Learn how to create, configure, and connect to your first Linux virtual machine in Microsoft Azure through a practical, step-by-step tutorial.

Linux virtual machines play an important role in cloud computing. They provide flexible, scalable, and cost-effective environments for running web applications, databases, APIs, development environments, and other business-critical workloads.

Understanding how to create and configure a Linux virtual machine is a valuable foundational skill. It provides practical experience with cloud infrastructure, operating system administration, networking, security, and remote server access. These skills also form the foundation for more advanced practices such as infrastructure automation, containerization, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), and cloud infrastructure management.

What You Need Before You Start

• An Azure account
• A terminal (PowerShell for Windows, or the built-in Terminal for macOS/Linux)

Step 1
-Open your Azure account ,locate the search terminal and type virtual machine
-click on create

Step 2

• Create a resource group(choose a name for the new vm)
• Select the region you want to operate from.
• Select an Image and size. At the Admin Account section
• select password, create a new one.
• select inbound ports as HTTPS (80) and SSH (22)

-Go to monitoring broad and disable it, this is done to keep your work private.

• click on review and create.

• click on Go to resource

• On the Native SSH page click on VM access (check access)- this allows you certify your IP address is up and running, make sure to copy the IP address and keep aside.

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STEP 3

• Open the powershell program - paste the SSH command (IP address)
• Respond yes to the pop up question .
• Fill the password you created while setting up your VM(virtual machine)

• To update the VM type sudo apt update
• To have admin rights type sudo su, then apt install nginx to install the program, then type yes.

You have successfully created a virtual machine on linux.

Whether you are a company looking to deploy reliable services or a beginner working toward a career in cloud engineering, learning to create a Linux virtual machine in Microsoft Azure is an important step toward understanding how modern cloud infrastructure works.