Windows Azure were more popular in creating VMs (Virtual
Machines) in your cloud and login remotely to them and access them as remotely.
By the time Microsoft has implemented number of images (OS) to install in to
it. Now they are expanding the ability to create images by users or customers.
They have introduced the private preview of Azure VM Image Builder, a service
which allows users to have an image building pipeline in Azure. To configure
the image creation set up with Azure VM Image Builder, you can take an ISO or
Azure Marketplace image and start creating your own golden images in a few
steps.
How Image
Builder works?
To start with Image builder first you need to get in to Linux-based
Azure Marketplace VM or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) ISO and begin to add
your own customizations. Your customizations can be added in the form of a
shell script, and because the VM Image Builder is built on HashiCorp
Packer, you can also import your existing Packer shell provisioner scripts
![]() |
Source: Azure Blog |
Key Features
Migrating an existing image customization pipeline to Azure. If you have you
own created pipelines previously you can import your existing shell scripts or
Packer shell provisioner scripts.
Migrating your Red Hat subscription to Azure using Red Hat Cloud Access. If you have any unused Red Hat subscriptions, they will be used to Red Hat Enterprise Linux VMs.
Azure Shared image gallery is integrated for image management and distribution
Integration with your existing CI/CD pipeline. An integral part of
your application build and release process, simplify image customization
![]() |
Source: Azure Blog |
- Supporting Platforms
As for now, private preview will support Azure Marketplace Linux
images (specifically Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04). But they have mentioned that
Support for windows will be available soon.
- API Integration
VM Image Builder API is ready to use and can call the VM Image
Builder API from your existing tooling
- VM Image Builder essentially Packer as a Service
The VM Image Builder API shares similar style to Packer
manifests, and is optimized to support building images for Azure, supporting
Packer shell provisioner scripts.
- Image lifecycle management
For this
release, Microsft supports only for creation of images, but not ongoing
updates.The updates for images will be added soon.
- Cost
For private preview, Azure VM Image Builder is free. In Azure
storages there will be a cost for image storing, as standard price. pricing rates.
You can sign up for Private Preview for Azure VM Image Builder
from this link.
Full article on the Azure Blog can be found here.
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