DEV Community: Seun Okegbola

DEPLOYING A WINDOWS SERVER VIRTUAL MACHINE RUNNING IIS

Seun Okegbola — Wed, 29 May 2024 23:28:38 +0000

Let's start off by with the question What is IIS?

Internet Information Services (IIS) is a flexible, general purpose Microsoft web server that runs on Windows operating system and is used to exchange static and dynamic web content. It is used to host, deploy and manage web applications using technologies like ASP.NET and PHP.

In this blog be deploying the following things with Microsoft Azure:

Create a windows Server with IIS installed
Create an Application Security Group (ASG) in the same region as your Server.
Go the Server's Network Security Group (NSG) and Add an inbound rule on port 80 and Port 443.
Create firewall and attach it to the Server's Vnet to secure your environment from malicious threats.
Copy your Public IP to a browser and ensure there is connectivity.

Prerequisite
First thing login to your Microsoft Azure Portal by going to https://portal.azure.com.
If you do not have an azure account sign up and create an account for free with this link https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/. Registration will require a phone number and a debit or credit card details to validate your account even for the free account. You have a choice between the free or pay as you go account.

Create a Windows Server with IIS installed.

Step 1: Go to the search bar at the top centre of the Azure portal and type Virtual Machines, then click it from the list of resources.

Step 2: Click Create on the Virtual machine page. From the drop-down menu click Azure virtual machine.

Step 3: Project details

Subscription: Choose your subscription. Here we will be using the default Azure subscription, if you have others, you can select another.
Resource group: We will be creating a new one for the purpose of this exercise. Select Create new and type a name and select OK.

Step 5: Instance details

-Virtual machine name: Give your VM a name and it should be unique throughout the Azure network.
- Region: Select a location you want your VM, from the dropdown menu. [ A region is the geographical location with data centres that host services and infrastructures, with each operating independently and self-contained]
- Availability options: we leave on the default Availability zone.
- Availability zone: Select the zone or zones you would like your VM to be located

- Security type: We leave on the default Trusted launch virtual machines.
- Image: Select from the dropdown menu a Window Server image. I will be using the Windows Server 2019 Datacenter x64 Gen2 for this exercise.

For this exercise leave the remaining setting as they are and follow the next steps below.

Step 6: Administrator Account

Username: Name your administrator account
Password: type your password and confirm the password

Step 7: Network tab
Click the Networking tab towards the top of the page ensure that your Network interface is populated especially the

- Virtual network
- Subnet
- Public IP

If the not populated, click the Create new underneath the blank boxes by Virtual network. Select the defaults and click Ok.

The fields then get populated. If yours was populated already then click Review + Create, at the bottom of the screen.

Step 8: When your Validation passed then click Create at the bottom right of the page.
Step 9: Once Deployment is completed Click Go to resource.

Step 10: Connect to your Windows Server virtual machine so we can install IIS. You do this by clicking Connect besides the search bar to the right of your page. A dropdown menu shows and click Connect.

Click on the Download RDP file. Your browser may ask if you want to keep the file click Keep/Save.

A Remote Desktop Connection pop up appears on your screen click Connect.

Enter the password to your Windows Server and Click Ok.
Another Remote Desktop Connection prompt appears on your screen click Yes.

Wait for the Virtual Machine to setup. You are now Logged into your Windows Server.

Step 11: Installing IIS on our Windows Server.

Click on Add roles and features in the Server Manager.

The Add Roles and Features Wizard comes up click Next to the get to Installation Type.
Ensure Role-based or feature-based installation is selected and click Next.

Server selection you should see the server you deployed. Select it and click Next.

Server Roles scroll down the list of Roles till you see Web Server (IIS) check the box, a second window appears click Add features and click Next.

Click Next till you get to Confirmation then you click Install.

While the installation process is going on open your Azure Portal on a New Tab on your web browser to Create an Application Security Group (ASG).

2. Application Security Group (ASG)

Step 1: Search for a Application Security Group at the top centre search bar of your portal at click.

Step 2: Click Create

Step 3: In the Create an application security group page. Begin with the Basics and fill out the Project details and Instance details.

Subscription: Select your Subscription
Resource group: Select the resource group you created for this project from the deployment of the Windows Server Virtual Machine, from the dropdown menu.
Instance details:
- Name: Give your Application Security Group a Name
- Region: Ensure the region is the same as that of your Windows Server Virtual Machine

Click Review + Create at the bottom of the page.
After the Validation is passed Click Create at the bottom left of the page.
Once the Deployment is completed click Go to resource.

