Migrate Converted VHD to Azure Stack

Question

Hi everyone,

I currently work as a Microsoft Consultant for my company.

Currently I have been testing migrating a converted VHD from VMDK to Azure. Now what I mention below works perfectly fine in Public Azure, but errors out in Stack.

Steps I have taken 

1. I've tried uploading the VHD to my Blob Storage and Creating a VM with it with the below commands ( I edited a bit so its not all my info). I created the VNET, NIC and Public IP already so it's attached after the fact.

#Set Variables
$resourceGroupName = "resourcegroupname"
$virtualNetworkName = "vnetname"
$NIC = "Nic ID"
$destinationVhd = "https://test.blob.location.ismazure.com/storageaccount/TestVHD2016.vhd"

#Upload VHD to Blob Storage
Add-AzureRmVhd -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Destination $destinationVhd `  -LocalFilePath "E:\2016 VHD\TestVHD2016.vhd"

#Configure VM

$vmConfig = New-AzureRmVMConfig -VMName "TestVHD2016" -VMSize "Standard_DS2"
$vmConfig = Set-AzureRmVMOSDisk -VM $vmConfig -Name "TestVHD2016" -VhdUri $destinationVhd `
                                -CreateOption Attach -Windows
$vmConfig = Add-AzureRmVMNetworkInterface -VM $vmConfig -Id $NIC

#Create VM

$vm = New-AzureRmVM -VM $vmConfig -Location $locationName -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName

2. After this is ran, it will fail after 5 or 10 minutes with the error:

New-AzureRmVM : Long running operation failed with status 'Failed'. Additional Info:'Vm Extensions cannot be installed on VM 'TestVHD2016 as guest agent is not provisioned on the VM.'
StartTime: 11/30/2017 2:22:23 PM
EndTime: 11/30/2017 2:22:54 PM
OperationID: 91b510b9-e0e0-4bb0-bf8a-5d334f3c35e1
Status: Failed
ErrorCode: VMExtensionProvisioningError
ErrorMessage: Vm Extensions cannot be installed on VM 'TestVHD2016 as guest agent is not provisioned on the VM.
At line:10 char:7

Actual Error from Azure

OPERATION NAME Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions/write
STATUS Failed
EVENT TIMESTAMP Thu Nov 30 2017 14:22:58 GMT-0600 (Canada Central Standard Time)
UTC TIMESTAMP Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:22:58 GMT
CALLER [e-mail]
AUTHORIZATION 
action:Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions/write role: scope:/subscriptions//resourceGroups/vhdluketest/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/TestVHD2016/extensions/BGInfo
RESOURCE URI /subscriptions//resourcegroups/vhdluketest/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/TestVHD2016/extensions/BGInfo
EVENT SUBMISSION TIMESTAMP Thu Nov 30 2017 14:23:21 GMT-0600 (Canada Central Standard Time)
OPERATION ID 796a3f46-f386-4b95-97e0-f13f2c0ab173
CORRELATION ID 76404bb6-751c-40b1-a3ae-3a6354f76861
LEVEL Error
RESOURCE GROUP vhdluketest
RESOURCE PROVIDER Microsoft.Compute
CATEGORY Administrative
PROPERTIES 
statusMessage:{"status":"Failed","error":{"code":"ResourceOperationFailure","message":"The resource operation completed with terminal provisioning state 'Failed'.","details":[{"code":"VMExtensionProvisioningError","message":"Vm Extensions cannot be installed on VM 'TestVHD2016 as guest agent is not provisioned on the VM."}]}}

Now I even installed the Azure Agent before Uploading. Another thing I tried was uploaded into Public Azure, Created a VM, then Downloaded it back so the Agent and Extension was in OK status and still same error. The server I can see is up in Boot Diagnostics, but it's in status Failed and can't remove that Status. **I also wish there was a way to clear this status because the server is indeed functioning**

The guest agent I installed from the link in here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/agent-user-guide

As of right now I am not sure what else I can try. There is another way to create a VM with an Image (Like so https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/upload-generalized-managed) but I need to Sysprep and Generalize which we do not want to do. Although that did not work in stack either. 

