Module Introduction

Welcome back. In this lesson we begin a new module: Administer Azure Virtual Machines. This module focuses on configuring Azure Virtual Machines and ensuring their availability. You’ll learn how to deploy and manage VM settings, attach storage and networking components, and design for high availability and redundancy across Azure infrastructure.

This lesson emphasizes practical administration tasks and availability design for Azure Virtual Machines, covering core availability concepts and autoscaling approaches.

What you’ll gain from this lesson

Deploy and configure Azure Virtual Machines: choose sizes, manage OS and data disks, and apply VM extensions.
Configure networking and security: work with network interfaces (NICs), network security groups (NSGs), and public IP addresses.
Implement high availability: apply core redundancy and fault-tolerance strategies (Availability Sets, Zones).
Plan scaling and resiliency: use autoscaling, load balancing, and backup/restore patterns.
Perform maintenance operations: reimage, capture, and update VMs using extensions and VM image management.

Learning objectives (mapped to common tasks)

Objective	Typical tasks / examples
Deploy and configure VMs	Create VMs via Portal, `az vm create`, configure sizes and disks
Configure networking & security	Attach NICs, create NSGs, assign public IPs
High availability & redundancy	Use Availability Sets, Availability Zones, and managed disks
Scaling & resiliency	Configure VM Scale Sets, Load Balancers, and Backup vaults
Maintenance operations	Reimage VMs, capture images, install extensions

Quick CLI examples

Create a simple Linux VM:

az vm create \
  --resource-group MyResourceGroup \
  --name MyLinuxVM \
  --image UbuntuLTS \
  --size Standard_B1s \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys

Add a custom script extension to a VM:

az vm extension set \
  --resource-group MyResourceGroup \
  --vm-name MyLinuxVM \
  --name CustomScript \
  --publisher Microsoft.Azure.Extensions \
  --settings '{"fileUris":["https://example.com/script.sh"]}' \
  --protected-settings '{"commandToExecute":"bash script.sh"}'

Prerequisites

Basic familiarity with the Azure portal or the Azure CLI.
A subscription with sufficient quota to create VMs, disks, and networking resources.
Optional: Azure CLI installed locally or access to Azure Cloud Shell for command-based labs.

Be aware that creating VMs and associated resources can incur charges on your Azure subscription. Ensure you use a test or cost-controlled subscription and clean up resources after completing exercises.

Module outline (what we’ll cover next)

Review VM deployment options (Portal, CLI, ARM templates, Bicep, Terraform).
Core VM configuration: sizes, OS disks, data disks, managed disk types.
Networking for VMs: NICs, NSGs, public IPs, and private IP addressing.
Availability and redundancy: Availability Sets, Zones, and Managed Disks.
Scaling and load distribution: VM Scale Sets and Azure Load Balancer/Application Gateway.
Maintenance tasks: reimage, capture images, perform in-place updates, and extensions.
Backup and disaster recovery considerations for VMs.

References and further reading

Topic	Link
Azure Virtual Machines documentation	https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/
Azure CLI reference	https://learn.microsoft.com/cli/azure/
Azure VM best practices for availability	https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/availability
Azure Cloud Shell	https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/cloud-shell/

Next steps Proceed to the first lesson where we review VM deployment options and the core VM configuration settings, then perform hands-on exercises using the Azure Portal and Azure CLI.

Introduction

Administer Identity

Administer Governance and Compliance

Administer Azure Resources

Administer Virtual Networking

Administer Intersite Connectivity

Administer Network Traffic

Administer Azure Storage

Administer Azure Virtual Machines

Administer PaaS Compute Options

Administer Data Protection

Administer Monitoring

Module Introduction

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