This topic describes how to use the Azure CLI 2.0 to find VM images in the Azure Marketplace. Use this information to specify a Marketplace image when you create a Linux VM.
Make sure that you installed the latest Azure CLI 2.0 and are logged in to an Azure account (az login).
Terminology
Marketplace images are identified in the CLI and other Azure tools according to a hierarchy:
- Publisher - The organization that created the image. Example: Canonical
- Offer - A group of related images created by a publisher. Example: Ubuntu Server
- SKU - An instance of an offer, such as a major release of a distribution. Example: 16.04-LTS
- Version - The version number of an image SKU. When specifying the image, you can replace the version number with "latest", which selects the latest version of the distribution.
To specify a Marketplace image, you typically use the image URN. The URN combines these values, separated by the colon (:) character: Publisher:Offer:Sku:Version.
List popular images
Run the az vm image list command, without the --all option, to see a list of popular VM images in the Azure Marketplace. For example, run the following command to display a cached list of popular images in table format:
az vm image list --output table
The output includes the URN (the value in the Urn column), which you use to specify the image. When creating a VM with one of these popular Marketplace images, you can alternatively specify the URN alias, such as UbuntuLTS.
You are viewing an offline list of images, use --all to retrieve an up-to-date list
Offer Publisher Sku Urn UrnAlias Version
------------- ---------------------- ------------------ -------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------- ---------
CentOS OpenLogic 7.3 OpenLogic:CentOS:7.3:latest CentOS latest
CoreOS CoreOS Stable CoreOS:CoreOS:Stable:latest CoreOS latest
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:latest Debian latest
openSUSE-Leap SUSE 42.2 SUSE:openSUSE-Leap:42.2:latest openSUSE-Leap latest
RHEL RedHat 7.3 RedHat:RHEL:7.3:latest RHEL latest
SLES SUSE 12-SP2 SUSE:SLES:12-SP2:latest SLES latest
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:latest UbuntuLTS latest
...
Find specific images
To find a specific VM image in the Marketplace, use the az vm image list command with the --all option. This version of the command takes some time to complete and can return lengthy output, so you usually filter the list by --publisher or another parameter.
For example, the following command displays all Debian offers (remember that without the --all switch, it only searches the local cache of common images):
az vm image list --offer Debian --all --output table
Partial output:
Offer Publisher Sku Urn Version
------- ----------- ----------------- ----------------------------------------------- --------------
Debian credativ 7 credativ:Debian:7:7.0.201602010 7.0.201602010
Debian credativ 7 credativ:Debian:7:7.0.201603020 7.0.201603020
Debian credativ 7 credativ:Debian:7:7.0.201604050 7.0.201604050
Debian credativ 7 credativ:Debian:7:7.0.201604200 7.0.201604200
Debian credativ 7 credativ:Debian:7:7.0.201606280 7.0.201606280
Debian credativ 7 credativ:Debian:7:7.0.201609120 7.0.201609120
Debian credativ 7 credativ:Debian:7:7.0.201611020 7.0.201611020
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201602010 8.0.201602010
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201603020 8.0.201603020
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201604050 8.0.201604050
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201604200 8.0.201604200
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201606280 8.0.201606280
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201609120 8.0.201609120
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201611020 8.0.201611020
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201701180 8.0.201701180
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201703150 8.0.201703150
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201704110 8.0.201704110
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201704180 8.0.201704180
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201706190 8.0.201706190
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201706210 8.0.201706210
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201708040 8.0.201708040
...
Apply similar filters with the --location, --publisher, and --sku options. You can even perform partial matches on a filter, such as searching for --offer Deb to find all Debian images.
If you don't specify a particular location with the --location option, the values for westus are returned by default. (Set a different default location by running az configure --defaults location=<location>.)
For example, the following command lists all Debian 8 SKUs in westeurope:
az vm image list --location westeurope --offer Deb --publisher credativ --sku 8 --all --output table
Partial output:
Offer Publisher Sku Urn Version
------- ----------- ----------------- ----------------------------------------------- -------------
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201602010 8.0.201602010
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201603020 8.0.201603020
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201604050 8.0.201604050
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201604200 8.0.201604200
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201606280 8.0.201606280
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201609120 8.0.201609120
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201611020 8.0.201611020
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201701180 8.0.201701180
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201703150 8.0.201703150
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201704110 8.0.201704110
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201704180 8.0.201704180
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201706190 8.0.201706190
Debian credativ 8 credativ:Debian:8:8.0.201706210 8.0.201706210
...
