Exercise - Explore other VM images

  • 3 minutes

We used UbuntuLTS for the image to create the virtual machine. Azure has several standard VM images you can use to create a virtual machine.

Note

This exercise is optional. If you want to complete this exercise, you'll need to create an Azure subscription before you begin. If you don't have an Azure account or you don't want to create one at this time, you can read through the instructions so you understand the information that's being presented.

Listing images

You can get a list of the available VM images using the following command:

az vm image list --output table

Note

If you get the error az: command not found, type exit into the shell and try again.

This outputs the most popular images that are part of an offline list built into the Azure CLI. However, there are hundreds of image options available in the Azure Marketplace.

Getting all images

You can get a full list by adding the --all flag to the command. Because the list of images in the Marketplace is very large, it's helpful to filter the list with the --publisher, --sku or –-offer options.

For example, try the following command to see all Wordpress images available:

az vm image list --sku Wordpress --output table --all

Or this command to see all images provided by Microsoft:

az vm image list --publisher Microsoft --output table --all

These commands can take a few moments to complete.

Location-specific images

Some images are only available in certain locations. Try adding the --location [location] flag to the command to scope the results to ones available in the region where you want to create the virtual machine. For example, type the following into Azure Cloud Shell to get a list of images available in the eastus region.

az vm image list --location eastus --output table

Try checking some of the images in the other Azure available locations.

Tip

These are the standard images that are provided by Azure. Keep in mind that you can also create and upload your own custom images to create VMs based on unique configurations or less common versions or distributions of an operating system.

Your command window is probably full now. If you like, you can type clear to clear the screen.