Create a virtual machine in an availability zone using Azure CLI
Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets
This article steps through using the Azure CLI to create a Linux VM in an Azure availability zone. An availability zone is a physically separate zone in an Azure region. Use availability zones to protect your apps and data from an unlikely failure or loss of an entire datacenter.
To use an availability zone, create your virtual machine in a supported Azure region.
Make sure that you have installed the latest Azure CLI and logged in to an Azure account with az login.
Check VM SKU availability
The availability of VM sizes, or SKUs, may vary by region and zone. To help you plan for the use of Availability Zones, you can list the available VM SKUs by Azure region and zone. This ability makes sure that you choose an appropriate VM size, and obtain the desired resiliency across zones. For more information on the different VM types and sizes, see VM Sizes overview.
You can view the available VM SKUs with the az vm list-skus command. The following example lists available VM SKUs in the eastus2 region:
az vm list-skus --location eastus2 --output table
The output is similar to the following condensed example, which shows the Availability Zones in which each VM size is available:
ResourceType Locations Name [...] Tier Size Zones
---------------- --------- ----------------- --------- ------- -------
virtualMachines eastus2 Standard_DS1_v2 Standard DS1_v2 1,2,3
virtualMachines eastus2 Standard_DS2_v2 Standard DS2_v2 1,2,3
[...]
virtualMachines eastus2 Standard_F1s Standard F1s 1,2,3
virtualMachines eastus2 Standard_F2s Standard F2s 1,2,3
[...]
virtualMachines eastus2 Standard_D2s_v3 Standard D2_v3 1,2,3
virtualMachines eastus2 Standard_D4s_v3 Standard D4_v3 1,2,3
[...]
virtualMachines eastus2 Standard_E2_v3 Standard E2_v3 1,2,3
virtualMachines eastus2 Standard_E4_v3 Standard E4_v3 1,2,3
Create resource group
Create a resource group with the az group create command.
An Azure resource group is a logical container into which Azure resources are deployed and managed. A resource group must be created before a virtual machine. In this example, a resource group named myResourceGroupVM is created in the eastus2 region. East US 2 is one of the Azure regions that supports availability zones.
az group create --name myResourceGroupVM --location eastus2
The resource group is specified when creating or modifying a VM, which can be seen throughout this article.
Create virtual machine
Create a virtual machine with the az vm create command.
When creating a virtual machine, several options are available such as operating system image, disk sizing, and administrative credentials. In this example, a virtual machine is created with a name of myVM running Ubuntu Server. The VM is created in availability zone 1. By default, the VM is created in the Standard_DS1_v2 size.
az vm create --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM --location eastus2 --image Ubuntu2204 --generate-ssh-keys --zone 1
It may take a few minutes to create the VM. Once the VM has been created, the Azure CLI outputs information about the VM. Take note of the zones value, which indicates the availability zone in which the VM is running.
{
"fqdns": "",
"id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/myResourceGroupVM/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/myVM",
"location": "eastus2",
"macAddress": "00-0D-3A-23-9A-49",
"powerState": "VM running",
"privateIpAddress": "10.0.0.4",
"publicIpAddress": "52.174.34.95",
"resourceGroup": "myResourceGroupVM",
"zones": "1"
}
Confirm zone for managed disk and IP address
When the VM is deployed in an availability zone, a managed disk for the VM is created in the same availability zone. By default, a public IP address is also created in that zone. The following examples get information about these resources.
To verify that the VM's managed disk is in the availability zone, use the az vm show command to return the disk ID. In this example, the disk ID is stored in a variable that is used in a later step.
osdiskname=$(az vm show -g myResourceGroupVM -n myVM --query "storageProfile.osDisk.name" -o tsv)
Now you can get information about the managed disk:
az disk show --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name $osdiskname
The output shows that the managed disk is in the same availability zone as the VM:
{
"creationData": {
"createOption": "FromImage",
"imageReference": {
"id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/Providers/Microsoft.Compute/Locations/westeurope/Publishers/Canonical/ArtifactTypes/VMImage/Offers/UbuntuServer/Skus/16.04-LTS/Versions/latest",
"lun": null
},
"sourceResourceId": null,
"sourceUri": null,
"storageAccountId": null
},
"diskSizeGb": 30,
"encryptionSettings": null,
"id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/myResourceGroupVM/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/osdisk_761c570dab",
"location": "eastus2",
"managedBy": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/myResourceGroupVM/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/myVM",
"name": "myVM_osdisk_761c570dab",
"osType": "Linux",
"provisioningState": "Succeeded",
"resourceGroup": "myResourceGroupVM",
"sku": {
"name": "Premium_LRS",
"tier": "Premium"
},
"tags": {},
"timeCreated": "2018-03-05T22:16:06.892752+00:00",
"type": "Microsoft.Compute/disks",
"zones": [
"1"
]
}
Use the az vm list-ip-addresses command to return the name of public IP address resource in myVM. In this example, the name is stored in a variable that is used in a later step.
ipaddressname=$(az vm list-ip-addresses -g myResourceGroupVM -n myVM --query "[].virtualMachine.network.publicIpAddresses[].name" -o tsv)
Now you can get information about the IP address:
az network public-ip show --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name $ipaddressname
The output shows that the IP address is in the same availability zone as the VM:
{
"dnsSettings": null,
"etag": "W/\"b7ad25eb-3191-4c8f-9cec-c5e4a3a37d35\"",
"id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/myResourceGroupVM/providers/Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses/myVMPublicIP",
"idleTimeoutInMinutes": 4,
"ipAddress": "52.174.34.95",
"ipConfiguration": {
"etag": null,
"id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/myResourceGroupVM/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/myVMVMNic/ipConfigurations/ipconfigmyVM",
"name": null,
"privateIpAddress": null,
"privateIpAllocationMethod": null,
"provisioningState": null,
"publicIpAddress": null,
"resourceGroup": "myResourceGroupVM",
"subnet": null
},
"location": "eastUS2",
"name": "myVMPublicIP",
"provisioningState": "Succeeded",
"publicIpAddressVersion": "IPv4",
"publicIpAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
"resourceGroup": "myResourceGroupVM",
"resourceGuid": "8c70a073-09be-4504-0000-000000000000",
"tags": {},
"type": "Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses",
"zones": [
"1"
]
}
Next steps
In this article, you learned how to create a VM in an availability zone. Learn more about availability for Azure VMs.
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