Create a virtual machine from a snapshot with CLI

This script creates a virtual machine from a snapshot of an OS disk.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

• Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.

  

• If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.

  • If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.

  • When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.

  • Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

Sample script

Launch Azure Cloud Shell

The Azure Cloud Shell is a free interactive shell that you can use to run the steps in this article. It has common Azure tools preinstalled and configured to use with your account.

To open the Cloud Shell, just select Try it from the upper right corner of a code block. You can also launch Cloud Shell in a separate browser tab by going to https://shell.azure.com.

When Cloud Shell opens, verify that Bash is selected for your environment. Subsequent sessions will use Azure CLI in a Bash environment, Select Copy to copy the blocks of code, paste it into the Cloud Shell, and press Enter to run it.

Sign in to Azure

Cloud Shell is automatically authenticated under the initial account signed-in with. Use the following script to sign in using a different subscription, replacing <Subscription ID> with your Azure Subscription ID. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

subscription="<subscriptionId>" # add subscription here

az account set -s $subscription # ...or use 'az login'

For more information, see set active subscription or log in interactively

Run the script

#Provide the subscription Id of the subscription where you want to create Managed Disks
subscriptionId="<subscriptionId>"

#Provide the name of your resource group
resourceGroupName=myResourceGroupName

#Provide the name of the snapshot that will be used to create Managed Disks
snapshotName=mySnapshotName

#Provide the name of the Managed Disk
osDiskName=myOSDiskName

#Provide the size of the disks in GB. It should be greater than the VHD file size.
diskSize=128

#Provide the storage type for Managed Disk. Premium_LRS or Standard_LRS.
storageType=Premium_LRS

#Provide the OS type
osType=linux

#Provide the name of the virtual machine
virtualMachineName=myVirtualMachineName


#Set the context to the subscription Id where Managed Disk will be created
az account set --subscription $subscriptionId

#Get the snapshot Id 
snapshotId=$(az snapshot show --name $snapshotName --resource-group $resourceGroupName --query [id] -o tsv)

#Create a new Managed Disks using the snapshot Id
az disk create --resource-group $resourceGroupName --name $osDiskName --sku $storageType --size-gb $diskSize --source $snapshotId 

#Create VM by attaching created managed disks as OS
az vm create --name $virtualMachineName --resource-group $resourceGroupName --attach-os-disk $osDiskName --os-type $osType

Clean up resources

Run the following command to remove the resource group, VM, and all related resources.

az group delete --name myResourceGroupName

Sample reference

This script uses the following commands to create a managed disk, virtual machine, and all related resources. Each command in the table links to command specific documentation.

Command	Notes
az snapshot show	Gets snapshot using snapshot name and resource group name. Id property of the returned object is used to create a managed disk.
az disk create	Creates managed disks from a snapshot using snapshot Id, disk name, storage type, and size
az vm create	Creates a VM using a managed OS disk

Next steps

For more information on the Azure CLI, see Azure CLI documentation.

Additional virtual machine CLI script samples can be found in the Azure Linux VM documentation.