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Create a snapshot from a VHD to create multiple identical managed disks in small amount of time with PowerShell (Windows)

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This script creates a snapshot from a VHD file in a storage account in same or different subscription. Use this script to import a specialized (not generalized/sysprepped) VHD to a snapshot and then use the snapshot to create multiple identical managed disks in small amount of time. Also, use it to import a data VHD to a snapshot and then use the snapshot to create multiple managed disks in small amount of time.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

Sample script

#Provide the subscription Id where snapshot will be created
$subscriptionId = 'yourSubscriptionId'

#Provide the name of your resource group where snapshot will be created. 
$resourceGroupName ='yourResourceGroupName'

#Provide the name of the snapshot
$snapshotName = 'yourSnapshotName'

#Provide the storage type for snapshot. PremiumLRS or StandardLRS.
$storageType = 'StandardLRS'

#Provide the Azure region (e.g. westus) where snapshot will be located.
#This location should be same as the storage account location where VHD file is stored 
#Get all the Azure location using command below:
#Get-AzLocation
$location = 'westus'

#Provide the URI of the VHD file (page blob) in a storage account. Please not that this is NOT the SAS URI of the storage container where VHD file is stored. 
#e.g. https://contosostorageaccount1.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/contosovhd123.vhd
#Note: VHD file can be deleted as soon as Managed Disk is created.
$sourceVHDURI = 'https://yourStorageAccountName.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/yourVHDName.vhd'

#Provide the resource Id of the storage account where VHD file is stored. 
#e.g. /subscriptions/6582b1g7-e212-446b-b509-314e17e1efb0/resourceGroups/MDDemo/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/contosostorageaccount1
#This is an optional parameter if you are creating snapshot in the same subscription
$storageAccountId = '/subscriptions/yourSubscriptionId/resourceGroups/yourResourceGroupName/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/yourStorageAccountName'

#Set the context to the subscription Id where Managed Disk will be created
Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId $SubscriptionId

$snapshotConfig = New-AzSnapshotConfig -AccountType $storageType -Location $location -CreateOption Import -StorageAccountId $storageAccountId -SourceUri $sourceVHDURI 

New-AzSnapshot -Snapshot $snapshotConfig -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -SnapshotName $snapshotName

Next steps

Create a managed disk from snapshot

Create a virtual machine by attaching a managed disk as OS disk

For more information on the Azure PowerShell module, see Azure PowerShell documentation.

Additional virtual machine PowerShell script samples can be found in the Azure Windows VM documentation.