Image pull is a major concern on container environments – when a new image is needed to deploy a container-based service, this process can take long and impact the availability of the service in cases where a new container host is needed to support an application. With that in mind, a while ago we started to offer a new Azure VM image:
In addition to having the Container feature enabled and Docker pre-configured, the Nano Server and Server Core base container images are also pre-cached inside this Azure VM image – so when you need to spin-up a container based off these container images the process would be faster than if you had to pull it from the Microsoft Container Registry (MCR).
With the addition of the Windows container image, customers asked us to update this Azure VM image so they could have the same experience with this additional base container image. Finally, we did it:
One important note is that this is true for the non [smalldisk] VM images above. These [smalldisk] images have 30GB OS disks and would not be able to host the Windows base container image. If you want to use these VM images with the Windows base container image, we recommend you add a data disk to your VM to host it.
Using these VM images already? Tell us what your experience has been so far!
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