Azure Instance Metadata Service

  • Article

Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Windows VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets

The Azure Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) provides information about currently running virtual machine instances. You can use it to manage and configure your virtual machines. This information includes the SKU, storage, network configurations, and upcoming maintenance events. For a complete list of the data available, see the Endpoint Categories Summary.

IMDS is available for running instances of virtual machines (VMs) and scale set instances. All endpoints support VMs created and managed by using Azure Resource Manager. Only the Attested category and Network portion of the Instance category support VMs created by using the classic deployment model. The Attested endpoint does so only to a limited extent.

IMDS is a REST API that's available at a well-known, non-routable IP address (169.254.169.254). You can only access it from within the VM. Communication between the VM and IMDS never leaves the host. Have your HTTP clients bypass web proxies within the VM when querying IMDS, and treat 169.254.169.254 the same as 168.63.129.16.

Usage

Access Azure Instance Metadata Service

To access IMDS, create a VM from Azure Resource Manager or the Azure portal, and use the following samples. For more examples, see Azure Instance Metadata Samples.

Here's sample code to retrieve all metadata for an instance. To access a specific data source, see Endpoint Categories for an overview of all available features.

Request

Important

This example bypasses proxies. You must bypass proxies when querying IMDS. See Proxies for additional information.

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance?api-version=2021-02-01" | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 64

-NoProxy requires PowerShell V6 or greater. See our samples repository for examples with older PowerShell versions.

Response

Note

The response is a JSON string. The following example response is pretty-printed for readability.

{
    "compute": {
        "azEnvironment": "AZURECHINACLOUD",
        "additionalCapabilities": {
            "hibernationEnabled": "true"
        },
        "hostGroup": {
          "id": "testHostGroupId"
        }, 
        "extendedLocation": {
            "type": "edgeZone",
            "name": "microsoftlosangeles"
        },
        "evictionPolicy": "",
        "isHostCompatibilityLayerVm": "true",
        "licenseType":  "Windows_Client",
        "location": "chinanorth",
        "name": "examplevmname",
        "offer": "WindowsServer",
        "osProfile": {
            "adminUsername": "admin",
            "computerName": "examplevmname",
            "disablePasswordAuthentication": "true"
        },
        "osType": "Windows",
        "placementGroupId": "f67c14ab-e92c-408c-ae2d-da15866ec79a",
        "plan": {
            "name": "planName",
            "product": "planProduct",
            "publisher": "planPublisher"
        },
        "platformFaultDomain": "36",
        "platformSubFaultDomain": "",        
        "platformUpdateDomain": "42",
        "priority": "Regular",
        "publicKeys": [{
                "keyData": "ssh-rsa 0",
                "path": "/home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys0"
            },
            {
                "keyData": "ssh-rsa 1",
                "path": "/home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys1"
            }
        ],
        "publisher": "RDFE-Test-Microsoft-Windows-Server-Group",
        "resourceGroupName": "macikgo-test-may-23",
        "resourceId": "/subscriptions/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/macikgo-test-may-23/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/examplevmname",
        "securityProfile": {
            "secureBootEnabled": "true",
            "virtualTpmEnabled": "false",
            "encryptionAtHost": "true",
            "securityType": "TrustedLaunch"
        },
        "sku": "2019-Datacenter",
        "storageProfile": {
            "dataDisks": [{
                "bytesPerSecondThrottle": "979202048",
                "caching": "None",
                "createOption": "Empty",
                "diskCapacityBytes": "274877906944",
                "diskSizeGB": "1024",
                "image": {
                  "uri": ""
                },
                "isSharedDisk": "false",
                "isUltraDisk": "true",
                "lun": "0",
                "managedDisk": {
                  "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/macikgo-test-may-23/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/exampledatadiskname",
                  "storageAccountType": "StandardSSD_LRS"
                },
                "name": "exampledatadiskname",
                "opsPerSecondThrottle": "65280",
                "vhd": {
                  "uri": ""
                },
                "writeAcceleratorEnabled": "false"
            }],
            "imageReference": {
                "id": "",
                "offer": "WindowsServer",
                "publisher": "MicrosoftWindowsServer",
                "sku": "2019-Datacenter",
                "version": "latest",
                "communityGalleryImageId": "/CommunityGalleries/testgallery/Images/1804Gen2/Versions/latest",
                "sharedGalleryImageId": "/SharedGalleries/1P/Images/gen2/Versions/latest",
                "exactVersion": "1.1686127202.30113"
            },
            "osDisk": {
                "caching": "ReadWrite",
                "createOption": "FromImage",
                "diskSizeGB": "30",
                "diffDiskSettings": {
                    "option": "Local"
                },
                "encryptionSettings": {
                  "enabled": "false",
                  "diskEncryptionKey": {
                    "sourceVault": {
                      "id": "/subscriptions/test-source-guid/resourceGroups/testrg/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/test-kv"
                    },
                    "secretUrl": "https://test-disk.vault.azure.cn/secrets/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx"
                  },
                  "keyEncryptionKey": {
                    "sourceVault": {
                      "id": "/subscriptions/test-key-guid/resourceGroups/testrg/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/test-kv"
                    },
                    "keyUrl": "https://test-key.vault.azure.cn/secrets/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx"
                  }
                },
                "image": {
                    "uri": ""
                },
                "managedDisk": {
                    "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/macikgo-test-may-23/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/exampleosdiskname",
                    "storageAccountType": "StandardSSD_LRS"
                },
                "name": "exampleosdiskname",
                "osType": "Windows",
                "vhd": {
                    "uri": ""
                },
                "writeAcceleratorEnabled": "false"
            },
            "resourceDisk": {
                "size": "4096"
            }
        },
        "subscriptionId": "xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx",
        "tags": "baz:bash;foo:bar",
        "userData": "Zm9vYmFy",
        "version": "15.05.22",
        "virtualMachineScaleSet": {
            "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxxx-xxx-xxx-xxxx/resourceGroups/resource-group-name/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtual-machine-scale-set-name"
        },
        "vmId": "02aab8a4-74ef-476e-8182-f6d2ba4166a6",
        "vmScaleSetName": "crpteste9vflji9",
        "vmSize": "Standard_A3",
        "zone": ""
    },
    "network": {
        "interface": [{
            "ipv4": {
               "ipAddress": [{
                    "privateIpAddress": "10.144.133.132",
                    "publicIpAddress": ""
                }],
                "subnet": [{
                    "address": "10.144.133.128",
                    "prefix": "26"
                }]
            },
            "ipv6": {
                "ipAddress": [
                 ]
            },
            "macAddress": "0011AAFFBB22"
        }]
    }
}

