Automating VM Image Creation from a DevTest Labs VM using YAML Pipelines in Azure DevOps

In a DevOps environment, it’s often necessary to create reusable virtual machine (VM) images for developer tasks, testing environments, or consistent deployments. Azure DevTest Labs allows you to capture custom images of a VM, which can be used to quickly spin up identical VMs on demand. This article explains how to automate the creation of a VM image from an Azure DevTest Labs VM using an Azure DevOps YAML pipeline.

Objective

The pipeline will automate the process of:

1. Creating a VM in Azure DevTest Labs (covered in previous sections).
2. Capturing a custom image of that VM for reuse in future environments.

Once the image is created, it can be reused to quickly replicate the virtual machine, enabling consistent environments for development and testing.

Overview

We will integrate the task Azure DevTest Labs Create Custom Image into our YAML pipeline to automate the image capture process. The pipeline will:

1. Deploy a VM in DevTest Labs (already covered in earlier steps).
2. Capture a custom image of the newly deployed VM using a PowerShell task.
3. Store the image ID as…