With this you have successfully created your Application Security Group. Now we will be creating a Network Security Group.

3. Network Security Group (NSG)

Go to the Search bar at the top of the portal page and search for Network Security Group (NSG) and click.

You will notice that Azure has already created a NSG for your server, so we go ahead with the creating inbound rule on port 80 and port 443.

Add an inbound rule on port 80 and Port 443 in your Network Security Group (NSG)

Step 1: Click on the Network Security Group Created.
Step 2: Go to Inbound Security rules at the right side of the page underneath Settings dropdown menu.
Step 3: Click Add to set a new rule for there to be Inbound access to our Server.

Step 4: Adding Inbound security rule. We will be changing only the following below

Destination: Click the dropdown menu and select Application security group.

A new option appears Destination application security group, from the dropdown menu select the application security group you created.

Destination port ranges: change the ports to 80, 443 (for http and https ports).
Priority: Scroll down to priority and change it to 100 or 150. The lower the number the higher the priority it is given.
Name: Give this rule a name.
Click Add

You have added a new Inbound rule to your Network security group.

Adding the Application Security Group to our Windows Server

Step 1: Go to Virtual Machine through the Search bar at the top of the portal and go to the Windows Server.
Step 2: Go to Application Security group underneath the Networking menu, the click Add application Security groups.

Step 3: A window opens and as long as you ensured you place everything in the same region the Application Security Group you created will appear as an option select it and click Add.

4. Create firewall and attach it to the Server's Virtual Network

Step 1: Search for Firewall in the search bar of the portal and click

Step 2: Click Create

Step 3: Create a firewall.

Subscription: choose your subscription
Resource group: Select the Resource Group from the dropdown menu you have been using for this project.
Name: Give your firewall a name
Region: It should be the same as your windows server
Availability zone: same as your windows server

Firewall SKU: Select Premium
Firewall policy: Click Add new.
- Policy name: Give it a name.
- Region: it should be the same region as the Windows Server
- Policy tier: Select Premium Click Ok

Before we can move forward and add Virtual network and Public IP address, we need to take a detour and create a firewall Network subnet.

I would suggest duplicating the tab or opening your azure portal in another tab and follow the steps below.

To Create a firewall subnet, go to the Search bar at the top of the portal and type Virtual Network and click.

Next Select your network of your Server

Below the Virtual Network Search go to Settings and select Subnets

Below the Virtual Network Search go to Settings and select Subnets.

Select +Subnet towards the right of the Virtual Network Search

In the Add a subnet window

Subnet purpose: Select Azure Firewall.
Leave it everything at the default and Click Add.

Now we can go back to the tab where we were about Create Azure Firewall. Refresh the tab and fill in the previous information In Step 3 of Creating Firewall till we get to the point where we digressed to creating a subnet.

Choose a virtual network: Select Use existing.
Virtual Network: Select your Windows Server vnet
Public IP address: Click Add. Give it a name and click ok

Click Next: Tags >, then Next: Review + create> then click Create all at the bottom of the portal

Your firewall is up and running.

5. Copy your Public IP to a browser and ensure there is connectivity.

Navigate back to the Tab with your Windows Server Virtual Machine. Copy the Public IP address of your Windows Server VM

Paste it in your browser.

A Windows Server Virtual Machine running IIS and secured it with a firewall on Microsoft Azure has just been deployed. Give it a try.

A Beginner’s Look into Azure Active Directory (Microsoft Entra ID) and Roles with a Simple Exercise

Seun Okegbola — Mon, 13 May 2024 03:47:24 +0000

First of all, what is Active Directory?

Active Directory is a service that was previewed by Microsoft in 1999 has been in use since windows server 2000 edition. It has been a useful service in helping organisations as a Windows domain services tool that allows you to set permissions and make groups for the users and assets in your environment. Active Directory works on premises with the domain controller.

This service is also available in the cloud, for Microsoft Azure it is known as Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) or by its new name Microsoft Entra ID. It is an identity and access management solution from Microsoft that helps organizations secure and manage identities for hybrid and multicloud environments.

Permissions and access management solutions are given based on roles in Azure are assigned using either:

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Roles is an identity and access management service that enables user and device authentication and authorization across Azure and other integrated applications. Azure Active Directory roles control access to Azure Active Directory resources such as users, groups, and applications.
Azure Roles (or Role Based Access Control-RBAC) is a widely used access control model that allows administrators to assign specific roles to Azure users, groups, or service principals.