Security and authentication

The Instance Metadata Service is only accessible from within a running virtual machine instance on a non-routable IP address. VMs can only interact with their own metadata/functionality. The API is HTTP only and never leaves the host.

In order to ensure that requests are directly intended for IMDS and prevent unintended or unwanted redirection of requests, requests:

  • Must contain the header Metadata: true
  • Must not contain an X-Forwarded-For header

Any request that doesn't meet both of these requirements are rejected by the service.

Important

IMDS is not a channel for sensitive data. The API is unauthenticated and open to all processes on the VM. Information exposed through this service should be considered as shared information to all applications running inside the VM.

If it isn't necessary for every process on the VM to access IMDS endpoint, you can set local firewall rules to limit the access. For example, if only a known system service needs to access instance metadata service, you can set a firewall rule on IMDS endpoint, only allowing the specific process(es) to access, or denying access for the rest of the processes.

Proxies

IMDS is not intended to be used behind a proxy and doing so is unsupported. Most HTTP clients provide an option for you to disable proxies on your requests, and this functionality must be utilized when communicating with IMDS. Consult your client's documentation for details.

Important

Even if you don't know of any proxy configuration in your environment, you still must override any default client proxy settings. Proxy configurations can be automatically discovered, and failing to bypass such configurations exposes you to outage risks should the machine's configuration be changed in the future.

Rate limiting

In general, requests to IMDS are limited to 5 requests per second (on a per VM basis). Requests exceeding this threshold will be rejected with 429 responses. Requests to the Managed Identity category are limited to 20 requests per second and 5 concurrent requests (on a per VM basis).

HTTP verbs

The following HTTP verbs are currently supported:

Verb Description
GET Retrieve the requested resource

Parameters

Endpoints may support required and/or optional parameters. See Schema and the documentation for the specific endpoint in question for details.

Query parameters

IMDS endpoints support HTTP query string parameters. For example:

http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/compute?api-version=2021-01-01&format=json

Specifies the parameters:

Name Value
api-version 2021-01-01
format json

Requests with duplicate query parameter names will be rejected.

Route parameters

For some endpoints that return larger json blobs, we support appending route parameters to the request endpoint to filter down to a subset of the response:

http://169.254.169.254/metadata/<endpoint>/[<filter parameter>/...]?<query parameters>

The parameters correspond to the indexes/keys that would be used to walk down the json object were you interacting with a parsed representation.

For example, /metadata/instance returns the json object:

{
    "compute": { ... },
    "network": {
        "interface": [
            {
                "ipv4": {
                   "ipAddress": [{
                        "privateIpAddress": "10.144.133.132",
                        "publicIpAddress": ""
                    }],
                    "subnet": [{
                        "address": "10.144.133.128",
                        "prefix": "26"
                    }]
                },
                "ipv6": {
                    "ipAddress": [
                     ]
                },
                "macAddress": "0011AAFFBB22"
            },
            ...
        ]
    }
}

If we want to filter the response down to just the compute property, we would send the request:

http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/compute?api-version=<version>

Similarly, if we want to filter to a nested property or specific array element we keep appending keys:

http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/network/interface/0?api-version=<version>

would filter to the first element from the Network.interface property and return:

{
    "ipv4": {
       "ipAddress": [{
            "privateIpAddress": "10.144.133.132",
            "publicIpAddress": ""
        }],
        "subnet": [{
            "address": "10.144.133.128",
            "prefix": "26"
        }]
    },
    "ipv6": {
        "ipAddress": [
         ]
    },
    "macAddress": "0011AAFFBB22"
}

Note

When filtering to a leaf node, format=json doesn't work. For these queries format=text needs to be explicitly specified since the default format is json.

Schema

Data format

By default, IMDS returns data in JSON format (Content-Type: application/json). However, endpoints that support response filtering (see Route Parameters) also support the format text.

To access a non-default response format, specify the requested format as a query string parameter in the request. For example:

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance?api-version=2017-08-01&format=text"

In json responses, all primitives will be of type string, and missing or inapplicable values are always included but will be set to an empty string.

Versioning

IMDS is versioned and specifying the API version in the HTTP request is mandatory. The only exception to this requirement is the versions endpoint, which can be used to dynamically retrieve the available API versions.

As newer versions are added, older versions can still be accessed for compatibility if your scripts have dependencies on specific data formats.

When you don't specify a version, you get an error with a list of the newest supported versions:

{
    "error": "Bad request. api-version was not specified in the request. For more information refer to aka.ms/azureimds",
    "newest-versions": [
        "2020-10-01",
        "2020-09-01",
        "2020-07-15"
    ]
}

Supported API versions

Note

Version 2023-11-15 is still being rolled out, it may not be available in some regions.

