Optional: Creating a custom VM on Azure
To create a storage blob for the custom image:
- Create a new Resource Group in the Azure portal.
- Create a Storage Account under the new Resource Group.
- Locate your blob key on the Access Keys page.
- Create a Blob on the Storage Account.
- Go to the Properties page of the Blob and get the URL.
- Use the
azcopycommand in the Azure CLI to copy the prebuilt custom VM to your new blob.$ azcopy --source [above_WIN7X86/WIN7X64_link] --destination \ https://[your _blob_URL]/win7/WIN7X86VM.vhd --dest-key \ [your_storage_account_key]
-
Once the windows VHD been copied to your own blob, create a volume from the VHD image in the Azure CLI.
$ az image create --name win7x86imagetest --resource-group testwinvm --location canadacentral --os-type Windows --source
https://customvm.blob.core.windows.net/mywin7/WIN7X86VM.vhd
To create the custom VM:
- In the Azure portal, go to the details page of the created image. Select Create VM.
- Follow the Wizard to create a Windows VM, selecting RDP as the inbound port.
- Once your VM resource is ready, select the VM name and find the public IP address, then connect to it using RDP (Windows Remote Desktop Protocol).
- The deployment window will indicate that deployment is underway or has failed, however, this can be ignored as the VM will actually be up and reachable.
- You can check the VM status screenshot on the Boot Diagnostics page to confirm the status of the VM.
- The deployment window will indicate that deployment is underway or has failed, however, this can be ignored as the VM will actually be up and reachable.
- Activate the Windows image through the Windows command prompt:
slmgr.vbs -ipk 00000-00000-00000-00000-00000slmgr.vbs -ato - If required, you can customize the VM.
- Shut down the VM (example:
cmd: shutdown -s -f -t 5).
If the VM deployment task is still running, it should be canceled.
- In the Resource Group pane for the VM in Azure portal, Delete the virtual machine. Do not delete anything else.
- Once deleted, go to the details of the disk assigned to the VM and select Disk Export. Confirm and generate the export download link for the VHD file.
- Use the
azcopycommand in the Azure CLI to import the customized windows VHD image into your Azure blob.$ azcopy --source [above_VHD_export_link] --destination \ https://[your_blob_URL]/win7/customizedWIN7X86VM.vhd \ --dest-key [your_storage_account_key]
- The customized Windows VM is now ready for FSA Azure.
To import your custom VM into FSA Azure, use the
vm-customizedcommand in the FSA CLI.
For example:> azure-vm-customized -cn -voWindows7_64 -vnWIN7X64VMvhd -s[Subscription ID] -g[this_resource_group_name] -a[this_storage_account_name] -k[this_storage_account_key] -fcustomwinvm -bcustomizedWIN7X64VM.vhd -r > azure-vm-customized -cn -voWindows7 -vnWIN7X86VMvhd -s[Subscription ID] -g[this_resource_group_name] -a[this_storage_account_name] -k[this_storage_account_key] -f[this_blob_name] -bcustomizedWIN7X86VM.vhd -r