Edit

Share via

Quickstart: Create a Linux server VM by using PowerShell in Azure Stack Hub

  • Article

You can create an Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS virtual machine (VM) by using Azure Stack Hub PowerShell. In this article, you create and use a virtual machine. This article also shows you how to:

  • Connect to the VM with a remote client.
  • Install an NGINX web server and view the default home page.
  • Clean up unused resources.

Prerequisites

Create a resource group

A resource group is a logical container where you can deploy and manage Azure Stack Hub resources. To create a resource group, run the following code block:

Note

We've assigned values for all variables in the following code examples. However, you can assign your own values.

# Create variables to store the location and resource group names.
$location = "local"
$ResourceGroupName = "myResourceGroup"

New-AzResourceGroup `
  -Name $ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $location

Create storage resources

Create a storage account that will be used for storing the boot diagnostics output.

# Create variables to store the storage account name and the storage account SKU information
$StorageAccountName = "mystorageaccount"
$SkuName = "Standard_LRS"

# Create a new storage account
$StorageAccount = New-AzStorageAccount `
  -Location $location `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
  -Type $SkuName `
  -Name $StorageAccountName

Set-AzCurrentStorageAccount `
  -StorageAccountName $storageAccountName `
  -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName

Create networking resources

Create a virtual network, a subnet, and a public IP address. These resources are used to provide network connectivity to the VM.

# Create a subnet configuration
$subnetConfig = New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig `
  -Name mySubnet `
  -AddressPrefix 192.168.1.0/24

# Create a virtual network
$vnet = New-AzVirtualNetwork `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $location `
  -Name MyVnet `
  -AddressPrefix 192.168.0.0/16 `
  -Subnet $subnetConfig

# Create a public IP address and specify a DNS name
$pip = New-AzPublicIpAddress `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $location `
  -AllocationMethod Static `
  -IdleTimeoutInMinutes 4 `
  -Name "mypublicdns$(Get-Random)"

Create a network security group and a network security group rule

The network security group secures the VM by using inbound and outbound rules. Create an inbound rule for port 3389 to allow incoming Remote Desktop connections and an inbound rule for port 80 to allow incoming web traffic.

# Create variables to store the network security group and rules names.
$nsgName = "myNetworkSecurityGroup"
$nsgRuleSSHName = "myNetworkSecurityGroupRuleSSH"
$nsgRuleWebName = "myNetworkSecurityGroupRuleWeb"


# Create an inbound network security group rule for port 22
$nsgRuleSSH = New-AzNetworkSecurityRuleConfig -Name $nsgRuleSSHName -Protocol Tcp `
-Direction Inbound -Priority 1000 -SourceAddressPrefix * -SourcePortRange * -DestinationAddressPrefix * `
-DestinationPortRange 22 -Access Allow

# Create an inbound network security group rule for port 80
$nsgRuleWeb = New-AzNetworkSecurityRuleConfig -Name $nsgRuleWebName -Protocol Tcp `
-Direction Inbound -Priority 1001 -SourceAddressPrefix * -SourcePortRange * -DestinationAddressPrefix * `
-DestinationPortRange 80 -Access Allow

# Create a network security group
$nsg = New-AzNetworkSecurityGroup -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -Location $location `
-Name $nsgName -SecurityRules $nsgRuleSSH,$nsgRuleWeb

Create a network card for the VM

The network card connects the VM to a subnet, network security group, and public IP address.

# Create a virtual network card and associate it with public IP address and NSG
$nic = New-AzNetworkInterface `
  -Name myNic `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $location `
  -SubnetId $vnet.Subnets[0].Id `
  -PublicIpAddressId $pip.Id `
  -NetworkSecurityGroupId $nsg.Id

Create a VM

Create a VM configuration. This configuration includes the settings to use when you deploy the VM (for example, user credentials, size, and the VM image).

