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Power Automate
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How to detect if a Power Automate Desktop Unattended flow is running on an Azure VM?

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Posted on by razec18 123

Hi everyone,

 

I’m trying to optimize costs on Azure by automatically shutting down virtual machines when they’re idle — specifically, when no Unattended Power Automate Desktop (PAD) flows are running.

 

Here’s my setup:

 

  •  

    VMs run PAD Unattended flows triggered remotely (via cloud flows or scheduled triggers).


  •  

    I want to automatically detect when a VM is idle, meaning no PAD activity is currently taking place.


  •  

    Then I’ll safely shut it down using an Azure Automation Runbook or Logic App with a RunCommand action.



    •  
 

My questions are:

 

  1.  

    Which exact process(es) or service(s) are responsible for running a PAD Unattended flow? For example, I’ve seen PAD.Console.Host.exe — is this the most reliable one to check?


  2.  

    Is there any built-in mechanism or API that Power Automate or Dataverse provides to indicate the execution status of Unattended flows?


  3.  

    Has anyone implemented a similar “VM idle detection for Power Automate flows” logic? If so, what worked best for you?


  4.  

    Are there better patterns or monitoring strategies to identify Unattended flow activity from outside the Power Platform (e.g., Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, etc)?



    5.  
 

Thanks in advance! Any advice or shared experience is greatly appreciated.

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I have the same question (0)
  • Suggested answer
    Nived_Nambiar Profile Picture
    Nived_Nambiar 18,136 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
     
    For your first query - i think yes PAD.Console.Host.exe runs in unattended sessions
     
    for the second query - 
    i think flow session table in dataverse can help to get details of each flow runs - refer that https://poszytek.eu/en/microsoft-en/office-365-en/rpa-en/get-power-automate-desktop-runs-details/ to build a logic around this.
     
     

    Thanks & Regards,
    Nived N

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