Create Azure Stack HCI VM image using Azure Marketplace images

Applies to: Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2

This article describes how to create virtual machine (VM) images for your Azure Stack HCI using source images from Azure Marketplace. You can create VM images using the Azure portal or Azure CLI and then use these VM images to create Arc VMs on your Azure Stack HCI.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure that the following prerequisites are completed.

Azure CLI

• Make sure to review and complete the prerequisites.

• If using a client to connect to your Azure Stack HCI cluster, see Connect to the cluster remotely.

Azure portal

Make sure to review and complete the prerequisites.

Add VM image from Azure Marketplace

You create a VM image starting from an Azure Marketplace image and then use this image to deploy VMs on your Azure Stack HCI cluster.

Azure CLI

Follow these steps to create a VM image using the Azure CLI.

Sign in and set subscription

1. Connect to a server on your Azure Stack HCI system.

2. Sign in. Type:

   az login --use-device-code
   

3. Set your subscription.

   az account set --subscription <Subscription ID>
   

Set some parameters

1. Set parameters for your subscription, resource group, location, OS type for the image. Replace the parameters in < > with the appropriate values.

   $subscription = "<Subscription ID>"
   $resource_group = "<Resource group>"
   $mktplaceImage = "<Marketplace image name>"
   $customLocationName = "<Custom location name>"
   $customLocationID = (az customlocation show --resource-group $resource_group --name "<custom_location_name_for_Azure_Stack_HCI_cluster>" --query id -o tsv)
   $location = "<Location for your Azure Stack HCI cluster>"
   $osType = "<OS of source image>"
   

   The parameters are described in the following table:

   Parameter	Description
   subscription	Subscription associated with your Azure Stack HCI cluster.
   resource-group	Resource group for Azure Stack HCI cluster that you associate with this image.
   name	Name of the marketplace image for Azure Stack HCI cluster.
   customLocation	Resource ID of custom location for Azure Stack HCI cluster.
   location	Location for your Azure Stack HCI cluster. For example, this could be eastus.
   os-type	Operating system associated with the source image. This can be Windows or Linux.

   Here's a sample output:

   PS C:\Users\azcli> $subscription = "<Subscription ID>"
   PS C:\Users\azcli> $resource_group = "myhci-rg"
   PS C:\Users\azcli> $mktplaceImage= "myhci-marketplaceimage"
   PS C:\Users\azcli> $customLocationName = "myhci-cl"
   PS C:\Users\azcli> $customerLocationID /subscriptions$subscription/resourcegroups/$resource_group/providers/microsoft.extendedlocation/customlocations/$customLocationName
   PS C:\Users\azcli> $location = "eastus"
   PS C:\Users\azcli> $ostype = "Windows"
   

Create VM image from marketplace image

1. Set additional parameters that specify the intended VM image you would like to create. You will need to include the offer, publisher, SKU, and version for the marketplace image. Replace the parameters in < > with the appropriate values:

   $publisher = "<Publisher name>"
   $offer = "<OS offer>"
   $sku = "<Image SKU>"
   

   Use the following table to find the available marketplace images and their attribute values:

   Name	Publisher	Offer	SKU
   Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session + Microsoft 365	microsoftwindowsdesktop	office-365	win11-21h2-avd-m365 win11-23h2-avd-m365
   Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session + Microsoft 365	microsoftwindowsdesktop	office-365	win10-21h2-avd-m365 win10-22h2-avd-m365
   Windows 11 Pro	microsoftwindowsdesktop	windows-11	win11-21h2-pro win11-22h2-pro win11-23h2-pro
   Windows 11 Enterprise	microsoftwindowsdesktop	windows-11	win11-21h2-ent win11-22h2-ent win11-23h2-ent
   Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session	microsoftwindowsdesktop	windows-11	win11-21h2-avd win11-22h2-avd win11-23h2-avd
   Windows 10 Pro	microsoftwindowsdesktop	windows-10	win10-22h2-pro-g2
   Windows 10 Enterprise	microsoftwindowsdesktop	windows-10	win10-22h2-ent-g2
   Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session	microsoftwindowsdesktop	windows-10	win10-22h2-avd
   Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition	microsoftwindowsserver	windowsserver	2022-datacenter-azure-edition-hotpatch 2022-datacenter-azure-edition-core 2022-datacenter-azure-edition
   Windows Server 2019	microsoftwindowsserver	windowsserver	2019-datacenter-gensecond 2019-datacenter-core-g2
   SQL Server 2022 Enterprise on Windows Server 2022	microsoftsqlserver	sql2022-ws2022	enterprise-gen2 standard-gen2

