Cannot delete Service bus in Azure as it contains an issue

Question

Cannot delete Service bus in Azure as it contains an issue

David Cuervo 25

Migration config cannot be deleted because replication is in progress. Please complete or abort migration before attempting to delete the config.

Answer accepted by question author

1 additional answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Anurag Rohikar 2,790 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Thanks for reaching out on Microsoft Q&A and really appreciate your patience while we looked into this.

Also, a big thanks to Suwarna S Kale for already sharing the correct direction. The issue is indeed due to an active Service Bus migration replication process, which places a protective lock on the namespace and prevents its deletion. To resolve this, you must first abort or complete the migration. Once the migration is terminated, the lock will be removed, allowing you to proceed with deleting the namespace.

Solution Steps:

OPTION 1: Using the Azure Portal

Navigate to your Service Bus namespace in the Azure portal.
In the left-hand menu, under Settings, select Migrate.
On the migration page, you will see the status of the replication. If it is active, you will have an option to Abort Migration. Click this to terminate the process.
Once the migration is aborted, you can proceed to delete the namespace.

OPTION 2: You can do this either in the Azure portal or with the Azure CLI:

# Check migration status
az servicebus migration show -g <resource-group> -n <namespace>
# Abort migration
az servicebus migration abort -g <resource-group> -n <namespace>
# Or complete migration if you intend to finalize it
az servicebus migration complete -g <resource-group> -n <namespace>
# Delete migration config (if needed)
az servicebus migration delete -g <resource-group> -n <namespace>
# Finally, delete the namespace
az servicebus namespace delete -g <resource-group> -n <namespace>

In some cases, if there’s a geo-DR pairing, you may also need to break it manually before deletion:

az servicebus georecovery-alias break-pair -g <resource-group> --namespace-name <namespace> --alias <alias>

References:

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you still have any questions. Thank you!

David Cuervo 25 Reputation points

2025-08-29T17:08:36.3133333+00:00

Hi, thaks for the answer.

I tried to execute the commands you suggested, however, I am getting this error on the image, I tried several other meanings but still no luck. Also tried from portal as you suggested however, there is no option for me to abort it.
Anurag Rohikar 2,790 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-01T12:44:13.2833333+00:00
Hi David Cuervo, thanks for getting back and for sharing the error details and screenshots super helpful!

You’ve correctly followed those steps, but based on the error message you shared, the migration is stuck in the CreatePairing state, which blocks both abort and delete operations.

When Service Bus migration gets stuck like this, the next step is to break the pairing manually (since it’s internally treated as a geo-recovery/alias pairing). You can do this with the following CLI command:

az servicebus georecovery-alias break-pair \ --resource-group <resource-group> \ --namespace-name <namespace> \ --alias <alias-name>

<alias-name> will be the alias shown in your error (for example: flyguys-sb-dev-eus).

Once the pairing is broken, retry the migration abort or delete operation.

If the namespace is still locked after breaking pairing, you may need to open a support request so the backend team can reset the migration state.

References:

Migrate Azure Service Bus from Standard to Premium

Geo-disaster recovery and aliasing for Service Bus

Azure CLI – Service Bus Geo-recovery alias

Hope this helps unblock you. Let us know if you have further questions. Thank You!
Anurag Rohikar 2,790 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-02T13:59:44.4366667+00:00

Hi, 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!
David Cuervo 25 Reputation points

2025-09-02T14:08:50.71+00:00

Hi Anurag, sorry we were out for US holidays, however, the last command you sent I already tested it before, and it did not work. However all this conversation was really helpful to understand in deep how this resource works. I'll mark your first answer as the answer for this ticket and create a ticket support for Microsoft. Thanks!
David Cuervo 25 Reputation points

2025-09-12T15:10:35.7633333+00:00

Hi @Anurag Rohikar after sometime talking with Azure assitance on tickets, they mentioned we have to make an Azure engineer speak and help here since the ticket needs that. Is there a way to call for assistance or speak with an Azure back-end Engineer?
Anurag Rohikar 2,790 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-12T16:04:47.6733333+00:00

Hello David Cuervo, let me check please share your support ticket number through Personal message. Thank you!
David Cuervo 25 Reputation points

2025-09-12T17:30:24.01+00:00

Hi Anurag, thanks I sent it to you.

Answer 2

Hello David Cuervo,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

The error indicates you cannot delete the Azure Service Bus namespace because an active migration replication process is still underway, which places a protective lock on the resource to prevent data loss or corruption during transfer.

To resolve this, you must first navigate to the migration configuration within your Service Bus namespace in the Azure portal and explicitly abort the ongoing migration operation. Once the migration has been successfully terminated, the replication lock will be removed, allowing you to proceed with deleting the migration configuration itself. Only after these intermediary steps are completed will the namespace be released from its operational state, enabling you to perform the final deletion.

This process ensures data integrity is maintained by preventing accidental deletion during critical operations. If the abort action fails or the issue persists, contacting Azure support may be necessary to investigate potential backend state inconsistencies.

Please, let me know the response helps answer your question? If the above answer helped, please do not forget to "Accept Answer" as this may help other community members to refer the info if facing a similar issue. 🙂

Share via

Cannot delete Service bus in Azure as it contains an issue

1 additional answer

Your answer