Principal ***** does not exist in the directory ****

[Swabhiman_Das]

It’s been observed that Users while configuring any management service feature like Vulnerability Assessment , Auditing , Threat protection etc. for their Azure SQL DB/Server seldom fails with an error message { “:\”PrinicipalNotFound\”,\”message\”:\”Principal ***** does not exist in the directory ****. \”}  with HTTPS status code 400 (bad request)

This error states , There is no Azure AD Identity assigned  for your Azure SQL Server . To solve the problem you may need to create an Azure AD  identity and assign the identity to the Azure SQL logical server with below steps.

• Open a new cloud shell window  from the top right side of  azure portal or you may use PowerShell to connect with your Azure subscription.

  

• Paste the below PowerShell code and execute it ,  it will create a function(Assign-AzSQLidentity)  for the current PowerShell session.

  Function Assign-AzSQLidentity
  {
  Param
    (
      [parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$ResourceGroup,
      [parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$ServerName
      )
  "Checking if server identity exists..."
  if(Get-AzADServicePrincipal -DisplayName $ServerName)
      {
  "Server identity already exists"
  Get-AzADServicePrincipal -DisplayName $ServerName
      }
  else {
  "Server identify for server " + $ServerName + " does not exist"
  "Assigning identity to server " + $ServerName
  Set-AzSqlServer -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup -ServerName $ServerName -AssignIdentity
      }
    
         }

• Use the function and execute it on Command Window , you need to Provide the parameters Resource Group and SQL Server name when prompts.

  Assign-AzSQLidentity

• Once the Identity is assigned , Please retry the management operation (Setting Auditing /VA etc..) , it should work now.

   I hope this helps , Please let me know if you have any feedback or queries on it on the comment section .

  Thank you @Yochanan Rachamim for guidance.

[SreejithNair]

Good Job!