diff --git a/discovery/azure/azure.go b/discovery/azure/azure.go
index 4940daf1b..e7ab63a21 100644
--- a/discovery/azure/azure.go
+++ b/discovery/azure/azure.go
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/go-kit/log"
 	"github.com/go-kit/log/level"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
 	config_util "github.com/prometheus/common/config"
 	"github.com/prometheus/common/model"
 	"github.com/prometheus/common/version"
@@ -70,10 +71,17 @@ var (
 		AuthenticationMethod: authMethodOAuth,
 		HTTPClientConfig:     config_util.DefaultHTTPClientConfig,
 	}
+
+	failuresCount = prometheus.NewCounter(
+		prometheus.CounterOpts{
+			Name: "prometheus_sd_azure_failures_total",
+			Help: "Number of Azure service discovery refresh failures.",
+		})
 )
 
 func init() {
 	discovery.RegisterConfig(&SDConfig{})
+	prometheus.MustRegister(failuresCount)
 }
 
 // SDConfig is the configuration for Azure based service discovery.
@@ -279,11 +287,13 @@ func (d *Discovery) refresh(ctx context.Context) ([]*targetgroup.Group, error) {
 
 	client, err := createAzureClient(*d.cfg)
 	if err != nil {
+		failuresCount.Inc()
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "could not create Azure client")
 	}
 
 	machines, err := client.getVMs(ctx, d.cfg.ResourceGroup)
 	if err != nil {
+		failuresCount.Inc()
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "could not get virtual machines")
 	}
 
@@ -292,12 +302,14 @@ func (d *Discovery) refresh(ctx context.Context) ([]*targetgroup.Group, error) {
 	// Load the vms managed by scale sets.
 	scaleSets, err := client.getScaleSets(ctx, d.cfg.ResourceGroup)
 	if err != nil {
+		failuresCount.Inc()
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "could not get virtual machine scale sets")
 	}
 
 	for _, scaleSet := range scaleSets {
 		scaleSetVms, err := client.getScaleSetVMs(ctx, scaleSet)
 		if err != nil {
+			failuresCount.Inc()
 			return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "could not get virtual machine scale set vms")
 		}
 		machines = append(machines, scaleSetVms...)
@@ -313,8 +325,8 @@ func (d *Discovery) refresh(ctx context.Context) ([]*targetgroup.Group, error) {
 	var wg sync.WaitGroup
 	wg.Add(len(machines))
 	ch := make(chan target, len(machines))
-	for i, vm := range machines {
-		go func(i int, vm virtualMachine) {
+	for _, vm := range machines {
+		go func(vm virtualMachine) {
 			defer wg.Done()
 			r, err := newAzureResourceFromID(vm.ID, d.logger)
 			if err != nil {
@@ -346,8 +358,11 @@ func (d *Discovery) refresh(ctx context.Context) ([]*targetgroup.Group, error) {
 			for _, nicID := range vm.NetworkInterfaces {
 				networkInterface, err := client.getNetworkInterfaceByID(ctx, nicID)
 				if err != nil {
-					level.Error(d.logger).Log("msg", "Unable to get network interface", "name", nicID, "err", err)
-					ch <- target{labelSet: nil, err: err}
+					if errors.Is(err, errorNotFound) {
+						level.Warn(d.logger).Log("msg", "Network interface does not exist", "name", nicID, "err", err)
+					} else {
+						ch <- target{labelSet: nil, err: err}
+					}
 					// Get out of this routine because we cannot continue without a network interface.
 					return
 				}
@@ -387,7 +402,7 @@ func (d *Discovery) refresh(ctx context.Context) ([]*targetgroup.Group, error) {
 					}
 				}
 			}
-		}(i, vm)
+		}(vm)
 	}
 
 	wg.Wait()
@@ -396,6 +411,7 @@ func (d *Discovery) refresh(ctx context.Context) ([]*targetgroup.Group, error) {
 	var tg targetgroup.Group
 	for tgt := range ch {
 		if tgt.err != nil {
+			failuresCount.Inc()
 			return nil, errors.Wrap(tgt.err, "unable to complete Azure service discovery")
 		}
 		if tgt.labelSet != nil {
@@ -561,6 +577,11 @@ func mapFromVMScaleSetVM(vm compute.VirtualMachineScaleSetVM, scaleSetName strin
 	}
 }
 
+var errorNotFound = errors.New("network interface does not exist")
+
+// getNetworkInterfaceByID gets the network interface.
+// If a 404 is returned from the Azure API, `errorNotFound` is returned.
+// On all other errors, an autorest.DetailedError is returned.
 func (client *azureClient) getNetworkInterfaceByID(ctx context.Context, networkInterfaceID string) (*network.Interface, error) {
 	result := network.Interface{}
 	queryParameters := map[string]interface{}{
@@ -585,6 +606,9 @@ func (client *azureClient) getNetworkInterfaceByID(ctx context.Context, networkI
 
 	result, err = client.nic.GetResponder(resp)
 	if err != nil {
+		if resp.StatusCode == http.StatusNotFound {
+			return nil, errorNotFound
+		}
 		return nil, autorest.NewErrorWithError(err, "network.InterfacesClient", "Get", resp, "Failure responding to request")
 	}