Create an Azure VM from an image created under a different subscription

Question

Is there a way to make a backup of a virtual machine (capturing an image using the sysprep method), and then make that image in the gallery visible to someone under a subscription. For example, I create a virtual machine, archive it in the image gallery, then my colleague comes and wants to create a virtual machine from this image (the colleague cannot be a co-administrator for my subscription).

Alternatively, is there a way to move the virtual machine to another subscription without deleting and re-creating it?

You have found the following, but this is a bit confusing and requires the purchase of third-party software.

http://gauravmantri.com/2012/07/04/how-to-move-windows-azure-virtual-machines-from-one-subscription-to-another/

Many thanks

Richard Clark

Answer 1

I do not think that you can use images created in one subscription to create virtual machines in another subscription. You will need to copy these images to your subscription. Since the images are nothing more than the Blobs page in your vault account, you will need to copy them to the vault account in the target subscription, create images from them and then deploy the virtual machines. I do not know anyone else.

As for your comment on requires purchase of third party software , it is not. You do not need to buy third-party software. The main thing is to move your VHD (which are page blocks) from one subscription to another. Take a look at Step 1 - Copy Blobs in this blog post. It has a link to a console application with source code that you can use to copy blob. I used Cloud Storage Studio to explore my blob storage. You can use any other explorer to check the contents of the blob repository (including the Windows Azure portal). Cerebrata recently released a free blob memory explorer that you can check out: http://www.cerebrata.com/labs/azure-explorer .

Unfortunately, the only way I know is to create an Azure VM from images created under different subscriptions.

Answer 2

Transfer the image to your subscription.

Images are saved as .vhd files in the Azure Storage Account. Copy the .vhd file of your Azure VM image from an existing subscription to the desired subscription. You must have access to both subscriptions. You can use the follwing tool to automate this process:

The Azure Data Center Migration Migration Solution (ADCMS) is designed to address common migration scenarios, such as moving to a closer data center with a lower latency; Deploying the same solution configuration for multiple data centers or even moving between subscriptions, for example, from a test MSDN account to a full production deployment.

See this blog post for more information: Azure Data Center Migration Tools Blog