While attempting to create an image of my VM, I followed the instructions specified here in the article "How to Capture an Image of a Virtual Machine Running Windows Server 2008 R2" in the Azure documentation for VMs.
I ran the sysprep as instructed and it shut down the VM. I did not end up creating an image because I found out that your current VM is deleted. I restarted the VM and tried to connect via RDP. I received the following error message:
An authentication error has occurred.
The Local Security Authority connact be contacted.
This could be due to an expired password. please update your password if it has expired.
I read that sysprep will wipe the admin password and reset it to blank. This seems to be the case as when I used the original password, it rejected it, but when I used a blank password, I got this message. This machine does not have any other accounts on it so I cannot use an alternate account to access the VM through RDP. Obviously I do not have physical access to the machine, so I can't run any of the emergency scripts or manage the configuration of the machine. I am using the RDP client from a Win 7 machine, it seems that there is a bug in which the system will not prompt you to change the password.
Is there any way I can regain access to the VM, or do I have to wipe it and start again?