Navigate the images
Another way to find an image in a location is to run the az vm image list-publishers, az vm image list-offers, and az vm image list-skus commands in sequence. With these commands, you determine these values:
- List the image publishers.
- For a given publisher, list their offers.
- For a given offer, list their SKUs.
For example, the following command lists the image publishers in the West US location:
az vm image list-publishers --location westus --output table
Partial output:
Location Name
---------- ----------------------------------------------------
westus 1e
westus 4psa
westus 7isolutions
westus a10networks
westus abiquo
westus accellion
westus Acronis
westus Acronis.Backup
westus actian_matrix
westus actifio
westus activeeon
westus adatao
...
Use this information to find offers from a specific publisher. For example, if Canonical is an image publisher in the West US location, find their offers by running azure vm image list-offers. Pass the location and the publisher as in the following example:
az vm image list-offers --location westus --publisher Canonical --output table
Output:
Location Name
---------- -------------------------
westus Ubuntu15.04Snappy
westus Ubuntu15.04SnappyDocker
westus UbunturollingSnappy
westus UbuntuServer
westus Ubuntu_Core
westus Ubuntu_Snappy_Core
westus Ubuntu_Snappy_Core_Docker
You see that in the West US region, Canonical publishes the UbuntuServer offer on Azure. But what SKUs? To get those values, run azure vm image list-skus and set the location, publisher, and offer that you have discovered:
az vm image list-skus --location westus --publisher Canonical --offer UbuntuServer --output table
Output:
Location Name
---------- -----------------
westus 12.04.3-LTS
westus 12.04.4-LTS
westus 12.04.5-DAILY-LTS
westus 12.04.5-LTS
westus 12.10
westus 14.04.0-LTS
westus 14.04.1-LTS
westus 14.04.2-LTS
westus 14.04.3-LTS
westus 14.04.4-LTS
westus 14.04.5-DAILY-LTS
westus 14.04.5-LTS
westus 16.04-beta
westus 16.04-DAILY-LTS
westus 16.04-LTS
westus 16.04.0-LTS
westus 16.10
westus 16.10-DAILY
westus 17.04
westus 17.04-DAILY
westus 17.10-DAILY
Finally, use the az vm image list command to find a specific version of the SKU you want, for example, 16.04-LTS:
az vm image list --location westus --publisher Canonical --offer UbuntuServer --sku 16.04-LTS --all --output table
Output:
Offer Publisher Sku Urn Version
------------ ----------- --------- ------------------------------------------------ ---------------
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201611220 16.04.201611220
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201611300 16.04.201611300
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201612050 16.04.201612050
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201612140 16.04.201612140
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201612210 16.04.201612210
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201701130 16.04.201701130
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201702020 16.04.201702020
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201702200 16.04.201702200
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201702210 16.04.201702210
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201702240 16.04.201702240
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201703020 16.04.201703020
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201703030 16.04.201703030
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201703070 16.04.201703070
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201703270 16.04.201703270
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201703280 16.04.201703280
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201703300 16.04.201703300
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201705080 16.04.201705080
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201705160 16.04.201705160
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201706100 16.04.201706100
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201706191 16.04.201706191
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201707210 16.04.201707210
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201707270 16.04.201707270
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201708030 16.04.201708030
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201708110 16.04.201708110
UbuntuServer Canonical 16.04-LTS Canonical:UbuntuServer:16.04-LTS:16.04.201708151 16.04.201708151
Next steps
Now you can choose precisely the image you want to use by taking note of the URN value. Pass this value with the --image parameter when you create a VM with the az vm create command. Remember that you can optionally replace the version number in the URN with "latest". This version is always the latest version of the distribution. To create a virtual machine quickly by using the URN information, see Create and Manage Linux VMs with the Azure CLI.