creating batch pool from captured vm image

setting up batch compute nodes in the correct way for some given software stack seems to be rather cumbersome. this is also difficult to test and develop - since even with no startup task - pool nodes sometimes take hours to be available.

one alternative that has been suggested is to use your own vm images to create the pool nodes.

this looks like a better solution all round - if it works.

the 'obvious' way to do this is to create a vm from the appropriate image, setup all the necessary software, capture the vm image, and use this image to create the batch pool.

is this properly supported ? (by which I mean without having to jump through lots of silly hoops)

as far as I can see - you can only create a pool using 'custom' images if they are stored in the image gallery, and the azure portal does not seem to provide any way to either (i) add a captured vm image to a gallery, or (ii) capture an image directly to a gallery.

so - although this has been suggested as the best solution - it doesn't look as if it is properly supported.

as a note - I could achieve everything that I am trying to do now (but using C++) about 10 years ago on an academic HPC system in a matter of days, and recently from a completely cold start - I was able to get something similar running on aws in a few days - but im still trying to find out what is even possible on azure.

A