Creating and Managing Virtual Machines- Part 1

• Structured Summary + Deep Technical Understanding

Primary service:

• Azure Virtual Machines

Related services:

• Azure Virtual Network
• Azure Managed Disks
• Azure Network Security Group
• Azure Migrate

Official documentation:

VM overview:

VM sizes:

Managed disks:

Availability options:

1️⃣ What Is an Azure Virtual Machine?#

An Azure VM is:

• ✔ Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) compute ✔ A cloud-hosted virtualized server ✔ Built on Azure’s hypervisor platform (based on Hyper-V) ✔ Deployed into an Azure Virtual Network

It replaces on-prem hypervisor solutions like:

• VMware
• Hyper-V
• Physical servers

Key difference from on-prem:

You manage:

• OS
• Applications
• Configuration

Azure manages:

• Physical hardware
• Hypervisor layer
• Datacenter infrastructure

2️⃣ VM Core Architecture Components#

A VM consists of several associated resources:

🔹 Compute Resource#

The VM itself (CPU + Memory)

🔹 Operating System Image#

Examples:

• Ubuntu
• Red Hat
• Windows Server
• CentOS
• Marketplace provides ready-made images.

🔹 Storage (Disks)#

Modern Azure uses:

• Azure Managed Disks

Types:

• OS Disk
• Data Disks
• Premium SSD
• Standard SSD
• Standard HDD
• Important: Managed disks replaced unmanaged disks (which used storage accounts + page blobs).

🔹 Networking#

VM networking includes:

• Network Interface (NIC)
• Private IP
• Optional Public IP
• Subnet
• Virtual Network

Security controlled by:

• Azure Network Security Group

3️⃣ Common VM Use Cases#

✔ Domain Controllers (Active Directory)#

Run AD DS in VMs.

✔ Web Servers#

• Apache
• Nginx
• IIS

✔ Database Servers#

• MySQL
• MariaDB
• SQL Server

✔ Network Appliances#

• Firewalls
• VPN appliances
• Load balancers

✔ N-tier Architecture#

Deploy:

• Frontend in one subnet
• Application tier in another
• Database tier in another

4️⃣ VM Deployment Properties (Exam Important)#

When deploying a VM, you configure:

5️⃣ VM Families Explained#

Choosing the correct VM family is critical.

🔹 General Purpose#

Balanced CPU-to-memory Use cases:

• Dev/Test
• Small web apps
• Light workloads

🔹 Compute Optimized#

High CPU-to-memory Use cases:

• Web servers
• Batch processing
• Network appliances

🔹 Memory Optimized#

High memory-to-CPU Use cases:

• Relational databases
• Caching
• In-memory analytics

🔹 Storage Optimized#

High disk throughput Use cases:

• OLTP databases
• Big data
• Data warehousing

🔹 GPU#

Graphics acceleration Use cases:

• Video rendering
• AI training
• Deep learning
• Game servers

🔹 HPC (High Performance Compute)#

Maximum performance Use cases:

• Scientific computing
• Geophysics
• Advanced simulations

Docs:

6️⃣ Availability Options (Important for High Availability)#

During deployment you can choose:

• No infrastructure redundancy
• Availability Set
• Availability Zone
• VM Scale Set
• Note: Not all regions support Availability Zones.

Docs:

7️⃣ Deployment Walkthrough Summary (Demo Recap)#

Steps performed:

• Create Virtual Machine
• Choose Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
• Select VM size (2 vCPU, 8GB RAM)
• Configure authentication (password)
• Select disk type (Premium SSD)

Auto-create:

• Virtual Network
• Subnet
• Public IP
• NIC
• Review + Create
• Deploy

After deployment:

• VM is running
• Public and Private IP assigned
• SSH connectivity available
• Disk and networking configurable

8️⃣ Post-Deployment Management Options#

After creation, you can:

• ✔ Start / Stop VM ✔ Restart VM ✔ Resize VM ✔ Change disk size ✔ Modify networking ✔ Add data disks ✔ Configure NSG rules ✔ Connect via SSH or RDP
• Important: Stopping VM without deallocating still incurs compute charges.

9️⃣ VM Networking Concepts#

If VM has:

• Public IP → Accessible over internet Private IP only → Internal access only

NSG rules control inbound traffic:

• SSH (22)
• HTTP (80)
• HTTPS (443)
• RDP (3389)

🔟 Migration to Azure#

Existing workloads can be migrated using:

• Azure Migrate

Supports:

• VMware
• Hyper-V
• Physical servers

Docs:

1️⃣1️⃣ Cost Considerations#

VM pricing depends on:

• VM size
• Disk type
• Region
• Running vs stopped
• Public IP
• Network egress
• Exam Tip: Compute cost stops only when VM is deallocated.

1️⃣2️⃣ Key Exam Concepts to Remember#

✔ Azure VMs are IaaS ✔ Managed disks are default ✔ VM deployed inside a VNet ✔ VM requires NIC ✔ VM size determines CPU & memory ✔ VM families optimized for workloads ✔ Availability Zones increase resiliency ✔ Public IP enables internet access ✔ NSGs control traffic ✔ Azure manages hypervisor

1️⃣3️⃣ Mental Model#

Think of Azure VM as:

• Cloud-based server rack → Hypervisor managed by Azure → You manage OS and applications
• It’s your datacenter server — just hosted in Azure.

1️⃣4️⃣ Final Takeaways#

• ✔ Azure VMs provide flexible IaaS compute ✔ Multiple VM families for workload optimization ✔ Networking and storage are separate Azure resources ✔ Managed disks simplify storage ✔ Public IP enables remote connectivity ✔ Availability options improve uptime ✔ Azure Migrate helps lift-and-shift ✔ VM management continues after deployment

If you'd like next:

• 🧠 VM availability sets vs zones deep dive
• 💰 VM pricing optimization strategies
• 🔐 Securing VMs with NSG + Azure Bastion
• 📘 40 AZ-104 VM scenario questions
• 🚀 Production-ready VM architecture design
• Tell me which certification you're targeting.

Hands-on: Create a Linux VM from the Azure Portal#

Goal: Deploy a small Linux VM, connect to it, install a web server, and confirm what supporting Azure resources are created.

1. Create or choose a resource group named az104-compute-rg.
2. Open Virtual machines > Create > Azure virtual machine.
3. Set VM name az104-linux-01, choose your lab region, choose Ubuntu Server LTS or Azure Linux, and select a low-cost lab size such as Standard_B1s.
4. Choose SSH public key authentication and create or use an existing key pair.
5. Allow inbound SSH only from My IP.
6. On the Disks tab, keep the OS disk as a managed disk.
7. On the Networking tab, create a new VNet and subnet or use an existing lab VNet.
8. Review and create the VM.
9. After deployment, open the VM resource and identify the related resources: NIC, public IP, NSG, and OS managed disk.
10. Connect with SSH:

ssh azureuser@<public-ip>

11. Install nginx:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y nginx
systemctl status nginx

12. Add an NSG inbound rule for HTTP TCP 80 from the internet.
13. Browse to http://<public-ip> and confirm nginx loads.
14. Stop and deallocate the VM when finished.