InvalidResourceLocation
ARM returns `InvalidResourceLocation` when a storage account name already exists in your subscription but in a different location than requested.
Last reviewed: February 15, 2026|Editorial standard: source-backed technical guidance
What Does Invalid Resource Location Mean?
Provisioning halts because the requested account identity conflicts with an existing resource-location binding, so the new deployment cannot proceed as submitted.
Common Causes
- -Template attempts to create a storage account name that already exists in the same subscription and resource group but with another location.
- -Environment defaults inject a different
locationthan the original storage account location. - -Multi-stage templates reuse a fixed account name across regions without uniqueness strategy.
- -Migration scripts copy account names between regions instead of generating region-aware names.
How to Fix Invalid Resource Location
- 1Check whether the storage account name already exists and note its current location.
- 2If reusing the same account, deploy using its existing location rather than a new region.
- 3If a new region is required, choose a different unique storage account name.
- 4Update naming/location generation logic in templates before redeploying.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis for Invalid Resource Location
- 1Capture full ARM error payload showing existing resource name, current location, and requested location.
- 2Query storage account inventory in the subscription to confirm existing location binding.
- 3Trace template parameter sources for location overrides or stale environment defaults.
- 4Re-run deployment with corrected name/location pairing and verify no collision remains.
Name Collision and Location Binding Analysis
- -Validate whether name conflict is intra-subscription relocation attempt (example:
mystorageprodalready inwestuswhile deployment requestseastus). - -Inspect resource-group scoped create logic (example: same account name reused with new location in identical group).
Template Naming Strategy and Region Inputs
- -Audit name generator for global uniqueness and regional suffixing (example: name template omits region token so all regions collide).
- -Verify environment-specific location inputs at pipeline runtime (example: prod-east release still resolves
westusfrom shared variable group).
How to Verify the Fix
- -Redeploy with corrected name/location and confirm
InvalidResourceLocationis no longer returned. - -Validate storage account exists in intended region with expected naming convention.
- -Confirm follow-on resources referencing the account succeed in the same region context.
How to Prevent Recurrence
- -Adopt deterministic naming rules that include environment and region uniqueness tokens.
- -Treat storage account location as immutable metadata once an account name is allocated.
- -Add preflight checks that fail deployment when name/location conflicts are detected.
Pro Tip
- -reserve storage account names per region in a central registry so pipelines cannot accidentally request a conflicting location for an existing name.
Decision Support
Compare Guide
409 Conflict vs 412 Precondition Failed: When to Use Each
Choose 412 when If-Match or If-Unmodified-Since checks fail; choose 409 for state conflicts without failed precondition headers during concurrent updates.
Playbook
Conflict and Concurrency Playbook (409 / 412 / OptimisticLock)
Use this playbook to separate true write conflicts from stale precondition failures, then apply safe re-fetch, optimistic-lock, and retry choices.
Official References
Provider Context
This guidance is specific to Azure services. Always validate implementation details against official provider documentation before deploying to production.