Creating VM's from image and adding to an existing Availability Set - azure

Question

How can I add an existing VM that I either created in the portal or imported from vmdepot to an existing availability set? It doesn't seem to be possible from the portal, does it work in Powershell? Does it work at all with the Resource Manager deployment model?

Answer 1

Currently, for ARM Deployment, Setting Availability set is not supported yet. Availability set could only be added during creation. Hence, for your case, you need to delete the current instance, and create a new deployment with the old OSDisk, Vnet, and some other setting.
This can be achieved by using ARM Template. The following example shows you how to deploy a VM with an existing VHD and Vnet. It also create a new availability set, and add the VM to the availability set.
{
"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
"location": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Please enter the location where you want to deploy this VM"
}
},
"vmName": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Name of the VM"
}
},
"osType": {
"type": "string",
"allowedValues": [
"Windows",
"Linux"
],
"metadata": {
"description": "Type of OS on the existing vhd"
}
},
"osDiskVhdUri": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Uri of the existing VHD in ARM standard or premium storage"
}
},
"vmSize": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Size of the VM"
}
},
"existingVirtualNetworkName": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Name of the existing VNET"
}
},
"existingVirtualNetworkResourceGroup": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Name of the existing VNET resource group"
}
},
"subnetName": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Name of the subnet in the virtual network you want to use"
}
},
"dnsNameForPublicIP": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Unique DNS Name for the Public IP used to access the Virtual Machine."
}
},
"availabilitySetName": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "The name of your Availability Set."
}
}
},
"variables": {
"api-version": "2015-06-15",
"publicIPAddressType": "Dynamic",
"vnetID": "[resourceId(parameters('existingVirtualNetworkResourceGroup'), 'Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks', parameters('existingVirtualNetworkName'))]",
"subnetRef": "[concat(variables('vnetID'),'/subnets/', parameters('subnetName'))]",
"nicName": "[parameters('vmName')]",
"publicIPAddressName": "[parameters('vmName')]"
},
"resources": [
{
"apiVersion": "[variables('api-version')]",
"type": "Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses",
"name": "[variables('publicIPAddressName')]",
"location": "[parameters('location')]",
"tags": {
"displayName": "PublicIPAddress"
},
"properties": {
"publicIPAllocationMethod": "[variables('publicIPAddressType')]",
"dnsSettings": {
"domainNameLabel": "[parameters('dnsNameForPublicIP')]"
}
}
},
{
"apiVersion": "[variables('api-version')]",
"type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
"name": "[variables('nicName')]",
"location": "[parameters('location')]",
"dependsOn": [
"[concat('Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses/', variables('publicIPAddressName'))]"
],
"tags": {
"displayName": "NetworkInterface"
},
"properties": {
"ipConfigurations": [
{
"name": "ipconfig1",
"properties": {
"privateIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
"publicIPAddress": {
"id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses',variables('publicIPAddressName'))]"
},
"subnet": {
"id": "[variables('subnetRef')]"
}
}
}
]
}
},
{
"type": "Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets",
"name": "[parameters('availabilitySetName')]",
"apiVersion": "2015-06-15",
"location": "[parameters('location')]",
"properties": {
"platformFaultDomainCount": "3",
"platformUpdateDomainCount": "20"
}
},
{
"apiVersion": "[variables('api-version')]",
"type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
"name": "[parameters('vmName')]",
"location": "[parameters('location')]",
"tags": {
"displayName": "VirtualMachine"
},
"dependsOn": [
"[concat('Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets/', parameters('availabilitySetName'))]",
"[concat('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/', variables('nicName'))]"
],
"properties": {
"hardwareProfile": {
"vmSize": "[parameters('vmSize')]"
},
"AvailabilitySet" : {
"id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets', parameters('availabilitySetName'))]"
},
"storageProfile": {
"osDisk": {
"name": "[concat(parameters('vmName'))]",
"osType": "[parameters('osType')]",
"caching": "ReadWrite",
"vhd": {
"uri": "[parameters('osDiskVhdUri')]"
},
"createOption": "Attach"
}
},
"networkProfile": {
"networkInterfaces": [
{
"id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces',variables('nicName'))]"
}
]
}
}
}
]
}
If you want to add the VM to an existing availability set, you can delete
{
"type": "Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets",
"name": "[parameters('availabilitySetName')]",
"apiVersion": "2015-06-15",
"location": "[parameters('location')]",
"properties": {
"platformFaultDomainCount": "3",
"platformUpdateDomainCount": "20"
}
},
and
"[concat('Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets/', parameters('availabilitySetName'))]",
For more details about authoring ARM template, see Authoring Azure Resource Manager templates
For more information about how to deploy an ARM template, see Deploy a Resource Group with Azure Resource Manager template
And the above template is modified from this sample template from GitHub.
After I posted this answer, I had been thinking about using REST API to update vm with an availability set. I thought it might work, so I gave it a shot, and here is the error message I got:
Invoke-RestMethod : {
"error": {
"code": "PropertyChangeNotAllowed",
"target": "availabilitySet.id",
"message": "Changing property 'availabilitySet.id' is not allowed."
}
}
At C:\Users\v-dazen\Documents\setVMRestAPI.ps1:13 char:1
+ Invoke-RestMethod -Method Put -Uri "https://management.azure.com/subs ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [Invoke-RestMethod], WebException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeRestMethodCommand
That means setting the availability set for an existing ARM deployed VM is not possible yet.