   If you wanted to create a Windows Server 2019 Datacenter image, you would have the following parameters:

   $publisher = "microsoftwindowsserver" 
   $offer = "windowsserver" 
   $sku = "2019-datacenter-gensecond"
   

2. Create the VM image starting with a specified marketplace image:

   az stack-hci-vm image create --resource-group $resource_group --custom-location $customLocationID --name $mktplaceImage --os-type $ostype --offer $offer --publisher $publisher --sku $sku 
   

Here's a sample output:

PS C:\Users\azcli> az stack-hci-vm image create --custom-location $cl --name $mktplaceImage --os-type $ostype --resource-group $rg --publisher $publisher --offer $offer --sku $sku 
{ 
  "extendedLocation": { 
    "name": “/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/myhci-rg/providers/Microsoft.ExtendedLocation/customLocations/myhci-cl", 
    "type": "CustomLocation" 
  }, 
  "id": "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/myhci-rg/providers/Microsoft.AzureStackHCI/marketplacegalleryimages/myhci-marketplaceimage", 
\ 
  "location": "eastus", 
  "name": "myhci-marketplaceimage", 
  "properties": { 
    "cloudInitDataSource": null, 
    "containerId": null, 
    "hyperVGeneration": null, 
    "identifier": { 
      "offer": "windowsserver", 
      "publisher": "microsoftwindowsserver", 
      "sku": "2019-datacenter-gensecond" 
    }, 
    "osType": "Windows", 
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded", 
    "status": { 
      "downloadStatus": { 
        "downloadSizeInMb": 10832 
      }, 
      "errorCode": "", 
      "errorMessage": "", 
      "progressPercentage": 100, 
      "provisioningStatus": { 
        "operationId": "13efc468-7473-429f-911b-858c1e6fc1d5*B11A62EE76B08EF194F8293CDD40F7BC71BFB93255D5A99DD11B4167690752D9", 
        "status": "Succeeded" 
      } 
    }, 
    "version": { 
      "name": "17763.6293.240905", 
      "properties": { 
        "storageProfile": { 
          "osDiskImage": { 
            "sizeInMb": 130050 
          } 
        } 
      } 

    } 
  }, 
  "resourceGroup": "myhci-rg", 
  "systemData": { 
    "createdAt": "2024-09-23T18:53:13.734389+00:00", 
    "createdBy": "guspinto@contoso.com", 
    "createdByType": "User", 
    "lastModifiedAt": "2024-09-23T19:06:07.532276+00:00", 
    "lastModifiedBy": "319f651f-7ddb-4fc6-9857-7aef9250bd05", 
    "lastModifiedByType": "Application" 
  }, 

  "tags": null, 
  "type": "microsoft.azurestackhci/marketplacegalleryimages" 
} 

For more information on this CLI command, see az stack-hci-vm image.

Azure portal

Follow these steps to create a VM image using the Azure portal. In the Azure portal of your Azure Stack HCI cluster resource, take the following steps:

1. Go to Resources > VM images.

2. Select + Add VM Image and from the dropdown list, select Add VM image from Azure Marketplace.

   

3. In the Create an image page, on the Basics tab, input the following information:

   1. Subscription. Select a subscription to associate with your VM image.

   2. Resource group. Create new or select an existing resource group that you associate with the VM image.

   3. Custom location. Select a custom location to deploy your VM image. The custom location should correspond to the custom location for your Azure Stack HCI cluster.

   4. Image to download. Select a VM image from the list of images in Azure Marketplace. The dropdown list shows all the Azure Marketplace images that are compatible with your Azure Stack HCI cluster.

   5. Save image as. Enter a name for your VM image.

   6. Storage path. Select the storage path for your VM image. Select Choose automatically to have a storage path with high availability automatically selected. Select Choose manually to specify a storage path to store VM images and configuration files on the Azure Stack HCI cluster. In this case, ensure that the specified storage path has sufficient storage space.

4. Select Review + Create to create your VM image.

   

5. The input parameters are validated. If the validations succeed, you can review the VM image details and select Create.

   

6. An Azure Resource Manager template deployment job starts for the VM image. The image deployment takes a few minutes to complete. The time taken to download the image depends on the size of the Marketplace image and the network bandwidth available for the download.

   

   You can track the image deployment on the VM image grid. You can see the list of the VM images that are already downloaded and the ones that are being downloaded on the cluster.

   To view more details of any image, select the VM image name from the list of VM images.

