Lesson Learned #322: Error: 40971- Cannot open Failover Group 'xyz.database.windows.net' requested.

Yesterday, we got a new service request where our customer faced the following error message: Cannot open Failover Group 'xyz.database.windows.net' requested by the login. The login failed with the additional information: Error Number: 40971 - Severity: 20
State: 1

This error happens when you specify a database in the connection string that is not part of the failover group (primary or secondary replica) when Azure SQL receives the request needs to resolve internally and it is not able to find the database and you got this login failed. 

In this situation, please, check the name of the database that you specified in the connectionstring or, for example, the database name specified in SSMS. 

Enjoy!