Create a managed image of a

generalized VM in Azure
A managed image resource can be created from a generalized virtual machine (VM) that
is stored as either a managed disk or an unmanaged disk in a storage account. The
image can then be used to create multiple VMs. For information on how managed
images are billed, see Managed Disks pricing.

One managed image supports up to 20 simultaneous deployments. Attempting to create

more than 20 VMs concurrently, from the same managed image, may result in
provisioning timeouts due to the storage performance limitations of a single VHD. To
create more than 20 VMs concurrently, use a Shared Image Galleries image configured
with 1 replica for every 20 concurrent VM deployments.

Generalize the Windows VM using Sysprep

Sysprep removes all your personal account and security information, and then prepares
the machine to be used as an image. For information about Sysprep, see Sysprep
overview.

Make sure the server roles running on the machine are supported by Sysprep. For more
information, see Sysprep support for server roles and Unsupported scenarios.

Important

After you have run Sysprep on a VM, that VM is considered generalized and cannot be
restarted. The process of generalizing a VM is not reversible. If you need to keep the
original VM functioning, you should create a copy of the VM and generalize its copy.

Sysprep requires the drives to be fully decrypted. If you have enabled encryption on your
VM, disable encryption before you run Sysprep.

If you plan to run Sysprep before uploading your virtual hard disk (VHD) to Azure for the
first time, make sure you have prepared your VM.

To generalize your Windows VM, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Windows VM.

2. Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator.

3. Delete the panther directory (C:\Windows\Panther). Then change the directory to

%windir%\system32\sysprep, and then run sysprep.exe.

4. In the System Preparation Tool dialog box, select Enter System Out-of-Box
Experience (OOBE) and select the Generalize check box.

5. For Shutdown Options, select Shutdown.

 6. Select OK.

7. When Sysprep completes, it shuts down the VM. Do not restart the VM.

Create a managed image in the portal

1. Go to the Azure portal to manage the VM image. Search for and select Virtual
machines.

2. Select your VM from the list.

3. In the Virtual machine page for the VM, on the upper menu, select Capture.

The Create image page appears.

4. For Name, either accept the pre-populated name or enter a name that you would
like to use for the image.

5. For Resource group, either select Create new and enter a name, or select a
resource group to use from the drop-down list.

6. If you want to delete the source VM after the image has been created,
select Automatically delete this virtual machine after creating the image.

7. If you want the ability to use the image in any availability zone, select On for Zone
resiliency.

8. Select Create to create the image.

After the image is created, you can find it as an Image resource in the list of resources
in the resource group.
Create an image of a VM using PowerShell

Creating an image directly from the VM ensures that the image includes all of the disks
associated with the VM, including the OS disk and any data disks. This example shows
how to create a managed image from a VM that uses managed disks.

Before you begin, make sure that you have the latest version of the Azure PowerShell
module. To find the version, run Get-Module -ListAvailable Az in PowerShell. If you need
to upgrade, see Install Azure PowerShell on Windows with PowerShellGet. If you are
running PowerShell locally, run Connect-AzAccount to create a connection with Azure.

Note

If you would like to store your image in zone-redundant storage, you need to create it in
a region that supports availability zones and include the -ZoneResilient parameter in
the image configuration (New-AzImageConfig command).

To create a VM image, follow these steps:

1. Create some variables.

$vmName = "myVM"
$rgName = "myResourceGroup"
$location = "EastUS"
$imageName = "myImage"

2. Make sure the VM has been deallocated.

Stop-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Name $vmName -Force

3. Set the status of the virtual machine to Generalized.

Set-AzVm -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Name $vmName -Generalized

4. Get the virtual machine.

$vm = Get-AzVM -Name $vmName -ResourceGroupName $rgName

5. Create the image configuration.

$image = New-AzImageConfig -Location $location -SourceVirtualMachineId $vm.Id

6. Create the image.

New-AzImage -Image $image -ImageName $imageName -ResourceGroupName $rgName

Create an image from a managed disk using PowerShell

If you want to create an image of only the OS disk, specify the managed disk ID as the
OS disk:

1. Create some variables.

 $vmName = "myVM"
$rgName = "myResourceGroup"
$location = "EastUS"
$imageName = "myImage"

2. Get the VM.

$vm = Get-AzVm -Name $vmName -ResourceGroupName $rgName

3. Get the ID of the managed disk.

$diskID = $vm.StorageProfile.OsDisk.ManagedDisk.Id

4. Create the image configuration.

$imageConfig = New-AzImageConfig -Location $location

$imageConfig = Set-AzImageOsDisk -Image $imageConfig -OsState Generalized -OsType
Windows -ManagedDiskId $diskID

5. Create the image.

New-AzImage -ImageName $imageName -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Image $imageConfig

Create an image from a snapshot using PowerShell

You can create a managed image from a snapshot of a generalized VM by following

these steps:

1. Create some variables.

$rgName = "myResourceGroup"
$location = "EastUS"
$snapshotName = "mySnapshot"
$imageName = "myImage"

2. Get the snapshot.

$snapshot = Get-AzSnapshot -ResourceGroupName $rgName -SnapshotName $snapshotName

3. Create the image configuration.

$imageConfig = New-AzImageConfig -Location $location

$imageConfig = Set-AzImageOsDisk -Image $imageConfig -OsState Generalized -OsType
Windows -SnapshotId $snapshot.Id

4. Create the image.

New-AzImage -ImageName $imageName -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Image $imageConfig

Create an image from a VM that uses a storage account

To create a managed image from a VM that doesn't use managed disks, you need the
URI of the OS VHD in the storage account, in the following format:
https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/vhdcontainer/vhdfilename.vhd. In this
example, the VHD is in mystorageaccount, in a container named vhdcontainer, and the
VHD filename is vhdfilename.vhd.

1. Create some variables.

$vmName = "myVM"
$rgName = "myResourceGroup"
$location = "EastUS"
$imageName = "myImage"
$osVhdUri =
"https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/vhdcontainer/vhdfilename.vhd"

2. Stop/deallocate the VM.

Stop-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Name $vmName -Force

3. Mark the VM as generalized.

Set-AzVm -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Name $vmName -Generalized

4. Create the image by using your generalized OS VHD.

$imageConfig = New-AzImageConfig -Location $location

$imageConfig = Set-AzImageOsDisk -Image $imageConfig -OsType Windows -OsState
Generalized -BlobUri $osVhdUri
$image = New-AzImage -ImageName $imageName -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Image
$imageConfig

New-AzVm `

-ResourceGroupName $rgName `

-Name "myVM" `

-Image $image.Id `

-Location $location `

-VirtualNetworkName "myVnet" `

-SubnetName "mySubnet" `

-SecurityGroupName "myNSG" `

-PublicIpAddressName "myPIP" `

-OpenPorts 3389