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Prepare SUSE Linux image for Azure Stack HCI virtual machines (preview)

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Applies to: Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2

This article describes how to use a SUSE Linux image to create a virtual machine (VM) on your Azure Stack HCI cluster. You use Azure CLI for the VM image creation.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, meet the following prerequisites:

  • Have access to an Azure Stack HCI cluster. This cluster is deployed, registered, and connected to Azure Arc. Go to the Overview page in the Azure Stack HCI cluster resource. On the Server tab in the right-pane, the Azure Arc should show as Connected.

  • Download the SUSE QCOW2 image file to your local system. Alternatively, you can run the following PowerShell command to download the image:

    PS C:\temp\images> wget "https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Cloud:/Images:/Leap_15.6/images/openSUSE-Leap-15.6.x86_64-NoCloud.qcow2" -OutFile c:\temp\images\openSUSE-Leap-15.6.x86_64-NoCloud.qcow

Workflow

To convert the QCOW2 image to VHDX and create a VM image from the VHDX image.

  1. Convert QCOW2 to VHDX.
  2. Create a SUSE VM image.

Important

Do not use an Azure Virtual Machine VHD disk to prepare the VM image for Azure Stack HCI.

The following sections provide detailed instructions for each step in the workflow.

Step 1: Convert QCOW2 to VHDX

After the QCOW2 image is downloaded, use the QEMU disk image utility for Windows tool to convert the image to VHDX.

The QEMU disk image utility for Windows tool is used to convert, create, and consistently check various virtual disk formats. It's compatible with Hyper-V and other solutions and is optimized for Windows Server (x64).

Follow these steps to download the tool and convert the QCOW2 image file to VHDX.

  1. Download the QEMU disk image utility for Windows tool by clicking the Download binaries button for file. Alternatively, you can run the following PowerShell command to download the tool:

    PS C:\temp\tool> wget https://cloudbase.it/downloads/qemu-img-win-x64-2_3_0.zip -OutFile C:\temp\tool\qemu-img-win-x64-2_3_0.zip

  2. After the tool is downloaded, extract the files from the zip by running this command:

    PS C:\temp\tool
Expand-Archive 'c:\temp\tool\qemu-img-win-x64-2_3_0.zip'

    Here's an example:

    Screenshot that shows the downloaded QEMU Disk Utility tool.

  3. Then using the QEMU tool, convert and save the QCOW2 to VHDX by running this command:

    PS C:\temp\tool\qemu-img-win-x64-2_3_0> ./qemu-img.exe convert c:\temp\images\openSUSE-Leap-15.6.x86_64-NoCloud.qcow2 -O vhdx -o subformat=dynamic c:\temp\images\openSUSE-Leap-15.6.x86_64-NoCloud.vhdx
PS C:\temp\tool\qemu-img-win-x64-2_3_0>

    Here's an example:

    Screenshot that shows the original QCOW2 image and the new VHDX image.

Now, you're ready to create your VM image.

Step 2: Create a SUSE VM image

Follow these steps on your Azure Stack HCI cluster to create the VM image from the VHDX that you created earlier.

Use the Azure CLI to create the VM image:

  1. Run PowerShell as an administrator.

  2. Sign in. Run the following cmdlet:

    az login

  3. Set your subscription. Run the following cmdlet:

    az account set --subscription <Subscription ID>

  4. Set parameters for your subscription, resource group, custom location, location, OS type for the image, name of the image, and the path where the image is located. Replace the parameters in < > with the appropriate values.

    $Subscription = "<Subscription ID>"
$Resource_Group = "<Resource group>"
$CustomLocation = "<Custom location>"
$Location = "<Location for your Azure Stack HCI cluster>"
$OsType = "<OS of source image>"

    Parameters are described in the following table.

    Parameter Description
    Subscription Subscription associated with your Azure Stack HCI cluster.
    Resource_Group Resource group for Azure Stack HCI cluster that you associate with this image.
    Location Location for your Azure Stack HCI cluster. For example, the location could be eastus or westreurope.
    OsType Operating system associated with the source image. This system can be Windows or Linux.

  5. Use the VHDX of the VM to create a gallery image. Use this VM image to create Azure Arc virtual machines on your Azure Stack HCI.

    Make sure to copy the VHDX in user storage in the cluster shared volume of your Azure Stack HCI. For example, the path could look like C:\ClusterStorage\UserStorage_1\linuxvhdx.

    $ImagePath = "Path to user storage in CSV" 

$ImageName = "mylinuxvmimg" 

az stack-hci-vm image create --subscription $subscription -g $resource_group --custom-location $CustomLocation --location $location --image-path $ImagePath --name $ImageName --debug --os-type 'Linux'

  6. Verify that the image is created.

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