** UPDATE 10/25/2016: The official Azure Marketplace has been launched in Azure Government. Most of the content in this post is now obsolete. View details about the launch here. **

When deploying a virtual machine into Azure you need a source Image. The image is pre-configured generalized copy of the operating system you want to deploy.

You can get these images from a number of locations:

1. Image Gallery: More Info Here.
   • If there are other images that you want to see added to this Gallery you an leave a comment on this post or e-mail azgovfeedback@microsoft.com
2. VM Depot: from MS Open Tech, has a number of images created and maintained by the open source community
   • A great walk through on how to get one of these images to Azure Government here.
3. On Prem VHD: You can upload a VHD that you created locally for use in Azure.
   • To do this with Windows check out this article.
   • To do this with Linux check out this article.
4. Azure Marketplace: located here, is an online store for thousands of certified, open source, and community software applications, developer services, and data—pre-configured for Microsoft Azure. At the time of the writing of this article you cannot directly deploy a VM Image from the Azure Marketplace to Azure Government. However, in many cases it is possible to use images that were created for this marketplace in Azure Government, you just need to check with the vendor for specifics.

To prove out deploying an image designed for the Azure Marketplace, I contacted our friends at Sphere 3D. They have a popular solution “SnapCLOUD” available in the Azure Marketplace here.

“SnapCLOUD is block and file cloud storage platform that makes it possible to have enterprise-grade off-premise data storage that can be enabled in minutes. It is unique in its ability to unify data manageability, access control and replication between physical data center and public cloud. This makes it possible for any size organization to have a disaster recovery site that is globally distributed in the Azure cloud.” Data on SnapCLOUD can be used to securely sync and share on mobile devices and laptops using SnapSync functionality .

You can deploy SnapCLOUD to Azure Government in three simple steps:

1. Get a license: visit by filling out the form on the SnapCLOUD website or send an email to them at sales@overlandstorage.com. Be sure to let them know you are targeting Azure Government. In addition to the traditional licensing process, they will provide you a URL to a VHD that you will be able to transfer into your Azure Government subscription.
2. Copy the VHD to your Azure Subscription. I use AZCopy for this, the command looks like this:
3. Create a VM from the generalized VHD, this is a two-step process. First turn the disk into an Image, next I create a VM from the Image. The PowerShell looks something like this:

Big thanks to the team at SnapCLOUD for there help in making all of this happen.