# Define a credential object
$UserName='demouser'
$securePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString ' ' -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ($UserName, $securePassword)

# Create the VM configuration object
$VmName = "VirtualMachinelatest"
$VmSize = "Standard_D1"
$VirtualMachine = New-AzVMConfig `
  -VMName $VmName `
  -VMSize $VmSize

$VirtualMachine = Set-AzVMOperatingSystem `
  -VM $VirtualMachine `
  -Linux `
  -ComputerName "MainComputer" `
  -Credential $cred

$VirtualMachine = Set-AzVMSourceImage `
  -VM $VirtualMachine `
  -PublisherName "Canonical" `
  -Offer "UbuntuServer" `
  -Skus "20.04-LTS" `
  -Version "latest"

# Set the operating system disk properties on a VM
$VirtualMachine = Set-AzVMOSDisk `
  -VM $VirtualMachine `
  -CreateOption FromImage | `
  Set-AzVMBootDiagnostic -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
  -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -Enable |`
  Add-AzVMNetworkInterface -Id $nic.Id

# Configure SSH keys
$sshPublicKey = Get-Content "$env:USERPROFILE\.ssh\id_rsa.pub"

# Add the SSH key to the VM
Add-AzVMSshPublicKey -VM $VirtualMachine `
 -KeyData $sshPublicKey `
 -Path "/home/$UserName/.ssh/authorized_keys"

# Create the VM
New-AzVM `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
 -Location $location `
  -VM $VirtualMachine

VM Quick Create: Full script

Note

This step is essentially the preceding code merged together, but with a password rather than an SSH key for authentication.

## Create a resource group

<#
A resource group is a logical container where you can deploy and manage Azure Stack Hub resources. From your development kit or the Azure Stack Hub integrated system, run the following code block to create a resource group. Though we've assigned values for all the variables in this article, you can use these values or assign new ones.
#>

# Edit your variables, if required

# Create variables to store the location and resource group names
$location = "local"
$ResourceGroupName = "myResourceGroup"

# Create variables to store the storage account name and the storage account SKU information
$StorageAccountName = "mystorageaccount"
$SkuName = "Standard_LRS"

# Create variables to store the network security group and rules names
$nsgName = "myNetworkSecurityGroup"
$nsgRuleSSHName = "myNetworkSecurityGroupRuleSSH"
$nsgRuleWebName = "myNetworkSecurityGroupRuleWeb"

# Create variable for VM password
$VMPassword = 'Password123!'

# End of variables - no need to edit anything past that point to deploy a single VM

# Create a resource group
New-AzResourceGroup `
  -Name $ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $location

## Create storage resources

# Create a storage account, and then create a storage container for the Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS image

# Create a new storage account
$StorageAccount = New-AzStorageAccount `
  -Location $location `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
  -Type $SkuName `
  -Name $StorageAccountName

Set-AzCurrentStorageAccount `
  -StorageAccountName $storageAccountName `
  -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName

# Create a storage container to store the VM image
$containerName = 'osdisks'
$container = New-AzureStorageContainer `
  -Name $containerName `
  -Permission Blob


## Create networking resources

# Create a virtual network, a subnet, and a public IP address, resources that are used provide network connectivity to the VM

# Create a subnet configuration
$subnetConfig = New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig `
  -Name mySubnet `
  -AddressPrefix 192.168.1.0/24

# Create a virtual network
$vnet = New-AzVirtualNetwork `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $location `
  -Name MyVnet `
  -AddressPrefix 192.168.0.0/16 `
  -Subnet $subnetConfig

# Create a public IP address and specify a DNS name
$pip = New-AzPublicIpAddress `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $location `
  -AllocationMethod Static `
  -IdleTimeoutInMinutes 4 `
  -Name "mypublicdns$(Get-Random)"


### Create a network security group and a network security group rule

<#
The network security group secures the VM by using inbound and outbound rules. Create an inbound rule for port 3389 to allow incoming Remote Desktop connections and an inbound rule for port 80 to allow incoming web traffic.
#>

