Azure for Students – Cannot create VM due to region restrictions / policy blocking all deployments

Question

Azure for Students – Cannot create VM due to region restrictions / policy blocking all deployments

ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ ΑΛΕΞΙΟΣ 5

Hello,

I am using the Azure for Students subscription provided by my university (University of Patras),

and I am completely unable to create any Virtual Machine. Multiple different issues occur depending

on the region, the resource group, or the SSH key settings.

Below is the full list of problems I have encountered:

VM creation never starts:
- When I press “Create”, the portal shows a loading spinner for 3–4 seconds and then stops.
- No deployment is created, no error message appears, and the Activity Log remains empty.
Region restrictions by Azure Policy:
- The Policy Assignment “Allowed resource deployment regions” restricts my subscription.
- Allowed locations (as displayed by the policy): ["switzerlandnorth","germanywestcentral","polandcentral","swedencentral","francecentral"].
- However, some of these regions do not appear in the region dropdown menu (e.g., Sweden Central).
- Others appear and disappear inconsistently.
- Even when selecting an allowed region such as France Central or Switzerland North, VM creation still fails to start.
VM sizes unavailable:
- Free-tier sizes B1s and B2ats_v2 show the message: “This size is currently unavailable in this location for this subscription: NotAvailableForSubscription.”
SSH key issues:
- When choosing “Generate new key”, Azure sometimes attempts to store the key inside a resource group.
- Immediately after clicking “Download private key”, I get: “Could not download SSH private key — Resource '<resource-name edited by Moderator>' was disallowed by Azure...”
- The message repeats that my subscription is restricted by a region policy, even though the SSH key itself is not region-dependent.
Resource Group errors:
- When I create a new Resource Group and retry the process, Azure reports: “The resource group does not exist”, even though I just created it.
- In other cases, Azure claims: “Cannot use this resource group because it is not empty”, even though it contains no resources.
No deployment logs:
- The portal never shows any failed deployment.
- No corresponding Activity Log entry is generated at all, making the issue impossible to debug from my side.
Subscription is activated and verified:
- Subscription name: <sub-name removed by Moderator>
- Subscription ID: <sub-id removed by Moderator>
- Status: Active
- Verified through the "Verification complete" confirmation page.

My subscription is restricted by a policy: "Allowed resource deployment regions".
The allowed regions based on the policy are: ["switzerlandnorth", "germanywestcentral", "polandcentral", "swedencentral", "francecentral"] but even in these regions the portal refuses to create a VM.
Sweden Central sometimes appears but disappears again from the region selection list.

I urgently need to create a Virtual Machine for a university assignment, and I only need:

A running VM
A public IP address
A generated SSH public key

At this moment, due to the policy restrictions and the subscription behavior,

it is impossible to deploy any VM in any region.

Please assist me in removing or correcting the policy restrictions, or enabling at least

one region and one VM size for deployment.

Thank you in advance.

Anonymous

2025-12-01T08:47:06.48+00:00
Hi ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ ΑΛΕΞΙΟΣ,

You are hitting multiple subscription-level restrictions and policy quirks on your Azure for Students subscription that prevent any VM deployment from even starting, and most of this cannot be fixed from your side alone; your university’s Azure admin must adjust policy/quotas or move you to the correct directory before VM creation will work.

Here is a concise, step‑by‑step troubleshooting flow you can follow and also share with your university/IT team.

Basic account and directory checks

Verify correct directory and subscription

In the top-right of portal.azure.com, click your account → Switch directory, and select the directory where your Azure for Students subscription appears.

Go to “Subscriptions” in the portal and confirm:

Subscription “<Subscription-Name>” with ID <"Subscription-ID"> is visible and “Active”.

It is selected as the current subscription (checkbox enabled).

2 Sign-out / sign-in sanity check

Sign out of the Azure portal, then sign back in with the same account that owns the student subscription.

If your university also gave you an org account, ensure you are using the account that actually owns the Azure for Students subscription, not just the university tenant account.

Sign-out / sign-in sanity check

Register VM-related resource providers

Portal: Subscriptions → your Azure for Students subscription → Resource providers.

Search and ensure these are “Registered”; if not, click “Register”:

Microsoft.Compute

Microsoft.Network

Microsoft.Storage

Microsoft.KeyVault (if SSH keys or images may use it).

Wait a couple of minutes

After registering, wait 2–5 minutes and then retry VM creation.

Try again with a simple Linux image and smallest non-free size (for example Standard_B2s) in an allowed region

Try again with a simple Linux image and smallest non-free size (for example Standard_B2s) in an allowed region

4.Check region restriction policies

Inspect region policies in your subscription

Portal: Subscriptions → your subscription → Policies → Assignments.

Look for assignments named (or similar to):

“Allowed resource deployment regions”

“Allowed locations” / “Not allowed locations”

Open each and review the Parameters to see the exact allowed locations list.

5 Confirm that allowed regions are usable

Compare the allowed region list to the region dropdown in VM creation.

6.Minimal VM test per allowed region

Use a “minimal” Linux VM configuration

For each allowed region shown in the policy (e.g., Switzerland North, Germany West Central, Poland Central, Sweden Central, France Central):

Basics tab:

Region: pick one allowed region.

Image: Ubuntu Server LTS (e.g., 22.04 LTS).