  • 2023-11-15
  • 2023-07-01
  • 2021-12-13
  • 2021-11-15
  • 2021-11-01
  • 2021-10-01
  • 2021-08-01
  • 2021-05-01
  • 2021-03-01
  • 2021-02-01
  • 2021-01-01
  • 2020-12-01
  • 2020-10-01
  • 2020-09-01
  • 2020-07-15
  • 2020-06-01
  • 2019-11-01
  • 2019-08-15
  • 2019-08-01
  • 2019-06-04
  • 2019-06-01
  • 2019-04-30
  • 2019-03-11
  • 2019-02-01
  • 2018-10-01
  • 2018-04-02
  • 2018-02-01
  • 2017-12-01
  • 2017-10-01
  • 2017-08-01
  • 2017-04-02
  • 2017-03-01

Swagger

A full Swagger definition for IMDS is available at: https://github.com/Azure/azure-rest-api-specs/blob/main/specification/imds/data-plane/readme.md

Root endpoint

The root endpoint is http://169.254.169.254/metadata.

Endpoint categories

The IMDS API contains multiple endpoint categories representing different data sources, each of which contains one or more endpoints. See each category for details.

Category root Description Version introduced
/metadata/attested See Attested Data 2018-10-01
/metadata/identity See Managed Identity via IMDS 2018-02-01
/metadata/instance See Instance Metadata 2017-04-02
/metadata/loadbalancer See Retrieve Load Balancer metadata via IMDS 2020-10-01
/metadata/scheduledevents See Scheduled Events via IMDS 2017-08-01
/metadata/versions See Versions N/A

Versions

List API versions

Returns the set of supported API versions.

GET /metadata/versions

Parameters

None (this endpoint is unversioned).

Response

{
  "apiVersions": [
    "2017-03-01",
    "2017-04-02",
    ...
  ]
}

Instance metadata

Get VM metadata

Exposes the important metadata for the VM instance, including compute, network, and storage.

GET /metadata/instance

Parameters

Name Required/Optional Description
api-version Required The version used to service the request.
format Optional* The format (json or text) of the response. *Note: May be required when using request parameters

This endpoint supports response filtering via route parameters.

Response

{
    "compute": {
        "azEnvironment": "AZURECHINACLOUD",
        "additionalCapabilities": {
            "hibernationEnabled": "true"
        },
        "hostGroup": {
          "id": "testHostGroupId"
        }, 
        "extendedLocation": {
            "type": "edgeZone",
            "name": "microsoftlosangeles"
        },
        "evictionPolicy": "",
        "isHostCompatibilityLayerVm": "true",
        "licenseType":  "Windows_Client",
        "location": "chinanorth",
        "name": "examplevmname",
        "offer": "WindowsServer",
        "osProfile": {
            "adminUsername": "admin",
            "computerName": "examplevmname",
            "disablePasswordAuthentication": "true"
        },
        "osType": "Windows",
        "placementGroupId": "f67c14ab-e92c-408c-ae2d-da15866ec79a",
        "plan": {
            "name": "planName",
            "product": "planProduct",
            "publisher": "planPublisher"
        },
        "platformFaultDomain": "36",
        "platformSubFaultDomain": "",        
        "platformUpdateDomain": "42",
        "priority": "Regular",
        "publicKeys": [{
                "keyData": "ssh-rsa 0",
                "path": "/home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys0"
            },
            {
                "keyData": "ssh-rsa 1",
                "path": "/home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys1"
            }
        ],
        "publisher": "RDFE-Test-Microsoft-Windows-Server-Group",
        "resourceGroupName": "macikgo-test-may-23",
        "resourceId": "/subscriptions/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/macikgo-test-may-23/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/examplevmname",
        "securityProfile": {
            "secureBootEnabled": "true",
            "virtualTpmEnabled": "false",
            "encryptionAtHost": "true",
            "securityType": "TrustedLaunch"
        },
        "sku": "2019-Datacenter",
        "storageProfile": {
            "dataDisks": [{
                "bytesPerSecondThrottle": "979202048",
                "caching": "None",
                "createOption": "Empty",
                "diskCapacityBytes": "274877906944",
                "diskSizeGB": "1024",
                "image": {
                  "uri": ""
                },
                "isSharedDisk": "false",
                "isUltraDisk": "true",
                "lun": "0",
                "managedDisk": {
                  "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/macikgo-test-may-23/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/exampledatadiskname",
                  "storageAccountType": "StandardSSD_LRS"
                },
                "name": "exampledatadiskname",
                "opsPerSecondThrottle": "65280",
                "vhd": {
                  "uri": ""
                },
                "writeAcceleratorEnabled": "false"
            }],
            "imageReference": {
                "id": "",
                "offer": "WindowsServer",
                "publisher": "MicrosoftWindowsServer",
                "sku": "2019-Datacenter",
                "version": "latest",
                "communityGalleryImageId": "/CommunityGalleries/testgallery/Images/1804Gen2/Versions/latest",
                "sharedGalleryImageId": "/SharedGalleries/1P/Images/gen2/Versions/latest",
                "exactVersion": "1.1686127202.30113"
            },
            "osDisk": {
                "caching": "ReadWrite",
                "createOption": "FromImage",
                "diskSizeGB": "30",
                "diffDiskSettings": {
                    "option": "Local"
                },
                "encryptionSettings": {
                  "enabled": "false",
                  "diskEncryptionKey": {
                    "sourceVault": {
                      "id": "/subscriptions/test-source-guid/resourceGroups/testrg/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/test-kv"
                    },
                    "secretUrl": "https://test-disk.vault.azure.cn/secrets/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx"
                  },
                  "keyEncryptionKey": {
                    "sourceVault": {
                      "id": "/subscriptions/test-key-guid/resourceGroups/testrg/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/test-kv"
                    },
                    "keyUrl": "https://test-key.vault.azure.cn/secrets/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx"
                  }
                },
                "image": {
                    "uri": ""
                },
                "managedDisk": {
                    "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/macikgo-test-may-23/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/exampleosdiskname",
                    "storageAccountType": "StandardSSD_LRS"
                },
                "name": "exampleosdiskname",
                "osType": "Windows",
                "vhd": {
                    "uri": ""
                },
                "writeAcceleratorEnabled": "false"
            },
            "resourceDisk": {
                "size": "4096"
            }
        },
        "subscriptionId": "xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx",
        "tags": "baz:bash;foo:bar",
        "userData": "Zm9vYmFy",
        "version": "15.05.22",
        "virtualMachineScaleSet": {
            "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxxx-xxx-xxx-xxxx/resourceGroups/resource-group-name/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtual-machine-scale-set-name"
        },
        "vmId": "02aab8a4-74ef-476e-8182-f6d2ba4166a6",
        "vmScaleSetName": "crpteste9vflji9",
        "vmSize": "Standard_A3",
        "zone": ""
    },
    "network": {
        "interface": [{
            "ipv4": {
               "ipAddress": [{
                    "privateIpAddress": "10.144.133.132",
                    "publicIpAddress": ""
                }],
                "subnet": [{
                    "address": "10.144.133.128",
                    "prefix": "26"
                }]
            },
            "ipv6": {
                "ipAddress": [
                 ]
            },
            "macAddress": "0011AAFFBB22"
        }]
    }
}

