Prepare an Ubuntu virtual machine for Azure

Article
02/16/2023
5 minutes to read

Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets

Ubuntu now publishes official Azure VHDs for download at https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/. If you need to build your own specialized Ubuntu image for Azure, rather than use the manual procedure below it's recommended to start with these known working VHDs and customize as needed. The latest image releases can always be found at the following locations:

Ubuntu 18.04/Bionic: bionic-server-cloudimg-amd64-azure.vhd.zip
Ubuntu 20.04/Focal: focal-server-cloudimg-amd64-azure.vhd.zip

Prerequisites

This article assumes that you've already installed an Ubuntu Linux operating system to a virtual hard disk. Multiple tools exist to create .vhd files, for example a virtualization solution such as Hyper-V. For instructions, see Install the Hyper-V Role and Configure a Virtual Machine.

Ubuntu installation notes

Please see also General Linux Installation Notes for more tips on preparing Linux for Azure.
The VHDX format isn't supported in Azure, only fixed VHD. You can convert the disk to VHD format using Hyper-V Manager or the Convert-VHD cmdlet.
When installing the Linux system it's recommended that you use standard partitions rather than LVM (often the default for many installations). This will avoid LVM name conflicts with cloned VMs, particularly if an OS disk ever needs to be attached to another VM for troubleshooting. LVM or RAID may be used on data disks if preferred.
Don't configure a swap partition or swapfile on the OS disk. The cloud-init provisioning agent can be configured to create a swap file or a swap partition on the temporary resource disk. More information about this can be found in the steps below.
All VHDs on Azure must have a virtual size aligned to 1MB. When converting from a raw disk to VHD you must ensure that the raw disk size is a multiple of 1MB before conversion. See Linux Installation Notes for more information.

Manual steps

Note

Before attempting to create your own custom Ubuntu image for Azure, please consider using the pre-built and tested images from https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/ instead.

In the center pane of Hyper-V Manager, select the virtual machine.
Click Connect to open the window for the virtual machine.

Replace the current repositories in the image to use Ubuntu's Azure repository.

Before editing /etc/apt/sources.list, it's recommended to make a backup:

 sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04:

 sudo sed -i 's/http:\/\/archive\.ubuntu\.com\/ubuntu\//http:\/\/azure\.archive\.ubuntu\.com\/ubuntu\//g' /etc/apt/sources.list
 sudo sed -i 's/http:\/\/[a-z][a-z]\.archive\.ubuntu\.com\/ubuntu\//http:\/\/azure\.archive\.ubuntu\.com\/ubuntu\//g' /etc/apt/sources.list
 sudo apt-get update

The Ubuntu Azure images are now using the Azure-tailored kernel. Update the operating system to the latest Azure-tailored kernel and install Azure Linux tools (including Hyper-V dependencies) by running the following commands:

Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04:
```
 sudo apt update
 sudo apt install linux-azure linux-image-azure linux-headers-azure linux-tools-common linux-cloud-tools-common linux-tools-azure linux-cloud-tools-azure
(recommended) # sudo apt full-upgrade

 sudo reboot
```
Modify the kernel boot line for Grub to include additional kernel parameters for Azure. To do this open /etc/default/grub in a text editor, find the variable called GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT (or add it if needed) and edit it to include the following parameters:
```
 GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=tty1 console=ttyS0,115200n8 earlyprintk=ttyS0,115200 rootdelay=300 quiet splash"
```
Save and close this file, and then run sudo update-grub. This will ensure all console messages are sent to the first serial port, which can assist Azure technical support with debugging issues.
Ensure that the SSH server is installed and configured to start at boot time. This is usually the default.
Install cloud-init (the provisioning agent) and the Azure Linux Agent (the guest extensions handler). Cloud-init uses netplan to configure the system network configuration (during provisioning and each subsequent boot) and gdisk to partition resource disks.
```
 sudo apt update
 sudo apt install cloud-init gdisk netplan.io walinuxagent && systemctl stop walinuxagent
```
Note

The walinuxagent package may remove the NetworkManager and NetworkManager-gnome packages, if they are installed.