Availability options: “No infrastructure redundancy required”.

Security type: Standard.

7.Authentication: SSH public key.

SSH key: choose “Use existing public key” (not “Generate new”). Paste a public key generated locally via ssh-keygen on your machine. This avoids policy problems when Azure tries to create key resources.

8.VM size selection

Ignore B1s and B2ats_v2 if they show “NotAvailableForSubscription”.

Select the smallest size that is enabled and does not show that message, such as Standard_B2s or another low spec SKU

Attempt deployment and check Activity Log

Click “Review + create” → “Create”.

If a deployment is created, go to the resource group → “Deployments” and inspect any failed deployment for detailed error codes (e.g., RequestDisallowedByAzure, InvalidTemplateDeployment, quota errors).

If no deployment appears and no Activity Log entry is created, note this behavior; it usually indicates a policy or permission block before ARM submission.

10.Resource group and SSH key quirks

Always create the resource group explicitly first: “Resource groups” → Create.

Make sure the RG’s region is also in the allowed regions list.

After creation, refresh the VM wizard and select the existing RG from the dropdown instead of typing the name manually.

SSH key creation issues

Avoid “Generate new key pair” if it triggers “Resource was disallowed by Azure”.

Use “Upload existing public key” and supply a public key from your machine. This prevents Azure from creating extra resources that may violate location policies

Documents:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5535918/azure-student-subscription-region-error

https://www.reddit.com/r/AZURE/comments/ugqh2z/cant_create_vm_with_trial_or_student_subscription/

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79133425/cant-i-create-windows-10-vm-on-azure

I hope the above helps. Please let us know if you have any further questions on this.

Thank You!
Anonymous

2025-12-03T07:59:25.7566667+00:00

Hi ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ ΑΛΕΞΙΟΣ,

Just checking to see if you have a chance to check my previous response and helped, do let me know if you have any further questions on this.

Thank You!
Anonymous

2025-12-04T07:49:28.12+00:00

Hi ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ ΑΛΕΞΙΟΣ,

Just checking in, if you got a chance to review my earlier response, let me know if you're still blocked with the issue.

Thank You!

3 answers

Your answer

Anonymous

2025-12-03T07:59:25.7566667+00:00

Hi ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ ΑΛΕΞΙΟΣ,

Just checking to see if you have a chance to check my previous response and helped, do let me know if you have any further questions on this.

Thank You!
Anonymous

2025-12-04T07:49:28.12+00:00

Hi ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ ΑΛΕΞΙΟΣ,

Just checking in, if you got a chance to review my earlier response, let me know if you're still blocked with the issue.

Thank You!

Answer 1

kagiyama yutaka 5,330

I think the VM stops because the Allowed resource deployment regions policy also restricts the internal resources Azure needs, so the portal blocks it before ARM submit. The safe step is opening Subscriptions → your student subscription → Policies → Assignments and sending that policy to your uni admin so they can adjust or exempt the VM‑related parts.

0 comments

Answer 2

Neha Kanjamala (Student) 0

Please fix this. Students are trying to learn and keeping all these restrictions is creating a huge bad taste for Azure!

After hours I am still not able to find a region with the free vms to create! What a bad experience. Quite disappointed.

0 comments

Answer 3

It seems you're experiencing multiple issues while trying to create a Virtual Machine (VM) in Azure for Students. Here are some potential solutions based on the problems you've outlined:

VM Creation Never Starts: If the portal shows a loading spinner without any deployment being created, it could be a temporary issue with the Azure portal. Try refreshing the page or logging out and back in. If the problem persists, consider using a different browser or clearing your browser's cache.
Region Restrictions by Azure Policy: Since your subscription is restricted by the policy "Allowed resource deployment regions," you will need to ensure that you are selecting a region that is allowed. If certain regions do not appear in the dropdown, it might be due to temporary unavailability or a delay in the resource provider's update. You can try re-registering the resource provider by going to Subscriptions, selecting your subscription, then Resource Provider, and re-registering Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization.
VM Sizes Unavailable: The message indicating that certain sizes are unavailable could be due to quota limits or regional restrictions. You may want to check the available VM sizes for your subscription and region. If you are consistently seeing the "NotAvailableForSubscription" message, consider selecting a different, smaller VM size that is known to be available in your allowed regions.
SSH Key Issues: If you are facing issues with generating and downloading the SSH key, ensure that you are not selecting a resource group that has restrictions. Try creating a new resource group specifically for this VM and see if that resolves the issue. Additionally, you can manually generate an SSH key pair outside of Azure and use that instead.
Resource Group Errors: If Azure reports that the resource group does not exist or is not empty, double-check the resource group name and ensure that you are in the correct subscription. Sometimes, there can be a delay in the Azure portal reflecting the latest changes.
No Deployment Logs: If there are no logs or failed deployments showing, it might be an issue with the Azure portal itself. You can try checking the Azure Activity Logs through the Azure portal to see if any entries are being recorded.
Subscription Status: Since your subscription is active and verified, ensure that you are using the correct account associated with the Azure for Students subscription. If issues persist, consider reaching out to Azure support for assistance.

If these steps do not resolve your issues, you may need to contact Azure support directly for further assistance, especially since your subscription is tied to your university.

References: