Trying out Ubuntu 23.10 on x86-64-v3 rebuild on Azure

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NOTE: THESE IMAGES ARE NOT SUPPORTED. THEY WILL RECEIVE NO SECURITY UPDATES. DO NOT USE THEM IN PRODUCTION.

We recently wrote about offering an experimental build of x86-64-v3 on Azure and why we think that can be a useful thing to have. If you’re interested in trying it out, you can follow the steps below. We’re interested to hear your feedback and understand which workloads are benefiting from the v3 build, and which seem to have problems.

Keep in mind that this image should not be used for production, as it’s experimental only so that you can evaluate v3, understand how it may affect your workloads, and explore your interest in adopting it.

Image Details

  • Public gallery name: ubuntu-14f0d62f-8fa1-4b6b-9acf-79b9c633c3c8
  • Gallery image definition: mantic-amdv3
  • Region availability: East US, West US 2, West Europe, Central India
  • Before creating the VM, first select the version of the image you would like to use:
# List image versions
REGION="eastus"
az sig image-version list-community --location $REGION --public-gallery-name ubuntu-14f0d62f-8fa1-4b6b-9acf-79b9c633c3c8 --gallery-image-definition mantic-amdv3
# Set desired image version based on output of previous command, for example:
IMAGE_VERSION="/CommunityGalleries/ubuntu-14f0d62f-8fa1-4b6b-9acf-79b9c633c3c8/Images/mantic-amdv3/Versions/23.10.202402290"

Create Azure VM from Command Line

The commands below assume you already have an Azure account and are logged in. If you have not done so already, create a resource group for the VM:

# Point to an existing resource group, or one that you will create in the next command
RESOURCE_GROUP="amd64_v3_resource_group"
# Optional: only necessary if the resource group does not yet exist
az group create --name $RESOURCE_GROUP --location $REGION

Now create the VM:

USER_SSH_KEY=$HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub # update to point to your public ssh key
az vm create --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP --name mantic-amdv3 --image $IMAGE_VERSION --ssh-key-values $USER_SSH_KEY --size Standard_D2as_v5 --admin-username ubuntu --security-type Standard
  • Note about –size Standard_D2_v5 option: the VM size should be selected carefully as not all processors support x86-64-v3 instructions. Most modern Intel or AMD processors support x86-64-v3, so Intel-based Azure VM instance types like Standard_D2_v5 and Standard_D2_v4 will work with the x86-64-v3 image.
  • Note about –security-type Standard option: this is required as this experimental image uses an unsigned kernel, and thus the VM will fail to launch with the default security type of TrustedLaunch.

Now ssh in using the public IP address shown after the VM is created:

# Set the public IP address from the output of the previous command
PUBLIC_IP="1.2.3.4" # this is just a dummy IP, please replace
ssh ubuntu@$PUBLIC_IP

Create Azure VM from Azure Web Portal

You may also create a VM from the Azure web portal if you prefer by following these steps:

  • From the home screen, search “Community Images”
  • Filter on public gallery name (the name is listed in the Image Details section above), or “starts with ubuntu”
  • Select the image from the region you wish to launch in and click “Create VM”
  • Follow the web portal wizard for launching the image. As detailed in the CLI section above:
    • For “Username” enter “ubuntu”
    • Select a size that supports x86-64-v3
    • Select “Standard” for security type
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