Next step in creating Azure IaaS is adding VM to VNet we previously created.
In Azure portal select ‘New’, then ‘Virtual Machines’ and then select OS you want. In this case I will select Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter.
Again be sure to select ‘Resource Manager’ from menu and click ‘ Create’
New tile will open and this time it will have more options then VNet.
In basic configuration first name your VM. Select disk type. You can choose between HDD and SDD. As HDD is cheaper, I will use HDD for demo. Enter administrator username (username can’t be Administrator, admin, variations of those two and most common names like John etc.). Enter your password and confirm it (password must be at least 12 characters, and must contain at least 3 of 4 famous rules – big letters/small letters/numbers/special characters). If you have multiple subscription under one account, select subscription. If only one subscription is present, it will be selected by default. In ‘Resource group’ you can select ‘Create new’ or ‘Use existing’. I will use existing as I want to add my VM to resource group that contains VNet I previously created. Last select location you want VM created in. If you select existing resource group it will be by default same as resource group you selected. Click ‘OK’
New tile with VM size will open. Select size of VM and click OK. For demo I will use A1 Basic.
Third tile will open with optional settings. First option is storage account. If this is not first VM in your resource group, existing storage account will be selected. If this is the case, you can leave existing storage account or chose to create new for your VM. If this is first VM in your resource group, new storage account will be automatically created. In case you selected HDD, you can choose if your storage account is locally redundant, geo-redundant or geo-redundant with read access. In case you selected SDD your storage account can be only locally redundant.
In network section you can select previously created VNet in your resource group or you can select to create new one.
In subnet, you can choose from subnets that are created under VNet you selected. We’ll talk more about subnets under VNet in another post.
In Public IP address, you can create new public IP address for your VM and chose if address will be dynamic or static.
Network security rules allow you to configure firewall rules for your VM. By default, only RDP is allowed to give you access to your VM. You can add additional rules if you want to configure your VM via PowerShell, use it as Webserver etc.
In extension section you can add various predefined extensions to your VM like backup software, antivirus etc.
In availability set you can choose if you want to create one or not. To create one, you will need at least one more VM created. Creating availability set doesn’t mean that you have failover, you still have to configure those options additionally. This means that VMs in availability set will not be disturbed by Microsoft at same time for patching, maintenance etc. I will not create such set at this time.
Last option is monitoring where you can disable or enable it. By default, it enabled and I strongly advise you to leave it that way. Will talk more about monitoring in one of next posts. Also you have option to choose were monitoring logs will be stored. It will be in same storage account as your data disks by default but you can choose different storage account if you want.
At the end click ok.
Validation will check and after it passes you will need to click one more OK to start deployment.
Deployment time depends on size of VM you chose, OS and disk type. It can take from few minutes to half an hour to finish. Once done you can access your VM and configure it any way you want.
By adding more VMs to same VNet, you build your own Datacenter in Azure and allow network traffic between those VM. We’ll talk about what and how in one of next posts.
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