectivity Issues
VM extension failed Extension Failures

See Also

Sources