How to reset network interface for Azure Windows VM

Applies to: ✔️ Windows VMs

This article shows how to reset the network interface for Azure Windows VM to resolve issues when you can't connect to Microsoft Azure Windows Virtual Machine (VM) after:

• You disable the default Network Interface (NIC).
• You manually set a static IP for the NIC.

The following article also introduces how to view and change settings for a NIC, which might help you:

Create, change, or delete a network interface

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Reset the NIC using Azure portal, Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI

Note

We recommend using the az vm repair reset-nic command to reset the NIC. To run this command, see the following "Azure CLI" tab.

Portal

1. Go to the Azure portal.

2. Select the affected Virtual Machine.

3. Select Networking and then select the network Interface of the VM.

   

4. Select IP configurations.

5. Select the IP.

6. If the Private IP assignment isn't Static, change it to Static.

7. Change the IP address to another IP address that is available in the Subnet.

8. The virtual machine restarts to initialize the new NIC to the system.

9. Try to use RDP to connect to your machine. If successful, you can change the Private IP address back to the original if you would like. Otherwise, you can keep it.

Azure PowerShell

1. Make sure that you have the latest Azure PowerShell installed.

2. Open an elevated Azure PowerShell session. Run the following commands:

   #Set the variables 
   $SubscriptionID = "<Subscription ID>"​
   $ResourceGroup = "<Resource Group>"
   $NetInter="<The Network interface of the VM>"
   $VNET = "<Virtual network>"
   $subnet= "<The virtual network subnet>"
   $PrivateIP = "<New Private IP>"
   
   #You can ignore the publicIP variable if the VM does not have a public IP associated.
   $publicIP =Get-AzPublicIpAddress -Name <the public IP name> -ResourceGroupName  $ResourceGroup
   
   #Log in to the subscription​ 
   Add-AzAccount
   Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId $SubscriptionId 
   
   #Check whether the new IP address is available in the virtual network.
   Get-AzVirtualNetwork -Name $VNET -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup | Test-AzPrivateIPAddressAvailability -IPAddress $PrivateIP
   
   #Add/Change static IP. This process will change MAC address
   $vnet = Get-AzVirtualNetwork -Name $VNET -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup
   
   $subnet = Get-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name $subnet -VirtualNetwork $vnet
   
   $nic = Get-AzNetworkInterface -Name  $NetInter -ResourceGroupName  $ResourceGroup
   
   #Remove the PublicIpAddress parameter if the VM does not have a public IP.
   $nic | Set-AzNetworkInterfaceIpConfig -Name ipconfig1 -PrivateIpAddress $PrivateIP -Subnet $subnet -PublicIpAddress $publicIP -Primary
   
   $nic | Set-AzNetworkInterface
   

3. The virtual machine restarts to initialize the new NIC to the system.

4. Try to use RDP to connect to your machine. If successful, you can change the Private IP address back to the original if you would like. Otherwise, you can keep it.

Azure CLI

1. Launch Azure Cloud Shell from the top navigation of the Azure portal.

2. Run the following commands:

   az vm repair reset-nic -g MyResourceGroup -n vmName --subscription subscriptionId --yes
   

   Or

   #Log in to the subscription  
   
   az login 
   
   az account set --subscription 
   
   #Check whether the new IP address is available in the virtual network.
   
   az network vnet check-ip-address -g MyResourceGroup -n MyVnet --ip-address 10.0.0.4 
   
   #Add/Change static IP. This process won't change MAC address 
   
   az network nic ip-config update -g MyResourceGroup --nic-name MyNic -n MyIpConfig --private-ip-address 10.0.0.9 
   

3. Try to use RDP to connect to your machine. If successful, you can change the Private IP address back to the original if you would like. Otherwise, you can keep it.

Delete the unavailable NICs

After you can remote desktop to the machine, you must delete the old NICs to avoid the potential problem:

1. Open Device Manager.

2. Select View > Show hidden devices.

3. Select Network Adapters.

4. Check for the adapters named as "Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter".

5. You might see an unavailable adapter that is grayed out. Right-click the adapter and then select Uninstall.

   

   Note

   Only uninstall the unavailable adapters that have the name "Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter". If you uninstall any of the other hidden adapters, it could cause additional issues.

6. Now all unavailable adapters should be cleared of your system.

Contact us for help

If you have questions or need help, create a support request, or ask Azure community support. You can also submit product feedback to Azure feedback community.