In this post I’m going to show you how to copy Azure Virtual Machines between subscriptions. Copying VMs between subscriptions basically involves copying the VM VHD to a storage account in the other subscription. The same method can be used to copy your VM to another storage account to move it to a different region for instance.
Since this is not a recurring tasks for me this method is not completely automated, it does involve some manual steps. If you need a 100% automated solution please take a look at this post which is completely scripted but much longer.
Firstly import the publishsettings files for your subscriptions using Get-AzurePublishSettingsFile and Import-AzurePublishSettingsFile if this the first time you are going to use them in PowerShell.
Then execute the following script to copy the VHD, replacing the parts in bold with your values.
#Source VHD
$srcUri="https://yourstorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/src_image.vhd"
#Source StorageAccount
$srcStorageAccount="src_storageaccount_name"
$srcStorageKey="src_storage_account_key"
#DestinationStorageAccount
$destStorageAccount="dest_storageaccount"
$destStorageKey="dest_storage_account_key"
#Create the source storageaccount context
$srcContext=New-AzureStorageContext
-StorageAccountName $srcStorageAccount
-StorageAccountKey $srcStorageKey
#Create the destination storageaccount context
$destContext=New-AzureStorageContext
-StorageAccountName $destStorageAccount
-StorageAccountKey $destStorageKey
#Destination ContainerName
$containerName="destinationcontainer"
#Create the container on the destination
New-AzureStorageContainer -Name $containerName -Context $destContext
#Start the asynchronous copy, specify the source authentication
$copyblob=Start-AzureStorageBlobCopy -srcUri $srcUri -SrcContext $srcContext
-DestContainer $containerName -DestBlob "NewVHD.vhd"
-DestContext $destContext
In my case I was copying inside the same datacentre so it was very quick but if you are copying between regions or copying very large files you can use the snippit below to report the progress of the copy operation.
#Get the status of the copy operation
$copystatus= $copyblob | Get-AzureStorageBlobCopyState
#Output the status every 5 seconds until it is finished
While($copystatus.Status-eq"Pending"){
$copystatus=$copyblob|Get-AzureStorageBlobCopyState
Start-Sleep 5
$copystatus
}
Next on the destination you have to create a disk from the VHD that was copied. In the portal click on Virtual Machines –> Disks –> Create Disk and follow the wizard to create a new disk from the VHD you copied.
Now you can choose it under My Disks when you create a new VM.
Tips: In my case both subscriptions had the same name, to differentiate between them edit the .publishsettings file and change the name of one of the subscriptions before importing it.
