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Create a prepared image machine catalog in Azure Local

April 23, 2026
Contributed by: 
C

Create prepared images and use the prepared images to create an MCS machine catalog using:

The key steps to create an MCS machine catalog using the prepared image are:

  1. Create the image definition and the initial image versions.
  2. Use the image version as a prepared image to create a catalog.

Use Web Studio

Create an image definition and initial image version

To create an image definition and the initial image version, do the following:

  1. From Web Studio, go to the Images node, and click Create Image Definition. Click Next on the Introduction page.
  2. On the Image Definition page, specify the OS type and Session type for the image definition.
  3. Select an existing resource group or create a new one for holding the image resources.

  4. On the Image page, select Resources (only the resources applicable for the set connection are listed) and an image to use as a template for creating the image version.

    Note:

    • Before selecting an image, verify that the master image has VDA 2311 or later installed and the MCSIO driver is installed on the VDA.
    • For image selection, you can select an Azure Local Gallery Image or a Virtual Machine.
  5. On the Machine Specification page, select CPU and memory for preparation VM.
  6. On the NICs page, select NICs for the preparation image. For each NIC, select an associated virtual network.
  7. On the Version Description page, enter a description for the initial image version created.
  8. On the Summary page, check the details of the image definition and the initial image version created. Enter a name and description for the image definition. Click Finish.

Create image versions

Image versions allow for the management of different iterations or updates to a particular image. This functionality enables you to maintain multiple versions of an image for different purposes.

To create image versions from the initial image version, do the following:

Note:

The hosting unit of all the image versions must be the same.

  1. Go to the Images node, select an image version or an image definition, and click Create Image Version.
  2. On the Image Definition page, you can change the hosting unit, and reselect the master image and machine profile for that image version.
  3. If you want the configuration of the image version to be different from the initial configured image version, then configure the settings on the Machine Specification and NICs pages of the Create Image Version dialog.
  4. Add a description for the image version. Click Finish.

Note:

If the creation of the image version fails for any reason, the Troubleshoot tab at the bottom provides a Retry option.

Create a machine catalog from the Images node

Use the Create catalog option in the Images node to create a catalog using the image version.

Alternatively, you can select the version when creating a catalog in the Machine Catalogs node, linking to the prepared image option in the catalog creation workflow. See Create a machine catalog from the Machine Catalogs node.

To create an MCS machine catalog from the Images node, do the following:

  1. Select an image version and click Create catalog. Click Next on the Introduction page.
  2. On the Desktop Experience page, select the required desktop experience.
  3. From the Image page to NICs page, the settings are pre-selected based on the selected image version.
  4. On the Resource Group page, you can choose to create a new resource group or use an existing resource group to place the resources of this catalog.
  5. Complete the settings on the following pages.
  6. On the Summary page, check the details of the machine catalog. Enter a name and description for the machine catalog. Click Finish.
  7. Go to the Machine Catalogs node to see the created machine catalog.

Create a machine catalog from the Machine Catalogs node

To create an MCS machine catalog from the Machine Catalogs node, do the following:

  1. Click Machine Catalogs on the left navigation pane.
  2. Click Create Machine Catalog. The Machine Catalog Setup page appears. Click Next through the Introduction and Machine Type pages.

  3. On the Machine Management page:

    1. Select Machines that are power managed (for example, virtual machines or blade PCs).
    2. Select Citrix provisioning technology. Then, select Citrix Machine Creation Services™.
    3. In the Resources field, the resources belonging to different zones are listed. Select any Azure network resource and click Next.

  4. On the Image page:

    • For Master image type, follow these steps:

      1. Select Master image.
      2. Under the Master image, select an image. The blade lists all the images that belong to the same region as those of Resources.
      3. Click Done.

    • For Prepared image type, follow these steps:

      1. Select Prepared image.
      2. Under the Prepared image, select an image version of an image definition. If needed, add a note for the selected prepared image version.
      3. Click the image version name. To view more details about the selected image version, click the version number, which is underlined.
  5. Configure the settings on the following pages.
  6. On the Resource Group page, you can choose to create a new resource group or use an existing resource group to place the resources of this catalog.
  7. Complete the settings on the following pages.
  8. On the Summary page, check the details of the machine catalog. Enter a name and description for the machine catalog. Click Finish.

