Azure Virtual Machines

Deploy and manage Azure VMs, availability sets, scale sets, custom images, and managed disks. Covers VM creation, sizing, disk management, auto-scaling, and Terraform configurations for production environments.

Prerequisites

# Install Azure CLI
curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash

# Login and set subscription
az login
az account set --subscription "my-subscription-id"

# Create resource group
az group create --name compute-rg --location eastus

# List available VM sizes in a region
az vm list-sizes --location eastus --output table

# List available VM images
az vm image list --output table
az vm image list --publisher Canonical --offer 0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy --all --output table

VM Creation

Linux VM with SSH Key

az vm create \
  --resource-group compute-rg \
  --name myapp-vm \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --size Standard_D4s_v5 \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --vnet-name myapp-vnet \
  --subnet app-subnet \
  --nsg "" \
  --public-ip-address "" \
  --os-disk-size-gb 64 \
  --os-disk-caching ReadWrite \
  --storage-sku Premium_LRS \
  --zone 1 \
  --assign-identity \
  --tags environment=prod team=platform app=myapp

# SSH into the VM (if public IP assigned)
ssh azureuser@$(az vm show -g compute-rg -n myapp-vm -d --query publicIps -o tsv)

Windows VM

az vm create \
  --resource-group compute-rg \
  --name myapp-win-vm \
  --image Win2022Datacenter \
  --size Standard_D4s_v5 \
  --admin-username azureadmin \
  --admin-password 'S3cur3P@ssw0rd!' \
  --vnet-name myapp-vnet \
  --subnet app-subnet \
  --public-ip-address "" \
  --os-disk-size-gb 128 \
  --storage-sku Premium_LRS \
  --zone 1

VM with Cloud-Init

# cloud-init.yaml
# #cloud-config
# package_update: true
# packages:
#   - nginx
#   - docker.io
# runcmd:
#   - systemctl enable nginx
#   - systemctl start nginx
#   - usermod -aG docker azureuser

az vm create \
  --resource-group compute-rg \
  --name web-vm \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --size Standard_B2s \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --custom-data cloud-init.yaml \
  --tags role=web

VM Size Guide

# Find VM sizes with specific capabilities
az vm list-sizes --location eastus \
  --query "[?numberOfCores >= \`4\` && memoryInMb >= \`16000\`]" \
  --output table

# Check VM size availability in a zone
az vm list-skus --location eastus \
  --size Standard_D4s_v5 \
  --output table

Managed Disks

# Add a data disk to existing VM
az vm disk attach \
  --resource-group compute-rg \
  --vm-name myapp-vm \
  --name myapp-data-disk \
  --size-gb 256 \
  --sku Premium_LRS \
  --new \
  --lun 0

# Create a standalone managed disk
az disk create \
  --resource-group compute-rg \
  --name shared-data-disk \
  --size-gb 512 \
  --sku Premium_LRS \
  --zone 1

# Resize a disk (VM must be deallocated)
az vm deallocate --resource-group compute-rg --name myapp-vm
az disk update \
  --resource-group compute-rg \
  --name myapp-data-disk \
  --size-gb 512
az vm start --resource-group compute-rg --name myapp-vm

# Snapshot a disk for backup
az snapshot create \
  --resource-group compute-rg \
  --name myapp-disk-snapshot \
  --source myapp-data-disk

# Create disk from snapshot
az disk create \
  --resource-group compute-rg \
  --name myapp-disk-from-snap \
  --source myapp-disk-snapshot \
  --sku Premium_LRS

# List disks attached to a VM
az vm show \
  --resource-group compute-rg \
  --name myapp-vm \
  --query "storageProfile.dataDisks" \
  --output table

Custom Images

# Generalize the VM (run inside the VM first)
# sudo waagent -deprovision+user -force

# Deallocate and generalize
az vm deallocate --resource-group compute-rg --name myapp-vm

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