Cloud computing provides on demand access to computing resources such as servers, storage, databases, and applications over the internet. It enables scalability, flexibility, and cost efficiency compared to traditional on premises infrastructure.
In Microsoft Azure, a Resource Group is a logical container that holds related resources for a solution. Virtual machines, databases, storage accounts, and networking components can all be grouped together, making it easier to manage, monitor, and apply policies. Resource groups support lifecycle management (deploy, update, delete), role based access control, and cost tracking.
For a VMware and Microsoft system administrator, resource groups in Azure are similar to organizing workloads in vSphere clusters or management folders. They provide structure and governance in the cloud, ensuring that applications and services are deployed consistently and securely while simplifying administration.
In our exercise, we will demonstrate how to configure FTP server and create resource group, storage account, virtual network, Network Security Group and associate with our virtual machine in a precise step.
Step 1. From the Azure portal home page, in the search box, enter
resource groups.
Step 2. Enter guided-project-rg in the Resource group name field.
Step 3. The Region field will automatically populate. Leave the default value.
Step 4. Select Review + create.
Step 5. Finally click Create to create a new Resource Group
Return to the home page of the Azure portal by selecting Home.
Next, Create a virtual network with one subnet
Let’s provision a virtual network.
Step 1. From the Azure portal home page, in the search box, enter virtual networks.
Step 2. Select virtual networks under services.
Step 3. Click + Create and select Virtual Network, provide the name you want to use and click Review+Create
Click on Go to Resource to see your Virtual network you just created.
Now, Let’s provision a Virtual Machine using Ubuntu operating system.
Create a virtual machine for our #Ubuntu system
Step 1. From the Azure portal home page, in the search box, enter virtual machines.
Step 2. Select virtual machines under services and click + Create as shown below
Step 3. Select Create and then select Virtual machine
Step 4. Select guided-project-rg for the Resource group.
Step 5. Enter guided-project-vm for the Virtual machine name.
Step 6. For the Image, select one of the Ubuntu Server options. (For example, Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS - x64 Gen2)
Step 7. Continue further on the Basics page to the Administrator account section.
Step 8. Select Password for authentication type.
Step 9. Enter azureuser for the admin Username.
Step 10. Enter a password for the admin account, I used #password123*
Confirm the password for the admin account.
Leave the rest of the settings as default settings. You can review the settings if you like, but shouldn’t change any.
Step 11. Select Review + create.
Our next exercise, I will be to creating a new storage account
In Azure portal,
Step 1. From the Azure portal home page, in the search box, enter Storage account.
Our Azure Admin has asked me to perform few task in our network. We currently have a new Linux server that’s being underutilized and we want to use it for FTP server. Our Azure Admin want to track network flows and resource utilization for the FTP server. We need to provision a new subnet for the required task.
Create a new subnet on an existing virtual network (vNet)
Step 1. Login to Microsoft Azure at https://portal.azure.com
Step 2. From the Azure portal home page, in the search box, enter virtual networks.
Step 3. Select virtual networks under services.
Step 4. Select the guided-project-vnet virtual network.
Step 5. From the guided-project-vnet blade, under settings, select Subnets.
Step 6. Select + Subnet.
Step 7. For Subnet purpose leave it as Default.
Step 8. For Name enter: ftpSubnet.
Step 9. Leave the rest of the settings alone and select Add.
Step 10. Select Home to return to the Azure portal home page.
This subnet is only going to be used for FTP traffic
Let’s create a network #security group and associate with our virtual network.
Step 1. From the Azure portal home page, in the search box, enter virtual networks.
Step 2. Select virtual networks under services.
Step 3. Select Network security groups.
Step 4. Select + Create.
Step 5. Verify the subscription is correct.
Step 6. Select the guided-project-rg resource group.
Step 7. Enter ftpNSG for the network security group name.
Step 8. Select Review + create.
Conclusion, we have finally provision our FTP server to handle incoming ftp traffic on our reserve Ubuntu VM server.
Next, I will scale this virtual machine to add additional Data disk to my VM.
Let’s go straight to Azure portal, search virtual machine and select
Step 1. Vertically scale Azure VM
Select Create and attach a new disk.
Leave LUN as default.
Enter ftp-data-disk for the Disk name.
Leave the Storage type as default.
Enter 20 for the Size.
Select Apply to create the new storage disk and attach the disk to the machine.
Our Finance team is concerned about cost for running 24 hrs service. Instead we need to implement auto shutdown at 17:50
Step 1. From the Azure portal home page, in the search box, enter virtual machines.
Select virtual machines under services.
Step 2. Select the guided-project-vm virtual machine.
Step 3. Under the Operations submenu, select Auto-shutdown.
set the Scheduled shutdown to 7:15:00 PM.
Select Save
Return to the Azure home page.
Create a storage container
From the search bar, Type Storage account
Under Data Storage
Select Container
Click + Add Container icon,
Enter the container name: Here I use Storage-Container,
Next, I will upload a file to my newly created container.
Select the container and click upload. Browse for the file and choose upload.
We’re going to change the access tier level.
Select the file I just uploaded and click on change access level.
Under Access tier,
Select cold and save,
Next let’s go ahead and Create a file share
Under Data Storage
Select file share
Click + File share
Enter the name, I am using file-share
On the backup Tab,
Uncheck Enable backup
Click Review+create
Let’s Create a shared access signature token
Select the storage browser, on your right hand, expand blob containers and select storage container.
On the far right, click the three dot … and choose generate SAS
Under Signing method
Ensure Account key is select and set to Key 1
Ensure allow protocol is set to: Http
Under Blob SAS Token
Copy the Blob SAS URL.
Next Let’s generate access key.
Uder Security+Networking
Select Access Keys,
Click on Rotate key,
You will receive a message from the above screenshot, click Yes.
After, Let’s Enable Tags for easy Resource identification.
We use tags to identity which resource is being use by which department in our organization.
Select Tags from your left-hand pane
Under Name:
Create both tags
Department, Purpose
Under value
Customer service, FTP Server
Click Apply
Add a resource lock to a VM to prevent accidental delete
Under settings, select Locks
Click +Add, give a lock name, I used VM-Delete-Lock on the Lock type drop-down and select Delete and click Ok. Users will not be able to delete resource unless the lock is removed by Administrator.
After proper configuration of our Azure Project, we want to saved cost by Removing Unwanted Resources.
We will remove locks and delete.
On your left hand pane, select locks.
Select VM-Delete-Lock and delete
Follow rest of the steps shown below and delete unwanted resources.
Delete the project resource group
Delete the NetworkWatcherRG
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