Azure Bastion: new Shareable Links always fail with "Requested Sharable URL is invalid or not accessible" (old link still works)

Question

Azure Bastion: new Shareable Links always fail with "Requested Sharable URL is invalid or not accessible" (old link still works)

Dan Taylor 10

"Not Available — Requested Sharable URL is invalid or not accessible. Please recreate Shareable URL for your target resource."

The only Shareable Link that still works is one generated months ago (January 2026) for an existing VM on the same host. Every link generated since — for any VM — fails with the error above, regardless of target.

What I've ruled out:

Authenticated Bastion Portal Connect works fine on the affected VM — issue is isolated to the Shareable Link feature.
Rebuilt the affected VM to TrustedLaunch (Gen2) — no change.
Compared the affected VM's full configuration against a known-working VM on the same host: tags, effective NSG rules (byte-for-byte identical), subnet, VM size, OS image/version, extensions, boot diagnostics, availability zone — all identical. Still fails.
Created two brand-new VMs with fresh NICs matching the known-working VM's config exactly — freshly generated Shareable Links for both also failed identically, ruling out anything tied to a specific VM's identity or NIC.
Waited 15+ minutes after link generation to rule out propagation delay.
Deleted/regenerated via both REST API and Portal — same result.
Ran the built-in Bastion RDP/SSH troubleshooter end-to-end: SKU supports the feature, Resource/Service Health both healthy, no NSG issues anywhere, Network Watcher Connection Troubleshoot reports the VM fully Reachable (66/66 probes), not in a peered VNet, and RDP succeeds when initiated from another VM inside the same VNet. Troubleshooter concludes with no root cause found.

Summary: every connectivity/config check comes back clean and the VM is reachable/RDP-able through every other path. This looks like a backend issue with Shareable Link token generation/validation on this specific Bastion host, not a config problem on my end.

Has anyone seen this, or does this need a full Bastion host redeploy to reset? (Redeploying is disruptive here since it's shared infra with an existing working Shareable Link on another VM.)

Tom Terrace 0 Reputation points

2026-07-07T14:35:42.0433333+00:00

I'm also running into this as of this morning. Before the long weekend (~5PM EST 7/2) sharable links were working fine, now I'm unable to spin up a working one. I'll give the bastion redeploy a try in dev.
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Mythreya Asnala 0 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-08T12:28:36.8633333+00:00
Hello @Dan Taylor

Based on the provided information, the Shareable Link failure you’re seeing is typically addressed by checking the following common causes. Some of these may already be covered in your troubleshooting, but they’re the only documented avenues we can safely point to:

What to verify

1.Bastion must be Standard SKU

The Shareable Links feature requires the Standard SKU on the Azure Bastion host.

Where to check: Azure portal → your Azure Bastion resource → Configuration → SKU tier must be Standard If you need to change it: update Basic → Standard, then wait up to 10 minutes

2.VM + Bastion host must be in the same (or directly peered) VNet

Shareable Links require the Bastion host to be in the same VNet or in a directly peered VNet as the target VM (and peering must allow traffic flow as needed).

3.Ensure required Bastion NSG rules / ports are open

Even when “the VM is reachable” via other paths, Shareable Links can still fail if the AzureBastionSubnet NSG in the Bastion-hosting VNet doesn’t allow the required ports/protocols.

Ports called out in the docs:

TCP 443 (HTTPS)

TCP 22 (SSH)

TCP 3389 (RDP)

4.Shareable link limits and stale links

Per the docs:

Max 500 shareable links per Bastion resource

Bastion supports up to 50 requests (creates/deletes) at a time

If you’re not already doing it, it’s worth checking the Bastion resource → Shareable Links list to ensure you haven’t hit the limit.

Also, the docs note that if a link can’t be opened because the target resource was deleted, it won’t work; while your scenario isn’t that, it’s the only “link lifecycle” behavior described.

5.Permissions (IAM) for create/delete/use

If the issue is happening right when generating links, ensure the caller/identity has required IAM permissions on the Bastion host:

Microsoft.Network/bastionHosts/createShareableLinks/action

Microsoft.Network/bastionHosts/deleteShareableLinks/action

Microsoft.Network/bastionHosts/deleteShareableLinksByToken/action

and getShareableLinks/action if users need to view links

6.Use Network Watcher Connection Troubleshoot (already done, but confirm direction)

The docs recommend using Network Watcher → Connection Troubleshoot with:

Source: Azure Bastion

Destination: target VM private IP

If you have any questions and concerns, please let me know.
Mythreya Asnala 0 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-14T15:54:51.5266667+00:00

Hello @Dan Taylor
I wanted to follow up on our previous conversation and check if you had an opportunity to review the information shared. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to let me know.
Mythreya Asnala 0 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-24T06:45:19.5033333+00:00

Hi Dan Taylor,

I wanted to follow up on our previous conversation and check if you had an opportunity to review the information shared. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to let me know.

1 answer

Your answer

Tom Terrace 0 Reputation points

2026-07-07T14:35:42.0433333+00:00

I'm also running into this as of this morning. Before the long weekend (~5PM EST 7/2) sharable links were working fine, now I'm unable to spin up a working one. I'll give the bastion redeploy a try in dev.
Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.
Mythreya Asnala 0 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-14T15:54:51.5266667+00:00

Hello @Dan Taylor
I wanted to follow up on our previous conversation and check if you had an opportunity to review the information shared. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to let me know.
Mythreya Asnala 0 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-24T06:45:19.5033333+00:00

Hi Dan Taylor,

I wanted to follow up on our previous conversation and check if you had an opportunity to review the information shared. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to let me know.

Answer 1

hi Dan Taylor & thx for sharing urs issue here at Q&A portal,

Based on everything you've already tested, I don't think this is a VM or networking issue. The key observation is that an old Shareable Link created months ago still works, while every newly generated link fails for every VM on the same Bastion host. That strongly suggests the problem is in the Shareable Link generation or validation service for that Bastion resource, not with the individual VMs. I wouldn't recommend redeploying the Bastion host as the first step. It's disruptive, and there's no guarantee it will resolve what appears to be a backend issue. The fact that authenticated Bastion connections work normally further supports that the problem is isolated to the Shareable Link feature.

At this point, I'd open a Microsoft support case and include the Bastion resource ID, subscription ID, timestamps of the failed link generations, and, if available, the correlation IDs from the failed Shareable Link requests. Also mention that previously generated links remain valid while all newly generated links fail with "Requested Sharable URL is invalid or not accessible." That should help the Bastion team determine whether there's an issue with token generation or validation for your Bastion host.

rgds,

Alex

&

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