Troubleshooting

Common issues and how to resolve them.

Resource Issues

Resource shows "Deactivated"

Possible causes:

• Permissions not configured - The service principal doesn't have the required permissions on your Azure resource
• Trial expired - Your free trial has ended
• Resource deleted - The Azure resource no longer exists

How to fix:

1. Check the deactivation reason on the Resources page
2. For permission issues, click Fix next to the deactivation reason
3. For trial expiry, click Upgrade to move to a paid plan
4. Run a Health Check to verify the connection

Health check fails

Possible causes:

• Azure resource is stopped or deallocated
• Service principal permissions were revoked
• Azure subscription is disabled

How to fix:

1. Check the Azure Portal to ensure the resource exists and is running
2. Verify the service principal still has the required role assignments
3. Try switching auth methods (Platform vs BYOAR)

"Permissions not configured" error

This means the Task Ember service principal doesn't have the required Azure roles on your resource.

How to fix:

1. Go to the Azure Portal
2. Navigate to your resource
3. Open Access control (IAM)
4. Click Add role assignment
5. Assign the roles listed in the Task Ember permission dialog

Alternatively, use BYOAR (Bring Your Own App Registration) with your own service principal.

Scheduling Issues

Schedule not running

Possible causes:

• Schedule is inactive (paused)
• Target resources are deactivated
• Timezone mismatch

How to fix:

1. Check the schedule is marked as Active
2. Verify target resources are healthy
3. Confirm the timezone setting matches your expectations
4. Check activity logs for error messages

PowerShell script times out

Scripts running longer than 5 minutes may timeout in Sequential or Fast mode.

How to fix:

1. Switch to Long Running mode - this uses Azure Custom Script Extension and supports up to 4 hours
2. Optimise your script to run faster
3. Break long scripts into smaller steps in a script chain

Script output not showing in table

PowerShell output must be formatted as JSON to display in tables.

How to fix: Add | ConvertTo-Json at the end of your script:

Get-Process | Select-Object Name, CPU, WorkingSet | ConvertTo-Json

Webhook Issues

Webhook not receiving alerts

Possible causes:

• Webhook is disabled
• API key is incorrect
• APIM subscription expired
• Request signature missing, wrong, or signed with a stale timestamp (a 401)
• Request signed with the API key instead of the signing secret (a 401)
• Signing secret was rotated and the sender still uses the old one (a 401)
• The delivery id header sent differs from the one that was signed, or contains a line break (a 401)

How to fix:

1. Check the webhook is enabled (toggle in the webhook card)
2. Verify the API key matches what you're sending in the x-api-key header
3. Confirm the sending machine's clock is accurate: a x-taskember-timestamp more than 300 seconds out is rejected even when the signature is correct
4. Sign over the exact bytes you send. Re-serialising the body after signing (a pretty-printer, a proxy that reformats JSON) invalidates the signature
5. Sign with the webhook's signing secret, not the API key. If the secret was rotated, update the sender with the new one. Webhooks created before signing secrets are still signed with the API key until their owner clicks Generate signing secret
6. Sign the same delivery id you send in x-idempotency-key (or x-event-id when it is absent), or an empty one if you send neither. x-request-id is never part of the signature. Sending x-idempotency-key every time avoids a proxy-added x-event-id changing what is signed
7. Test with a simple cURL command:

TIMESTAMP=$(date +%s)
DELIVERY_ID=$(uuidgen)
BODY='{"title":"Test","severity":"info"}'
SIGNATURE=$(printf '%s\n%s\n%s' "$TIMESTAMP" "$DELIVERY_ID" "$BODY" \
  | openssl dgst -sha256 -hmac "YOUR_SIGNING_SECRET" -hex \
  | sed 's/^.* //')

curl -X POST "YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "x-idempotency-key: $DELIVERY_ID" \
  -H "x-taskember-timestamp: $TIMESTAMP" \
  -H "x-taskember-signature: sha256=$SIGNATURE" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$BODY"

Ask Ember not responding

Possible causes:

• No funds assigned to the chat
• Assigned funds exhausted

How to fix:

1. Click the Add funds button in the Ask Ember chat header
2. Assign an amount (£1 = 50,000 tokens)
3. If the assigned funds are exhausted, add more from your account balance

File Issues

Can't upload files

Possible causes:

• Storage limit reached
• File type not supported
• File too large

How to fix:

1. Check your storage usage in the toolbar
2. Upgrade your directory plan for more storage
3. Supported types: PDF, images, documents, code files
4. Maximum file size: 5 MB per file

AI search not finding content

The AI search uses vector embeddings and may take a moment to index new files.

How to fix:

1. Wait a few minutes after uploading for indexing to complete
2. Try rephrasing your question
3. Ensure the file contains searchable text (not just images)

Account Issues

Can't access a portal

Possible causes:

• Not invited to the portal
• Account removed by admin
• Session expired

How to fix:

1. Ask your administrator to send you an invitation
2. Clear your browser cookies and sign in again
3. Try a different browser or incognito mode

Role permissions insufficient

If you see "Access denied" or can't perform certain actions:

1. Check your role on the Profile page
2. Contact your portal administrator to request a role change
3. Owner and Admin configure the portal; Viewer, Billing, Client admin and Member use it, each with one extra page

Getting Help

If you can't resolve your issue:

• Use Ask Ember in the Inbox for AI-assisted troubleshooting
• Contact support at support@taskember.com
• Check the status page for known issues