Provision Azure Local VMs in a local availability zone (Preview)

Applies to: Azure Local version 2510 and later

This article explains how to create Azure Local virtual machines (VMs) in a local availability zone to reduce latency, improve performance, ensure redundancy, and meet compliance requirements.

Prerequisites

• Make sure that you have access to a rack aware cluster.

• Before you create an Azure Local VM for a rack aware cluster, make sure that all prerequisites listed in Create Azure Local virtual machines enabled by Azure Arc are met.

Set parameters

1. Connect to a machine on your Azure Local.

2. Sign in and run the following command:

   az login --use-device-code
   

3. Set your subscription:

   az account set --subscription <Subscription ID>
   

4. Set the following parameters:

   $vmName ="local-vm"  
   $subscription = “<Subscription ID>"  
   $resource_group = "local-rg"  
   $customLocationName = "local-cl"  
   
   $customLocationID ="/subscriptions/$subscription/resourceGroups/$resource_group/providers/Microsoft.ExtendedLocation/customLocations/$customLocationName"  
   
   $location = "eastus"  
   $computerName = "mycomputer"  
   $userName = "local-user"  
   $password = "<password for the VM>"  
   $imageName ="ws22server"  
   $nicName ="local-vnic"   
   $storagePathName = "local-sp"   
   
   $storagePathId = "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/local-rg/providers/Microsoft.AzureStackHCI/storagecontainers/local-sp"  
   
   $zone = "local-zone"
   

You can now create the Azure Local VM in a specific availability zone with or without strict placement.

Create a VM in a specific availability zone without strict placement

Once you have set up availability zones in a rack aware cluster, you can create Azure Local VMs on a specific availability zone to reduce latency, improve performance, ensure redundancy, and meet compliance requirements.

When you create a VM in a specific availability zone, the default option is without strict placement. The VM is created on a machine within the specified zone using the --zone flag.

If all machines within a zone are down, the VM can migrate to another machine outside of the zone. However, the VM attempts to fail back to a machine within the original zone when that availability zone recovers.

1. Run the following command:

   az stack-hci-vm create --name $vmName --resource-group $resource_group --admin-username $userName --admin-password $password --computer-name $computerName --image $imageName --location $location --authentication-type all --nics $nicName --custom-location $customLocationID --hardware-profile memory-mb="8192" processors="4" --storage-path-id $storagePathId --zone $zone
   

2. Verify that the VM is created in the desired zone. Look under the placementProfile in the output:

   "placementProfile": {  
     "strictPlacementPolicy": null,  
     "zone": "local-zone"  
   },
   

Create a VM in a specific availability zone with strict placement enabled

To create a VM in a specific availability zone and ensure it stays within that availability zone, you can specify another flag --strict-placement to true. The VM is created on a machine within the specified zone (--zone). If all machines within a zone are down, the VM also goes down.

Follow these steps to create a VM in a specific availability zone with strict placement enabled:

1. Run the following command:

   az stack-hci-vm create --name $vmName --resource-group $resource_group --admin-username $userName --admin-password $password --computer-name $computerName --image $imageName --location $location --authentication-type all --nics $nicName --custom-location $customLocationID --hardware-profile memory-mb="8192" processors="4" --storage-path-id $storagePathId --zone $zone --strict-placement true 
   

2. Verify that the VM has strict placement enabled and was created in the desired zone. Look under placementProfile in the output.

   "placementProfile": {  
     "strictPlacementPolicy": true,  
     "zone": "local-zone"  
   },