Automating Azure Marketplace Preview Deployment (Managed Application) via CLI / API

Question

Automating Azure Marketplace Preview Deployment (Managed Application) via CLI / API

AzurePublishing Cryptshare 0

Hi,

I am working on automating the deployment of a preview Azure Marketplace offer.

The offer is published via Microsoft Partner Center and appears in Azure as an Azure Managed Application.

Cryptshare-Marketplace-Offers

Current behaviour

Deployment via Azure Portal works as expected
The Portal internally uses an ARM template (templateLink from catalogartifact.azureedge.net)
We were able to replicate this using Microsoft.Resources/deployments (ARM template deployment)

However, we identified a limitation:

Each preview publish generates a new artifact ID
This changes the ARM template URI
Our automation currently requires manually updating this URI after each publish

Questions

We would like to understand the supported and recommended way to automate this:

Is there a supported way (Azure CLI / PowerShell / REST API) to retrieve the latest artifact/template URI for a Marketplace preview offer?
Can Azure Managed Applications (Marketplace offers preview) be deployed programmatically using:

Azure CLI
- Azure PowerShell
- REST API
- without manually referencing the ARM template URI?
1. Is using Microsoft.Resources/deployments with templateLink the correct approach for automating preview deployments?
2. Alternatively, should we be using the Microsoft.Solutions/applications resource (Managed Application deployment) for this scenario?
3. Is there any official guidance or best practice for automating preview audience deployments from Partner Center?

Goal

Our goal is to fully automate:

Deploy preview offer
Validate deployment
Destroy resources

without requiring manual intervention after each preview publish.

I have attached screenshots from Partner Center and Azure Portal deployment for reference.

Thanks in advance for your guidance. The offer is published via Microsoft Partner Center and appears in Azure as an Azure Managed Application.

0 comments

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

For Azure Marketplace Managed Application offers, including preview, the supported automation path is to deploy the managed application resource (Microsoft.Solutions/applications) using an ARM template (or tools that emit ARM, such as Azure CLI/PowerShell/Terraform). The template itself is the contract; there is no documented API to query “latest preview artifact/template URI” from Partner Center.

From the available guidance:

How programmatic deployment of Managed Applications is supported
- Azure Application (Managed Application) offers are deployed by creating a Microsoft.Solutions/applications resource via ARM.
- The Azure portal generates an ARM template for the Managed Application deployment; this template creates a Microsoft.Solutions/applications resource pointing to a specific plan and passes the application‑specific parameters from the UI fields that the customer fills out in the portal.
- The same ARM template can then be used programmatically via:
  - az deployment group create (Azure CLI)
  - Azure PowerShell deployment cmdlets
  - ARM/management-plane REST APIs
Terms acceptance requirement
- Before programmatic deployment of an Azure Application (Managed Application) plan, the subscription must accept the plan’s terms.
- This is done with the same command used for VM offers: az vm image terms accept. Once accepted for a subscription/plan, subsequent programmatic deployments work without additional manual steps.
Using Microsoft.Resources/deployments with templateLink
- Using Microsoft.Resources/deployments to deploy an ARM template (with templateLink) is a valid way to automate Managed Application deployments, because the portal itself relies on an ARM template.
- However, the guidance for Azure Application offers focuses on the ARM template that creates Microsoft.Solutions/applications. That template is expected to be stable and reused across deployments. The documentation does not describe any supported mechanism to dynamically resolve a changing preview artifact URL.
Recommended resource type for automation
- For Managed Application marketplace offers (including preview), the recommended programmatic deployment target is the Microsoft.Solutions/applications resource defined in the Managed Application ARM template.
- Terraform and other tools are also expected to use this same ARM template for deployment.
Preview/automation best practices from available docs
- Azure Application offers (solution template and managed application plans) are explicitly designed to automate deployment and configuration using ARM templates.
- The technical asset guidance emphasizes:
  - Designing and maintaining an ARM template as the primary deployment artifact.
  - Reusing the same deployment package (template) across plans when the technical configuration is the same.
  - Using standard ARM deployment tooling (Azure CLI, PowerShell, REST, Terraform) for automation.
- No additional preview‑specific API or pattern is documented for automatically discovering or tracking preview artifact IDs.

Given the available information, the supported and recommended approach for full automation is:

Use the Managed Application ARM template that creates Microsoft.Solutions/applications as the stable artifact.
Ensure the subscription has accepted the Managed Application plan terms via az vm image terms accept before running automated tests.
Drive deployments and teardown via standard ARM deployments (CLI/PowerShell/REST/Terraform) against that template, rather than relying on changing templateLink URLs generated per preview publish.

References:

Answer 2

Siva shunmugam Nadessin 10,900 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello AzurePublishing Cryptshare,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

When investigated it sounds like you’re an ISV trying to automate your preview‐offer deployments without having to chase a new template URI after every publish. Here’s the high-level approach that’s both supported and less brittle:

Use the “managed‐app” resource type, not hard-coded template links • In your ARM (or Bicep/Terraform), define a resource of type Microsoft.Solutions/applications that points at your Publisher/Offer/Plan. • During deployment Azure will automatically resolve and pull down the latest template for that plan—even in Preview—so you never have to manually update a templateLink.

