Adebayo Ebofin

Posted on Nov 14

Creating an azure compute Gallery , capture the image of VM and store in compute Gallery and create VMSS

#azure #cloud #virtualmachine #scaleset

Table of Content
A. What is Azure compute gallery?
B. What is Virtual Machine Scale Set?
C. What is orchestrated mode in Virtual Machine Scale Set(VMSS)?
D. Step by step in creating Virtual Machine
E. Step by step in creating compute gallery
F. Step by step in creating Virtual Machine Scale Set

A. What is azure compute Gallery?
An Azure Compute Gallery (formerly known as Shared Image Gallery) is a service that allows you to create and share custom virtual machine (VM) images in Azure. It acts as a centralized repository for storing and managing these images, enabling you to quickly provision new VM instances based on them.

B. What is virtual Machine Scale Set?
An Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) is a service that allows you to create and manage a group of identical, load-balanced virtual machines (VMs). The number of VM instances within the scale set can automatically increase or decrease based on predefined rules or real-time demand.

Key benefits of using VMSS:
Auto-scaling: Automatically adjust the number of VM instances to handle varying workloads.
Load balancing: Distribute traffic evenly across VM instances for optimal performance.
High availability: Ensure application uptime by distributing VMs across availability zones.
Simplified management: Manage a large number of VMs as a single unit.
Cost-effectiveness: Pay only for the resources you need, scaling up or down as required.
C. What is orchestrated mode in VMSS?
Orchestrated mode in Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) is a new feature that offers greater flexibility and control over individual VM instances within a scale set. It provides two main modes:

Uniform Orchestration:

This is the traditional mode where all VM instances are identical and managed as a single unit.
The scale set handles all VM operations, including scaling, updates, and maintenance.
Offers limited flexibility for customization and management of individual VMs.
Flexible Orchestration:

This new mode allows for more granular control over individual VM instances.
You can manage VMs using standard Azure IaaS VM APIs, providing more flexibility for customization and configuration.
Supports different VM sizes and configurations within a single scale set.
Offers better support for advanced scenarios like custom scripts, extensions, and specific networking configurations.
Key benefits of Flexible Orchestration:

Greater flexibility: Customize and manage individual VMs like regular VMs.
Improved scalability: Scale to larger numbers of instances and support a wider range of VM sizes.
Enhanced control: Fine-tune VM configurations and maintenance operations.
Simplified management: Use familiar IaaS VM management tools and APIs.
When to use Flexible Orchestration:

Custom VM configurations: When you need to customize individual VMs with different configurations, such as specific software installations or network settings.
Advanced scenarios: For complex scenarios that require fine-grained control over VM lifecycle and operations.
Large-scale deployments: When you need to scale to a large number of VM instances with diverse requirements.
By understanding the differences between the two modes, you can choose the best option for your specific workload and requirements.

D. Step by step in creating Virtual Machine

Search for virtual machine in the search bar and click on the virtual machine

Start the Creation Process To Do: Click the “Create” button to start the virtual machine creation process. Choose “Create a virtual machine hosted by Azure”.

Enter Project Details To Do: Select the appropriate subscription and create a resource group by clicking the “Create resource group” button and giving it a name(vmrg) and click ok .

Enter Virtual Machine Details To Do: Provide information about your virtual machine, such as the name, operating system (choose either Ubuntu Server 20.04 or Windows Server Datacenter -x64 G2), size, and other configuration settings. Leave other options as default. (I choose window 10pro version from the drop down)

Create an Administrator Account To Do: Choose “Password” for the authentication type. Use “Azureuser” for the username and “Password123@# for the password.

Select Inbound Port Rules To Do: Select SSH if you chose a Linux VM and RDP if it’s a Windows VM. This allows IP addresses to connect to the VM.(I choose RDP)

Check Licensing To Do: By default, this is unchecked. Click the box to check it.

Disable Boot Diagnostics To Do: Click “Next” until you reach the “Boot diagnostics” in the Monitoring tab, and click on “Disable”.

Review and Create and create To Do: Click on the “Review + Create” button. If the validation passes, the deployment will proceed. If not, note any recommendations, fix them, and try again. Deployment might take 3-5 minutes.

Check the Status To Do: If the VM is running, the task has succeeded.

Access the Virtual Machine To Do: Once the virtual machine is deployed, click on the “Connect” button in the virtual machine blade in the Azure portal.

Download RDP File To Do: Click “Native RDP”, select, and wait for the configured sign to be displayed on the right-hand side. Download the RDP file.

Connect to the VM To Do: Open the RDP file from your local computer and click on “Connect”. Enter the admin details created during the VM setup.

E. Creating a compute gallery
Here are step by step in creating a compute gallery

search for compute galleries in the search bar and select

Select + create

Give your resource group a name (I choose cgrg) and click ok

Give name to your compute gallery (I choose cg1) and description(Place to store our virtual machine images) then click review + create

Click create

Go back to the Virtual machine created and click on image at the drop down of capture

7.Select compute gallery name created from the drop down of select a gallery at Target azure compute gallery also choose either Generalized: VMs created from this image require hostname, admin user, and other VM related setup to be completed on first boot or
Specialized: VMs created from this image are completely configured and do not require parameters such as hostname and admin user/password (I choose specialized)