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Provide the images and other technical properties associated with this plan.
Reuse technical configuration (being deprecated)
Important
The Reuse technical configuration feature is being deprecated. If you currently reuse the technical configuration of another plan, please detach your plans and manage the technical configuration independently going forward.
The reuse technical configuration option previously allowed you to share the same technical configuration settings across multiple plans within the same offer, enabling those plans to leverage the same technical configuration. As this feature is being deprecated, any plans that currently reuse the technical configuration of another plan must be detached.
What action is required
If your plan is currently reusing the technical configuration of another plan:
- Navigate to the plan that is reusing the technical configuration.
- Disable the Reuse technical configuration option.
- Save your changes and publish your offer.
After detaching, the plan will retain a copy of the technical configuration settings as they existed at the time of detachment. From that point forward, each plan can be updated independently and may diverge in configuration.
How to manage plans after detaching
After detaching plans, you have the following options:
- Maintain plans separately within the same offer
Use this option if you want plans to evolve independently while remaining part of a single public offer. - Use a private offer for negotiated terms
If your goal is to extend negotiated pricing, terms, or conditions to a specific customer, consider creating a private offer instead of maintaining multiple public plans. Private offers are the recommended approach for customer-specific pricing and contractual terms.
Important
If action is not taken, Partner Center will initate the detachment of your plans on your behalf. The configuration of your plans will remain the same upon detachment. However, this will result in your plans no longer having a relationship and you will have to manually manage your plans independently of one another moving forward, unless you elect to create a private offer instead.
Operating system
Select the Windows or Linux operating system family.
Select the Windows Release or Linux Vendor.
Enter an OS friendly name for the operating system. This name is visible to customers.
Recommended VM sizes
Select the link to choose up to six recommended virtual machine sizes to display on Microsoft Marketplace.
Open ports
Add public ports that will be automatically opened on a deployed virtual machine. You can specify the ports individually or via a range along with the supported protocol – TCP, UDP, or both. Be sure to use a hyphen if specifying a port range (Ex: 80-150).
Properties
Here is a list of properties that can be selected for your VM. Enable the properties that are applicable to the images in your plan.
Supports VM extensions: Extensions are small applications that provide post-deployment configuration and automation on Azure VMs. For example, if a virtual machine requires software installation, anti-virus protection, or to run a script inside of it, a VM extension can be used. Linux VM extension validations require the following to be part of the image:
- Azure Linux Agent greater 2.2.41
Python version above 2.6+
For more information, see VM Extension.
- Azure Linux Agent greater 2.2.41
Supports backup: Enable this property if your images support Azure VM backup. Learn more about Azure VM backup.
Supports accelerated networking: The VM images in this plan support single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) to a VM, enabling low latency and high throughput on the network interface. Learn more about accelerated networking for Linux. Learn more about accelerated networking for Windows.
Is a network virtual appliance: A network virtual appliance is a product that performs one or more network functions, such as a Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Firewall or Application Gateway. Learn more about network virtual appliances.
Supports NVMe - Enable this property if the images in this plan support NVMe disk interface. The NVMe interface offers higher and consistent IOPS and bandwidth relative to legacy SCSI interface.
Supports cloud-init configuration: Enable this property if the images in this plan support cloud-init post deployment scripts. Learn more about cloud-init configuration.
Supports Microsoft Entra identity authentication - The images in this plan support Microsoft Entra identity authentication. Learn more about Microsoft Entra identity authentication for Linux. Learn more about Microsoft Entra identity authentication for Windows.
Supports hibernation – The images in this plan support hibernation/resume. Learn more about hibernation/resume.
Supports remote desktop/SSH: Enable this property if any of the following conditions are true:
Virtual machines deployed with these images don't allow customers to access it using Remote Desktop or SSH. Learn more about locked VM images. Images that are published with either SSH disabled (for Linux) or RDP disabled (for Windows) are treated as Locked down VMs. There are special business scenarios to restrict access to users. During validation checks, Locked down VMs might not allow execution of certain certification commands.
Image doesn't support sampleuser while deploying.
Image has limited access.
Image doesn't comply with the Certification Test Tool.
Image requires setup during initial login which causes automation to not connect to the virtual machine.
Image doesn't support port 22.
Requires custom ARM template for deployment: Enable this property if the images in this plan can only be deployed using a custom ARM template. In general, all the images that are published under a VM offer will follow standard ARM template for deployment. However, there are scenarios that might require customization while deploying VMs (for example, multiple NICs to be configured). Below are examples (non-exhaustive) that might require custom templates for deploying the VM:
VM requires additional network subnets.
Additional metadata to be inserted in ARM template.
Commands that are prerequisite to the execution of ARM template.
Image types
Generations of a virtual machine defines the virtual hardware it uses. Based on your customer's needs, you can publish a Generation 1 VM, Generation 2 VM, or both. To learn more about the differences between Generation 1 and Generation 2 capabilities, see Support for generation 2 VMs on Azure.
When creating a new plan, select an Image type from the dropdown menu. You can choose either x64 Gen 1, x64 Gen 2, or ARM64 Gen2. To add another image type to a plan, select +Add image type. You'll need to provide a SKU ID for each new image type that is added.
Note
A published generation requires at least one image version to remain available for customers. To remove the entire plan (along with all its generations and images), select Deprecate plan on the Plan Overview page. Learn more about deprecating plans.
VM images
To add a new image version, click +Add VM image. This will open a panel in which you'll then need to specify an image version number. From there, you can provide your images via either the Azure Compute Gallery and/or using a shared access signature (SAS) URI.
Important
You can now provide more than one VM image per image type within a given submission. By adding multiple images at a time, you won't need to publish each image sequentially as part of separate submissions.
Keep in mind the following when publishing VM images:
- After an image has been published, you can't edit it, but you can deprecate it. Deprecating a version prevents both new and existing users from deploying a new instance of the deprecated version. Learn more about deprecating VM images.
- You can add up to 16 data disks for each VM image provided. Regardless of which operating system you use, add only the minimum number of data disks that the solution requires. During deployment, customers can't remove disks that are part of an image, but they can always add disks during or after deployment.
Note
If you provide your images using the SAS URI method and you are adding data disks, you also need to provide them in the form of a SAS URI. Data disks are also VHD shared access signature URIs that are stored in your Azure storage accounts. If you are using a gallery image, the data disks are captured as part of your image in Azure Compute Gallery.
Select Save draft, then select ← Plan overview at the top left to see the plan you just created.
Once your VM image is published, you can delete the image from your Azure storage.
Security type
If your plan supports x64 Gen2 image type, you can select the security type for these images in your plan. Learn more about trusted launch and confidential VMs.
Important
After enabling the security type and publishing your offer, the security type can only be increased to a higher security option (e.g. from "Trusted Launch" to "Trusted launch and confidential"), but it can't be downgraded later on.
Reorder plans (optional)
For VM offers with more than one plan, you can change the order that your plans are shown to customers. The first plan listed will become the default plan that customers will see.
- On the Plan overview page, select the Edit display rank button.
- In the menu that appears, use the three-line icon (☰) to drag your plans to the desired order.