Schema breakdown:

Compute

Data Description Version introduced
azEnvironment Azure Environment where the VM is running in 2018-10-01
additionalCapabilities.hibernationEnabled Identifies if hibernation is enabled on the VM 2021-11-01
customData This feature is deprecated and disabled in IMDS. It has been superseded by userData 2019-02-01
extendedLocation.type Type of the extended location of the VM. 2021-03-01
extendedLocation.name Name of the extended location of the VM 2021-03-01
host.id Name of the host of the VM. Note that a VM will either have a host or a hostGroup but not both. 2021-11-15
hostGroup.id Name of the hostGroup of the VM. Note that a VM will either have a host or a hostGroup but not both. 2021-11-15
isHostCompatibilityLayerVm Identifies if the VM runs on the Host Compatibility Layer 2020-06-01
licenseType Type of license for Azure Hybrid Benefit. This is only present for AHB-enabled VMs 2020-09-01
location Azure Region the VM is running in 2017-04-02
name Name of the VM 2017-04-02
offer Offer information for the VM image and is only present for images deployed from Azure image gallery 2017-04-02
osProfile.adminUsername Specifies the name of the admin account 2020-07-15
osProfile.computerName Specifies the name of the computer 2020-07-15
osProfile.disablePasswordAuthentication Specifies if password authentication is disabled. This is only present for Linux VMs 2020-10-01
osType Linux or Windows 2017-04-02
physicalZone Physical zone of the VM 2023-11-15
placementGroupId Placement Group of your scale set 2017-08-01
plan Plan containing name, product, and publisher for a VM if it's an Azure Marketplace Image 2018-04-02
platformUpdateDomain Update domain the VM is running in 2017-04-02
platformFaultDomain Fault domain the VM is running in 2017-04-02
platformSubFaultDomain Sub fault domain the VM is running in, if applicable. 2021-10-01
provider Provider of the VM 2018-10-01
publicKeys Collection of Public Keys assigned to the VM and paths 2018-04-02
publisher Publisher of the VM image 2017-04-02
resourceGroupName Resource group for your Virtual Machine 2017-08-01
resourceId The fully qualified ID of the resource 2019-03-11
sku Specific SKU for the VM image 2017-04-02
securityProfile.secureBootEnabled Identifies if UEFI secure boot is enabled on the VM 2020-06-01
securityProfile.virtualTpmEnabled Identifies if the virtual Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is enabled on the VM 2020-06-01
securityProfile.encryptionAtHost Identifies if Encryption at Host is enabled on the VM 2021-11-01
securityProfile.securityType Identifies if the VM is a Trusted VM 2021-12-13
storageProfile See Storage Profile below 2019-06-01
subscriptionId Azure subscription for the Virtual Machine 2017-08-01
tags Tags for your Virtual Machine 2017-08-01
tagsList Tags formatted as a JSON array for easier programmatic parsing 2019-06-04
userData The set of data specified when the VM was created for use during or after provisioning (Base64 encoded) 2021-01-01
version Version of the VM image 2017-04-02
virtualMachineScaleSet.id ID of the Virtual Machine Scale Set created with flexible orchestration the Virtual Machine is part of. This field isn't available for Virtual Machine Scale Sets created with uniform orchestration. 2021-03-01
vmId Unique identifier for the VM. The blog referenced only suits for VMs that have SMBIOS < 2.6. For VMs that have SMBIOS >= 2.6, the UUID from DMI is displayed in little-endian format, thus, there's no requirement to switch bytes. 2017-04-02
vmScaleSetName Virtual Machine Scale Set Name of your scale set 2017-12-01
vmSize VM size 2017-04-02
zone Availability Zone of your virtual machine 2017-12-01

† This version isn't fully available yet and may not be supported in all regions.

Storage profile

The storage profile of a VM is divided into three categories: image reference, OS disk, and data disks, plus an additional object for the local temporary disk.

The image reference object contains the following information about the OS image, please note that an image could come either from the platform, or marketplace but not both:

Data Description Version introduced
id Resource ID 2019-06-01
offer Offer of the platform or marketplace image 2019-06-01
publisher Publisher of the platform or marketplace image 2019-06-01
sku Sku of the platform or marketplace image 2019-06-01
version Version of the image 2019-06-01
communityGalleryImageId Resource ID of the community image, empty otherwise 2023-07-01
sharedGalleryImageId Resource ID o direct shared image, empty otherwise 2023-07-01
exactVersion Version of the community or direct shared image 2023-07-01

The OS disk object contains the following information about the OS disk used by the VM:

Data Description
caching Caching requirements
createOption Information about how the VM was created
diffDiskSettings Ephemeral disk settings
diskSizeGB Size of the disk in GB
image Source user image virtual hard disk
managedDisk Managed disk parameters
name Disk name
vhd Virtual hard disk
writeAcceleratorEnabled Whether or not writeAccelerator is enabled on the disk

The data disks array contains a list of data disks attached to the VM. Each data disk object contains the following information:

Data Description Version introduced
bytesPerSecondThrottle* Disk read/write quota in bytes 2021-05-01
caching Caching requirements 2019-06-01
createOption Information about how the VM was created 2019-06-01
diffDiskSettings Ephemeral disk settings 2019-06-01
diskCapacityBytes* Size of disk in bytes 2021-05-01
diskSizeGB Size of the disk in GB 2019-06-01
encryptionSettings Encryption settings for the disk 2019-06-01
image Source user image virtual hard disk 2019-06-01
isSharedDisk* Identifies if the disk is shared between resources 2021-05-01
isUltraDisk Identifies if the data disk is an Ultra Disk 2021-05-01
lun Logical unit number of the disk 2019-06-01
managedDisk Managed disk parameters 2019-06-01
name Disk name 2019-06-01
opsPerSecondThrottle* Disk read/write quota in IOPS 2021-05-01
osType Type of OS included in the disk 2019-06-01
vhd Virtual hard disk 2019-06-01
writeAcceleratorEnabled Whether or not writeAccelerator is enabled on the disk 2019-06-01

*These fields are only populated for Ultra Disks; they are empty strings from non-Ultra Disks.

The encryption settings blob contains data about how the disk is encrypted (if it's encrypted):

Data Description Version introduced
diskEncryptionKey.sourceVault.id The location of the disk encryption key 2021-11-01
diskEncryptionKey.secretUrl The location of the secret 2021-11-01
keyEncryptionKey.sourceVault.id The location of the key encryption key 2021-11-01
keyEncryptionKey.keyUrl The location of the key 2021-11-01

The resource disk object contains the size of the Local Temp Disk attached to the VM, if it has one, in kilobytes. If there's no local temp disk for the VM, this value is 0.

Data Description Version introduced
resourceDisk.size Size of the local temp disk for the VM (in kB) 2021-02-01

Network

Data Description Version introduced
ipv4.privateIpAddress Local IPv4 address of the VM 2017-04-02
ipv4.publicIpAddress Public IPv4 address of the VM 2017-04-02
subnet.address Subnet address of the VM 2017-04-02
subnet.prefix Subnet prefix, example 24 2017-04-02
ipv6.ipAddress Local IPv6 address of the VM 2017-04-02
macAddress VM mac address 2017-04-02

Note

The nics returned by the network call are not guaranteed to be in order.

Get user data

When creating a new VM, you can specify a set of data to be used during or after the VM provision, and retrieve it through IMDS. Check the end to end user data experience here.

To set up user data, utilize the quickstart template here. The sample below shows how to retrieve this data through IMDS. This feature is released with version 2021-01-01 and above.

Note

Security notice: IMDS is open to all applications on the VM, sensitive data should not be placed in the user data.

$userData = Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/compute/userData?api-version=2021-01-01&format=text"
[System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetString([Convert]::FromBase64String($userData))

Sample 1: Tracking VM running on Azure

As a service provider, you may require to track the number of VMs running your software or have agents that need to track uniqueness of the VM. To be able to get a unique ID for a VM, use the vmId field from Instance Metadata Service.

Request

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/compute/vmId?api-version=2017-08-01&format=text"

Response

5c08b38e-4d57-4c23-ac45-aca61037f084

Sample 2: Placement of different data replicas

For certain scenarios, placement of different data replicas is of prime importance. For example, HDFS replica placement or container placement via an orchestrator might require you to know the platformFaultDomain and platformUpdateDomain the VM is running on. You can also use Availability Zones for the instances to make these decisions. You can query this data directly via IMDS.

Request

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/compute/platformFaultDomain?api-version=2017-08-01&format=text"

Response

0

Sample 3: Get VM tags

VM tags are included the instance API under instance/compute/tags endpoint. Tags may have been applied to your Azure VM to logically organize them into a taxonomy. The tags assigned to a VM can be retrieved by using the request below.

Request

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/compute/tags?api-version=2017-08-01&format=text"

Response

Department:IT;ReferenceNumber:123456;TestStatus:Pending

The tags field is a string with the tags delimited by semicolons. This output can be a problem if semicolons are used in the tags themselves. If a parser is written to programmatically extract the tags, you should rely on the tagsList field. The tagsList field is a JSON array with no delimiters, and consequently, easier to parse. The tagsList assigned to a VM can be retrieved by using the request below.

Request

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/compute/tagsList?api-version=2019-06-04" | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 64

Response

{
    "value":  [
                  {
                      "name":  "Department",
                      "value":  "IT"
                  },
                  {
                      "name":  "ReferenceNumber",
                      "value":  "123456"
                  },
                  {
                      "name":  "TestStatus",
                      "value":  "Pending"
                  }
              ],
    "Count":  3
}

Sample 4: Get more information about the VM during support case

As a service provider, you may get a support call where you would like to know more information about the VM. Asking the customer to share the compute metadata can provide basic information for the support professional to know about the kind of VM on Azure.

Request

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/compute?api-version=2020-09-01" | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 64

Response

Note

The response is a JSON string. The following example response is pretty-printed for readability.