7. When the image download is complete, the VM image shows up in the list of images, and the Status shows as Available.

   

   If the download of the VM image fails, the error details are shown in the portal blade.

   

List VM images

You need to view the list of VM images to choose an image to manage.

Azure CLI

Follow these steps to list VM image using Azure CLI.

1. Run PowerShell as an administrator.

2. Set some parameters.

   $subscription = "<Subscription ID associated with your cluster>"
   $resource_group = "<Resource group name for your cluster>"
   

3. List all the VM images associated with your cluster. Run the following command:

   az stack-hci-vm image list --subscription $subscription --resource-group $resource_group
   

   Depending on the command used, a corresponding set of images associated with the Azure Stack HCI cluster are listed.

   • If you specify just the subscription, the command lists all the images in the subscription.
   • If you specify both the subscription and the resource group, the command lists all the images in the resource group.

   These images include:

   • VM images from marketplace images.
   • Custom images that reside in your Azure Storage account or are in a local share on your cluster or a client connected to the cluster.

Here's a sample output.

PS C:\Users\azcli> az stack-hci-vm image list --subscription "<Subscription ID>" --resource-group "myhci-rg"
Command group 'stack-hci-vm' is experimental and under development. Reference and support levels: https://aka.ms/CLI_refstatus
[
  {
    "extendedLocation": {
      "name": "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourcegroups/myhci-rg/providers/microsoft.extendedlocation/customlocations/myhci-cl",
      "type": "CustomLocation"
    },
    "id": "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/myhci-rg/providers/microsoft.azurestackhci/marketplacegalleryimages/w
inServer2022Az-01",
    "location": "eastus",
    "name": "winServer2022Az-01",
    "properties": {
      "hyperVGeneration": "V2",
      "identifier": {
        "offer": "windowsserver",
        "publisher": "microsoftwindowsserver",
        "sku": "2022-datacenter-azure-edition-core"
      },
      "imagePath": null,
      "osType": "Windows",
      "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
      "status": {
        "downloadStatus": {
          "downloadSizeInMB": 6710
        },
        "progressPercentage": 100,
        "provisioningStatus": {
          "operationId": "19742d69-4a00-4086-8f17-4dc1f7ee6681*E1E9889F0D1840B93150BD74D428EAE483CB67B0904F9A198C161AD471F670ED",
          "status": "Succeeded"
        }
      },
      "storagepathId": null,
      "version": {
        "name": "20348.2031.231006",
        "properties": {
          "storageProfile": {
            "osDiskImage": {
              "sizeInMB": 130050
            }
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "resourceGroup": "myhci-rg",
    "systemData": {
      "createdAt": "2023-10-30T21:44:53.020512+00:00",
      "createdBy": "guspinto@contoso.com",
      "createdByType": "User",
      "lastModifiedAt": "2023-10-30T22:08:25.495995+00:00",
      "lastModifiedBy": "319f651f-7ddb-4fc6-9857-7aef9250bd05",
      "lastModifiedByType": "Application"
    },
    "tags": {},
    "type": "microsoft.azurestackhci/marketplacegalleryimages"
  }
]
PS C:\Users\azcli>

For more information on this CLI command, see az stack-hci-vm image list.

Azure portal

In the Azure portal of your Azure Stack HCI cluster resource, you can track the VM image deployment on the VM image grid. You can see the list of the VM images that are already downloaded and the ones that are being downloaded on the cluster.

Follow these steps to view the list of VM images in Azure portal.

1. In the Azure portal, go to your Azure Stack HCI cluster resource.

2. Go to Resources > VM images.

3. In the right-pane, you can view the list of the VM images.

   

View VM image properties

You might want to view the properties of VM images before you use the image to create a VM. Follow these steps to view the image properties:

Azure CLI

Follow these steps to use Azure CLI to view properties of an image:

1. Run PowerShell as an administrator.

2. Set the following parameters.

   $subscription = "<Subscription ID>"
   $resource_group = "<Cluster resource group>"
   $mktplaceImage = "<Marketplace image name>"
   

3. You can view image properties in two different ways: specify ID or specify name and resource group. Take the following steps when specifying Marketplace image ID:

   1. Set the following parameter.

      $mktplaceImageID = "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/myhci-rg/providers/Microsoft.AzureStackHCI/galleryimages/myhci-marketplaceimage"
      

   2. Run the following command to view the properties.

      az stack-hci-vm image show --ids $mktplaceImageID

      Here's a sample output for this command:

