CloneAzureVM

A PowerShell script to help clone an Azure VM that uses managed disks.

Running The Script

The easiest way is to use the Azure Cloud Shell to run the script. Here are the steps you can perform:

1. Browse to https://shell.azure.com.
2. After selecting your tenant, choose "PowerShell" from the environment dropdown if the Bash environment was loaded.
3. Clone this repo inside your Cloud Shell's mapped storage and navigate to the folder containing the script, Clone-AzureRmVM.ps1.
4. Load the script.

For example, the following call attempts to clone VM SrcVM in the same resource group where it resides, Test-RG, and placing it in a different VNet, Dest-Vnet, in Azure region West US:

./Clone-AzureRmVM.ps1 -sourceResourceGroupName "Test-RG" -sourceSubscriptionId "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" -sourceVmName "SrcVM" -destinationVNetName "Dest-Vnet" -destinationLocation "westus"

Current Features

• DOES support cloning all the NIC's associated with a source VM (along with their IPConfigs).
• DOES support cloning all the managed disks associated with a source VM.
• DOES support cloning the source VM size.
• DOES create a public IP and associates with the primary NIC of the cloned VM (and creates additional public IPs if specified in the IPConfigs).
• DOES support supplying existing snapshots for an OS disk and up to 1 data disk.
• DOES support optionally copying the resource tags from the source.
• DOES NOT support cloning a VM whose disks are based on a standard storage account (only managed disks!)
• DOES NOT support encrypted disks.
• DOES NOT support creating a new VNet or associating with a specific subnet or creating a new one in the VNet.
• DOES NOT support classic Azure VMs.
• DOES NOT support creating VM from existing snapshots for a VM with more than 1 data disk. In that case, not supplying snapshot names results in taking a snapshot of each disk associated with the VM and then creating a VM from those snapshots.
• DOES NOT support cloning Network Security Groups (NSG).

Revision History

• v0.5.0 - June 1st, 2017

  • Initial version.

• v0.6.0 - April 2nd, 2018

  • Added support for cloning availability sets, cloning IPConfigs, copying resource tags, and setting accelerated networking on the cloned NIC even if the source does not have it enabled.

• v0.7.0 - Nov 7th, 2019

  • Added support for cross-subscription cloning.
  • Fixed a bug with reading the OS configuration.