Tag Archives: images

Moving Azure Images from the Commercial to the Azure Government Cloud (MAG)

*previously posted at https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nicole_welch/2016/04/moving-azure-provider-images-from-the-commercial-to-azure-government-cloud-mag/

Some times we see customers move Microsoft provided images from the Azure commercial cloud to the Azure Government (MAG) cloud.  While this is technically supported, there are several things to consider.  When using the Microsoft provided images, there are configuration settings that are specific to the cloud environment.  When you move the VM (by moving the VHD), you risk having the wrong settings for your new cloud location.

Below is a list of settings that need to be changed.  This is NOT comprehensive and will be updated as needed.  Keeping mind the various endpoint that are different as well (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/azure-government-developer-guide/)

Commercial Value MAG Value
KMS kms.core.windows.net:1688 kms.core.usgovcloudapi.net:1688

Working with Azure ARM VMs, Images, and Unmanaged Disk (Storage Accounts)

A lot of the pre-managed disk documentation has become hard to find.  Below is a cheat-sheet on where to find the documents you need to work with Azure ARM VMs, images, and storage accounts.

Create an Azure VM from custom image (VHD) – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sa-upload-generalized

Create an Azure VM from existing VHD – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sa-create-vm-specialized

Create an Azure VM Image (and VM) from existing Azure VM – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sa-copy-generalized

*previously posted at https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nicole_welch/2017/07/working-with-vms-images-and-unmanaged-disk-storage-accounts/