Anyone have any luck with uploading VHD and Creating a VM out of it on Stack let me know. Stack is so new that there it's hard to find information on.

Answer 1

Hello,

It would appear as if there is an issue provisioning/validating the Guest Agent.

 

Can you try exporting your VM/VHD from public Azure without the guest agent and retry adding to Azure Stack again?  

 

Let us know how it goes.

      

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your time and interest in Azure Stack.

If you experience any issues with Azure Stack or the current ASDK release, please feel free to contact us.

       

 Thanks

---

Gary Gallanes

Answer 2

Luke, did you ever get a resolution to this?

---

Brian Laws (Cloud Architect, Summit 7 Systems)

Answer 3

Sorry for late response.... I did try having doing the Public Azure method first and then retrying to stack which did not work. It appears it would default trying to install BGInfo extension which isn't added into Stack yet. I worked with one of our great scripters and was able to deploy it with a Template script in Visual Studio.... Similar to the code below:

{
    "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
    "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
    "parameters": {
        "vmName": {
            "type": "String",
            "metadata": {
                "description": "VM name"
            }
        },
        "osDiskVhdUri": {
            "defaultValue": "URI OF MY VHD in BLOB",
            "type": "String",
            "metadata": {
                "description": "Uri of the existing VHD"
            }
        }
    },
    "variables": {
        "vnetName": "vhdluketest",
        "vnetID": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks', variables('vnetName'))]",
        "subnetName": "vhdluketest",
        "subnetRef": "[concat(variables('vnetID'), '/subnets/', variables('subnetName'))]",
        "vmNICName": "[concat(parameters('vmName'),'-nic01')]"
    },
    "resources": [
        {
            "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
            "name": "[variables('vmNICName')]",
            "apiVersion": "2015-06-15",
            "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
            "properties": {
                "ipConfigurations": [
                    {
                        "name": "ipconfig",
                        "properties": {
                            "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
                            "subnet": {
                                "id": "[variables('SubnetRef')]"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        },
        {
            "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
            "name": "[parameters('vmName')]",
            "apiVersion": "2016-03-30",
            "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
            "properties": {
                "hardwareProfile": {
                    "vmSize": "Standard_D1_v2"
                },
                "storageProfile": {
                    "osDisk": {
                        "name": "TestVHD2016.vhd",
                        "osType": "Windows",
                        "caching": "ReadWrite",
                        "vhd": {
                            "uri": "[parameters('osDiskVhdUri')]"
                        },
                        "createOption": "Attach"
                    }
                },
                "networkProfile": {
                    "networkInterfaces": [
                        {
                            "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', variables('vmNICName'))]"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            },
            "dependsOn": [
                "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', variables('vmNICName'))]"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Answer 4

Thanks a ton, Luke! This is going to come in hugely helpful when it's my turn to start migrating VMs onto Azure Stack. We appreciate you sharing. 

---

Brian Laws (Cloud Architect, Summit 7 Systems)

Answer 5

Hi Luke,

I had the same issue reusing an existing VHD, however seeing that you mentioned in your answer that you found out it was trying to install the BGInfo extension, I ran the New-AzureRmVM command with the parameter -DisableBginfoExtension and it succeeded fine.

Thanks for the tip of BGInfo and I hope this helps!

David

Answer 6

That is helpful as well doing with powershell, thanks for that. However, I created more in depth json scripts now for this and it works perfectly. I have tested both Windows and Linux now and it works migrating to stack. I just wish ASR could be available soon to Stack as that would make a transition to Stack if someone wanted to Migrate much easier:)

If anyone wants to check I have a few templates here available to public https://github.com/lukeuhren/Azure-ARM-Templates