Management of Azure stack HCI through Windows admin center

Question

1. Why on Azure stack HCI, vm creation is tightly coupled with Generation-2 for local VM images through Azure portal ? We have requirement where we need to create generation-1 VM. But that doesn't seems straight forward. Any suggestion on this. Some points to note
   1. Vm image is present locally on Azure stack HCI nodes.
   2. VM images is very big (Some TBs) in size if we use disk size as fixed so we use dynamic size disks to ship that to customers.
2. Window admin center provides two ways to create VM.
   1. Through New buttton
   2. Through Import button.
      1. I am interested in this, We already have Vm's exported image with configurations. We want to use this import option of windows admin center. This seems working fine while i locally install windows admin center with little older version. But when i am using azure portal with windows admin center then i unable to browse folders to provide correct path where VM present. Seems browse button isn't working properly on window admin center(preview) on Azure portal. Is that something a bug in recent version ?

Answer 1

Hi @Rishabh Tiwari,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.

Azure Stack HCI supports both Generation-1 and Generation-2 VMs creating a generation 1 or generation 2 virtual machine depends on which guest operating system you want to install and the boot method you want to use to deploy the virtual machine. Generation 1 virtual machines support most guest operating systems. Generation 2 virtual machines support most 64-bit versions of Windows and more current versions of Linux and FreeBSD operating systems. For more detailed information please refer to this: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/plan/should-i-create-a-generation-1-or-2-virtual-machine-in-hyper-v#windows-guest-operating-system-support

If you have a large VM image that’s several terabytes, using fixed-size disks to deliver it to customers might not be efficient. Instead, you can opt for dynamic disks. Dynamic disks are virtual hard disks that can adjust their size up or down as required. This allows you to start with a smaller dynamic disk and increase its size when you send it to customers.

I understand your issue that you have exported VM images with configurations and want to use the import option in Windows Admin Center (WAC) to deploy them on Azure Stack HCI. You've successfully tested this with a locally installed older version of WAC but are experiencing issues with the browse button when using WAC on Azure portal.

You're experiencing issues with the browse button in the Windows Admin Center (preview) on the Azure portal. This could be a bug in the latest version.

• Please ensure you're running the latest version of WAC on Azure portal. Sometimes, updating to the latest version can resolve issues like this.
• Instead of using the browse button, try using the file picker feature in WAC on Azure portal.
• Try accessing the browse button from a different browser or device to see if the issue persists.

If you have any further queries, do let us know.

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