how do I enable tasks to turn off a vm and re-start a vm?

Question

how do I enable tasks to turn off a vm and re-start a vm?

pierre shiraziefard 45

I do not see it in Tasks for a vm, need to turn it off on non-used hours and start the vm again on business hours.

Manish Deshpande 6,835 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-06-02T16:12:57.8266667+00:00

Hello @pierre shiraziefard

The greyed-out Tasks option is actually a pretty common pain point. It usually comes down to one of two things: insufficient RBAC permissions on the VM, or the Automation Tasks feature (which runs on Azure Logic Apps behind the scenes) not being fully supported in your subscription/region yet. Let me walk you through a few options depending on what works best for you.

1.Check your permissions first:
For the Tasks blade to be interactive, your account needs at least Contributor access on the VM or its resource group. If you're currently assigned a Reader or a narrower custom role, that would explain the greyed-out state.

Fix: Go to your VM → Access Control (IAM) → Add role assignment → assign Virtual Machine Contributor (or Contributor) to your account, then retry the Tasks option.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/troubleshooting

2.For shutdown only :

If all you need right now is to stop the VM at a set time each evening, the built-in Auto-shutdown feature doesn't require Tasks at all. Just go to:

VM → Operations → Auto-shutdown → toggle On → set your time → Save

It's straightforward and works immediately without any additional setup.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/auto-shutdown-vm

3.For both start AND stop on a schedule

This is where it gets a bit more involved since auto-shutdown alone doesn't cover the morning start. The most reliable way to handle both is the Start/Stop VMs v2 solution, which is available directly from Azure Marketplace. It uses Azure Functions under the hood and lets you define separate schedules for startup and shutdown across one or more VMs.

The setup takes about 15–20 minutes, and once it's deployed you just configure your business hours (e.g., start at 8 AM, stop at 7 PM on weekdays) through pre-built Logic App workflows.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/start-stop-v2/overview
Deployment Guide : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/start-stop-v2/deploy
Suggestion :
Start with Step 1 to unblock the Tasks option if it works after the permissions fix, you can create the Start and Stop tasks directly from the VM blade without needing any extra deployment.
If Tasks remain unavailable, go with the Start/Stop VMs v2 route it's the most robust option Microsoft currently offers for scheduled VM management.

Thanks,
Manish.
pierre shiraziefard 45 Reputation points

2026-06-02T16:24:44.97+00:00

I do not need this auto shutdown/auto retsart on all my resources, only a select few. I assume I can apply it to VM's?
pierre shiraziefard 45 Reputation points

2026-06-03T12:57:07.22+00:00

I am assigned owner and have always been yet I cannot access on step 1. pic attached
pierre shiraziefard 45 Reputation points

2026-06-03T12:58:30.84+00:00

when I check eligible assignments I see this error

4 answers

Your answer

pierre shiraziefard 45 Reputation points

2026-06-02T16:24:44.97+00:00

I do not need this auto shutdown/auto retsart on all my resources, only a select few. I assume I can apply it to VM's?
pierre shiraziefard 45 Reputation points

2026-06-03T12:57:07.22+00:00

I am assigned owner and have always been yet I cannot access on step 1. pic attached
pierre shiraziefard 45 Reputation points

2026-06-03T12:58:30.84+00:00

when I check eligible assignments I see this error

Answer 1

pierre shiraziefard 45

1.Check your permissions first: For the Tasks blade to be interactive, your account needs at least Contributor access on the VM or its resource group. If you're currently assigned a Reader or a narrower custom role, that would explain the greyed-out state.

Fix: Go to your VM → Access Control (IAM) → Add role assignment → assign Virtual Machine Contributor (or Contributor) to your account, then retry the Tasks option.

added VM contributor, no change still no access.

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Answer 2

pierre shiraziefard 45

I have installed below:

If Tasks remain unavailable, go with the Start/Stop VMs v2 route it's the most robust option Microsoft currently offers for scheduled VM management.

Yet in automation tasks for a vm still shaded and not accesible. I am looking to test this out for one VM only not globally for all my vm's.

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Answer 3

pierre shiraziefard 45

tasks are greyed out (pic attached) on a single vm, Screenshot 2026-06-02 114106

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Answer 4

There are three supported ways in Azure to automatically stop and start a virtual machine on a schedule.

Use the built-in Auto-shutdown on the VM (stop only)
- In the Azure portal, open the target virtual machine.
- Under Operations, select Auto-shutdown.
- Turn the setting On.
- Set the daily shutdown time and time zone.
- Optionally configure notification (email or webhook) before shutdown.
- Save the configuration.
- This will automatically stop (deallocate) the VM at the configured time each day. It does not start the VM again; combine with another option below if automatic start is required.
Use Start/Stop VMs v2 (start and stop, including sequences and CPU-based stop)
- Deploy the Start/Stop VMs v2 solution to the subscription.
- This deployment creates several Logic Apps, including:
  - ststv2_vms_Scheduled_start and ststv2_vms_Scheduled_stop for schedule-based start/stop.
  - ststv2_vms_Sequenced_start and ststv2_vms_Sequenced_stop for sequence-based start/stop using VM tags.
  - ststv2_vms_AutoStop for CPU-based auto-stop.
- To configure a simple business-hours schedule:
  1. In the Azure portal, go to Logic apps.
  2. Open ststv2_vms_Scheduled_start to configure the morning start schedule.
    - Open Logic app designer.
    - Select the Recurrence trigger and set the schedule (for example, every weekday at 08:00 in the desired time zone).
    - Select the Function-Try action and edit the JSON request body to define the scope (subscription, resource groups, or specific VMs) and set "Action": "start".
  3. Open ststv2_vms_Scheduled_stop to configure the evening stop schedule.
    - Similarly configure Recurrence for the stop time (for example, weekdays at 18:00).
    - In Function-Try, set "Action": "stop" and define the same VM scope.
- This approach can target multiple subscriptions, resource groups, or specific VMs and supports both Azure Resource Manager and classic VMs.
Use Automation Tasks on the VM resource (simple per-VM schedules)
- For a single VM, an automation task can be created directly on that VM resource:
  - From the VM in the Azure portal, use the automation task templates such as Power off Virtual Machine, Start Virtual Machine, or Deallocate Virtual Machine.
  - Configure the task’s Interval and Frequency (Day/Week/Month) to define how often it runs.
- This creates a Logic App-based workflow that continues to run until disabled or deleted.

If the Tasks blade on the VM does not show the start/stop templates, use either the VM’s Auto-shutdown setting for stop-only, or deploy Start/Stop VMs v2 for full start/stop scheduling across one or more VMs.

References:

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how do I enable tasks to turn off a vm and re-start a vm?

4 answers

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