Custom images and VHDs

In the previous section, we used standard VM offerings in Azure and used two different methods to do some configuration work afterward. However, as stated before, there can be reasons that a default image is not the solution for you. Let's summarize the reasons one more time.

There is nothing wrong with using standard images; it's a good starting point for all your deployments in Azure:

• Created and supported by Linux distribution vendors or a trusted partner
• Fast to deploy, both manually and orchestrated, and of course you can customize them afterward
• Easy to extend functionality and options with Azure Extensions

But, sometimes there are problems:

• Standard image is not hardened enough
• Standard image is not compliant with, for example, company standards, especially when it comes to partitioning
• Standard image is not optimized for a certain application
• Non-supported Linux distributions
• Questions about reproducible environments: how long is a certain image version available?

But...