Learning a new operating system is a challenge in and of itself without the added stress of partitioning a hard drive or spending resources on dedicated hardware. Microsoft Azure allows for the creation of Virtual Machines with tailored specifications. Below is a step by step process of provisioning an Ubuntu VM through Azure.
- Step 1: Creating a resource in Azure (This step requires a new or existing Azure subscription)
Beginning from the home screen of the Azure portal, select “Create a resource”
On the next screen, select “Create” underneath the option for Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS (This deployment is covered under the new user credit of $200)
Selecting this option will bring up the specifications for the VM (as shown below)
This VM deployment will default to the current subscription in use (Azure subscription 1 in this case)
The following specifications allow for naming the VM, selecting the availability zone in Azure’s physical infrastructure for this deployment, creating an SSH key to access the VM remotely and choosing initial basic firewall rules. (Port 22 for SSH must be enabled to allow to access to the VM)
Azure will automatically create a virtual network, assign an IP address and subnet for this VM and create a VNIC.
For the simplest and fastest deployment, default settings will suffice. The final tab in the deployment process allows for reviewing and creating this new VM.
Select the option “Review + Create” . If there are no issues with this deployment, the option to “Create” will be made available (as shown below)
After selecting “Create”, a prompt will appear with the option to download the private SSH key for this VM. Select “Download private key and create resource”.
This will bring up the following screen that will show the deployment in progress.
- Step 2: Connecting to the VM
When the deployment is complete, select “Go to resource”. The following page will be displayed.
On this page, Select “Connect” and the following page will display options for connecting.
Select the option for “SSH using Azure CLI”. Azure will then run some checks to ensure the connection is secure and present the option of “Configure + connect”. Select this option and once the connection is successful, an Azure Cloud Shell will be opened (as shown below)
In the cloud shell, the option to continue connecting will be presented. Type “yes” and hit enter. The connection to the newly created VM will be established and access to the Linux terminal will be available as seen in the next image