      PS C:\Users\azcli> az stack-hci-vm image show --ids $mktplaceImageID
      Command group 'stack-hci-vm' is experimental and under development. Reference and support levels: https://aka.ms/CLI_refstatus
      {
        "extendedLocation": {
          "name": "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourcegroups/myhci-rg/providers/microsoft.extendedlocation/customlocations/myhci-cl",
          "type": "CustomLocation"
        },
        "id": "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/myhci-rg/providers/Microsoft.AzureStackHCI/galleryimages/myhci-marketplaceimage",
        "location": "eastus",
        "name": "myhci-marketplaceimage",
        "properties": {
          "containerName": null,
          "hyperVGeneration": null,
          "identifier": null,
          "imagePath": null,
          "osType": "Windows",
          "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
          "status": null,
          "version": null
        },
        "resourceGroup": "myhci-rg",
        "systemData": {
          "createdAt": "2022-08-05T20:52:38.579764+00:00",
          "createdBy": "guspinto@microsoft.com",
          "createdByType": "User",
          "lastModifiedAt": "2022-08-05T20:52:38.579764+00:00",
          "lastModifiedBy": "guspinto@microsoft.com",
          "lastModifiedByType": "User"
        },
        "tags": null,
        "type": "microsoft.azurestackhci/galleryimages"
      }
      PS C:\Users\azcli> 
      

Azure portal

In the Azure portal of your Azure Stack HCI cluster resource, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Resources > VM images. In the right-pane, a list of VM images is displayed.

   

2. Select the VM Image name to view the properties.

   

Update VM image

When a new updated image is available in Azure Marketplace, the VM images on your Azure Stack HCI cluster become stale and should be updated. The update operation isn't an in-place update of the image. Rather you can see for which VM images an updated image is available, and select images to update. After you update, the create VM image operation uses the new updated image.

To update a VM image, use the following steps in Azure portal.

1. To see if an update is available, select a VM image from the list view.

   

   In the Overview blade, you see a banner that shows the new VM image available for download, if one is available. To update to the new image, select the arrow icon.

   

2. Review image details and then select Review and create. By default, the new image uses the same resource group and instance details as the previous image.

   The name for the new image is incremented based on the name of the previous image. For example, an existing image named winServer2022-01 will have an updated image named winServer2022-02.

   

3. To complete the operation, select Create.

   

   After the new VM image is created, create a VM using the new image and verify that the VM works properly. After verification, you can delete the old VM image.

   Note

   In this release, you can't delete a VM image if the VM associated with that image is running. Stop the VM and then delete the VM image.

Delete VM image

You might want to delete a VM image if the download fails for some reason or if the image is no longer needed. Follow these steps to delete the VM images.

Azure CLI

1. Run PowerShell as an administrator.

2. Set the following parameters:

   $subscription = "<Subscription ID>"
   $resource_group = "<Cluster resource group>"
   $mktplaceImage = "<Markeplace image name>"    
   

3. Remove an existing VM image. Run the following command:

   az stack-hci-vm image delete --subscription $subscription --resource-group $resource_group --name $mktplaceImage --yes
   

You can delete image two ways:

• Specify name and resource group.
• Specify ID.

After you've deleted an image, you can check that the image is removed. Here's a sample output when the image was deleted by specifying the name and the resource-group.

PS C:\Users\azcli> $subscription = "<Subscription ID>"
PS C:\Users\azcli> $resource_group = "myhci-rg"
PS C:\Users\azcli> $mktplaceImage = "myhci-marketplaceimage"
PS C:\Users\azcli> az stack-hci-vm image delete --name $mktplaceImage --resource-group $resource_group
Command group 'stack-hci-vm' is experimental and under development. Reference and support levels: https://aka.ms/CLI_refstatus
Are you sure you want to perform this operation? (y/n): y
PS C:\Users\azcli> az stack-hci-vm image show --name $mktplaceImage --resource-group $resource_group
Command group 'stack-hci-vm' is experimental and under development. Reference and support levels: https://aka.ms/CLI_refstatus
ResourceNotFound: The Resource 'Microsoft.AzureStackHCI/marketplacegalleryimages/myhci-marketplaceimage' under resource group 'myhci-rg' was not found. For more details please go to https://aka.ms/ARMResourceNotFoundFix
PS C:\Users\azcli>

Azure portal

In the Azure portal of your Azure Stack HCI cluster resource, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Resources > VM images.

2. From the list of VM images displayed in the right-pane, select the trash can icon next to the VM image you want to delete.

   

3. When prompted to confirm deletion, select Yes.

   

After the VM image is deleted, the list of VM images refreshes to reflect the deleted image.

Next steps

• Create logical networks