Azure Roles is responsible for the access to Azure resources while Azure AD Roles controls access to resources in Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID). These roles have their different purposes, scopes and types of roles you can assign. Below is a table highlighting the differences between Azure Active Directory Roles (Azure AD) and Azure Roles.

Practical Exercise

Hagital Consulting Ltd has decided to streamline its identity management process by utilizing Microsoft *Entra ID *(Azure Active Directory) to manage its cloud-based identities.

Create the Administrative Department and add two users (Grace Peters and Ahmed Johnson) to it.
Assign the Global Administrator Role to User A (Grace Peters)
Show all the steps it took the Global Admin to Log in into the Azure Portal with Grace Peters new credentials.
Let the Global Administrator (Grace Peters) create/onboard a new member (Steven Kalu) to the Admin Department

Let’s go ahead with the exercise.

Prerequisite

First thing login to your Microsoft Azure Portal by going to https://portal.azure.com.

If you do not have an azure account sign up and create an account for free with this link https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/. Registration will require a phone number and a debit or credit card details to validate your account even for the free account. You have a choice between the free or pay as you go account.

Practical Begins

Step 1: Search for Microsoft Entra ID in the search bar at the top of your portal page and Select Microsoft Entra ID.

You are now in the Default Directory| Overview page.

Click Groups under the Manage drop-down menu at the left-hand side of the portal.

Click New group.

Step 2: The New Group menu create the Administrative Department.

Group type: Select Security.
Group name: Type Administrative Department
Group description: Give a description of the group or you can leave it as is.
Membership type: Leave as is.

Members: Click on No members selected

The Add members menu pops up click Users underneath the search bar.

Select the two new members of this group in this we are picking Grace **and **Ahmed Johnson the click Select at the bottom left of the windows.

You are back to the New Group page click Create at the bottom left of the page.
Back at the Groups| All groups page click Refresh then your newly created Administrative Department will show up under the list of groups found.

Step 2: Assigning Global Administrative role to a member of the created group. We will be giving Grace this role and appoint her as Head of the Admin.

Click on Default Directory|Groups to get back to the Default Directory page.

Click on Users under the Manage dropdown menu at the left-hand side of the page.

In the Users page click Grace.

Grace's User page is now open. Go to the menu at left hand side of the page click on Manage in its dropdown menu click on Assigned roles.

In the Grace|Assigned roles page click on Add assignments.

Directory roles window opens. In the search bar type Global Administrator, select it when it appears and click Add at the bottom of the window.

Click on Refresh once back in Grace|Assigned **roles page, the role will now appear in the list of **Administrative roles she has been given.

Sign into Grace’s Azure Portal

Step1: Open another browser or your current browser in incognito or Inprivate mode depending on the browser you are using.

Login to Azure using Grace’s credentials.
Go and copy Grace User Principal name (UPN) to login to Azure.

Paste it in the Sign in.

Enter the password you gave to the account or the copied out autogenerated password and click Sign In.

Grace will be prompted to Update your password at your first sign in. Change password and click Sign in.

An Action Required prompt will show on screen, for this exercise we will be clicking Ask Later.
Stay signed in? prompt comes click Yes.

You are now logged Grace’s User Account.

Create/Onboard a new member into the Administrative Department with Grace who we have giving the role of Global Administrator.

Step 2: Click Microsoft Entra ID to go into the Default Directory|Overview Page

Click on Add
In the menu that hover your mouse over User then click on Create new user

Step 3: In the Create new user page we start with the Basic tab.

User principal name: Enter the user’s name
Mail nickname: Leave the check box ticked beside the Derive from user principal name
Display name: Enter a name
Password: You can leave the Auto-generate password ticked but copy the password somewhere you can easily find it or uncheck the box and type in the password yourself.

Click Next: Properties at the bottom of the portal to move to the next tab.

Step 3: We move to the next tab Properties.

We start with Identity.
First name: Enter Steven
Last name: Enter Kalu
User type: Leave it as Member.
Job Information: We will fill in a few other details

1.** Job title:** Admin Officer

Company name: Higital Consulting Ltd
Department: Administrative

Leave everything else as they were and click Next: Assignments at the bottom of the page.

Step 4: In the Assignments tab. We be adding Steven Kalu to the Administrative Department.

Click Add group

In the new window Select group look for and click the check box for Administrative Department we created.

