Creating and deploying Virtual Machines is an essential part of Cloud Computing and as such, it has become one of the major Cloud Administrators' role. However, when Virtual machines are created newly, they only have Operating System Disk. To be able to store application data and any other data or information on the Virtual machine, data disk needs to be added.
Data disks attached to Virtual machines are managed disk. This is because they are created and managed by Cloud Service Providers(CSP). Managed Disks have several benefits compared to unmanaged disks.
First, the management of the disk is simple because you don't have to bother yourself about managing storage accounts, blob containers, or dealing with manual scaling and configuration. The CSP takes care of all these.
Second, reliability is enhanced. Managed disks provide built-in redundancy and high availability. Data are replicated within the same region, ensuring that your data remains intact even if an individual disk or underlying hardware fails. These type of disk provide a reliable and convenient solution for data recovery, ensuring that your data remains protected and recoverable in case of any unforeseen occurrence.
Thirdly, managed disks offer improved performance and low latency by leveraging on the cloud service provider's infrastructure and storage optimization techniques. There is also different disk types with varying performance characteristics, such as Standard HDD, Standard SSD, and Premium SSD, based on your workload requirements, that you can choose from.
Finally, managed disk makes scalability and platform integration easy.
Now we will set out to create a Windows Virtual machine, connect to it, install a web server on it, add a data disk and initialise it for use.
Come on and let's do these together.
Step 1
I will start by logging in to Azure Portal and select Virtual Machine
Step 2
Click on 'Create'
Complete the Project details and Instance details
I will choose to complete them as follows:
Subscription : Azure Pass Sponsorship
Resource Group: UniRg
Virtual Machine Name: Abiksvm
Region: East US
Availability option: Availability zone
Image: Windows Server 2019 Datacenter - x64 Gen 2
Leave other parameters at default
Step 3
Complete the details for Administrator account
I will choose my Username as Azureuser and password is Password123*(Note that you can choose any username and password you desire)
Under Select Inbound ports, click on 'HTTP (80)' and 'RDP (3389)'
Go to Monitoring and disable Diagnostics
Click on Review and Create
Then Click on Create and wait for the deployment to complete
Click on 'Go to Resource'
Step 4
Connect to the Virtual machine
Click on Connect
Click on 'Download RDP File'
Open the RDP File downloaded, it will bring up a dialog box for Remote Desktop Connection
Click Connect
Enter the Username and Password created under the Administrator Account in Step (3) above to log in to the Virtual machine Abiksvm and click OK
Click Yes
We have connected to the Virtual Machine
Step 5
Install a Web Server role on the Virtual Machine
Type PowerShell into the Search window of the Virtual Machine
Right click on the Windows PowerShell and then click on Run as Administrator
When the Terminal is ready, type in this command:
Install-WindowsFeature Web-Server
Then press Enter on your keyboard and wait for the Installation to complete
The Web Server role has been installed. Lets check this out.
Go back to the Overview page of the Virtual machine Abiksvm on the Azure portal and copy the IP Address of the VM
Paste the IP Address in your browser and press Enter on your keyboard
That's it! A Windows Server has been installed.
Step 6
Add Data Disk to Virtual Machine Abiksvm
On the VM, Click on 'Disks' and then, click on 'Create and attach a new disk'
Give the disk a name. I will name it datadisk and change the size to 10GB
Click on 'Save'
The Data disk has been created
Step 7
Initialise the Data disk
Go back to the VM we connected to earlier and type 'disk management' in the search window
Click on 'Create and format hard disk partitions'
Click OK
Scroll down to Disk 2 and Right click on 'New Simple Volume'
Click Next
Click Next
Click Next
Give the Volume label a name and click next. I will give it the same name I used on Azure Portal, datadisk
Click on Finish
The Data disk has been successfully initialised and ready for use.
Trust you find this useful. Please let's have your comments.
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