How to fix sql server having a stuck ExportDatabase job at 1%, cancelling leads to stuck CancelInProgress instead

Kalle Macklin 0

We were doing an ExportDatabase operation on our production database. This is part of our release pipeline, to do a backup before deploying new code.

The github action timed out eventually since the export job got stuck at 1% and was stuck for 8 hours. We then used az cli to cancel this job. This job is now stuck at status CancelInProgress. It has been so for 22 hours now.

We cannot do any more backups. We cannot cancel the job more than it being cancel in progress. We cannot deploy our new code the client is waiting for.

Is there any way to fix this "hostage situation" other than paying for a support plan to ask Microsoft themselves a "technical question" with their broken system?

A server restart could perhaps fix it we thought, however disruptive that is for the client. But there is no way to restart an SQL server in Azure from what we could gather in the documentation.

Prasad Chaganti 0 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-02-18T11:02:57.44+00:00
Hi Kalle Macklin,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.

As per your issue, I could understand that the export operation for the azure sql database got stuck at 1% since 8 hours and you tried to cancel the operation, which got stuck at cancelling in progress state from 22 hours.

I request you to please confirm, whether you followed the below steps to cancel the operation.

How to cancel Azure SQL Database Import or Export operation | Microsoft Community Hub

Kindly follow the below steps and share the screenshot of the export/import history page of the database and also share the request id of the operation which got stuck and share the size of the database.

Go to https://portal.azure.com and sign in with your Azure account credentials.

In the left-hand menu, click on "SQL databases" to view your list of databases.

Click on the specific SQL database for which you want to check the export/import history.

In the database's menu, scroll down to the "Operations" section and click on "Import/Export history."

Here, you will see a list of all the import and export operations that have been performed on the selected database. The list includes details such as the status, start time, end time, and any error messages if the operation failed

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.
Kalle Macklin 0 Reputation points

2025-02-18T12:13:40.0266667+00:00

@Prasad Chaganti

Are you a Microsoft employee?
Erland Sommarskog 117.2K Reputation points MVP

2025-02-18T22:17:13.14+00:00

Are you a Microsoft employee? It says "Microsoft Vendor" under your name, but I'm new to this QA site so I'm not sure who's who and I can't fully disclose potentially sensitive information such as database name

This is a public site, so don't disclose anything sensitive here!
Kalle Macklin 0 Reputation points

2025-02-20T10:09:41.45+00:00

The solution is to pay for a support plan since that is the only way you are allowed to contact Microsoft about this bug/error, due to it being a "technical question".
PratikLad 80 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-02-20T12:04:28.0133333+00:00

Hi Kalle Macklin,

Is that Backup still in Hung state?

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