How to find Linux VM images in the Azure Marketplace with the Azure CLI
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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 VM programmatically with the CLI, Resource Manager templates, or other tools.
Make sure that you installed the latest Azure CLI 2.0 and are logged in to an Azure account (az login).
Terminology
A Marketplace image in Azure has the following attributes:
- Publisher - The organization that created the image. Examples: Canonical, MicrosoftWindowsServer
- Offer - Name of a group of related images created by a publisher. Examples: Ubuntu Server, WindowsServer
- SKU - An instance of an offer, such as a major release of a distribution. Examples: 16.04-LTS, 2016-Datacenter
- Version - The version number of an image SKU.
To identify a Marketplace image when you deploy a VM programmatically, supply these values individually as parameters, or some tools accept the image URN. The URN combines these values, separated by the colon (:) character: Publisher:Offer:Sku:Version. In a URN, you can replace the version number with "latest", which selects the latest version of the image.
If the image publisher provides additional license and purchase terms, you must accept those terms and enable programmatic deployment. You also need to supply purchase plan parameters when deploying a VM programmatically. See Deploy an image with Marketplace terms.
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 image URN (the value in the Urn column). When creating a VM with one of these popular Marketplace images, you can alternatively specify the UrnAlias, a shortened form 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 the default location are returned. (Set a different default location by running az configure --defaults location=<location>.)
For example, the following command lists all Debian 8 SKUs in the West Europe location:
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.
Then, for a selected SKU, you can choose a version to deploy.
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 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
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 image.
If you deploy a VM with a Resource Manager template, you set the image parameters individually in the imageReference properties. See the template reference.
Deploy an image with Marketplace terms
Certain VM images in the Azure Marketplace have additional license and purchase terms that you must accept before you can deploy them programmatically.
To deploy a VM from such an image, you need to accept the image's terms and enable programmatic deployment. You only need to do this one time in your subscription. Then, each time you deploy a VM programmatically from the image, you also need to specify purchase plan parameters.
The following sections show how to:
- Find out if a Marketplace image has additional license terms
- Accept the terms programmatically
- Provide purchase plan parameters when you deploy a VM programmatically
View plan properties
To view an image's purchase plan information, run the az vm image show command. If the plan property in the output is not null, the image has terms you need to accept before programmatic deployment.
For example, the Canonical Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS image doesn't have additional terms, because the plan information is null:
az vm image show --location westus --publisher Canonical --offer UbuntuServer --sku 16.04-LTS --version 16.04.201801260
Output:
{
"dataDiskImages": [],
"id": "/Subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/Providers/Microsoft.Compute/Locations/westus/Publishers/Canonical/ArtifactTypes/VMImage/Offers/UbuntuServer/Skus/16.04-LTS/Versions/16.04.201801260",
"location": "westus",
"name": "16.04.201801260",
"osDiskImage": {
"operatingSystem": "Linux"
},
"plan": null,
"tags": null
}
Running a similar command for the RabbitMQ Certified by Bitnami image shows the following plan properties: name, product, and publisher. (Some images also have a promotion code property.) To deploy this image, see the following sections to accept the terms and enable programmatic deployment.
az vm image show --location westus --publisher bitnami --offer rabbitmq --sku rabbitmq --version 3.7.1801130730
Output:
{
"dataDiskImages": [],
"id": "/Subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/Providers/Microsoft.Compute/Locations/westus/Publishers/bitnami/ArtifactTypes/VMImage/Offers/rabbitmq/Skus/rabbitmq/Versions/3.7.1801130730",
"location": "westus",
"name": "3.7.1801130730",
"osDiskImage": {
"operatingSystem": "Linux"
},
"plan": {
"name": "rabbitmq",
"product": "rabbitmq",
"publisher": "bitnami"
},
"tags": null
}
Accept the terms
To view and accept the license terms, use the az vm image accept-terms command. When you accept the terms, you enable programmatic deployment in your subscription. You only need to accept terms once per subscription for the image. For example:
az vm image accept-terms --urn bitnami:rabbitmq:rabbitmq:latest
The output includes a licenseTextLink to the license terms, and indicates that the value of accepted is true:
{
"accepted": true,
"additionalProperties": {},
"id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/providers/Microsoft.MarketplaceOrdering/offertypes/bitnami/offers/rabbitmq/plans/rabbitmq",
"licenseTextLink": "https://storelegalterms.blob.core.windows.net/legalterms/3E5ED_legalterms_BITNAMI%253a24RABBITMQ%253a24RABBITMQ%253a24IGRT7HHPIFOBV3IQYJHEN2O2FGUVXXZ3WUYIMEIVF3KCUNJ7GTVXNNM23I567GBMNDWRFOY4WXJPN5PUYXNKB2QLAKCHP4IE5GO3B2I.txt",
"name": "rabbitmq",
"plan": "rabbitmq",
"privacyPolicyLink": "https://bitnami.com/privacy",
"product": "rabbitmq",
"publisher": "bitnami",
"retrieveDatetime": "2018-02-22T04:06:28.7641907Z",
"signature": "WVIEA3LAZIK7ZL2YRV5JYQXONPV76NQJW3FKMKDZYCRGXZYVDGX6BVY45JO3BXVMNA2COBOEYG2NO76ONORU7ITTRHGZDYNJNKLNLWI",
"type": "Microsoft.MarketplaceOrdering/offertypes"
}
Deploy using purchase plan parameters
After accepting the terms for the image, you can deploy a VM in the subscription. To deploy the image by using the az vm create command, provide parameters for the purchase plan in addition to a URN for the image. For example, to deploy a VM with the RabbitMQ Certified by Bitnami image:
az group create --name myResourceGroupVM --location westus
az vm create --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM --image bitnami:rabbitmq:rabbitmq:latest --plan-name rabbitmq --plan-product rabbitmq --plan-publisher bitnami
Next steps
To create a virtual machine quickly by using the image information, see Create and Manage Linux VMs with the Azure CLI.