How can I clone an exisintg Linux VM to a scale set in Azure

Question

In my Azure cloud I have a standalone VM running Ubuntu 14 where I installed a bunch of custom software. The virtual machine is NOT a classic one, this is a "new type" VM. I also created a scale set. Now I want to somehow capture the image if my standalone VM and deploy it to all machines of my scale set. Ideally I don't want to recreate the scale set but rather just replace the images in the allocated machines. How can this be done?

Answer 1

• If you were creating a new scale set from an existing VM, you could follow these instructions: https://msftstack.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/how-to-convert-an-azure-virtual-machine-to-a-vm-scale-set/
• If you have an existing scale set based on a custom image, you could follow the same instructions to the point of copying the generalized VM into the storage account for the VMSS, and then update the image URI in the VM Scale Set model, and then do an update call on the VMs (manualUpgrade REST API call, or Update-AzureRmVmssInstance PowerShell call for example). See this post for more details about rolling out an upgrade: https://msftstack.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/how-to-upgrade-an-azure-vm-scale-set-without-shutting-it-down/
• If you have an existing scale set based on a platform image (e.g. one of the official Windows or Linux images in the marketplace) then your only option is to create a new scale set - switch a scale set from a platform image to a custom image is not currently supported.