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PETER Samuel
PETER Samuel

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๐Ÿš€ My First Virtual Machine Deployment: A Beginner's Journey

Introduction

Spinning up a Virtual Machine (VM) for the first time is a milestone moment for anyone diving into cloud computing and IT infrastructure. After navigating through documentation, tutorials, and a few trial-and-error moments, I finally deployed my first VM on Microsoft Azureโ€”and I couldn't be more excited to share the experience! ๐Ÿคฉ

This article will walk you through how I successfully launched my first VM, the challenges I faced, and key takeaways that might help fellow beginners.


๐ŸŒŸ Why I Wanted to Deploy a Virtual Machine

As someone diving deeper into cloud computing and DevOps, I knew that understanding VM deployment was fundamental. Virtual Machines provide isolated environments for running applications, testing configurations, and simulating real-world infrastructure setups.

I decided to use Azure as my cloud provider for this project because of its reliability and comprehensive documentation.


โš™๏ธ Step-by-Step Process: How I Created My First VM

1๏ธโƒฃ Logging Into the Azure Portal

I logged into the Azure Portal and navigated to the Virtual Machines service.

2๏ธโƒฃ Creating a New Virtual Machine

Hereโ€™s what I did:

  • Clicked on Create a Virtual Machine
  • Selected Windows Server 2022 as my operating system
  • Chose a VM size (Standard B1s โ€“ 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM)
  • Configured networking (enabled RDP access for remote login)
  • Set storage and resource group

3๏ธโƒฃ Deploying the VM ๐Ÿš€

After reviewing the settings, I clicked Review + Create and waited a few minutes while my VM spun up. Once the deployment was complete, I noted my public IP address.

4๏ธโƒฃ Connecting to the VM via RDP

I used the following steps to connect to my instance:

  • Opened Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) on my local machine
  • Entered the public IP address of my VM
  • Logged in using the admin username and password set during VM creation

And just like thatโ€”I was inside my first virtual machine on Azure! ๐ŸŽ‰


๐Ÿ”ฅ Challenges I Faced & How I Fixed Them

๐Ÿ’ก RDP Connection Issues โ€“ Initially, I couldnโ€™t connect via RDP. I realized I had to allow inbound RDP traffic (port 3389) in my Network Security Group settings.

๐Ÿ’ก Incorrect VM Size โ€“ My first attempt used an underpowered VM, causing slow performance. I later resized it to a better configuration.

๐Ÿ’ก Storage Misconfiguration โ€“ I forgot to allocate enough disk space at first. Using Azure Disk Expansion, I adjusted the size.


๐Ÿ“Œ Key Takeaways & Next Steps

โœ… Understand Networking & Security โ€“ Always configure firewall rules & security groups properly.
โœ… Choose the Right VM Size โ€“ Picking the right CPU/RAM/storage matters for performance.
โœ… Leverage Azure Documentation โ€“ Microsoft's detailed guides are lifesavers!

Next, Iโ€™ll be exploring automating VM deployments using Terraform on Azureโ€”stay tuned! ๐Ÿš€


๐Ÿš€ Whatโ€™s Your Experience?

Have you deployed a virtual machine before? What challenges did you face? Letโ€™s discuss in the comments! ๐Ÿ‘‡

Azure #CloudComputing #DevOps #VirtualMachines #Infrastructure #BeginnersGuide

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