How to redeploy a deleted Windows Azure Virtual Machine (updated)

Special Thanks to Allen Taylor for updating this article.

This document applies to the Windows Azure Virtual Machine service. The behavior described here may change with no previous notice. When a Windows Azure Subscription reaches its spending limit, all the Virtual Machines in the subscription are deleted but the associated disks are kept (generally for 90 days but this may change with no previous notice). After resolving the issue with the spending limit, you can re-create the Virtual Machines using their original disks by following the process below.

 

 

  • On the command bar, click New.

  • Click Compute, Virtual Machine, and then click From Gallery

  • Click My Disks, select the Disk you want to use as the boot
    device, and then click the arrow to continue.

  • In Virtual Machine Name, type the name that you want to use for the virtual machine. In Size, select the size that you want to use for the virtual machine. The size that you select depends on the number of cores that are needed for your application.

  • Click the arrow to continue. The VM Mode dialog box appears.

  • Choose whether the virtual machine is a single stand-alone machine or whether it is part of a cloud service that contains multiple connected machines. For more information about connecting virtual machines, see How to connect
    virtual machines in a cloud service
    .

  • If you are creating a stand-alone virtual machine, in DNS Name, type a name for the cloud service that is created for the
    machine. The entry can contain from 3-24 lowercase letters and numbers.

    NOTE: You may receive a message stating "The DNS name you specified is already in use", this means a Cloud Service is already holding that DNS name. If you own the Cloud Service you can delete it on the portal under "Cloud Services" to free the DNS Name. If you do not wish to delete the cloud service in order to keep the existing public IP, you can use powershell to deploy a new Virtual Machine in an existing Cloud Service.

  • In Region/Affinity Group/Virtual Network, select region, affinity group, or virtual network that you want to contain the virtual machine. For more information about affinity groups, see About Affinity Groups for Virtual Network.

  • Click the arrow to continue. The VM Options dialog box appears.

  • (Optional) In Availability Set, select Create availability set. When a virtual machine is a member of an availability set, it is deployed to different fault domains as other virtual machines in the set. Multiple virtual machines in an availability set make sure that your application is available during network failures, local disk hardware failures, and any planned downtime.

  • If you are creating an availability set, enter the name for the availability set.

  • (Optional) Choose the subnet that the virtual machine should be a member of. For more information about adding a virtual machine to a network, see Create a Virtual Machine into a Virtual Network.

  • Click the arrow to create the virtual machine.