Create a VM with Iso in Azure

Question

Hello team,

I hope you're doing fine,

I'm contacting you because i have a question,

I want to create for our customer, an Alma linux VM (8vcpu,16gbRAM), normally the alma linux is an open source and free distrubution, i'm seing, that it cost a lot of money in Azure :

Compared to a red hat image for example :

I mean why Alma linux which is open source is more expensive than red hat ? It is possible because this image comes up whith some particular features or support plan ?

Also, i want to know if it is possible to create a vm in azure with an iso to avoid this price? is there a way to upload the iso into a storage account and then create the VM from that Iso? in this scenario the customer will pay only for the Size, storage and outbound of the vm

Thank you a lot

Answer 1

@Mohamed jihad bayali

While it is true that Alma Linux is free and Open Source to download there is not currently an image that is directly provided by Azure. The only images available are published on the Marketplace by third party companies such as ProComputers or Cognosys. They are able to set the price per hour for the image which is why you are seeing a larger cost compared to RHEL which is a partner with Microsoft.

Since it is free and open source one option would be to launch and prepare a VM then upload it to Azure. Since this VM is uploaded by you want be charged an additional hourly rate. There is some preperation involved in this, you can review this page for the details.
Let me know if that makes sense or you have any more question.

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