How do I upgrade to a newer SKU of Virtual Machine image

Question

We have a Windows 11 VM and received an alert saying we need to upgrade our VM to an alternative plan. However the article provided does not list how to do this. We have reviewed the article: aka.ms/DeprecatedImagesFAQ

Unfortunately that does not list how to upgrade the SKU.

Answer 1

Hello @Derrick Heathorn Admin

Currently, Azure does not provide an option to perform an in-place upgrade of the VM image SKU. Once a virtual machine is created from a specific image, its OS disk remains tied to that version. To move to a different image SKU, the supported approach is to create a new VM using the desired image and then migrate your workloads.

• Azure VM images are immutable after deployment.
• SKU changes require a new image, which means creating a new VM based on that image.
• To upgrade to a newer SKU of a Virtual Machine image, you typically need to generalize the existing VM, create a new image, and then deploy a new VM using that image.
• Open the Command Prompt window as an administrator. Change the directory to %windir%\system32\sysprep, and then run sysprep.exe.
• In the System Preparation Tool dialog box, select Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE), and make sure that the Generalize check box is selected.
• In Shutdown Options, select Shutdown.
• Open the Azure portal and select your VM.
• Click Capture to create a new image from the generalized VM. This image will act as your new SKU.
• Create a New VM In the Azure portal, go to Create a resource.
• Choose Virtual Machine and select the image you just created as the base.
• Move Your Workloads transfer applications and data from the old VM to the new one.
• For easier future migrations, keep your data on a separate disk.
• Remove the Old VM
• Once you confirm everything works on the new VM, delete the old one to avoid unnecessary costs.
• Always take a backup or snapshot before making major changes.
• After the upgrade, check that all applications and services run as expected.

Reference
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sa-copy-generalized

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

Thanks,
Manish Deshpande.