Deploying an Azure Virtual Machine with Terraform: A Beginner's Guide

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Prerequisites
3. Installing and Configuring Terraform
4. Setting Up Your Terraform Project in VS Code
5. Writing the Terraform Configuration
6. Initializing and Applying the Terraform Configuration
7. Retrieving the VM's Public IP and Connecting via SSH
8. Destroying the VM
9. Conclusion

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Introduction

This guide walks you through the step-by-step process of provisioning Azure resources using Terraform, deploying a virtual machine, retrieving its IP, connecting via SSH, and finally destroying the VM. We'll use VS Code to edit our Terraform scripts for a smooth development experience.

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Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure you have the following installed on your machine:

• Terraform (Download here)
• Azure CLI (Download here)
• VS Code (Download here)
• An active Azure subscription

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Installing and Configuring Terraform

First, verify that Terraform is installed by running:

terraform -v

If Terraform is not installed, download and install it from Terraform's official site.

Log in to Azure with:

az login

Set your default subscription (replace your-sub-id with your actual subscription ID):

az account set --subscription your-sub-id

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Setting Up Your Terraform Project in VS Code

1. Open VS Code
2. Create a new folder (e.g., azure-terraform-vm)
3. Open the folder in VS Code
4. Create a new file named main.tf

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Writing the Terraform Configuration

Copy the following Terraform code into main.tf. Replace your-VM-name, your-Vnet-name, etc., with meaningful names of your choice. Don't forget to replace the username and password as well, that's what you will use to SSH into your VM

terraform {
  required_providers {
    azurerm = {
      source  = "hashicorp/azurerm"
      version = "4.3.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
  subscription_id = "your-sub-id"
}

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "your-rg-name" {
  name     = "your-rg-name"
  location = "East US"
}

resource "azurerm_virtual_network" "your-Vnet-name" {
  name                = "your-Vnet-name"
  address_space       = ["10.0.0.0/16"]
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.your-rg-name.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.your-rg-name.name
}

resource "azurerm_subnet" "your-Subnet-name" {
  name                 = "your-Subnet-name"
  resource_group_name  = azurerm_resource_group.your-rg-name.name
  virtual_network_name = azurerm_virtual_network.your-Vnet-name.name
  address_prefixes     = ["10.0.1.0/24"]
}

resource "azurerm_public_ip" "your-ip-name" {
  name                = "your-ip-name"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.your-rg-name.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.your-rg-name.name
  allocation_method   = "Static"
}

resource "azurerm_network_interface" "your-NIC-name" {
  name                = "your-NIC-name"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.your-rg-name.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.your-rg-name.name

  ip_configuration {
    name                          = "internal"
    subnet_id                     = azurerm_subnet.your-Subnet-name.id
    private_ip_address_allocation = "Static"
    private_ip_address            = "10.0.1.4"  
    public_ip_address_id          = azurerm_public_ip.your-ip-name.id
  }
}

resource "azurerm_linux_virtual_machine" "your-VM-name" {
  name                  = "your-VM-name"
  location              = azurerm_resource_group.your-rg-name.location
  resource_group_name   = azurerm_resource_group.your-rg-name.name
  size                  = "Standard_B2ms"
  admin_username        = "your-admin-username"
  admin_password        = "YourSecurePassword!"
  network_interface_ids = [azurerm_network_interface.your-NIC-name.id]
  disable_password_authentication = false

  os_disk {
    name              = "your-OsDisk-name"
    caching           = "ReadWrite"
    storage_account_type = "Standard_LRS"
  }

  source_image_reference {
    publisher = "Canonical"
    offer     = "0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy"
    sku       = "22_04-lts-gen2"
    version   = "latest"
  }
}

output "public_ip_address" {
  description = "The public IP address of the virtual machine"
  value       = azurerm_public_ip.your-ip-name.ip_address
}

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Initializing and Applying the Terraform Configuration

Run the following commands in the terminal inside VS Code:

terraform init

terraform plan

terraform apply -auto-approve

Terraform will create all the specified resources in Azure.

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Retrieving the VM's Public IP and Connecting via SSH

Get the public IP:

echo $(terraform output -raw public_ip_address)

Use SSH to connect to the VM:

ssh your-admin-username@your-vm-public-ip

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Destroying the VM

Once you're done, destroy the VM to avoid unnecessary charges:

terraform destroy -auto-approve

Conclusion

Congratulations! 🎉 You've successfully:

• Provisioned Azure resources using Terraform
• Deployed a Virtual Machine
• Retrieved its IP and connected via SSH
• Cleaned up resources by destroying the VM

This is just the beginning of your Terraform journey in Azure! 🚀 Stay tuned for more DevOps guides.