Symptoms
When you enable backup for Microsoft Azure virtual machines (VMs) by using a version of Microsoft Azure PowerShell that's earlier than 1.5.1, you receive an error message that resembles the following:
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Enable-AzureRmRecoveryServicesBackupProtection -Policy $policy -Name BackupItemName -ResourceGroupName ResourceGroupName
Enable-AzureRmRecoveryServicesBackupProtection:
BMSUserErrorInvalidConfigureProtectionRequest: Input for configure protection is not in proper format
Please ensure that container exists and other parameters are in valid format
Cause
This issue occurs because the cmdlets for the Microsoft Azure Recovery services vault have been updated for an important security fix, and this update triggers the error in pre-1.5.1 versions of Azure PowerShell.
Workaround
To work around this issue, download and install the latest version of Azure PowerShell. To do this, go to Azure Downloads > Command-line tools > PowerShell > Windows install.
When you do this, you'll see the following download page:
