Find Azure Marketplace image information using the Azure CLI
Caution
This article references CentOS, a Linux distribution that is End Of Life (EOL) status. Please consider your use and plan accordingly. For more information, see the CentOS End Of Life guidance.
Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Windows VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets
This topic describes how to use the Azure CLI to find VM images in the Azure Marketplace. Use this information to specify a Marketplace image when you create a VM programmatically with the CLI, Resource Manager templates, or other tools.
You can also browse available images and offers using the Azure Marketplace or Azure PowerShell.
Make sure that you installed the latest Azure CLI and are logged in to an Azure account (az login).
Note
Before you can use Azure CLI in Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet, please run az cloud set -n AzureChinaCloud first to change the cloud environment. If you want to switch back to Azure Public Cloud, run az cloud set -n AzureCloud again.
Terminology
A Marketplace image in Azure has the following attributes:
- Publisher: The organization that created the image. Examples: Canonical, SUSE
- Offer: The name of a group of related images created by a publisher. Examples: 0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy, sles-15-sp3.
- SKU: An instance of an offer, such as a major release of a distribution. Examples: 22_04-lts-gen2, 8-lvm-gen2, gen2.
- Version: The version number of an image SKU.
These values can be passed individually or as an image URN, combining the values separated by the colon (:). For example: Publisher:Offer:Sku:Version. You can replace the version number in the URN with latest to use the latest version of the image.
If the image publisher provides extra license and purchase terms, then you must accept those terms before you can use the image. For more information, see Check the purchase plan information.
List popular images
You can run the az vm image list --all to see all of the images available to you, but it can take several minutes to produce the entire list. A faster option is the use az vm image list, without the --all option, to see a list of popular VM images in the Azure Marketplace. For example, run the following command to display a cached list of popular images in table format:
az vm image list --output table
The output includes the image URN. If you omit the --all option, you can see the UrnAlias for each image, if available. UrnAlias is a shortened version created for popular images like Ubuntu2204.
The Linux image alias names and their details outputted by this command are:
Architecture Offer Publisher Sku Urn UrnAlias Version
-------------- ---------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------- ---------
x64 CentOS OpenLogic 8_5-gen2 OpenLogic:CentOS:8_5-gen2:latest CentOS85Gen2 latest
x64 Debian11 Debian 11-backports-gen2 Debian:debian-11:11-backports-gen2:latest Debian-11 latest
x64 flatcar-container-linux-free kinvolk stable-gen2 kinvolk:flatcar-container-linux-free:stable-gen2:latest FlatcarLinuxFreeGen2 latest
x64 opensuse-leap-15-4 SUSE gen2 SUSE:opensuse-leap-15-4:gen2:latest OpenSuseLeap154Gen2 latest
x64 RHEL RedHat 8-lvm-gen2 RedHat:RHEL:8-lvm-gen2:latest RHELRaw8LVMGen2 latest
x64 sles-15-sp3 SUSE gen2 SUSE:sles-15-sp3:gen2:latest SLES latest
x64 0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy Canonical 22_04-lts-gen2 Canonical:0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy:22_04-lts-gen2:latest Ubuntu2204 latest
The Windows image alias names and their details outputted by this command are:
Architecture Offer Publisher Sku Urn Alias Version
-------------- ---------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------- ---------
x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2022-datacenter-azure-edition MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2022-datacenter-azure-edition:latest Win2022AzureEdition latest
x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2022-datacenter-azure-edition-core MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2022-datacenter-azure-edition-core:latest Win2022AzureEditionCore latest
x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2019-Datacenter MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2019-Datacenter:latest Win2019Datacenter latest
x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2016-Datacenter MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2016-Datacenter:latest Win2016Datacenter latest
x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2012-R2-Datacenter MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2012-R2-Datacenter:latest Win2012R2Datacenter latest
x64 WindowsServer MicrosoftWindowsServer 2012-Datacenter MicrosoftWindowsServer:WindowsServer:2012-Datacenter:latest Win2012Datacenter latest
Find specific images
You can filter the list of images by --publisher or another parameter to limit the results.
For example, the following command displays all Debian offers:
az vm image list -l chinaeast2 --offer Debian --all --output table
You can limit your results to a single architecture by adding the --architecture parameter. For example, to display all Arm64 images available from Canonical:
az vm image list -l chinaeast2 --architecture Arm64 --publisher Canonical --all --output table
Look at all available images
Another way to find an image in a location is to run the az vm image list-publishers, az vm image list-offers, and az vm image list-skus commands in sequence. With these commands, you determine these values:
List the image publishers for a location. In this example, we're looking at the China North region.
az vm image list-publishers --location chinanorth --output tableFor a given publisher, list their offers. In this example, we add Canonical as the publisher.
az vm image list-offers --location chinanorth --publisher Canonical --output tableFor a given offer, list their SKUs. In this example, we add UbuntuServer as the offer.
az vm image list-skus --location chinanorth --publisher Canonical --offer UbuntuServer --output table
Note
Canonical has changed the Offer names they use for the most recent versions. Before Ubuntu 20.04, the Offer name is UbuntuServer. For Ubuntu 20.04 the Offer name is 0001-com-ubuntu-server-focal and for Ubuntu 22.04 it's 0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy.
For a given publisher, offer, and SKU, show all of the versions of the image. In this example, we add 18.04-LTS as the SKU.
az vm image list \ --location chinanorth \ --publisher Canonical \ --offer UbuntuServer \ --sku 18.04-LTS \ --all --output table
Pass this value of the URN column with the --image parameter when you create a VM with the az vm create command. You can also replace the version number in the URN with "latest", to use the latest version of the image.
If you deploy a VM with a Resource Manager template, you set the image parameters individually in the imageReference properties.
Check the purchase plan information
Some VM images in the Azure Marketplace have extra license and purchase terms that you must accept before you can deploy them programmatically.
To deploy a VM from such an image, you'll need to accept the image's terms the first time you use it, once per subscription. You'll also need to specify purchase plan parameters to deploy a VM from that image
To view an image's purchase plan information, run the az vm image show command with the URN of the image. If the plan property in the output isn't null, the image has terms you need to accept before programmatic deployment.
For example, the Canonical Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS image doesn't have extra terms, because the plan information is null:
az vm image show --location chinanorth --urn Canonical:UbuntuServer:18.04-LTS:latest
Output:
{
"dataDiskImages": [],
"id": "/Subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/Providers/Microsoft.Compute/Locations/chinanorth/Publishers/Canonical/ArtifactTypes/VMImage/Offers/UbuntuServer/Skus/18.04-LTS/Versions/18.04.201901220",
"location": "chinanorth",
"name": "18.04.201901220",
"osDiskImage": {
"operatingSystem": "Linux"
},
"plan": null,
"tags": null
}
Next steps
To create a virtual machine quickly by using the image information, see Create and Manage Linux VMs with the Azure CLI.