How to deploy a hidden Marketplace VM offering in preview

Question

We have a new Marketplace offering plan for a VM image. The plan is hidden and currently in Preview status; not "gone live" yet.

I'd like to test the deployment of this VM through an ARM template or Azure CLI, but when I do I get the following error:

{"code": "MarketplacePurchaseEligibilityFailed", "message": "Marketplace purchase eligibilty check returned errors. See inner errors for details. "}
Inner Errors:
{"code": "BadRequest", "message": "The offer with Offer ID 'REDACTED' was not found. Try one of these: 1- Make sure the offer name is written correctly. 2- If this offer was recently created, allow up to 30 minutes for it to be available for purchase. 3- The offer may have been removed from the marketplace. Look for similar offers from this publisher here: 'REDACTED'. Publisher ID: 'REDACTED', Offer ID: 'REDACTED', Correlation ID 'REDACTED'."}

I've verified the following:

• All offer, publisher, and plan names are correct
• The offer has been in Preview status waiting to "Go live" for at least 48 hours
• The preview audience subscription has been given access and has agreed to the terms
• The Marketplace VM image is searchable within the preview audience subscription via az vm image list-skus

According to the Azure documentation, the image should be available to deployed via CLI or command prompt, but it isn't. I'm beginning to wonder if it being a brand new plan has anything to do with the error; perhaps I need to publish the plan with no images, and then add a new image to test.

Answer 1

To deploy a hidden Marketplace VM offering in preview, you need to ensure that the plan is correctly configured and that all necessary steps have been followed. Here are some key points to consider:

1. Hidden Plan Deployment: Since your plan is hidden, it can only be deployed through specific methods such as Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or a Solution Template. Ensure that you are using the correct deployment method.
2. Plan Visibility: A hidden plan is not visible on the Microsoft Marketplace storefront but can still be accessed by authorized users through the specified deployment methods. Make sure that the subscription you are using has been granted access to the hidden plan.
3. Preview Status: If the plan is in preview status, it should be accessible to the specified preview audience. Ensure that the audience has accepted the terms and that they are correctly configured in the Azure portal.
4. Error Handling: The error message you are encountering suggests that the offer ID may not be recognized. This could be due to the offer not being fully propagated in the system. If the offer was recently created, it may take some time (up to 30 minutes) for it to be available for deployment.
5. Testing Deployment: To test the deployment of a hidden preview image, you can use quickstart templates. You would need to modify the JSON template to include the correct image reference and append "-PREVIEW" to the offer ID as necessary.
6. Publishing Plan: If you continue to face issues, consider publishing the plan without any images and then adding images later to test the deployment. This can sometimes help in resolving visibility issues.

If you have verified all the above and are still facing issues, it may be beneficial to check if there are any specific configurations or requirements that have not been met for the hidden plan deployment.

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References:

• Configure pricing and availability for a virtual machine offer
• Common questions about VM in Microsoft Marketplace