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Disconnected operations with Azure Local VMs enabled by Azure Arc (preview)

This article gives a brief overview of Azure Local virtual machine (VM) management features for disconnected operations on Azure Local. It covers the benefits, components, and high-level workflow. This feature closely mirrors Azure Local VM capabilities and references many Azure Local VM articles. You learn about key differences and limitations of disconnected operations.

Important

This feature is currently in PREVIEW. See the Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews.

Overview

Azure Local VM management lets you set up and manage VMs in your on-premises Azure Local environment. IT admins can use Azure management tools to let users manage VMs and automate deployment.

For more information, see What is Azure Local VM management?

Supported operating system (OS) versions

Here's a list of supported OS versions for this preview:

  • Windows Server 2025 and 2022
  • Windows 10 Enterprise
  • Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, and 24.04 LTS

Limitations

Azure Local VMs running disconnected operations have the following limitations:

VM images

  • Marketplace, Azure storage account, and images from an existing Azure Local VM aren't supported.
  • Create VM images only from a local share.

Network interfaces

Create network interfaces only in CLI. This release doesn't support network interface creation in the Azure portal.

Storage paths

To delete storage paths from CLI or Portal, first delete any resources (VMs, images, disks) that are on the storage path.

Logical networks

You can see and use logical networks, but they might not fully load in the portal.

Proxy servers

Proxy servers aren't supported for outbound internet connections.

VM creation

Create a VM in the portal by selecting Azure Arc > Machines > Add/Create > Create a machine in a connected host environment. For more information, see step 7 under the Create Azure Local VMs section.

Screenshot showing how to create an Azure Local VM from the portal.

Create Azure Local VMs with disconnected operations

Follow these steps to create Azure Local VMs running disconnected operations.

  1. Review prerequisites.

  2. Assign role-based access control (RBAC) roles.

    • Use the built-in RBAC roles to control access to VMs and VM resources.

  3. Create a storage path. For this preview release, see the limitations section.

    Here's an example script.

    # Install Azcli extension.

az extension add -n stack-hci-vm --version 1.3.0

# Az log in.

az login 

# Check and update variables for your environment.

$subscriptionId  = "<SubscriptonId>"  # The starter subscription Id
$resource_group = "disconnected-test-rg"
$customloc_name = "s-cluster-customlocation"
$customLocationID="/subscriptions/$SubscriptionId/resourceGroups/$resource_group/providers/Microsoft.ExtendedLocation/customLocations/$customloc_name"
$___location = "autonomous"

# Create resource group.

az group create -n $resource_group -l $___location

# Create storage path.

az stack-hci-vm storagepath create `
    --resource-group $resource_group `
    --custom-___location $customLocationID `
    --___location $___location `
    --path "C:\\ClusterStorage\\UserStorage_1\\VMPath" `
    --name "New_StoragePath"    
$storagePathID=(az stack-hci-vm storagepath show --name "New_StoragePath" --resource-group $resource_group --query id -o tsv)

  4. Create a VM image. The image should reside on a cluster shared volume available to all the machines in the instance. The default path can be C:\ClusterStorage. For this preview release, see the limitations section.

    Here's an example script.

    curl.exe -o "C:\\ClusterStorage\\UserStorage_1\\testimage.vhdx" "https://ostempfolder.z13.web.core.windows.net/17763.30320.amd64fre.rs5_release_svc_asdb_2303b.230128-1700_client_enterprise_en-us_vl.vhdx"
az stack-hci-vm image create `
    --resource-group $resource_group `
    --custom-___location $customLocationID `
    --___location $___location `
    --storage-path-id $storagePathID `
    --image-path "C:\\ClusterStorage\\UserStorage_1\\testimage.vhdx" `
    --name "test-gallery-image" `
    --os-type "Windows"

    For an Ubuntu image, see Prepare Ubuntu image for Azure Local VM via Azure CLI.

  5. Create logical network. For this preview release, see the limitations section.

    Here's an example script:

    # Update vm-switch-name and IP addresses in address-prefixes, ip-pool-start, ip-pool-end, and gate for your environment.

# You can find them in: C:\CloudDeployment\FullEnvironment.json

# Find the “HostNetwork”, “Intents”, “Name” for the vm-switch-name. Take the vm-switch-name and put it in the parentheses of the example script. For example "ConvergedSwitch(NameFromJSON)" 
# Find the "InfrastructureNetwork": section under “DeploymentData” to find the IP address details

az stack-hci-vm network lnet create `
    --resource-group $resource_group `
    --custom-___location $customLocationID `
    --___location $___location `
    --name "arcvm-lnet-static" `
    --vm-switch-name '"ConvergedSwitch(managementcomputestorage)"' `
    --ip-allocation-method "Static" `
    --address-prefixes "192.168.200.0/24" `
    --ip-pool-start "192.168.200.180" `
    --ip-pool-end "192.168.200.190" `
    --gateway "192.168.200.1" `
    --dns-servers "192.168.200.222"

  6. Create network interfaces. For this preview release, see the limitations section.

    Here's an example script.

    # Pick an IP address between ip-pool-start and ip-pool-end from LNET.

az stack-hci-vm network nic create `
    --resource-group $resource_group `
    --custom-___location $customLocationID `
    --___location $___location `
    --name "arcvm-vnic" `
    --subnet-id "arcvm-lnet-static" `
    --ip-address "192.168.200.185"

  7. Create Azure Local VMs. For this preview release, see the limitations section.

    Here's an example script.

    az stack-hci-vm create `
    --resource-group $resource_group `
    --custom-___location $customLocationID `
    --___location $___location `
    --hardware-profile processors="4" memory-mb="8192" vm-size="Custom" `
    --nics "arcvm-vnic" `
    --storage-path-id $storagePathID `
    --computer-name "test-machine" `
    --admin-username "admin" `
    --admin-password "example" `
    --image "test-gallery-image" `
    --name "test-vm" `
    --enable-agent true

Manage Azure Local VMs and VM resources

To manage Azure Local VMs using CLI, see Azure Local VMs using the Azure CLI. To check the status of the VM, see Status of the VM.

Manage VM extensions

Supported VM extensions are Azure Monitor Agent and Custom Script.

To manage VM extensions, see Manage VM extensions on Arc-enabled VMs for Azure Local.

Related content

This feature is available only in Azure Local 2506.