{
    "azEnvironment": "AZURECHINACLOUD",
    "extendedLocation": {
      "type": "edgeZone",
      "name": "microsoftlosangeles"
    },
    "evictionPolicy": "",
    "additionalCapabilities": {
        "hibernationEnabled": "false"
    },
    "hostGroup": {
      "id": "testHostGroupId"
    },
    "isHostCompatibilityLayerVm": "true",
    "licenseType":  "Windows_Client",
    "location": "chinanorth",
    "name": "examplevmname",
    "offer": "WindowsServer",
    "osProfile": {
        "adminUsername": "admin",
        "computerName": "examplevmname",
        "disablePasswordAuthentication": "true"
    },
    "osType": "Windows",
    "placementGroupId": "f67c14ab-e92c-408c-ae2d-da15866ec79a",
    "plan": {
        "name": "planName",
        "product": "planProduct",
        "publisher": "planPublisher"
    },
    "platformFaultDomain": "36",
    "platformUpdateDomain": "42",
    "priority": "Regular",
    "publicKeys": [{
            "keyData": "ssh-rsa 0",
            "path": "/home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys0"
        },
        {
            "keyData": "ssh-rsa 1",
            "path": "/home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys1"
        }
    ],
    "publisher": "RDFE-Test-Microsoft-Windows-Server-Group",
    "physicalZone": "chinanorth3-az1",
    "resourceGroupName": "macikgo-test-may-23",
    "resourceId": "/subscriptions/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/macikgo-test-may-23/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/examplevmname",
    "securityProfile": {
        "secureBootEnabled": "true",
        "virtualTpmEnabled": "false",
        "encryptionAtHost": "true",
        "securityType": "TrustedLaunch"
    },
    "sku": "2019-Datacenter",
    "storageProfile": {
        "dataDisks": [{
            "bytesPerSecondThrottle": "979202048",
            "caching": "None",
            "createOption": "Empty",
            "diskCapacityBytes": "274877906944",
            "diskSizeGB": "1024",
            "image": {
              "uri": ""
            },
            "isSharedDisk": "false",
            "isUltraDisk": "true",
            "lun": "0",
            "managedDisk": {
              "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/macikgo-test-may-23/providers/MicrosoftCompute/disks/exampledatadiskname",
              "storageAccountType": "StandardSSD_LRS"
            },
            "name": "exampledatadiskname",
            "opsPerSecondThrottle": "65280",
            "vhd": {
              "uri": ""
            },
            "writeAcceleratorEnabled": "false"
        }],
        "imageReference": {
            "id": "",
            "offer": "WindowsServer",
            "publisher": "MicrosoftWindowsServer",
            "sku": "2019-Datacenter",
            "version": "latest",
            "communityGalleryImageId": "/CommunityGalleries/testgallery/Images/1804Gen2/Versions/latest",
            "sharedGalleryImageId": "/SharedGalleries/1P/Images/gen2/Versions/latest",
            "exactVersion": "1.1686127202.30113"
        },
        "osDisk": {
            "caching": "ReadWrite",
            "createOption": "FromImage",
            "diskSizeGB": "30",
            "diffDiskSettings": {
                "option": "Local"
            },
            "encryptionSettings": {
              "enabled": "false",
              "diskEncryptionKey": {
                "sourceVault": {
                  "id": "/subscriptions/test-source-guid/resourceGroups/testrg/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/test-kv"
                },
                "secretUrl": "https://test-disk.vault.azure.cn/secrets/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx"
              },
              "keyEncryptionKey": {
                "sourceVault": {
                  "id": "/subscriptions/test-key-guid/resourceGroups/testrg/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/test-kv"
                },
                "keyUrl": "https://test-key.vault.azure.cn/secrets/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx"
              }
            },
            "image": {
                "uri": ""
            },
            "managedDisk": {
                "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/macikgo-test-may-23/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/exampleosdiskname",
                "storageAccountType": "StandardSSD_LRS"
            },
            "name": "exampleosdiskname",
            "osType": "Windows",
            "vhd": {
                "uri": ""
            },
            "writeAcceleratorEnabled": "false"
        },
        "resourceDisk": {
            "size": "4096"
        }
    },
    "subscriptionId": "xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx",
    "tags": "baz:bash;foo:bar",
    "version": "15.05.22",
    "virtualMachineScaleSet": {
      "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxxx-xxx-xxx-xxxx/resourceGroups/resource-group-name/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtual-machine-scale-set-name"
    },
    "vmId": "02aab8a4-74ef-476e-8182-f6d2ba4166a6",
    "vmScaleSetName": "crpteste9vflji9",
    "vmSize": "Standard_A3",
    "zone": "3"
}

Sample 5: Get the Azure Environment where the VM is running

Azure has various sovereign clouds like Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet. Sometimes you need the Azure Environment to make some runtime decisions. The following sample shows you how you can achieve this behavior.

Request

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/compute/azEnvironment?api-version=2018-10-01&format=text"

Response

AzureChinaCloud

The cloud and the values of the Azure environment are listed here.

Cloud Azure environment
All generally available global Azure regions AzurePublicCloud
Azure Government AzureUSGovernmentCloud
Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet AzureChinaCloud
Azure Germany AzureGermanCloud

Sample 6: Retrieve network information

Request

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/network?api-version=2017-08-01" | ConvertTo-Json  -Depth 64

Response

{
  "interface": [
    {
      "ipv4": {
        "ipAddress": [
          {
            "privateIpAddress": "10.1.0.4",
            "publicIpAddress": "X.X.X.X"
          }
        ],
        "subnet": [
          {
            "address": "10.1.0.0",
            "prefix": "24"
          }
        ]
      },
      "ipv6": {
        "ipAddress": []
      },
      "macAddress": "000D3AF806EC"
    }
  ]
}

Sample 7: Retrieve public IP address

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance/network/interface/0/ipv4/ipAddress/0/publicIpAddress?api-version=2017-08-01&format=text"

Note

  • If you're looking to retrieve IMDS information for Standard SKU Public IP address, review Load Balancer Metadata API for more infomration.

Attested data

Get Attested data

IMDS helps to provide guarantees that the data provided is coming from Azure. Microsoft signs part of this information, so you can confirm that an image in Azure Marketplace is the one you're running on Azure.

GET /metadata/attested/document

Parameters

Name Required/Optional Description
api-version Required The version used to service the request.
nonce Optional A 10-digit string that serves as a cryptographic nonce. If no value is provided, IMDS uses the current UTC timestamp.

Response

{
    "encoding":"pkcs7",
    "signature":"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"
}

The signature blob is a pkcs7-signed version of document. It contains the certificate used for signing along with certain VM-specific details.