Once done click Select at the bottom of the page.
Click Next: Review + create
Click Create

You have successfully created a user with Graces Peter’s Portal. You can view the account, Steven Kalu, you just created by going to Default Directory| Overview and click Users under manage. You will be able to see it in both your account you start this exercise with and in Grace Peters’ account.

In summary, Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Roles and Azure Roles are important parts of access management in Azure’s ecosystem. As we can see from the simple exercise above it can help an organisation securely and efficiently manage its users/staff and give access and privileges which can be similar to their roles in their organisation.

VIRTUAL MACHINE SCALE SET

Seun Okegbola — Wed, 01 May 2024 20:14:59 +0000

In this blog we will be exploring some aspects of the Microsoft Azure service Virtual Machine Scale Set, (VMSS) and it role in the scaling virtual machines.

The basic information we will be going through in this post on Virtual Machine Scale Set:

What are Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS)?
Orchestration Modes
Scaling Modes highlighting their differences.
Scale-in policy configuration.
Load balancer is and at what point do we need to enable a load balancer.
Create a basic Virtual Machine Scale Set.

What are Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS)?
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set is a service they offer that allows you to create and manage a group of load balanced Virtual Machines (VMs). The number of Virtual Machines can automatically increase and decrease in response to demand or based on a defined schedule. It is a great choice for applications that are required to run across many VMs while maintaining consistent configurations and high availability.

The Benefits of VMSS are as highlighted below:

Easy Management: You can maintain a consistent configuration across your environment for reliable performance of your application, using the same base Operating System (OS) image and configuration.
High Availability: It distributes your Virtual Machines (VMs) across fault domains within an Azure region or Availability Zone
Automatic Scaling: you can scale your application as the demand of your resources change.
Large-Scale Support: Supports up to 1000 Virtual Machines

To get more information on VMSS you can check these links below:
VMSS, VMSS Management, VMSS Zonal Expansion, VMSS Design

Orchestration Modes
Cloud orchestration is the process of automating the tasks needed to manage connection and operations of workloads. In Microsoft Azure provides two orchestration modes for Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) as listed below.

Uniform Orchestration Mode which is the traditional way of managing Virtual Machines in a scale set. It has the following characteristics:

It manages and deploys Virtual Machines (VMs) that are identical in configurations.
It does not support standard Azure Infrastructure as a Services (IaaS) Virtual Machine (VM) API commands.
It provides fault domain high availability guarantees when configured with fewer than 100 Virtual Machines (VMs) instances.

Flexible Orchestration Mode in contrast offers a more diverse Virtual Machines (VMs) that is identical or multiple configuration setup within the same scale set. This is useful for more complex applications that require different VM sizes. Some more characteristics:

Virtual Machines (VMs) can be of different types.
It supports standard Azure Infrastructure as a Services (IaaS) Virtual Machine (VM) API commands.
It also supports a mix and match Virtual Machines with varying configurations, size and roles.
provides fault domain high availability guarantees when configured with up to 1000 Virtual Machines (VMs) instances.

Scaling Modes
Before we get to the scaling modes lets get to know what scaling means in Azure. Scaling is the adjusting capacity of your resources to meet changes in demands. There are two primary scaling modes.

Vertical Scaling: adjusting the capacity of a single resource such as VM size and
Horizontal Scaling: adding or removing instances of a resource to handle varying workloads.

Scaling can be done automatically it is a mechanism called Autoscaling.

Autoscaling In Virtual Machine Scale Sets
Autoscaling is a mechanism for Horizontal Scaling making it easier to manage resource allocation. Autoscaling mechanism in VMSS that automatically adjusts the number of Virtual Machine (VM) instances that is, dynamically increase or decrease the number of VMs to handle varying workloads without manual intervention, based on demand or predefined rules.
The benefit of Autoscaling is it ensures that your applications handle varying loads efficiently while maintaining high availability and optimizing the cost.

There two autoscaling options which are and

Scheduled Autoscale allow you to scale the number of virtual machine (VM) instances at specific times that you schedule and
Metrics Autoscale allow you to scale the number of virtual machine instances based on available metrics.

There are policies that are used to guide how they perform these actions. They are the

Scale-out is the process of adding extra resources, such as virtual machines (VMs), to a Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) to manage an increase in demand for your application.
Scale-in refers to the process of reducing the number of virtual machines (VMs) in the scale set. Scale-in is often triggered when resource demand falls, and the system no longer requires the same level of capacity.

