Microsoft’s Azure cloud is hit with an AAD authentication issue, affecting many Microsoft services for a subset of users. After two hours, Microsoft started to roll out a fix, and as of March 16, reports that the issue has been mitigated.
An Azure Active Directory issue causing authentication problems is affecting a subset of Microsoft customers worldwide across many MIcrosoft services, including Office, Dynamics, Teams, Xbox Live and the Azure Portal. Customers began complaining around 3:15 p.m. ET on March 15 about their inability to use services that ran on top of Azure, and as of 5:15 p.m. ET, the issue was still unresolved.
Currently, a message on the Azure Status page says: “CURRENT STATUS: Engineering teams have identified a potential underlying cause and are exploring mitigation options. The next update will be provided in 60 minutes or as events warrant.”
Because the Admin Portal also runs on Azure, a number of users on Twitter were complaining they were not able to get an update on the outage.
This isn’t the first time an Azure Active Directory authentication issue resulted in outages across numerous Microsoft services. In late September 2020, Microsoft had multiple Azure AD authentication issues affecting many of its services.
Update (March 15 5:20 p.m. ET): It looks like Microsoft is rolling out a fix. From the Azure Status page: “CURRENT STATUS: Engineering teams are currently rolling out mitigation worldwide. Customers should begin seeing recovery at this time, with full mitigation expected within 60 minutes.”
Update March 15 (8:30 p.m. ET): The Azure Status page now says: “CURRENT STATUS: Engineering teams have rolled out a fix to all affected regions for Azure AD. Internal telemetry and customer reports suggests that the error rate for dependent services is rapidly decreasing. Microsoft services are in the process of recovery. Some services and offerings may have varying times of recovery following the underlying fix. The next update will be provided in 60 minutes or as events warrant.”
Update (March 16 7:15 a.m. ET): On Twitter, @AzureSupport says: “Engineers have confirmed the the issue impacting Azure Active Directory has been mitigated.”
