I cannot delete the snapshots from my Azure ML-linked fileshare because it says I am under lease, but there is no lease on that fileshare?

Question

I cannot delete the snapshots from my Azure ML-linked fileshare because it says I am under lease, but there is no lease on that fileshare?

Anjali Tangirala 0

I deleted a substantial amount of storage from my fileshare, as well as deleted other fileshares entirely, due to cost reasons, but now I am unable to delete the snapshots taken by Azure Backup because they say it is under lease, but I see no Lease when querying with the Azure CLI. Additionally, I believe they are contributing to the increase in storage, and therefore the resource used.

Anjali Tangirala 0 Reputation points

2025-03-05T21:20:14.27+00:00

Helloo!!!!!
Syed Aaqid Ali 585 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Volunteer Moderator

2025-03-12T18:50:10.53+00:00
Hello Anjali Tangirala,

If you are unable to delete snapshots from your Azure file share due to a lease, but you do not see any active leases when querying with Azure CLI, it may be due to the way Azure Backup manages leases on snapshots. Azure Backup can apply leases to snapshots, which might not be visible through standard queries.

To resolve this issue, you can try breaking the lease on the snapshots. If the lease is not visible, it may be necessary to check if there are any resource locks on the storage account that could be preventing deletion. Resource locks can be applied by services like Azure Backup, and they may need to be removed before you can delete the snapshots.

Additionally, ensure that you are using the correct commands and have the necessary permissions to manage leases and snapshots.

Because resource locks and leases might interfere with intended administrator operations on your storage account/Azure file shares, you might wish to remove any resource locks/leases that have been put on your resources manually or automatically by value-added services such as Azure Backup. The following script removes all resource locks and leases. Remember to replace <resource-group> and <storage-account> with the appropriate values for your environment.

Before running the following script, you should install the latest version of the Azure Storage PowerShell module.

# Parameters for storage account resource $resourceGroupName = "<resource-group>" $storageAccountName = "<storage-account>" # Get reference to storage account $storageAccount = Get-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $storageAccountName # Remove resource locks Get-AzResourceLock -ResourceType "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts" -ResourceGroupName $storageAccount.ResourceGroupName -ResourceName $storageAccount.StorageAccountName | Remove-AzResourceLock -Force | Out-Null # Remove share and share snapshot leases Get-AzStorageShare -Context $storageAccount.Context | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq $fileShareName } | ForEach-Object { try { $leaseClient = [Azure.Storage.Files.Shares.Specialized.ShareLeaseClient]::new($_.ShareClient) $leaseClient.Break() | Out-Null } catch { } }

For more information kindly check File locks and leases.

Please do not forget to “up-vote” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.

If you have any other questions or are still running into more issues, let me know in the "comments" and I would be happy to help you.

2 answers

Your answer

Anjali Tangirala 0 Reputation points

2025-03-05T21:20:14.27+00:00

Helloo!!!!!

Answer 1

@Syed Aaqid Ali almost had the correct solution for me, the powershell script just needed to define one additional variable for the filesharename, here's the corrected script:

# Parameters for storage account resource
$resourceGroupName = "<resource-group>"
$storageAccountName = "<storage-account>"
$fileShareName = "<file-share-name>"

# Get reference to storage account
$storageAccount = Get-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $storageAccountName

# Remove resource locks
Get-AzResourceLock -ResourceType "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts" -ResourceGroupName $storageAccount.ResourceGroupName -ResourceName $storageAccount.StorageAccountName | Remove-AzResourceLock -Force | Out-Null
# Remove share and share snapshot leases
Get-AzStorageShare -Context $storageAccount.Context | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq $fileShareName } | ForEach-Object {
        try {
            $leaseClient = [Azure.Storage.Files.Shares.Specialized.ShareLeaseClient]::new($_.ShareClient)
            $leaseClient.Break() | Out-Null
        } catch { }
    }

Answer 2

Hi @Anjali Tangirala

According to this MS-Document

We recommend you perform the stop protection with delete data operation on the backed-up file share. After this operation, Azure Backup will release the lease and delete all snapshots. Then you can delete the file share.

You can use this Azure CLI command it will show the lease status of all shares including snaphots.

 az storage share list --account-name xxxx --include-snapshots --query "[?lease.state=='leased'].[name, snapshot]" --output table

Output:

Column1    Column2
---------  ----------------------------
share1     2025-02-14T20:31:45.0000000Z
share1     2025-02-15T20:31:41.0000000Z
share1     2025-02-16T20:31:48.0000000Z
share1     2025-02-17T20:30:42.0000000Z
share1     2025-02-18T20:31:50.0000000Z
share1     2025-02-19T20:31:03.0000000Z

enter image description here

To delete the snapshots with azure file share you can use the below command:

Command:

az storage share delete --name xxx --account-name xxx --delete-snapshots include-leased

Output:

{
  "deleted": true
}

enter image description here

The above command will delete the file share with lease snapshots.

Reference:

Lease File (FileREST API) - Azure Files | Microsoft Learn

The above link is useful to do with Azure REST API.

Hope this answer helps! please let us know if you have any further queries. I’m happy to assist you further.

Please do not forget to "Accept the answer” and “up-vote” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.

Syed Aaqid Ali 585 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Volunteer Moderator

2025-03-17T18:48:04.6466667+00:00

Hello Anjali Tangirala,

Checking to see whether you have resolved the issue with the solution provided above, or if you need any further assistance, please let us know
Syed Aaqid Ali 585 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Volunteer Moderator

2025-03-18T19:08:18.17+00:00

Hi Anjali Tangirala,

I wanted to follow up and see if the solution proposed helped (pointed you in the right direction) > please do not forget to “up-vote/Accept Answer”. which might be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. And, if you have any further queries do let us know.