Create a copy of a Linux VM by using Azure CLI and Managed Disks

Article
10/17/2018

This article shows you how to create a copy of your Azure virtual machine (VM) running Linux by using the Azure CLI. To copy, create, store and share VM images at scale, see Shared Image Galleries.

You can also upload and create a VM from a VHD.

Prerequisites

Install the Azure CLI.
Sign in to an Azure account with az login.
Have an Azure VM to use as the source for your copy.

Stop the source VM

Deallocate the source VM by using az vm deallocate. The following example deallocates the VM named myVM in the resource group myResourceGroup:

az vm deallocate \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
	--name myVM

Copy the source VM

To copy a VM, you create a copy of the underlying virtual hard disk. This process creates a specialized virtual hard disk (VHD) as a Managed Disk that contains the same configuration and settings as the source VM.

For more information about Azure Managed Disks, see Azure Managed Disks overview.

List each VM and the name of its OS disk with az vm list. The following example lists all VMs in the resource group named myResourceGroup:
```
az vm list -g myResourceGroup \
     --query '[].{Name:name,DiskName:storageProfile.osDisk.name}' \
	 --output table
```
The output is similar to the following example:
```
Name    DiskName
------  --------
myVM    myDisk
```
Copy the disk by creating a new managed disk and by using az disk create. The following example creates a disk named myCopiedDisk from the managed disk named myDisk:
```
az disk create --resource-group myResourceGroup \
     --name myCopiedDisk --source myDisk
```
Verify the managed disks now in your resource group by using az disk list. The following example lists the managed disks in the resource group named myResourceGroup:
```
az disk list --resource-group myResourceGroup --output table
```

Set up a virtual network

The following optional steps create a new virtual network, subnet, public IP address, and virtual network interface card (NIC).

If you are copying a VM for troubleshooting purposes or additional deployments, you might not want to use a VM in an existing virtual network.

If you want to create a virtual network infrastructure for your copied VMs, follow the next few steps. If you don't want to create a virtual network, skip to Create a VM.

Create the virtual network by using az network vnet create. The following example creates a virtual network named myVnet and a subnet named mySubnet:

az network vnet create --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --location eastus --name myVnet \
	--address-prefix 192.168.0.0/16 \
	--subnet-name mySubnet \
	--subnet-prefix 192.168.1.0/24

Create a public IP by using az network public-ip create. The following example creates a public IP named myPublicIP with the DNS name of mypublicdns. (Because the DNS name must be unique, provide a unique name.)
```
az network public-ip create --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --location eastus --name myPublicIP --dns-name mypublicdns \
	--allocation-method static --idle-timeout 4
```

Create the NIC by using az network nic create. The following example creates a NIC named myNic that's attached to the mySubnet subnet:

az network nic create --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --location eastus --name myNic \
	--vnet-name myVnet --subnet mySubnet \
	--public-ip-address myPublicIP

Create a VM

Create a VM by using az vm create.

Specify the copied managed disk to use as the OS disk (--attach-os-disk), as follows:

az vm create --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myCopiedVM --nics myNic \
	--size Standard_DS1_v2 --os-type Linux \
    --attach-os-disk myCopiedDisk

Next steps

To learn how to use a shared image gallery to manage VM images.