Microsoft Azure Websites : Error 404

Question

With the release of Microsoft's new Azure Cloud Platform, I have migrated many of my sites over and participated in the Partner program. Unknowingly, when I joined it converted my account with a spending limit. Apart from the lack of notifications Microsoft sends as your spending limit nears (a different issue) - once the spending limit triggers all your sites will become de-active, triggering the classic Error 404: Site Not Found.

Despite immediately removing the spending limit - the sites all still show Error 404: Site Down.

Answer 1

After painfully waiting over 24 hours with no resolution from Microsoft, I began looking through the configuration for anything that looked out of place. Microsoft recommends restarting and redeploying your website - but that resolves nothing.

The answer was to check the "WEB HOSTING PLAN MODE". Microsoft reverts that to Free when the spending limit is triggered. If you are using a SSL certificate or any other feature requiring "Basic or Standard" - the non-descriptive and incorrect error of Website Not Found will be displayed.

Hope this helps someone that falls into a process flow dead-end.