I cannot start my VM. Created an image to clone from but now cannot start the source VM

William Bertolotti 0 Reputation points
2023-03-06T13:30:32.49+00:00

I have a VM that was running fine. I wanted to clone to a 2nd VM. I created an image and tried to create the 2nd VM but that failed to deploy. I removed the 2nd VM and created manually. When I tried to start up both VMs, the new one started but the original VM failed saying it is generalized and a Start VM command wont work. All my applications and setups are on that VM and I need to recover it and be able to start it

Azure Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Machines
An Azure service that is used to provision Windows and Linux virtual machines.
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Azure VMware Solution
Azure VMware Solution
An Azure service that runs native VMware workloads on Azure.
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  1. Jackson Martins 6,401 Reputation points
    2023-03-06T13:35:17.14+00:00

    Hi!

    When you generalize a VM, you can no longer use it, only copies from it.

    User's image

    Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/generalize#windows

    1 person found this answer helpful.
  2. kobulloc-MSFT 13,756 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2023-03-10T03:19:11.0133333+00:00

    Hello, @William Bertolotti !

    How do I clone a VM?

    You can make a generalized copy of a VM however generalizing a VM will remove machine specific information such as personal account and security information as mentioned by @Jackson Martins .

    Snapshots (as used in disaster recovery) create a full, read-only copy of a virtual hard disk (VHD) which you can use as a point in time backup (or a clone) of your VM. You create a snapshot, then create a managed disk from the snapshot.

    Luis Beltran has posted a great blog that covers the process with step-by-step screenshots:

    https://dev.to/icebeam7/cloning-azure-vms-1889

    I hope this helps!