Use PowerShell

Create a prepared image

The detailed PowerShell commands to create a prepared image version spec for Azure Local are as follows:

  1. Check the available image definition names using the Test-ProvImageDefinitionNameAvailable command. For example,

    Test-ProvImageDefinitionNameAvailable -ImageDefinitionName <string[]>
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  2. Create an image definition using the New-ProvImageDefinition command. For example,

    New-ProvImageDefinition -ImageDefinitionName arc-ACG-image-climber-demo -OsType Windows -VDASessionSupport SingleSession -Description "arc ACG image for arc"
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  3. Create a new configuration for image definition in the specified Hosting connection using the Add-ProvImageDefinitionConnection command.

    The CustomProperties for Add-ProvImageDefinitionConnection can include the following. If you do not use the parameters, then default values are used.

    ResourceGroups: The resource group that has the base disks.

    For example, in the case of a customer-provided resource group:

    $CustomerOwnRsourceGroupProperties = @"
<CustomProperties xmlns="http:// schemas.citrix.com/2014/xd/machinecreation" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Property xsi:type="StringProperty" Name="ResourceGroups" Value="sz_res_group" />
</CustomProperties>
"@
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    Add-ProvImageDefinitionConnection -HypervisorConnectionName Azurelocal -ImageDefinitionName arc-ACG-image-climber-demo [-CustomProperties $CustomProperties]
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  4. Create an image version using the New-ProvImageVersion command. For example,

    New-ProvImageVersion -ImageDefinitionName arc-ACG-image-climber-demo
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  5. Add a master image version spec to the image version using the Add-ProvImageVersionSpec command. For example,

    Add-ProvImageVersionSpec -ImageVersionNumber 1 -HostingUnitName network-2 -MasterImagePath XDHyp:\HostingUnits\network-2\image.folder\MST-W11WS-2507-11-10-no-sysprep.galleryimage
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    Note:

    You can add only one master image version spec to one image version for a hosting unit.

  6. Create a prepared image version spec from the master image version spec using the New-ProvImageVersionSpec command. For example,

    New-ProvImageVersionSpec -CustomProperties "<CustomProperties xmlns=`"http://schemas.citrix.com/2014/xd/machinecreation`" xmlns:xsi=`"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance`"><Property xsi:type=`"StringProperty`" Name=`"ResourceGroups`" Value=`"citrix-xd-39d65e7a-f6c0-4772-9e8d-d6eacb36287f-hilxi`" /><Property xsi:type=`"StringProperty`" Name=`"OsType`" Value=`"Windows`" /></CustomProperties>" -NetworkMapping @{"0"="XDHyp:\HostingUnits\network-2\network.folder\VM-Network-2.network"} -SourceImageVersionSpecUid "86c1a467-f900-4434-990a-c4ae39faca10"
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Example of the complete set of PowerShell commands to create image definition, image version, and prepared image version spec:

## create image definition
New-ProvImageDefinition -ImageDefinitionName arc-ACG-image-climber-demo -OsType Windows -VDASessionSupport SingleSession -Description "arc ACG image for arc"
## create image definition connection
Add-ProvImageDefinitionConnection -CustomProperties "<CustomProperties xmlns=`"http://schemas.citrix.com/2014/xd/machinecreation`" xmlns:xsi=`"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance`"></CustomProperties>" -HypervisorConnectionUid "8eac2ad2-fc81-45d6-9153-9545a779f8d2" -ImageDefinitionUid "39d65e7a-f6c0-4772-9e8d-d6eacb36287f"
## create new image verison
New-ProvImageVersion -ImageDefinitionName arc-ACG-image-climber-demo
## select azure arc ACG image
Import-Module Citrix.Host.Commands
Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath @("XDHyp:\HostingUnits\network-2\image.folder") | select-object fullpath
## add verison spec through Azure Arc ACG
Add-ProvImageVersionSpec -ImageVersionUid "29da7e07-b7e9-4c8c-a5f2-4c03dbcba451" -HostingUnitUid "51305f67-34b3-4b22-a5d2-b6d7deaff9ba" -MasterImagePath XDHyp:\HostingUnits\network-2\image.folder\MST-W11WS-2507-11-10-no-sysprep.galleryimage
## create new version spec
New-ProvImageVersionSpec -CustomProperties "<CustomProperties xmlns=`"http://schemas.citrix.com/2014/xd/machinecreation`" xmlns:xsi=`"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance`"><Property xsi:type=`"StringProperty`" Name=`"ResourceGroups`" Value=`"citrix-xd-39d65e7a-f6c0-4772-9e8d-d6eacb36287f-hilxi`" /><Property xsi:type=`"StringProperty`" Name=`"OsType`" Value=`"Windows`" /></CustomProperties>" -NetworkMapping @{"0"="XDHyp:\HostingUnits\network-2\network.folder\VM-Network-2.network"} -SourceImageVersionSpecUid "86c1a467-f900-4434-990a-c4ae39faca10"
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Note:

  • All image version specs in an image definition must belong to the same hosting unit.
  • An image version can have only one master image version spec and one prepared image version spec.

Create a catalog using a prepared image version spec

Create an MCS machine catalog from the prepared image version spec using the New-ProvScheme command. For example,

New-ProvScheme -ProvisioningSchemeName <string> -ImageVersionSpecUid <Guid> -HostingUnitUid <Guid> -IdentityPoolUid <Guid> [-VMCpuCount <int>] [-VMMemoryMB <int>] [-UseWriteBackCache] [-NetworkMapping <Hashtable>] [-CleanOnBoot] [-Scope <string[]>] [-Metadata <Hashtable>] [-ServiceOffering <string>] [-SecurityGroup <string[]>] [-TenancyType <string>] [-MachineProfile <string>] [-CustomProperties <string>] [-ResetAdministratorPasswords] [-UseFullDiskCloneProvisioning] [-RunAsynchronously] [-PurgeJobOnSuccess] [-ProvisioningSchemeType <ProvisioningSchemeType>][-ImageAssignmentNote <string>]
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Or,

New-ProvScheme -ProvisioningSchemeName <string> -ImageVersionSpecUid <Guid> -HostingUnitName <string> -IdentityPoolName <string> [-VMCpuCount <int>] [-VMMemoryMB <int>] [-UseWriteBackCache] [-NetworkMapping <Hashtable>] [-CleanOnBoot] [-Scope <string[]>] [-Metadata <Hashtable>] [-ServiceOffering <string>] [-SecurityGroup <string[]>] [-TenancyType <string>] [-MachineProfile <string>] [-CustomProperties <string>] [-ResetAdministratorPasswords] [-UseFullDiskCloneProvisioning] [-RunAsynchronously] [-PurgeJobOnSuccess] [-ProvisioningSchemeType <ProvisioningSchemeType>][-ImageAssignmentNote <string>]
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Example of the complete set of PowerShell commands to create a catalog:

New-AcctIdentityPool -IdentityPoolName arc-climbers-local -NamingScheme "arc-c-vm-###" -NamingSchemeType Numeric -Domain "CLIMBERS.LOCAL"
New-ProvScheme -ProvisioningSchemeName arc-ACG-img-climber-3 -HostingUnitName network-2 -IdentityPoolName arc-climbers-local -ImageVersionSpecUid 0525360d-6cb5-4f08-bb2c-aaf5678a0d54
New-BrokerCatalog -ProvisioningSchemeId 93fbcebd-3a7a-499e-9d8d-c09e02021c5a -AllocationType Static -Name arc-ACG-img-climber-3 -PersistUserChanges OnLocal -ProvisioningType MCS -SessionSupport SingleSession
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More information

Where to go next

Create a prepared image machine catalog in Azure Local
April 23, 2026
Contributed by: 
C
April 23, 2026
Contributed by: 
C

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