Find and use Azure Marketplace VM images with Azure PowerShell
Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Windows VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets ✔️ Uniform scale sets
This article describes how to use Azure PowerShell to find VM images in the Azure Marketplace. You can then specify a Marketplace image and plan information when you create a VM.
You can also browse available images and offers using the Azure Marketplace or the Azure CLI.
Terminology
A Marketplace image in Azure has the following attributes:
- Publisher: The organization that created the image. Examples: Canonical, MicrosoftWindowsServer
- Offer: The name of a group of related images created by a publisher. Examples: UbuntuServer, WindowsServer
- SKU: An instance of an offer, such as a major release of a distribution. Examples: 18.04-LTS, 2019-Datacenter
- Version: The version number of an image SKU.
These values can be passed individually or as an image URN, combining the values separated by the colon (:). For example: Publisher:Offer:Sku:Version. You can replace the version number in the URN with latest to use the latest version of the image.
If the image publisher provides other license and purchase terms, then you must accept those before you can use the image.
Default Images
Powershell offers several pre-defined image aliases to make the resource creation process easier. There are different images for resources with either a Windows or Linux operating system. Several Powershell cmdlets, such as New-AzVM and New-AzVmss, allow you to input the alias name as a parameter.
For example:
$rgname = <Resource Group Name>
$location = <Azure Region>
$vmName = "v" + $rgname
$domainNameLabel = "d" + $rgname
$securePassword = <Password> | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force
$username = <Username>
$credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ($username, $securePassword)
New-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rgname -Location $location -Name $vmName -image Ubuntu2204 -Credential $credential -DomainNameLabel $domainNameLabel
The Linux image alias names and their details are:
Alias Architecture Offer Publisher Sku Urn Version
----------------------- -------------- ---------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------
Debian11 x64 Debian-11 Debian 11-backports-gen2 Debian:debian-11:11-backports-gen2:latest latest
FlatcarLinuxFreeGen2 x64 flatcar-container-linux-free kinvolk stable kinvolk:flatcar-container-linux-free:stable:latest latest
OpenSuseLeap154Gen2 x64 opensuse-leap-15-4 SUSE gen2 SUSE:opensuse-leap-15-4:gen2:latest latest
SLES x64 sles-15-sp3 SUSE gen2 SUSE:sles-15-sp3:gen2:latest latest
Ubuntu2204 x64 0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy Canonical 22_04-lts-gen2 Canonical:0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy:22_04-lts-gen2:latest latest
The Windows image alias names and their details are:
Alias Architecture Offer Publisher Sku Urn Version
----------------------- -------------- ---------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------
Win2022AzureEdition x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2022-datacenter-azure-edition MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2022-datacenter-azure-edition:latest latest
Win2022AzureEditionCore x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2022-datacenter-azure-edition-core MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2022-datacenter-azure-edition-core:latest latest
Win10 x64 Windows MicrosoftVisualStudio Windows-10-N-x64 MicrosoftVisualStudio:Windows:Windows-10-N-x64:latest latest
Win2019Datacenter x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2019-Datacenter MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2019-Datacenter:latest latest
Win2016Datacenter x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2016-Datacenter MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2016-Datacenter:latest latest
Win2012R2Datacenter x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2012-R2-Datacenter MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2012-R2-Datacenter:latest latest
Win2012Datacenter x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2012-Datacenter MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2012-Datacenter:latest latest
List images
You can use PowerShell to narrow down a list of images if you want to use a specific image that is not provided by default. Replace the values of the below variables to meet your needs.
List the image publishers using Get-AzVMImagePublisher.
Connect-AzAccount -Environment AzureChinaCloud $locName="<location>" Get-AzVMImagePublisher -Location $locName | Select PublisherNameFor a given publisher, list their offers using Get-AzVMImageOffer.
$pubName="<publisher>" Get-AzVMImageOffer -Location $locName -PublisherName $pubName | Select OfferFor a given publisher and offer, list the SKUs available using Get-AzVMImageSku.
$offerName="<offer>" Get-AzVMImageSku -Location $locName -PublisherName $pubName -Offer $offerName | Select SkusFor a SKU, list the versions of the image using Get-AzVMImage.