For VMs created by using Azure Resource Manager, the document includes vmId, sku, nonce, subscriptionId, timeStamp for creation and expiry of the document, and the plan information about the image. The plan information is only populated for Azure Marketplace images.

For VMs created by using the classic deployment model, only the vmId and subscriptionId are guaranteed to be populated. You can extract the certificate from the response, and use it to confirm that the response is valid and is coming from Azure.

The decoded document contains the following fields:

Data Description Version introduced
licenseType Type of license for Azure Hybrid Benefit. This is only present for AHB-enabled VMs. 2020-09-01
nonce A string that can be optionally provided with the request. If no nonce was supplied, the current Coordinated Universal Time timestamp is used. 2018-10-01
plan The Azure Marketplace Image plan. Contains the plan ID (name), product image or offer (product), and publisher ID (publisher). 2018-10-01
timestamp.createdOn The UTC timestamp for when the signed document was created 2018-20-01
timestamp.expiresOn The UTC timestamp for when the signed document expires 2018-10-01
vmId Unique identifier for the VM 2018-10-01
subscriptionId Azure subscription for the Virtual Machine 2019-04-30
sku Specific SKU for the VM image (correlates to compute/sku property from the Instance Metadata endpoint [/metadata/instance]) 2019-11-01

Note

For Classic (non-Azure Resource Manager) VMs, only the vmId is guaranteed to be populated.

Example document:

{
   "nonce":"20201130-211924",
   "plan":{
      "name":"planName",
      "product":"planProduct",
      "publisher":"planPublisher"
   },
   "sku":"Windows-Server-2012-R2-Datacenter",
   "subscriptionId":"8d10da13-8125-4ba9-a717-bf7490507b3d",
   "timeStamp":{
      "createdOn":"11/30/20 21:19:19 -0000",
      "expiresOn":"11/30/20 21:19:24 -0000"
   },
   "vmId":"02aab8a4-74ef-476e-8182-f6d2ba4166a6"
}

Signature Validation Guidance

When validating the signature, you should confirm that the signature was created with a certificate from Azure. This is done by validating the certificate Subject Alternative Name (SAN).

Example SAN DNS Name=chinanorth2.metadata.azure.cn, DNS Name=metadata.azure.cn

Note

The domain for the public cloud and each sovereign cloud will be different.

Cloud Domain in SAN
All generally available global Azure regions *.metadata.azure.com
Azure Government *.metadata.azure.us
Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet *.metadata.azure.cn
Azure Germany *.metadata.microsoftazure.de

Note

The certificates might not have an exact match for the domain. For this reason, the certification validation should accept any subdomain (for example, in China cloud general availability regions accept *.metadata.azure.cn).

We don't recommend certificate pinning for intermediate certs. For further guidance, see Certificate pinning - Certificate pinning and Azure services. Please note that the Azure Instance Metadata Service will NOT offer notifications for future Certificate Authority changes. Instead, you must follow the centralized Azure Certificate Authority details article for all future updates.

Sample 1: Validate that the VM is running in Azure

Vendors in Azure Marketplace want to ensure that their software is licensed to run only in Azure. If someone copies the VHD to an on-premises environment, the vendor needs to be able to detect that. Through IMDS, these vendors can get signed data that guarantees response only from Azure.

Note

This sample requires the jq utility to be installed.

Validation

# Get the signature
$attestedDoc = Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -NoProxy -Uri http://169.254.169.254/metadata/attested/document?api-version=2020-09-01
# Decode the signature
$signature = [System.Convert]::FromBase64String($attestedDoc.signature)

Verify that the signature is from Azure and checks the certificate chain for errors.

# Get certificate chain
$cert = [System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2]($signature)
$chain = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Chain
$chain.Build($cert)
# Print the Subject of each certificate in the chain
foreach($element in $chain.ChainElements)
{
    Write-Host $element.Certificate.Subject
}

# Get the content of the signed document
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Security
$signedCms = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs.SignedCms
$signedCms.Decode($signature);
$content = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetString($signedCms.ContentInfo.Content)
Write-Host "Attested data: " $content
$json = $content | ConvertFrom-Json
# Do additional validation here

The nonce in the signed document can be compared if you provided a nonce parameter in the initial request.

Managed identity

A managed identity, assigned by the system, can be enabled on the VM. You can also assign one or more user-assigned managed identities to the VM. You can then request tokens for managed identities from IMDS. Use these tokens to authenticate with other Azure services, such as Azure Key Vault.

For detailed steps to enable this feature, see Acquire an access token.

Load Balancer Metadata

When you place virtual machine or virtual machine set instances behind an Azure Standard Load Balancer, you can use IMDS to retrieve metadata related to the load balancer and the instances. For more information, see Retrieve load balancer information.

Scheduled events

You can obtain the status of the scheduled events by using IMDS. Then the user can specify a set of actions to run upon these events. For more information, see Scheduled events for Linux or Scheduled events for Windows.

Sample code in different languages

The following table lists samples of calling IMDS by using different languages inside the VM:

Language Example
Bash https://github.com/Microsoft/azureimds/blob/master/IMDSSample.sh
C# https://github.com/Microsoft/azureimds/blob/master/IMDSSample.cs
Go https://github.com/Microsoft/azureimds/blob/master/imdssample.go
Java https://github.com/Microsoft/azureimds/blob/master/imdssample.java
NodeJS https://github.com/Microsoft/azureimds/blob/master/IMDSSample.js
Perl https://github.com/Microsoft/azureimds/blob/master/IMDSSample.pl
PowerShell https://github.com/Microsoft/azureimds/blob/master/IMDSSample.ps1
Puppet https://github.com/keirans/azuremetadata
Python https://github.com/Microsoft/azureimds/blob/master/IMDSSample.py
Ruby https://github.com/Microsoft/azureimds/blob/master/IMDSSample.rb

Errors and debugging

If there's a data element not found or a malformed request, the Instance Metadata Service returns standard HTTP errors. For example:

HTTP status code Reason
200 OK The request was successful.
400 Bad Request Missing Metadata: true header or missing parameter format=json when querying a leaf node
404 Not Found The requested element doesn't exist
405 Method Not Allowed The HTTP method (verb) isn't supported on the endpoint.
410 Gone Retry after some time for a max of 70 seconds
429 Too Many Requests API Rate Limits have been exceeded
500 Service Error Retry after some time

Frequently asked questions

  • I'm getting the error 400 Bad Request, Required metadata header not specified. What does this mean?

