Azure Basics – Clone or Duplicate a Virtual Machine in Azure

In this article let’s discuss how can we clone or duplicate a virtual machine in Azure

We will achieve this using 3 steps

• Create a Snapshot
• Create a Managed disk from Snapshot
• Create a VM from Managed disk

Create a Snapshot for an existing VM

1. Login to Azure Portal
2. Click on the Resource Groups from the left side of the blade
3. Select the Resource Group of the VM that we need to create a snapshot
   
   
4. Click on the Disk name as shown in above screenshot
   so that you will be presented with below
   
   
5. Click on Create snapshot
   
   
6. On the next blade, Enter the snapshot name in Instance details section
   Go with defaults in next screens and in Review page click on Create to snapshot creation
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Wait till the task is completed and you see snapshot in the resource group
   

Create Managed disk from Snapshot

1. Now we have a snapshot created
2. Goto the Home page of Azure portal and click on Create a resource
   
   
   
3. Serach for Managed disks and select from the drop down
   
   
   
4. Click on Create
   
   
   
5. Provide the required details to create a clone VM. Screenshots below
   

Create a VM from Managed disk

Create VM from Managed disk requires PowerShell to complete

I have captured screenshots for creating VM and copying the commands used below

$resourcegroupname="<resourceGroupName>"

#Exiting disk
$osdiskname="W10-CreateFromSnapshot"
$osDisk = Get-AzDisk -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -DiskName $osDiskName

#Exiting vNet & NSG
$vnetname="<existing vnetname>"

(Get-AzVirtualNetwork -Name $vnetname)|select subnets

#based on above output i have selected the subnet
$vnet=(Get-AzVirtualNetwork -Name $vnetname).Subnets[1].id

$location = 'westus2'

$nsgname="<existing nsgname>"
$nsg=Get-AzNetworkSecurityGroup -Name $nsgname

# nic from existing nsg and vNet
$nicName = "W10-CreateFromSnapshot-nic-tenant"
$nic = New-AzNetworkInterface -Name $nicName `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname `
   -Location $location -SubnetId $vnet `
   -NetworkSecurityGroupId $nsg.Id

#VM configuration
$vmname="W10-CreateFromSnapshot"
$vmConfig=New-AzVMConfig -VMName $vmName -VMSize "Standard_B2ms"

#New network interface for VM
$vm = Add-AzVMNetworkInterface -VM $vmConfig -Id $nic.Id

#Add the disk
$vm = Set-AzVMOSDisk -VM $vm -ManagedDiskId $osDisk.Id -StorageAccountType Standard_LRS `
    -DiskSizeInGB 128 -CreateOption Attach -Windows

#Create VM
New-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $resourcegroupname -Location $location -VM $vm