Azure VM cloning

Question

Hi Team,

This is related to Azure VM cloning.
I see two options for VM cloning.

1.) First option is to use VM image "capture".Before that,We need to do run sysprep from windows operating systems.
2.) Second option is to use VM snapshot(from disk)and then need to take managed disk.
Should we need to do sysprep after powering on the cloning VM ?

Please confirm.
I need to take 10 clones from my web/app Virtual machines.Which method can i prefere?

VM capture or VM snapshot option? Please confirm.

Thank you,
Raj

Answer 1

@Anonymous Welcome to Microsoft Q&A, Thank you for posting your here!!

The only difference between the specialized and generalized deployments are below.

A specialized disk is a copy of a virtual hard disk (VHD) from an existing VM that contains all the user accounts, applications, and other state data from your original VM. After deploying a new VM from the specialized you need handle uniqueness within the VM, like setting a hostname, to avoid DNS conflicts on the same VNET.

A generalized image is created by running Sysprep on the VM. Sysprep removes all your personal account information, retains OS and application specific information which prepares the machine to be used as an image and Once you set the VM to be generalized you can reuse the existing VM and this action is irreversible.

Additional Information:Please check further differences here and here is the ARM template to deploy multiple VMs from generalized image 97178-multivm-customimage.txt

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

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