Lab 08: Manage Azure Virtual Machines

For complete lab instructions, see the full guide on GitHub.

Objective: This lab explores Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) and Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS). You'll create and manage individual VMs, resize them, and then create a VMSS with autoscaling.

Key Concepts:

• Availability Zones: Physically separate locations within an Azure region, providing high availability and fault tolerance. Deploying VMs across zones protects against single-point-of-failure within a region.

• VM Size (SKU): Determines the compute resources (CPU, memory) allocated to a VM. Resizing a VM changes its SKU.

• Managed Disks: Azure-managed storage for VMs. You can change the disk type (Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD) and size.

• Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS): A group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically scale in or out based on demand or a schedule.

• Autoscaling: Automatically adjusting the number of VM instances in a VMSS based on metrics like CPU utilization.

• Orchestration Modes: Uniform (identical instances, suitable for stateless applications, the focus of this lab) and Flexible (allows more heterogeneity, suitable for a wider range of workloads, including stateful applications).

Job skills

• Task 1: Deploy zone-resilient Azure virtual machines by using the Azure portal.

• Task 2: Manage compute and storage scaling for virtual machines.

• Task 3: Create and configure Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets.

• Task 4: Scale Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets.

• Task 5: Create a virtual machine using Azure PowerShell (optional 1).

• Task 6: Create a virtual machine using the CLI (optional 2).

Task 1: Deploy Zone-Resilient VMs

1. Sign In: Log in to the Azure portal (https://portal.azure.com).

2. Create VMs: Search for and select "Virtual machines" and click "+ Create" -> "Azure virtual machine."

   • Basics:

     • Virtual machine names: After selecting both Availability Zones (next step), select Edit Names and use az104-vm1 and az104-vm2.

     • Availability options: Availability zone

     • Availability zone: Check both Zone 1 and Zone 2. This creates two VMs, one in each zone.

     • Azure Spot instance: Unchecked

     • Size: Standard_D2s_v3

     • Password: (Provide a strong password)

     • Public inbound ports: None

   • Disks:

     • OS disk type: Premium SSD

     • Delete with VM: Checked (default)

     • Enable Ultra Disk compatibility: Unchecked

   • Networking: Accept the defaults, but set Load Balancing Options to None and Delete public IP and NIC when VM is deleted to Checked.

   • Management: Patch orchestration options: Azure orchestrated

   • Monitoring:Boot diagnostics: Disable

   • Advanced: Accept the defaults.

   • Review + create: Verify and click "Create."

Task 2: Manage VM Scaling

1. Resize VM (Vertical Scaling):

   • Go to the az104-vm1 VM resource.

   • Under "Settings," select "Size."

   • Choose Standard_DS1_v2

   • Click "Resize." Confirm the change if prompted.

2. Manage Data Disk:

   • Under "Settings," select "Disks."

   • Click "+ Create and attach a new disk."

     • Disk name: vm1-disk1

     • Storage type: Standard HDD

     • Size (GiB): 32

   • Click "Save."

   • After creation, click the "Detach" icon (far right) for vm1-disk1.

   • Click Apply. This detaches the disk but keeps it in storage.

3. Change Disk Type:

   • Search for and select "Disks."

   • Select vm1-disk1.

   • Under "Settings," select "Size + performance."

   • Change the "Storage type" to Standard SSD.

   • Click "Save."

4. Reattach Disk:

   • Go back to the az104-vm1 VM.

   • Select "Disks."

   • Under "Data disks," click "Attach existing disks."

   • Disk name: Select vm1-disk1.

   • Verify the disk type is now Standard SSD.

   • Click Apply.

Task 3: Create Virtual Machine Scale Set

1. Create VMSS: Search for and select "Virtual machine scale sets." and click "+ Create."

   • Basics:

     • Virtual machine scale set name: vmss1

     • Region: (US) East US

     • Availability zone: Select Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3.

     • Orchestration mode: Uniform

     • Scaling Options: Review and take the defaults. We will change this in the next task.

