Create Azure Local VM image using image in Azure Storage account

• Make sure to review and complete the prerequisites.

• For custom images in Azure Storage account, you have the following extra prerequisites:

  • You should have a VHD loaded in your Azure Storage account. See how to Upload a VHD image in your Azure Storage account.
  • Make sure that you're uploading your VHD or VHDX as a page blob image into the Storage account. Only page blob images are supported to create VM images via the Storage account.
  • If using a VHDX:
    • The VHDX image must be Gen 2 type and secure boot enabled.
    • The VHDX image must be prepared using sysprep /generalize /shutdown /oobe. For more information, see Sysprep command-line options. This is true for both Windows and Linux VM images.

• If you're using a client to connect to your Azure Local instance, see Connect to Azure Local via Azure CLI client.

• Make sure that you have the Storage Blob Data Contributor role on the storage account that you use for the image. For more information, see Assign an Azure role for access to blob data.

• Make sure to review and complete the prerequisites.

• For custom images in Azure Storage account, you have the following extra prerequisites:

  • You should have a VHD loaded in your Azure Storage account. See how to Upload a VHD image in your Azure Storage account.
  • Make sure that you're uploading your VHD or VHDX as a page blob image into the Storage account. Only page blob images are supported to create VM images via the Storage account.
  • If using a VHDX:
    • The VHDX image must be Gen 2 type and secure boot enabled.
    • The VHDX image must be prepared using sysprep /generalize /shutdown /oobe. For more information, see Sysprep command-line options. This is true for both Windows and Linux VM images.

• Make sure that you have the Storage Blob Data Contributor role on the storage account that you use for the image. For more information, see Assign an Azure role for access to blob data.

Follow these steps to create a VM image using the Azure CLI.

Sign in and set subscription

1. Connect to a machine on your Azure Local.

2. Sign in. Type:

   az login --use-device-code
   

3. Set your subscription.

   az account set --subscription <Subscription ID>
   

Set some parameters

1. Set your subscription, resource group, location, image path, and OS type for the image. Replace the parameters in < > with your values.

$subscription = "<Subscription ID>"
$resource_group = "<Resource group>"
$location = "<Location for your Azure Local>"
$osType = "<OS of source image>"
$imageName = "<VM image name>"
$imageSourcePath = '"<Blob SAS URL path to the source image in the storage account>"'

The parameters are described in the following table:

Here's a sample output:

PS C:\Users\azcli> $subscription = "<Subscription ID>"
PS C:\Users\azcli> $resource_group = "mylocal-rg"
PS C:\Users\azcli> $location = "eastus"
PS C:\Users\azcli> $osType = "Windows"
PS C:\Users\azcli> $imageName = "mylocal-storacctimage"
PS C:\Users\azcli> $imageSourcePath = '"https://vmimagevhdsa1.blob.core.windows.net/vhdcontainer/Windows_InsiderPreview_ServerStandard_en-us_VHDX_25131.vhdx?sp=r"&"st=2022-08-05T18:41:41Z"&"se=2022-08-06T02:41:41Z"&"spr=https"&"sv=2021-06-08"&"sr=b"&"sig=X7A98cQm%2FmNRaHmTbs9b4OWVv%2F9Q%2FJkWDBHVPyAc8jo%3D"'

Add VM image from image in Azure Storage account

1. Select a custom location to deploy your VM image. The custom location should correspond to the custom location for your Azure Local. Get the custom location ID for your Azure Local. Run the following command:

   $customLocationID=(az customlocation show --resource-group $resource_group --name "<custom location name for your Azure Local>" --query id -o tsv)
   

2. Create the VM image starting with a specified image from Azure Storage account. Make sure to specify the offer, publisher, SKU, and version for the image.

   az stack-hci-vm image create --subscription $subscription --resource-group $resource_Group --custom-location $customLocationID --location $location --name $imageName --os-type $osType --image-path $imageSourcePath --storage-path-id $storagepathid
   

   A deployment job starts for the VM image.

In this example, the storage path was specified using the --storage-path-id flag. This flag ensures that the workload data (including the VM, VM image, and non-OS data disk) is placed in the specified storage path.

