How to fix a generalized VM that requires Plan information

Question

I have a FreeBSD server on Azure that I created using the marketplace. It was running FreeBSD 12.2 (the latest version available) and I wanted to duplicate this virtual machine. Within the Azure portal I navigated to the Virtual machine page where all the details are, clicked on "capture" and followed the steps. Since doing so the virtual machine has been turned off and is "generalized".

I then searched around and found many guides on how to bring this back up. This was one of the guides:
https://www.lucee.nl/post.cfm/azure-fix-the-vm-is-generalized

After following these steps I come across this error:
Creating a virtual machine from Marketplace image or a custom image sourced from a Marketplace image requires Plan information in the request.

After searching this error I found this guide:
https://samcogan.com/creating-vms-from-a-marketplace-image-that-needs-a-plan/

Is there a way to include these plan details on the Azure portal rather than using powershell? I ask this as I had no luck running the commands given in the guide above. It has an issue finding the image created.

Even better... is there a simpler way to just bring back the server without having to go through all these steps?

Answer 1

@George This means, the Virtual machine is generalized & this is a irreversible process. Once you generalize the Virtual machine, the VM becomes inaccessible and the operation cannot be reversed back.

But if you have followed the right process to generalize using the document, i.e., by running sysprep inside the server & capturing it from the azure portal) you will be able to create multiple VM's with the generalized custom image.

If the sysprep is not run inside the server and captured from the portal - You can recover the VM by taking a snapshot of the OS disk - Create a disk with it and deploy a VM.

To Deploy a VM with plan information :

You should get the plan information from the existing source VM(Captured VM). Go to export template you will and search for the plan.

You will find the plan information in the below format :

"plan": {
"name": "nasuni_edge_appliance_7_10_6_prod",
"product": "nasuni_edge_appliance",
"publisher": "nasuni"
},

Reference Document to deploy through a PowerShell script

Additional Information : Just to duplicate/clone one VM, you don't have to capture and create a image.
You can just take a snapshot of the disk - create a disk with the snapshot - deploy a VM with the disk.

Hope this helps!

Kindly let us know if the above helps or you need further assistance on this issue.

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Answer 2

Hi All, I generalizing the VM then went ahead with creating the VM but got an error stating 2 vCPUs are required for this configuration.

Please assist me.

Answer 3

Hi All, After generalizing the VM then created an image, when went ahead with next step of creating an VM using the image I got the error as 2 vCPUs are required for this configuration. For reference see the screenshot and please assist me.