$skuName="<SKU>" Get-AzVMImage -Location $locName -PublisherName $pubName -Offer $offerName -Sku $skuName | Select VersionYou can also use
latestif you want to use the latest image and not a specific older version.
Now you can combine the selected publisher, offer, SKU, and version into a URN (values separated by :). Pass this URN with the -Image parameter when you create a VM with the New-AzVM cmdlet. You can also replace the version number in the URN with latest to get the latest version of the image.
If you deploy a VM with a Resource Manager template, then you must set the image parameters individually in the imageReference properties.
View purchase plan properties
Some VM images in the Azure Marketplace have other license and purchase terms that you must accept before you can deploy them programmatically. You need to accept the image's terms once per subscription.
To view an image's purchase plan information, run the Get-AzVMImage cmdlet. If the PurchasePlan property in the output is not null, the image has terms you need to accept before programmatic deployment.
For example, the Windows Server 2019 Datacenter image doesn't have additional terms, so the PurchasePlan information is null:
$version = "2019.0.20190115"
Get-AzVMImage -Location $locName -PublisherName $pubName -Offer $offerName -Skus $skuName -Version $version
The output looks similar to the following output:
Id : /Subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/Providers/Microsoft.Compute/Locations/chinanorth/Publishers/MicrosoftWindowsServer/ArtifactTypes/VMImage/Offers/WindowsServer/Skus/2016-Datacenter/Versions/2019.0.20190115
Location : chinanorth
PublisherName : MicrosoftWindowsServer
Offer : WindowsServer
Skus : 2019-Datacenter
Version : 2019.0.20190115
FilterExpression :
Name : 2019.0.20190115
OSDiskImage : {
"operatingSystem": "Windows"
}
PurchasePlan : null
DataDiskImages : []
Create a new VM from a marketplace image
If you already have the information about what image you want to use, you can pass that information into Set-AzVMSourceImage cmdlet to add image information to the VM configuration. See the next sections for searching and listing the images available in the marketplace.
Some paid images also require that you provide purchase plan information using the Set-AzVMPlan.
...
$vmConfig = New-AzVMConfig -VMName "myVM" -VMSize Standard_D1
# Set the Marketplace image
$offerName = "windows-data-science-vm"
$skuName = "windows2016"
$version = "19.01.14"
$vmConfig = Set-AzVMSourceImage -VM $vmConfig -PublisherName $publisherName -Offer $offerName -Skus $skuName -Version $version
# Set the Marketplace plan information, if needed
$publisherName = "microsoft-ads"
$productName = "windows-data-science-vm"
$planName = "windows2016"
$vmConfig = Set-AzVMPlan -VM $vmConfig -Publisher $publisherName -Product $productName -Name $planName
...
You'll then pass the VM configuration along with the other configuration objects to the New-AzVM cmdlet. For a detailed example of using a VM configuration with PowerShell, see this script.
Create a new VM from a VHD with purchase plan information
If you have an existing VHD that was created using an Azure Marketplace image, you might need to supply the purchase plan information when you create a new VM from that VHD.
If you still have the original VM, or another VM created from the same image, you can get the plan name, publisher, and product information from it using Get-AzVM. This example gets a VM named myVM in the myResourceGroup resource group and then displays the purchase plan information.
$vm = Get-azvm `
-ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup `
-Name myVM
$vm.Plan
If you didn't get the plan information before the original VM was deleted, you can file a support request. The support request needs at minimum the VM name, subscription ID and the time stamp of the delete operation.
To create a VM using a VHD, refer to this article Create a VM from a specialized VHD and add in a line to add the plan information to the VM configuration using Set-AzVMPlan similar to the following:
$vmConfig = Set-AzVMPlan `
-VM $vmConfig `
-Publisher "publisherName" `
-Product "productName" `
-Name "planName"
Next steps
To create a virtual machine quickly with the New-AzVM cmdlet by using basic image information, see Create a Windows virtual machine with PowerShell.
For more information on using Azure Marketplace images to create custom images in an Azure Compute Gallery (formerly known as Shared Image Gallery), see Supply Azure Marketplace purchase plan information when creating images.