Model VM Application dependencies with order and failure behavior together

Source facts

VM Applications without an order value install after ordered applications, but their relative order is not guaranteed and other application failures do not block them. Packages sharing an order value have no guaranteed sequence within that group. Failure at a lower order blocks higher-order installation. The mechanism requires a VM Agent that can receive goal states. Microsoft Learn.

Applicability

Review the complete applicationProfile for the VM or scale set, including omitted and duplicate order values. Identify genuine prerequisites separately from packages that can operate independently. Confirm agent readiness and that each application version is available for the deployment region before interpreting an ordering failure.

DSE recommendation

Assign distinct increasing order values to real prerequisites and document which packages may run independently. Have the application owners agree what should happen when each prerequisite fails. Avoid placing a dependent package in the unordered group merely to have it run last. Preserve the intended dependency map beside the actual profile so ordering is reviewable without reading installation logs first.

Verification

Test the sequence with harmless representative packages, including an intentional early failure. Check which later ordered packages are skipped and whether any unordered packages still run. Verify success through each application’s own acceptance criteria rather than installation order alone. Retain the profile, package versions, observed execution sequence, and failure outcome so a later edit cannot silently change the dependency behavior.

Official references

Microsoft Learn: VM Applications overview. Source reviewed September 9, 2026.