Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets
Azure compute resources that are used to create and manage groups of heterogeneous load-balanced virtual machines.
VMSS -OS Upgrade
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kubernetes king
0
Reputation points
HI MS,
I am new to the Azure VMSS.
I have created a VMSS ( unified ) with manual upgrade policy. with the custom image 2016.
Now i want to upgrade the VM stances with new OS 2022.
Is there any possibility to upgrade my VM instance OS without losing the data.
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets
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Satish Mada 425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator2025-08-12T16:56:31.96+00:00 Hi kubernetes king,
please provide below details
1.Is any critical application data stored on the OS disk, or is it on separate data disks?
2.Are there any ephemeral disks in use? -
Satish Mada 425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2025-08-14T09:23:08.7+00:00 Hi kubernetes king,
Just checking in to see if you had a chance to answer my follow up questions
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Satish Mada 425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2025-08-14T17:53:47.89+00:00 Hi kubernetes king,
You cannot directly upgrade the OS of a VM in a Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) with a custom image, but you can achieve a transition to a new OS version (like from 2016 to 2022) by following a safe migration approach.
- Prepare New Image:
- Create a new custom image of Windows Server 2022, ensuring that it is configured according to your requirements.
- Test the New Image:
- Deploy a test VM from the new image to make sure all applications and configurations work as expected.
- Create a New VMSS with the 2022 Image:
- Set up a new VMSS using the Windows Server 2022 image. Use the same configuration (region, size, networking, etc.) as your existing VMSS.
- Backup and Migrate data:
- Backup Your Data:
- Implement Azure Backup to create a backup of your existing VMSS data. This step is crucial to prevent any data loss during the migration.
- Migrate Data from the Old VMSS:
- If your applications use an external storage solution (like Azure Files, Blob Storage, or Managed Disks), make sure you maintain data in those storage types, as they will remain accessible.
- If using local disks, manually transfer data that is critical to the applications running in the old VMSS:
- You can utilize tools like Azure Storage Explorer or PowerShell scripts to copy data.
- Connect to the running VMs in the old VMSS and copy application data to external storage.
please refer to below document's for more details
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets overview - Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets | Microsoft Learn
Capture an image of a VM using the portal - Azure Virtual Machines | Microsoft Learn
- Prepare New Image:
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