Kindly take note of Flexible orchestration does not explicitly define a default Scale-In Policy like the Uniform Orchestration mode. However, you can still manage individual VM instances using standard Azure IaaS VM APIs instead of relying solely on the scale set interface. This flexibility allows you to customize scale-in behaviour based on your workload requirements.

Load Balancer
A load balancer in a cloud service such as Azure is a practice of evenly distributing traffic, workloads, and client requests across multiple servers or resources. It is a feature in Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) that can be setup to work on the backend of server and client devices. As requests are received, the load balancer distributes them to available servers based on an algorithm. It has a lot of benefits such as improved performance, greater reliability, reduced cost, reduced latency, improved flexibility and much more.

This a feature that you should configure right from the setup of your Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) under the network tab.

Here are some more resources to learn more Cloud Orchestration, Cloud Orchestration 1, Cloud Orchestration 2, VMSS Orchestration modes,

Now that we have a basic understanding of Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) lets go ahead to create one. Follow the steps below.

Prerequisite
First thing login to your Microsoft Azure Portal by going to https://portal.azure.com.

Once you are logged in let’s begin!

Step 1: Search for Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) in the search bar at the top of your portal page and Select Virtual Machines Scale Set.

Step 2: Select Create **and select **Virtual Machines Scale Set. (There is a create button at the centre of your portal and another towards the top left side of your screen both function similarly)

You are now in the Create Virtual Machines Scale Set page. We will be working primarily under the Basics **tab and starting with **Project details.

Step 3: Project details

Subscription: Choose your subscription. Here we will be using the default Azure subscription, if you have others, you can select another.
Resource group: Select Create new and type a name or if you have one already select it and click OK.

Step 4: Instance details

Virtual Machines Scale Set name: Give your VMSS a name and it should be unique throughout the Azure network.
Region: Select a location you want your VMSS, from the dropdown menu. [ A region is the geographical location with data centres that host services and infrastructures, with each operating independently and self-contained]
Availability zone: Select the zone or zones you would like your VMSS to be located from the drop-down menu. [Each Region in Azure can consist of more than one Availability zone. Each zone are kilometres apart and independent of each other to minimize the impact of failures and disruptions. Multiple zones can be selected each having their own Virtual machine]

Step 5: Orchestration

Orchestration mode: for this exercise I will be selecting Flexible.

Step 6: Scaling

Scaling mode: select Autoscaling, once this is selected Scaling configuration options appears, click on Configure.

2 Scaling configuration

i. Scaling conditions: Click on the pen icon towards the right of the screen, which is the edit button. This is to add a scaling condition, there is a default created by Azure already which you can adjust to suit your needs.

ii. Add a scaling condition: you can go ahead to customise your scaling conditions.

Condition Name: Give it a name or leave as default.
Initial instance count: this determines the number of instances your VMSS starts with
Instance limit: you determine Minimum Number of instances you can scale down to and Maximum Number of instances you can scale up to
Scale out: this is where you determine the conditions when your number of instances increases, based on CPU threshold and by how much your instance increases by.
Scale in this is where you determine the conditions when your number of instances should be decrease, based on CPU threshold and by how much your instance decrease by.

We will be leaving all configuration at their default as seen below and click save below.

You are back to Scaling conditions and click Save on the bottom left of your screen.

Step 7: Instance details

Image: Select an image from the drop-down menu, in this exercise we will be using ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS
Size: Select the size from the drop-down menu

Step 8: Administrator account

Authentication type: There are two options to choose from SSH public key or Password. In this blog post we will be selecting Password.
Username: Name your administrator account
Password: type your password and confirm the password
Click Next: Spot when done

Leave the Spot tab in default and click next to get to the Disk tab you can make changes to the OS disk by changing the OS disk size and OS disk type but I will be leaving it on default and clicking next to get to the Networking tab.

Step 9: Networking
In this tab we will be going to the Load balancing section and from the options in Load balancing options we will select Azure load balancer. Once selected a new section pops up called Select a load balancer click Create a load balancer.

A new menu comes up enter a name for your load balancer and live the rest on their default setting and click **Create **below.

Once you have done click on Next: Management below to get to the Management tab. For this exercise we will leave Management, Health, Advanced and Tags tabs on their default configurations. Then click Review + Create.

Step 10: Review + Create
Once you get the Validation Passed message click on Create below.

You get a Deployment is in progress massage this will take a few minutes, once this is done you can now click on the go to resource option.