     • Size: Standard_D2s_v3

   • Disks: Accept the defaults.

• Networking: Click "Create virtual network" (below the Virtual network textbox).

  • • Name: vmss-vnet

      • Address range: 10.82.0.0/20 (delete the existing default range)

      • Subnet name: subnet0

      • Subnet range: 10.82.0.0/24

      • Click "OK."

  • Click the "Edit network interface" icon (pencil) to the right of the NIC entry.

    • NIC network security group: Advanced

    • Configure network security group: Click "Create new."

      • Name: vmss1-nsg

      • Click "Add an inbound rule."

        • Source: Any

        • Source port ranges: *

        • Destination: Any

        • Service: HTTP

        • Action: Allow

        • Priority: 1010

        • Name: allow-http

      • Click "Add."

      • Click "OK."

• Public IP address: Enabled

• Click "OK."

• Load Balancing:

  • Load balancing options: Azure load balancer

  • Select a load balancer: Click Create new

    • Enter the Load Balancer Name: vmss-lb

    • Take the defaults, and select Create.

• Management: Disable Boot Diagnostics.

• Health: Review the defaults (no changes).

• Advanced: Review the defaults (no changes).

• Review + create: Verify and click "Create."

2. Wait for Deployment: This will take about 5 minutes.

Task 4: Scale VMSS (Autoscaling)

1. Configure Autoscaling:

   • Go to the vmss1 resource.

   • Under Settings, choose Availability + Scale, and then Scaling.

   • Select Custom autoscale.

   • Scale mode: Scale based on a metric

• Click "+ Add a rule."

  • Scale Out Rule (Increase Instances):

    • Metric source: Current resource (vmss1)

    • Metric namespace: Virtual Machine Host

    • Metric name: Percentage CPU

    • Operator: Greater than

    • Metric threshold to trigger scale action: 70

    • Duration (minutes): 10

    • Time grain statistic: Average

    • Operation: Increase percent by

    • Cool down (minutes): 5

    • Percentage: 50

    • Select Add.

• Scale In Rule (Decrease Instances):

  • Select Add a rule

  • Metric Source: Current Resource

  • Metric namespace: Virtual Machine Host

  • Metric name: Percentage CPU

  • Operator: Less than

  • Threshold: 30

  • Operation: Decrease percent by

  • Percentage: 50

  • Select Add.

  • Instance Limits:

    • Minimum: 2

    • Maximum: 10

    • Default: 2

• Click "Save."

2. Monitor Instances:

1. • On the vmss1 page, select "Instances." This is where you'd monitor the number of running VM instances as the scale set scales in and out.

Task 5: Create VM with PowerShell (Optional)

1. Launch Cloud Shell (PowerShell): Click the Cloud Shell icon in the portal (or go to https://shell.azure.com). Choose PowerShell.

2. Create VM:

   PowerShell

    New-AzVm `
    -ResourceGroupName 'az104-rg8' `
    -Name 'myPSVM' `
    -Location 'East US' `
    -Image 'Win2019Datacenter' `
    -Zone '1' `
    -Size 'Standard_D2s_v3' `
    -Credential (Get-Credential)
   

   Enter a username and password when prompted.

3. Verify and Deallocate:

   PowerShell

    Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'az104-rg8' -Status
    Stop-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'az104-rg8' -Name 'myPSVM' -Force
    Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'az104-rg8' -Status
   

Task 6: Create VM with Azure CLI (Optional)

1. Launch Cloud Shell (Bash): Click the Cloud Shell icon, and choose Bash.

2. Create VM:

   Bash

    az vm create --name myCLIVM --resource-group az104-rg8 --image Ubuntu2204 --admin-username localadmin --generate-ssh-keys
   

3. Verify and Deallocate:

   Bash

    az vm show --name myCLIVM --resource-group az104-rg8 --show-details
    az vm deallocate --resource-group az104-rg8 --name myCLIVM
    az vm show --name myCLIVM --resource-group az104-rg8 --show-details
   

For complete lab instructions, see the full guide on GitHub.