# Create an inbound network security group rule for port 22
$nsgRuleSSH = New-AzNetworkSecurityRuleConfig -Name $nsgRuleSSHName -Protocol Tcp `
-Direction Inbound -Priority 1000 -SourceAddressPrefix * -SourcePortRange * -DestinationAddressPrefix * `
-DestinationPortRange 22 -Access Allow

# Create an inbound network security group rule for port 80
$nsgRuleWeb = New-AzNetworkSecurityRuleConfig -Name $nsgRuleWebName -Protocol Tcp `
-Direction Inbound -Priority 1001 -SourceAddressPrefix * -SourcePortRange * -DestinationAddressPrefix * `
-DestinationPortRange 80 -Access Allow

# Create a network security group
$nsg = New-AzNetworkSecurityGroup -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -Location $location `
-Name $nsgName -SecurityRules $nsgRuleSSH,$nsgRuleWeb

### Create a network card for the VM

# The network card connects the VM to a subnet, network security group, and public IP address.

# Create a virtual network card and associate it with public IP address and NSG
$nic = New-AzNetworkInterface `
  -Name myNic `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $location `
  -SubnetId $vnet.Subnets[0].Id `
  -PublicIpAddressId $pip.Id `
  -NetworkSecurityGroupId $nsg.Id

## Create a VM
<#
Create a VM configuration. This configuration includes the settings used when deploying the VM. For example: user credentials, size, and the VM image.
#>

# Define a credential object
$UserName='demouser'
$securePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString $VMPassword -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ($UserName, $securePassword)

# Create the VM configuration object
$VmName = "VirtualMachinelatest"
$VmSize = "Standard_D1"
$VirtualMachine = New-AzVMConfig `
  -VMName $VmName `
  -VMSize $VmSize

$VirtualMachine = Set-AzVMOperatingSystem `
  -VM $VirtualMachine `
  -Linux `
  -ComputerName "MainComputer" `
  -Credential $cred

$VirtualMachine = Set-AzVMSourceImage `
  -VM $VirtualMachine `
  -PublisherName "Canonical" `
  -Offer "UbuntuServer" `
  -Skus "20.04-LTS" `
  -Version "latest"

$osDiskName = "OsDisk"
$osDiskUri = '{0}vhds/{1}-{2}.vhd' -f `
  $StorageAccount.PrimaryEndpoints.Blob.ToString(),`
  $vmName.ToLower(), `
  $osDiskName

# Set the operating system disk properties on a VM
$VirtualMachine = Set-AzVMOSDisk `
  -VM $VirtualMachine `
  -Name $osDiskName `
  -VhdUri $OsDiskUri `
  -CreateOption FromImage | `
  Add-AzVMNetworkInterface -Id $nic.Id

# Create the VM
New-AzVM `
  -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName `
 -Location $location `
  -VM $VirtualMachine

Connect to the VM

After you've deployed the VM, configure an SSH connection for it. To get the public IP address of the VM, use the Get-AzPublicIpAddress command:

Get-AzPublicIpAddress -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup | Select IpAddress

From a client system with SSH installed, use the following command to connect to the VM. If you're working on Windows, you can use PuTTY to create the connection.

ssh <Public IP Address>

When you're prompted, sign in as azureuser. If you used a passphrase when you created the SSH keys, you'll have to provide the passphrase.

Install the NGINX web server

To update package resources and install the latest NGINX package, run the following script:

#!/bin/bash

# update package source
apt-get -y update

# install NGINX
apt-get -y install nginx

View the NGINX welcome page

With the NGINX web server installed, and port 80 open on your VM, you can access the web server by using the VM's public IP address. Open a web browser, and go to http://<public IP address>.

The NGINX web server Welcome page

Clean up resources

You can clean up the resources that you don't need any longer by using the Remove-AzResourceGroup command. To delete the resource group and all its resources, run the following command:

Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name myResourceGroup

Next steps

In this quickstart, you deployed a basic Linux server VM. To learn more about Azure Stack Hub VMs, go to Considerations for VMs in Azure Stack Hub.