In this post I’ll show you how to create custom virtual machine images in the new Azure Portal for ARM Virtual Machines and Dev Test Labs. Creating custom virtual machine images from your existing virtual machines is a bit different in the new Azure portal compared to the old one. There are lots of resources showing how to do it in PowerShell, Azure CLI and ASM VMs but not so much ARM VMs in the new Azure Portal. For some reason it is not so intuitive that I could just stumbled upon it by exploring the portal.
Create Custom Virtual Machine Image In The Portal
My first thought was to look for a capture image button on the VM blade but there isn’t one, it is now a separate resource on its own blade.
If you plan on creating multiple distinct VMs from this image you have to run sysprep before creating the image. If you really want to make clones of this instance you can skip sysprep. The images are created as Managed Disks and you can’t change it so keep the associated cost in mind.
Create Virtual Machine From Custom Image In The Portal
To create a VM from the custom image created earlier you have to go back to the Image blade.
Create Custom Virtual Machine Image In Dev Test Labs
Firstly Dev Test Labs are pretty awesome, have a look at it if you have to manage multiple VMs for development, testing or training labs. Creating custom images in Dev Test Labs are a bit easier, the “Create custom image” menu item is right on the VM blade.
You also have the option to run sysprep if you didn’t already or to skip it. Note that the VM will become unusable if you run sysprep.
To manage the existing custom images you have to open the “Configuration and policies” blade and you’ll see the “Custom Images” menu item.
Create Virtual Machine From Custom Image In Dev Test Labs
To create a VM from your custom image is very intuitive in Dev Test Labs, when you click on the Add button to create a VM your custom images will be right there with the existing VM templates.
The same applies when you create new Formulas, which is basically creating the new templates in Dev Test Labs.