This is now a newly deployed a basic Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) is ready and available with two instances already running which was the default scaling condition we left it as all the way in Step 6: 2.

Click on the Instance menu on the left-hand side of the screen to see the details of the two instances.

Hope this blog helped you understand the basics of Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) and how to deploy a very simple VMSS in Microsoft Azure. Lets keep learning together, thank you for reading.

ATTACHING A DATA DISK TO AN ALREADY EXISTING WIN 11 PRO VIRTUAL MACHINE IN AZURE

Seun Okegbola — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 15:24:00 +0000

In today’s post we will be learning to how to attach a data disk to our Win 11 Pro Virtual machine. We will be working with an already created Win 11 Pro VM, if you do not know how to go about it, just click on the link below to create one and come back and follow this blog.

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO CREATING A WIN 11 PRO VIRTUAL MACHINE ON MICROSOFT AZURE

Seun Okegbola ・ Apr 8

What are Disks in Azure?

Before attaching a data disk, let's have a brief discussion about disks in Azure.

Disks in Azure are referred to as** Azure Disk Storage**, that provide block-level storage volumes that are managed by Azure and used with its Virtual machines. They are virtualized versions of physical disks you would have in your on-premises servers.

Azure has several types of disks with different performance requirement and prices points.

• Ultra Disks: Designed for IO-intensive workloads, offering high throughput and IOPS with the ability to dynamically change performance parameters without restarting Virtual Machines.

• Premium SSDs: Suitable for production and performance-sensitive workloads that require consistent low latency and high IOPS.

• Standard SSDs: Ideal for web servers, lightly used enterprise applications, and development/test environments.

• Standard HDDs: Best for backup, non-critical, and infrequent access scenarios due to their lower cost and performance compared to SSDs.

Apart from the different types of disks, Azure disks have different roles. They are three in number, and they are as follows:

OS Disk: the Operating System disk, this is the Virtual Hard drive that you boot or run your virtual machine from. It holds the operating system and its system files; it is usually labelled as the C: drive by default. The OS disk has a maximum capacity of 4 TB.
Data Disks: These are Virtual Hard drives you can attach to a Virtual machine to store application data or other data you need to keep. You can attach several data disks to a Virtual machine depending on the size of the Virtual machine. They have a maximum capacity of 32 TB per disk.
Temporary Disk: This disk provides temporary storage for applications and processes and is intended to store data such as swap files, application cache, system cache, etc. The data on this disk can be lost during a maintenance event or when you redeploy a Virtual machine. It is usually labelled as the D: drive by default.

You can get more information on these from links below.

Azure Disk Storage overview - Azure Virtual Machines | Microsoft Learn

Overview of Azure managed disks, which handle the storage accounts for you when using VMs.

learn.microsoft.com

Select a disk type for Azure IaaS VMs - managed disks - Azure Virtual Machines | Microsoft Learn

Learn about the available Azure disk types for virtual machines, including ultra disks, Premium SSDs v2, Premium SSDs, standard SSDs, and Standard HDDs.

learn.microsoft.com

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/storage/disks/

Now that we understand Azure disks let's begin attaching a data disk to the already created Win 11 Pro Virtual Machine.

Step 1: Login to your Azure portal, Search for Virtual Machine in the search bar and Click on Virtual Machines.

Step 2: Click on your already created Win11 Pro Virtual machine.

Step 3: Select and click on Disks, under settings towards the left end of your screen.

Step 4: Once in the disk menu, look for and select Create and attach new disk.

a. Disk name: Give the disk a name.

b. Storage type: Select from the options in the dropdown menu.

c. Size (GiB): Type the disk size you want.

d. Click Apply at the bottom left of the portal when done.

Wait for a few minutes for your Data disk to be created. Once this done go to the next step

Step 5: Go to Overview page and Connect to your Windows Virtual Machine

Step 6: Once your Windows 11 Virtual Machine is up and running,

a. Go to your file explorer.

b. Go to This PC, you will notice your just created Data disk is not listed amongst the hard drives. You will have to initialize the disk before it is useable.

Step 7: Initializing the Data disk.

a. Right click the Windows button

b. Select Disk Management from the list that pops up.

c. Disk Management opens with a prompt ‘You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it’ click ‘OK’.

d. Scroll down at the bottom half of the Disk Management windows till you get to Disk 2.

e. Right click on Disk 2 where it shows Unallocated and select New Simple Volume.

f. A Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard comes up.

g. For this exercise keep clicking Next till you finally get to Finish. Now the disk is initialized and is now visible on This PC in file explorer.

