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Every Azure VM is created from an image — a template that contains the operating system and optionally pre-installed software. Azure provides a rich ecosystem of images through the Azure Marketplace, and you can also create and manage your own custom images.
A VM image is a snapshot of a configured virtual hard disk (VHD) that serves as the template for new VMs. An image includes:
When you create a VM, Azure uses the image to provision the OS disk for the new virtual machine.
The Azure Marketplace is a catalogue of thousands of VM images from Microsoft, open-source communities, and third-party vendors.
Marketplace images are identified by four attributes:
| Attribute | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | The organisation that created the image | Canonical, MicrosoftWindowsServer, RedHat |
| Offer | The product family | UbuntuServer, WindowsServer, RHEL |
| SKU | The specific variant | 22_04-lts, 2022-datacenter, 8_7 |
| Version | The image build version | latest, 22.04.202401010 |
# List popular Linux images
az vm image list --output table
# Search for Ubuntu images
az vm image list --offer UbuntuServer --all --output table
# List available Windows Server images
az vm image list --publisher MicrosoftWindowsServer --all --output table
# Get details for a specific image
az vm image show \
--urn Canonical:0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy:22_04-lts:latest
| OS | Publisher | Offer | SKU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | Canonical | 0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy | 22_04-lts |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | Canonical | ubuntu-24_04-lts | server |
| Windows Server 2022 | MicrosoftWindowsServer | WindowsServer | 2022-datacenter-g2 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | RedHat | RHEL | 9_3 |
| Debian 12 | Debian | debian-12 | 12 |
| SQL Server 2022 on Windows | MicrosoftSQLServer | sql2022-ws2022 | standard-gen2 |
Many marketplace images are free (you pay only for the VM compute and storage). Some images from third-party vendors carry additional licence fees that appear as a separate line item on your bill. Azure Hybrid Benefit can offset Windows Server and SQL Server licensing costs if you have existing licences.
For consistent, repeatable deployments, you can create custom images with your own software and configuration pre-installed.
The general process is:
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