If the flag isn't specified, the workload data is automatically placed in a high availability storage path.

The image deployment takes a few minutes to complete. The time taken to download the image depends on the size of the image in Azure Storage account and the network bandwidth available for the download.

Here's a sample output:

PS C:\Users\azcli> az stack-hci-vm image create --subscription $subscription --resource-group $resource_Group --custom-location $customLocationID --location $location --name $imageName --os-type $osType --image-path $imageSourcePath --storage-path-id $storagepathid

{
  "extendedLocation": {
    "name": "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/mylocal-rg/providers/Microsoft.ExtendedLocation/customLocations/mylocal-cl",
    "type": "CustomLocation"
  },
  "id": "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/mylocal-rg/providers/Microsoft.AzureStackHCI/galleryimages/mylocal-storacctimage",
  "location": "eastus",
  "name": "windos",
  "properties": {
    "identifier": null,
    "imagePath": null,
    "osType": "Windows",
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "status": {
      "downloadStatus": {
        "downloadSizeInMB": 7876
      },
        "progressPercentage": 100,
      "provisioningStatus": {
        "operationId": "cdc9c9a8-03a1-4fb6-8738-7a8550c87fd1*31CE1EA001C4B3E38EE29B78ED1FD47CCCECF78B4CEA9E9A85C0BAEA5F6D80CA",
        "status": "Succeeded"
      }
    },
    "storagepathId": "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/mylocal-rg/providers/Microsoft.AzureStackHCI/storagecontainers/mylocal-storagepath",
    "version": null
  },
  "resourceGroup": "mylocal-rg",
  "systemData": {
    "createdAt": "2023-11-03T20:17:10.971662+00:00",
    "createdBy": "guspinto@contoso.com",
    "createdByType": "User",
    "lastModifiedAt": "2023-11-03T21:08:01.190475+00:00",
    "lastModifiedBy": "319f651f-7ddb-4fc6-9857-7aef9250bd05",
    "lastModifiedByType": "Application"
  },
  "tags": null,
  "type": "microsoft.azurestackhci/galleryimages"
}

Follow these steps to create a VM image using the Azure portal. In the Azure portal of your Azure Local resource, take the following steps:

1. Go to Resources > VM images.

2. Select + Add VM Image, then from the dropdown list, select Add VM image from Azure Storage Account.

   

3. In the Create an image page, on the Basics tab, enter the following information:

   1. Subscription: Select a subscription to associate with your VM image.

   2. Resource group: Create new or select an existing resource group that you associate with the VM image.

   3. Save image as: Enter a name for your VM image.

   4. Custom location: Select a custom location to deploy your VM image. The custom location should correspond to the custom location for your Azure Local.

   5. Image to download: Select a VM image from the list of images in Azure Storage account. The dropdown list shows all the images that are compatible with your Azure Local.

      1. OS type: Select the OS of the image - Windows or Linux. This OS is associated with the image in your storage account.

      2. VM generation: Select the generation of the image.

      3. Source: The source of the image should be storage blobs and is automatically populated.

      4. Storage blob: Specify the Azure Storage account path for the source image on your system.

      5. Storage path: Select the storage path for your VM image. Select Choose automatically to have a storage path with high availability automatically selected. Select Choose manually to specify a storage path to store VM images and configuration files on the Azure Local instance. In this case, ensure that the specified storage path has sufficient storage space.

4. Select Review + Create to create your VM image.

   

5. The input parameters are validated. If the validations succeed, you can review the VM image details and select Create.

   

6. An Azure Resource Manager template deployment job starts for the VM image. The image deployment takes a few minutes to complete. The time taken to download the image depends on the size of the image and the network bandwidth available for the download.

   

   You can track the image deployment on the VM image grid. You can see the list of the VM images that are already downloaded and the ones that are being downloaded on the system.

   To view more details of any image, select the VM image name from the list of VM images.

7. When the image download is complete, the VM image shows up in the list of images, and the Status shows as Available.

   

   If the download of the VM image fails, the error details are shown in the portal.