If all these steps were followed correctly you have successfully Create, Attached and Initialized a Data disk in your Win 11 Pro virtual machine. Congratulations and well-done.

Creating a Linux Virtual Machine in Azure

Seun Okegbola — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 14:07:25 +0000

Today I will be showing you how to setup a Linux Virtual Machine (VM) on Microsoft Azure. This guide is just for a basic setup and some. The Linux operating system of choice for this blog post will be Ubuntu.

Okay, time to begin.

Prerequisite

First thing login to your Microsoft Azure Portal by going to https://portal.azure.com.

Note: Make sure the bank card you use for signing up allows international transactions. The free trial account provides $200 in Azure credits to be utilized within the first 30 days of sign-up, plus 12 months of selected free services (subject to change). After the initial 30 days, you will need to upgrade to a pay-as-you-go subscription.

Once you’ve Logged into your account you can begin.

Creating Linux Virtual Machine

Step 1: Search for Virtual Machine (VM) in the search bar at the top of your portal page and Select Virtual Machines.

Step 2: Select Create and select Azure Virtual Machine. (There is a create button at the centre of your portal and another towards the top left side of your screen both function similarly)

Step 3: You are now in the Create a Virtual Machine page. We will be working primarily under the Basics tab.

Step 4: Project details
a. Subscription: Choose your subscription. Here we will be using the default Azure subscription, if you have others, you can select another.

b. Resource group: Select Create new and type a name and select OK.

Step 5: Instance details

a. Virtual machine name: Give your VM a name and it should be unique throughout the Azure network.

b. Region: Select a location you want your VM, from the dropdown menu. [ A region is the geographical location with data centres that host services and infrastructures, with each operating independently and self-contained]

c. Availability options: we leave on the default Availability zone.

d. Availability zone: Select the zone or zones you would like your VM to be located _[Each Region in Azure can consist of more than one Availability zone. Each zone are kilometres apart and independent of each other to minimize the impact of failures and disruptions. Multiple zones can be selected each having their own Virtual machine] _

e. Security type: We leave on the default Trusted launch virtual machines.

f. Image: Select from the dropdown menu a Linux image for this exercise I will be selecting Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS - x64 Gen 2(free services eligible)

Step 6: Administrator Account
a. Authentication type: There are two options to choose from SSH public key or Password. In this blog post we will be selecting Password.

b. Username: Name your administrator account

c. Password: type your password and confirm the password

Step 7: Inbound port rules
a. Public inbound ports: Select Allow selected ports.

b. Select inbound ports: From the dropdown menu select SSH (22) if it's not selected by default.

c. Click Next: Disk > at the bottom left of your portal.

Step 8: Once you click Next: Disks> you are moved to the Disk **tab of the **Create Virtual Machine service.

a. OS disk type: Select any disk type of your choosing. I will be selecting Premium SSD.

Step 9: For this guide we will be leaving the Networking, Management, Monitoring, Advanced and Tag pages on their default configuration. Click on Review + Create at the bottom left of your portal.

Step 10: At the Review + Create you should get a Validation passed at the top left of your screen. Review your settings and make any changes if required and select Create.

Step 11: Once you get Your deployment is complete click on Go to resource.

Step 12: Take note of your Public IP address before you click Connect and select Connect again.

Step 13: Open Windows PowerShell on your computer. For those new to PowerShell you can simply press the windows button on your keyboard and search for Windows PowerShell and click to open.

a. Type in this command ssh username@ipaddress and press enter. (username is your administrator account username and your public ip address)

b. You will be asked ‘Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?’ type *Yes
*

c. Enter your password.

At this point if you delay in typing in your password your connection will be closed as seen in the picture highlighted below.

To resolve this

Step 14: Go back to your Azure portal click on Overview **and click the **Public IP address. This takes you to the configuration page.

a. Go to the idle timeout (in minutes). Increase this time to 30 minutes either by using the slider or typing in the box.

b. Click **Save **towards the top left

c. Go back to PowerShell and input command ssh username@ipaddress once again and press enter.

d. Enter your password and press enter. (do not be alarmed when typing in your password and no characters or figures shows it is completely normal, just input the right password)

If all the steps were done correctly then the connection will be successful, and you will be logged into your Ubuntu Virtual Machine.

Congrats on you have a Linux Virtual machine.

