How i Created a Linux VM, SSHed Into it and Installed Apache2 on Azure

Introduction

In this project, I created a Linux virtual machine on Microsoft Azure, connected to it securely using SSH, and installed Apache2 to host a web server.

This is part of my journey as an aspiring cloud engineer, learning cloud technologies, Linux, and DevOps.

Step 1: Creating a Virtual Machine on Azure

I logged into the Azure Portal and created a new virtual machine using Ubuntu as the operating system.

Key configurations included:

• Resource group creation
• Selecting a region
• Choosing a VM size
• Setting up authentication (SSH key)

Step 2: Connecting to the VM via SSH

After the VM was successfully created, I connected to it using SSh [Secure shell hosting] from my Gitbash terminal.

Command used:
ssh username@public-ip-address

Once connected, I had full access to the Linux environment running on virtual machine as shown below

Step 3: Updating the System

Before installing any software, I updated and upgraded the package list with the commands;

sudo apt update
&
sudo apt ugrade

This ensures that all packages are up to date and upgraded.

Step 4: Installing Apache2

Next, I installed Apache2 using the following command:

sudo apt install apache2 -y
The -y flag automatically confirms installation prompts.

After installation, Apache2 started running on the server.

Step 5: Verifying Apache2 Installation

To confirm Apache2 was working, I opened a browser and visited my VM’s public IP address.

The default Apache2 welcome page was displayed, confirming a successful installation.

Conclusion

In this project, I successfully:

Created a Linux virtual machine on Azure
Connected to it using SSH
Installed and ran Apache2

This project strengthened my understanding of cloud computing, remote server management, and basic web server deployment.

I look forward to building more projects as I continue my journey in cloud engineering.