Remove cloud-init default configs and leftover netplan artifacts that may conflict with cloud-init provisioning on Azure:

 rm -f /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/50-curtin-networking.cfg /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/curtin-preserve-sources.cfg /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-installer.cfg /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/subiquity-disable-cloudinit-networking.cfg
 rm -f /etc/cloud/ds-identify.cfg
 rm -f /etc/netplan/*.yaml

Configure cloud-init to provision the system using the Azure datasource:

 cat > /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/90_dpkg.cfg << EOF
 datasource_list: [ Azure ]
EOF

 cat > /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/90-azure.cfg << EOF
system_info:
   package_mirrors:
     - arches: [i386, amd64]
       failsafe:
         primary: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
         security: http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
       search:
         primary:
           - http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
         security: []
     - arches: [armhf, armel, default]
       failsafe:
         primary: http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports
         security: http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports
EOF

 cat > /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/10-azure-kvp.cfg << EOF
reporting:
  logging:
    type: log
  telemetry:
    type: hyperv
EOF

Configure the Azure Linux agent to rely on cloud-init to perform provisioning. Have a look at the WALinuxAgent project for more information on these options.

sed -i 's/Provisioning.Enabled=y/Provisioning.Enabled=n/g' /etc/waagent.conf
sed -i 's/Provisioning.UseCloudInit=n/Provisioning.UseCloudInit=y/g' /etc/waagent.conf
sed -i 's/ResourceDisk.Format=y/ResourceDisk.Format=n/g' /etc/waagent.conf
sed -i 's/ResourceDisk.EnableSwap=y/ResourceDisk.EnableSwap=n/g' /etc/waagent.conf

cat >> /etc/waagent.conf << EOF
# For Azure Linux agent version >= 2.2.45, this is the option to configure,
# enable, or disable the provisioning behavior of the Linux agent.
# Accepted values are auto (default), waagent, cloud-init, or disabled.
# A value of auto means that the agent will rely on cloud-init to handle
# provisioning if it is installed and enabled, which in this case it will.
Provisioning.Agent=auto
EOF

Clean cloud-init and Azure Linux agent runtime artifacts and logs:

 sudo cloud-init clean --logs --seed
 sudo rm -rf /var/lib/cloud/
 sudo systemctl stop walinuxagent.service
 sudo rm -rf /var/lib/waagent/
 sudo rm -f /var/log/waagent.log

Run the following commands to deprovision the virtual machine and prepare it for provisioning on Azure:

Note

The sudo waagent -force -deprovision+user command generalizes the image by attempting to clean the system and make it suitable for re-provisioning. The +user option deletes the last provisioned user account and associated data.

Warning

Deprovisioning using the command above does not guarantee that the image is cleared of all sensitive information and is suitable for redistribution.
```
 sudo waagent -force -deprovision+user
 rm -f ~/.bash_history
 export HISTSIZE=0
 logout
```
Click Action -> Shut Down in Hyper-V Manager.
Azure only accepts fixed-size VHDs. If the VM's OS disk isn't a fixed-size VHD, use the Convert-VHD PowerShell cmdlet and specify the -VHDType Fixed option. Please have a look at the docs for Convert-VHD here: Convert-VHD.
To bring a Generation 2 VM on Azure, follow these steps:
1. Change directory to the boot EFI directory:
```
 cd /boot/efi/EFI
```
2. Copy the ubuntu directory to a new directory named boot:
```
 sudo cp -r ubuntu/ boot
```
3. Change directory to the newly created boot directory:
```
 cd boot
```
4. Rename the shimx64.efi file:
```
 sudo mv shimx64.efi bootx64.efi
```
5. Rename the grub.cfg file to bootx64.cfg:
```
 sudo mv grub.cfg bootx64.cfg 
```

Next steps

You're now ready to use your Ubuntu Linux virtual hard disk to create new virtual machines in Azure. If this is the first time that you're uploading the .vhd file to Azure, see Create a Linux VM from a custom disk.

Prepare an Ubuntu virtual machine for Azure

Prerequisites

Manual steps

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources

Additional resources