    • IMDS requires the header Metadata: true to be passed in the request. Passing this header in the REST call allows access to IMDS.

  • Why am I not getting compute information for my VM?

    • Currently, IMDS only supports instances created with Azure Resource Manager.

  • I created my VM through Azure Resource Manager some time ago. Why am I not seeing compute metadata information?

    • If you created your VM after September 2016, add a tag to start seeing compute metadata. If you created your VM before September 2016, add or remove extensions or data disks to the VM instance to refresh metadata.

  • Is user data the same as custom data?

    • User data offers the similar functionality to custom data, allowing you to pass your own metadata to the VM instance. The difference is, user data is retrieved through IMDS, and is persistent throughout the lifetime of the VM instance. Existing custom data feature will continue to work as described in this article. However you can only get custom data through local system folder, not through IMDS.

  • Why am I not seeing all data populated for a new version?

    • If you created your VM after September 2016, add a tag to start seeing compute metadata. If you created your VM before September 2016, add or remove extensions or data disks to the VM instance to refresh metadata.

  • Why am I getting the error 500 Internal Server Error or 410 Resource Gone?

    • Retry your request. For more information, see Transient fault handling. If the problem persists, create a support issue in the Azure portal for the VM.

  • Would this work for scale set instances?

    • Yes, IMDS is available for scale set instances.

  • I updated my tags in my scale sets, but they don't appear in the instances (unlike single instance VMs). Am I doing something wrong?

    • Currently tags for scale sets only show to the VM on a reboot, reimage, or disk change to the instance.

  • Why am I'm not seeing the SKU information for my VM in instance/compute details?

    • For custom images created from Azure Marketplace, Azure platform doesn't retain the SKU information for the custom image and the details for any VMs created from the custom image. This is by design and hence not surfaced in the VM instance/compute details.

  • Why is my request timed out (or failed to connect) for my call to the service?

    • Metadata calls must be made from the primary IP address assigned to the primary network card of the VM. Additionally, if you've changed your routes, there must be a route for the 169.254.169.254/32 address in your VM's local routing table.

      1. Dump your local routing table and look for the IMDS entry. For example:

        route print

        IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
        0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      172.16.69.1      172.16.69.7     10
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
    168.63.129.16  255.255.255.255      172.16.69.1      172.16.69.7     11
169.254.169.254  255.255.255.255      172.16.69.1      172.16.69.7     11
... (continues) ...

      2. Verify that a route exists for 169.254.169.254, and note the corresponding network interface (for example, 172.16.69.7).

      3. Dump the interface configuration and find the interface that corresponds to the one referenced in the routing table, noting the MAC (physical) address.

        ipconfig /all

        ... (continues) ...
Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : xic3mnxjiefupcwr1mcs1rjiqa.cx.internal.chinacloudapp.cn
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0D-3A-E5-1C-C0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3166:ce5a:2bd5:a6d1%3(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.69.7(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
... (continues) ...

      4. Confirm that the interface corresponds to the VM's primary NIC and primary IP. You can find the primary NIC and IP by looking at the network configuration in the Azure portal, or by looking it up with the Azure CLI. Note the private IPs (and the MAC address if you're using the CLI). Here's a PowerShell CLI example:

        $ResourceGroup = '<Resource_Group>'
$VmName = '<VM_Name>'
$NicNames = az vm nic list --resource-group $ResourceGroup --vm-name $VmName | ConvertFrom-Json | Foreach-Object { $_.id.Split('/')[-1] }
foreach($NicName in $NicNames)
{
    $Nic = az vm nic show --resource-group $ResourceGroup --vm-name $VmName --nic $NicName | ConvertFrom-Json
    Write-Host $NicName, $Nic.primary, $Nic.macAddress
}

        wintest767 True 00-0D-3A-E5-1C-C0

      5. If they don't match, update the routing table so that the primary NIC and IP are targeted.

  • Fail over clustering in Windows Server

    • When you're querying IMDS with failover clustering, it's sometimes necessary to add a route to the routing table. Here's how:

      1. Open a command prompt with administrator privileges.

      2. Run the following command, and note the address of the Interface for Network Destination (0.0.0.0) in the IPv4 Route Table.

      route print

      Note

      The following example output is from a Windows Server VM with failover cluster enabled. For simplicity, the output contains only the IPv4 Route Table.

      IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
        0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0         10.0.1.1        10.0.1.10    266
        10.0.1.0  255.255.255.192         On-link         10.0.1.10    266
        10.0.1.10  255.255.255.255         On-link         10.0.1.10    266
        10.0.1.15  255.255.255.255         On-link         10.0.1.10    266
        10.0.1.63  255.255.255.255         On-link         10.0.1.10    266
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
    169.254.0.0      255.255.0.0         On-link     169.254.1.156    271
    169.254.1.156  255.255.255.255         On-link     169.254.1.156    271
169.254.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     169.254.1.156    271
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link     169.254.1.156    271
255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    331
255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     169.254.1.156    271
255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         10.0.1.10    266

      Run the following command and use the address of the Interface for Network Destination (0.0.0.0), which is (10.0.1.10) in this example.

      route add 169.254.169.254/32 10.0.1.10 metric 1 -p

Support

If you'ren't able to get a metadata response after multiple attempts, you can create a support issue in the Azure portal.

Product feedback

You can provide product feedback and ideas to our user feedback channel under Virtual Machines > Instance Metadata Service here

Next steps