Accept terms once, up front • Preview offers still require “terms” acceptance in the target subscription (same as a paid plan). You can do that programmatically with CLI/PowerShell:

az vm image terms accept --publisher --product --plan

Deploy, validate, destroy via CLI/PowerShell/REST

• az deployment group create (or New-AzResourceGroupDeployment) against your ARM template that contains only the Microsoft.Solutions/applications resource.

• Query the deployment status or the deployed application resource’s outputs to validate success.

• Tear everything down with az group delete (or the equivalent REST call).

Why this is better than templateLink + Microsoft.Resources/deployments

• A templateLink approach works, but every preview publish generates a new artifactId/URL, so your automation has to keep updating that link.

• Using the Microsoft.Solutions/applications resource offloads that version lookup to the Marketplace service—no more manual URI updates.

A couple of gotchas for Preview offers:

• It can take up to 4 hours (sometimes less) after you push a new preview version for it to become visible in your preview audience’s subscriptions. In automation you may need to retry or poll until the plan shows up.

• Make sure your subscription is listed in the Partner Center “Preview audience” for that offer.

Let me know if you’d like a snippet of the ARM template or a sample CLI/PowerShell script. Happy to share!

References

Programmatic deployment of Microsoft Marketplace products (Managed Apps) https://learn.microsoft.com/marketplace/programmatic-deploy-of-marketplace-products
Quickstart: Deploy a service catalog managed application (CLI/PowerShell/Portal) https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/managed-applications/deploy-service-catalog-quickstart
Overview of Azure Managed Applications https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/managed-applications/overview
Add a preview audience in Partner Center https://learn.microsoft.com/partner-center/marketplace/azure-app-preview

Siva shunmugam Nadessin 10,900 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-08T20:57:24.1466667+00:00

Hello AzurePublishing Cryptshare,

Just checking in to see if the solution shared above help you to resolve your issue. please reach out to us If you have any further questions.

Thanks
AzurePublishing Cryptshare 0 Reputation points

2026-04-08T23:42:06.67+00:00
Hi @Siva shunmugam Nadessin

Thank you for the detailed response. After trying your recommendation, I have some important clarifications:

Looking at our Partner Center Plan overview, the plan (ID: xxxxx, Offer ID: xxxxxxxx-preview) is of type Solution template and may not be Managed Application. The Microsoft.Solutions/applications resource type you recommended is specific to Managed Application plans. When we tried it, we received:

ResourcePurchaseValidationFailed: Offer 'xxxxxxx-preview' cannot be purchased by subscription as it is not to be sold in market: 'DE'

Might be this is likely because Microsoft.Solutions/applications implies a transactable purchase, which doesn't apply to Solution templates.

The code we tried (Pulumi / ARM equivalent):

new azure.solutions.Application("xxxxx-preview", { kind: "MarketPlace", plan: { publisher: "xxxxx", product: "xxxxxx-preview", name: "xxxxxx", version: "latest", }, ... });

What we have already verified:

The subscription <your-subscription-id> is listed in the Preview Audience in Partner Center

Marketplace terms have been accepted programmatically via:
az vm image terms accept --publisher xxxxx --offer xxxxxx-preview --plan xxxxxx

Deployment via the Azure Portal works correctly with the same subscription

The Microsoft.Resources/deployments + templateLink approach worked, but the new artifact URI only becomes visible after manually deploying once via the Azure Portal. It is not exposed anywhere in Partner Center beforehand. Manually copying it after each publish is acceptable as a workaround, but we'd prefer to retrieve it programmatically.
{ "type": "Microsoft.Resources/deployments", "properties": { "templateLink": { "uri": "https://catalogartifact.azureedge.net/publicartifacts/xxxx.xxxxx-preview-<artifact-id>-xxxxx/Artifacts/mainTemplate.json" } } }

Important clarification on our goal: We are not trying to automate the publishing process itself. The publish is done manually via Partner Center as usual. What we want to automate is: once a new preview version is live in Partner Center, automatically deploy it, validate it, and destroy the resources, without manually copying the new artifact URI each time.

Our actual question:

For a Solution template plan, is Microsoft.Resources/deployments with a templateLink still the correct and only programmatic deployment approach?

Is there any API (Marketplace Catalog API or similar) to dynamically retrieve the latest templateLink URI for a given preview version, so we don't have to hardcode the artifact ID after each publish?

Or do you have any other suggestions for automating this part?

Our goal: Fully automate deploy preview → validate → destroy, without manual intervention after each Partner Center publish. (See screenshot below for the preview offer in question.)
Siva shunmugam Nadessin 10,900 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-08T23:49:19.82+00:00
Hello AzurePublishing Cryptshare,

The Marketplace plan is a Solution Template, not a Managed Application.

Solution Templates are not transactable offers, so they cannot be deployed using Microsoft.Solutions/applications, which always implies a marketplace purchase.

This is why deployment fails with ResourcePurchaseValidationFailed, even though the subscription is in the preview audience and terms are accepted.

For Solution Templates, the only supported programmatic deployment method is:

Microsoft.Resources/deployments using a templateLink

This is the same mechanism used internally by the Azure Portal and is working as designed.

Current platform limitation (by design):

Azure does not provide an API to programmatically retrieve the latest marketplace artifact (templateLink) for Solution Templates after publish.

The artifact URL becomes visible only at deployment time, which requires capturing it manually once per publish.

The options going forward is

If full automation (publish → deploy → validate → destroy) is required, the offer must be converted to a Managed Application.

If remaining on Solution Templates, manual capture of the artifact URL after each publish is the supported approach.