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO CREATING A WIN 11 PRO VIRTUAL MACHINE ON MICROSOFT AZURE

Seun Okegbola — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 17:56:37 +0000

Introduction

Welcome to this guide on how to create an Win11 pro Virtual Machine on Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft Azure has made it easy to create virtual machines running various operating systems, which has become a crucial tool in modern cloud computing because of its scalability and flexibility. I will be taking you through a step by step walk through of creating your own Windows 11 Pro virtual machine. Let’s get begin!

Requirement

Before you can start creating a Virtual Machine, you will need to have an Azure subscription. If you do not have one your can sign up for a free trial at .
Also familiarizing yourself with the fundamental cloud computing concepts would be helpful.

Step 1
Now that you have created your free subscription, login to your Azure portal with your credentials at to get started.

Step 2
When you are at your Azure Portal, navigate to virtual machines either by clicking the menu button at the left-hand of your portal as seen in Pic 1 below or
go to the search bar and type and select Virtual Machines from the list of resources listed as seen in Pic 2

Pic 1

Pic 2

After selecting the Virtual Machine resource then click ‘Create’

Once this is done you will be directed to the ‘Basics’ page to begin the creation

Step 3
You will be working under the Project Details in the Basics tab.
a. Subscription: choose the appropriate subscription
[Azure has a pay as you go subscription and a free trial subscription. In this guide we will be working with the free trial subscription and keeping the default subscription]

b. Resource Group: Click Create new and name a new resource group or if you already have resource groups already, select, an existing one.
[Resource Group can be likened to containers or folders that help organise your various resource such as Virtual machines and databases]

Next, we move down to Instance details
a. Virtual machine name: Give your Virtual machine a name.
b. Region: Select the location you want your virtual machine to be hosted in data center. [ A region is the geographical location with data centres that host services and infrastructures, with each operating independently and self-contained]

c. Availability options: We leave it selection here on its default Availability zone.
d. Availability zone: Click the drop-down menu and select the zone(s) you would like your Virtual machines to be located at.
[Each Region in Azure can consist of more than one Availability zone. Each zone are kilometres apart and independent of each other to minimize the impact of failures and disruptions. Multiple zones can be selected each having their own Virtual machine]

e. Security Type: There are various options when you click the drop-down menu but for this guide, we will leave it on its default selection ‘Trusted launch virtual machines’

f. Image: Click the drop-down menu and select Windows 11 pro 22H2

g. VM architecture and Run with Azure spot discount we will leave on their default settings.

h. Size: Select the menu to select the Virtual machine size that suits your requirements. If the options in the drop-down menu to not fit your requirements you can click the ‘see all size’ just below the drop-down menu and choose from there and click, ‘Select’ at the bottom left of the page. [Please note for a free trial subscription your options will be limited]

We continue with to the Administrator Account
a. Set an Administrator Username and password. These are the credentials you will use to login to your virtual machine.

Inbound port rules
a. Public inbound ports: Select ‘Allow selected ports’.
b. Select inbound ports: leave it on the default RDP (3389). But if not selected by default click the drop-down menu and select it. This port gives remote access to your physical PC

Licensing
Click the check box under licensing
Click ‘Next: Disks >’ to direct you to the next tab

Step 4

**
Disk
On the disk page we will be leave options and text boxes on default.
OS disk type from the drop-down menu I will be selecting the Standard SSD for the purpose of this practice.

For this guide we will be leaving the networking, management, monitoring, advanced and tag pages on their default configuration. Click on ‘Review + Create’.

Step 5

**
Review + Create
On this tab review the summary of your virtual machine configuration. Ensure you get the ‘Validation passed’ on the top left of your portal and also review the price of your virtual machine.

It will show development in progress. This could take a few minutes

Once deployment is complete click on ‘Go to resource’

Connect to your Windows Virtual Machine
A page showing an overview of your created windows virtual machine comes up.
At this point you create a remote desktop connection to your virtual machine by clicking ‘connect’ a drop-down menu comes up then you click on the second ‘Connect’ option

On the next page click on ‘Download RDP file’ to your PC. Your windows may give a warning choose 'keep this file'

Once you have downloaded the file click on it to open the file. A pop-up menu comes up then click on connect.

Enter your password.

Another prompt will come up click ‘Yes’

Some prompts will show up while your Win 11 Pro is setting up just ‘Next’ and ‘Accept’

There it is, your very first Windows 11 Pro Virtual machine. Congratulations

I hope this guide has helped you create your very first basic Windows 11 Pro virtual machine. Thank you for reading.