Azure Automation: Onboarding DSC Node: “vmname, The entity was not found.”

Question

I'm trying to onboard a VM to Azure Automation DSC using the Register-AzureRmAutomationDSCNode cmdlet as recommended here for non-classic vm's. The DSC nodeconfiguration has been both imported and compiled in Azure Automation.

Here is my code:

$AutomationAccountName = "PersistentAutomationAccount"
$VMName = "VM1" 
$AutomationResourceGroup = "PersistantResources" 
$VMResourceGroup = "AutomatingAutomation2"
$NodeConfigurationName = "HelloWorldDSC.localhost"
Register-AzureRmAutomationDscNode -AutomationAccountName $AutomationAccountName -AzureVMName $VMName -ResourceGroupName $AutomationResourceGroup -AzureVMResourceGroup $VMResourceGroup -NodeConfigurationName $NodeConfigurationName

But I'm getting the following error which I can't find an explanation for:

New-AzureRmResourceGroupDeployment : 10:56:57 AM - Resource 

Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions 'VM1/Microsoft.Powershell.DSC' failed with message '{
  "error": {
    "code": "NotFound",
    "target": "vmName",
    "message": "The entity was not found."
  }
}'

The VM name is correct, it exists, the resourcesgroup names are correct, so what is not being found? I thought maybe the VM needed an extension preinstalled, but according to an Azure rep it's Automation's job to install the dsc agent/extension once the node is onboarded.

Answer 1

Is your VM in a different region from your automation account? If so, have you tried adding the AzureVMLocation variable and including the VM region?