Linux Distributions endorsed on Azure

• Microsoft endorses some linux distributions Refer Here
• Microsoft also providers guidelines to bring your own linux to azure. For that Refer Here
• For Azure Tuned Kernels information Refer Here

Every Azure VM Has a Agent running

• Every Azure VM will have an agent running
• You can use the capability of agents to perform some activities
  • Basic (WAAgent):
    • Change Password
    • Serial console

Can i Install Agents

• Microsoft calls these agents as extensions or it will allow you to install agents using extensions
• Extensions are differnet for
  • Linux VM Agents
  • Windows VM Agents
• Popular extensions are chef, puppet, powershell dsc, Antivirus like Symantec, Vulnerability tools such as Qualys, Rapid7 and app montioring tools liks DynaTrace, Site24x7
• Where can i find these extensions
  • Linux Extensions:
  • Windows Extensions:
• Can i Run commands in Linux or Windows Machine without logging in
  • Linux:
  • Windows:

Exercise: Navigate through the Azure Portal through every tab for Virtual Machine creation

• Go through every tab for VM Creation and Make a note of parameters
• This helps in understanding the things that can be done while creating the VM
  • Configure VM Details
    • Size
    • Credentials
  • Configure Network Details
  • Configure Storage Details
  • Management
    • Log information
    • Auto Shutdown
    • Assign Identity
    • Enable Backup
  • Advanced
    • Cloud-init
    • Extensions to be installed

VM Image:

• Consider you have create a VM, Logged into it and configured vm with all the necessary stuff (installing software, configuring security etc) so that this VM Matches your organizational expectation.

• How can you save the effort of redoing all of the above activities for future VM’s with same OS?

  • Answer is Azure VM Image which can be created by the user
  • VM Images are provided by
    • Microsoft/Microsoft Approved
    • Third Parties (Shared Images)
    • Custom Images created by Users (Private )

• How can VM Images be Created for Private Usage?

  • From Portal: After you configure existing vm with all the softwares, just do as shown below and from there on you can use private images (my items section)
  • Other Options:
    • Azure CLI
    • Azure Powershell
  • Effective IMage creation: By an Automation tool called as Packer.
  • Pros:
    • Easy for the upcoming VMS bcoz user just has to create
  • Cons:
    • Changes in the needs might lead to new VM Images
    • Extra cost to be paid for storage

• How can i Share VM Images for Public Usage?

  • Answer is shared image, for more info refer here

Steps involved in Creating VM Image

• Azure VM image is not supposed to have specific username and password like aws.
• Azure VM images should be generalized (no specific user information)
• Note: VM which is used to create a VM Image in Azure becomes unusable after image creation, so better delete it
• Steps:
  1. Generalize the VM
  2. Deallocate the VM
  3. Copy of harddisk is taken as a snapshot
  4. Metadata is added to it to create a VM Image

Cloud-init:

• Cloud-init is a startup script generally executed on linux flavors which is supported on multiple clouds
• To use cloud-init, user is expected to write a yaml file
• Refer Here

Exercise:

1. Create a Ubuntu Linux VM Image by creating a Linux VM B1s with the following softwares installed

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install stress -y
sudo apt-get install apache2 -y
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql -y
sudo systemctl restart apache2
sudo nano /var/www/html/info.php 


<?php
phpinfo();
?>

http://<publicip>/info.php

• After naviagating to ip address as mention in above steps it should look like
• Now create a VM Image