Exercise - Create an Azure virtual machine

  • 10 minutes

In this exercise, you create an Azure virtual machine (VM) and install a web server (Nginx).

You could use the Azure portal, the Azure CLI, or an Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template.

In this instance, you're going to use the Azure CLI.

Important

This exercise creates a VM that is used in a later exercise within this module. To avoid leaving a VM running for an extended period of time, it's recommended that you complete the full module in one sitting.

Task 1: Create a resource group

  1. Log into the Azure portal.
  2. Select the Azure Cloud Shell icon to bring up Cloud Shell.
  3. From the Azure CLI, create a resource group named IntroAzureRG. 
    az group create --name IntroAzureRG --location eastus

Task 2: Create a Linux virtual machine

  1. Use the following Azure CLI command to create a Linux VM.

  2. From Cloud Shell, run the following az vm create command to create a Linux VM:

    az vm create \
  --resource-group "IntroAzureRG" \
  --name my-vm \
  --size Standard_D2s_v5 \
  --public-ip-sku Standard \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys

    Your VM takes a few moments to come up. You named the VM my-vm. You use this name to refer to the VM in later steps.

Task 3: Install Nginx

After your VM is created, you'll use a Custom Script Extension to install Nginx. The Custom Script Extension is an easy way to download and run scripts on your Azure VMs. It's just one of the many ways you can configure the system after your VM is up and running.

  1. Run the following az vm extension set command to configure Nginx on your VM:

    az vm extension set \
  --resource-group "IntroAzureRG" \
  --vm-name my-vm \
  --name customScript \
  --publisher Microsoft.Azure.Extensions \
  --version 2.1 \
  --settings '{"fileUris":["https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MicrosoftDocs/mslearn-welcome-to-azure/master/configure-nginx.sh"]}' \
  --protected-settings '{"commandToExecute": "./configure-nginx.sh"}'

    This command uses the Custom Script Extension to run a Bash script on your VM. The script is stored on GitHub. While the command runs, you can choose to examine the Bash script from a separate browser tab. To summarize, the script:

    1. Runs apt-get update to download the latest package information from the internet. This step helps ensure that the next command can locate the latest version of the Nginx package.
    2. Installs Nginx.
    3. Sets the home page, /var/www/html/index.html, to print a welcome message that includes your VM's host name.

Continue

This exercise is complete for now. You'll use this VM later in this module.