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Tutorial: Create and Manage Linux VMs with the Azure CLI
Article
Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets
Azure virtual machines provide a fully configurable and flexible computing environment. This tutorial covers basic Azure virtual machine deployment items such as selecting a VM size, selecting a VM image, and deploying a VM. You learn how to:
Create and connect to a VM
Select and use VM images
View and use specific VM sizes
Resize a VM
View and understand VM state
This tutorial uses the CLI within the Azure Cloud Shell, which is constantly updated to the latest version.
If you choose to install and use the CLI locally, this tutorial requires that you are running the Azure CLI version 2.0.30 or later. Run az --version to find the version. If you need to install or upgrade, see Install Azure CLI.
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.
Azure CLI
az group create --name myResourceGroupVM --location eastus2
The resource group is specified when creating or modifying a VM, which can be seen throughout this tutorial.
Create virtual machine
Create a virtual machine with the az vm create command.
When you create a virtual machine, several options are available such as operating system image, disk sizing, and administrative credentials. The following example creates a VM named myVM that runs SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). A user account named azureuser is created on the VM, and SSH keys are generated if they do not exist in the default key location (~/.ssh):
Azure CLI
az vm create \
--resource-group myResourceGroupVM \
--name myVM \
--image SuseSles15SP3 \
--public-ip-sku Standard \
--admin-username azureuser \
--generate-ssh-keys
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 publicIpAddress, this address can be used to access the virtual machine.
You can now connect to the VM with SSH in the Azure Cloud Shell or from your local computer. Replace the example IP address with the publicIpAddress noted in the previous step.
Bash
ssh azureuser@52.174.34.95
Once logged in to the VM, you can install and configure applications. When you are finished, you close the SSH session as normal:
Bash
exit
Understand VM images
The Azure Marketplace includes many images that can be used to create VMs. In the previous steps, a virtual machine was created using an Ubuntu image. In this step, the Azure CLI is used to search the marketplace for an Ubuntu image, which is then used to deploy a second virtual machine.
To see a list of the most commonly used images, use the az vm image list command.
Azure CLI
az vm image list --output table
The command output returns the most popular VM images on Azure.
A full list can be seen by adding the --all parameter. The image list can also be filtered by --publisher or –-offer. In this example, the list is filtered for all images, published by OpenLogic, with an offer that matches 0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy.
Azure CLI
az vm image list --offer0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy--publisher Canonical --all--output table
Canonical has changed the Offer names they use for the most recent versions. Before Ubuntu 20.04, the Offer name is UbuntuServer. For Ubuntu 20.04 the Offer name is 0001-com-ubuntu-server-focal and for Ubuntu 22.04 it's 0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy.
To deploy a VM using a specific image, take note of the value in the Urn column, which consists of the publisher, offer, SKU, and optionally a version number to identify the image. When specifying the image, the image version number can be replaced with latest, which selects the latest version of the distribution. In this example, the --image parameter is used to specify the latest version of a Ubuntu 22.04.
Azure CLI
az vm create --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM2 --image Canonical:0001-com-ubnutu-server-jammy:22_04-lts:latest --generate-ssh-keys
Understand VM sizes
A virtual machine size determines the amount of compute resources such as CPU, GPU, and memory that are made available to the virtual machine. Virtual machines need to be sized appropriately for the expected work load. If workload increases, an existing virtual machine can be resized.
VM Sizes
The following table categorizes sizes into use cases.
In the previous VM creation example, a size was not provided, which results in a default size. A VM size can be selected at creation time using az vm create and the --size parameter.
Azure CLI
az vm create \
--resource-group myResourceGroupVM \
--name myVM3 \
--image SuseSles15SP3 \
--size Standard_D2ds_v4 \
--generate-ssh-keys
Resize a VM
After a VM has been deployed, it can be resized to increase or decrease resource allocation. You can view the current of size of a VM with az vm show:
Azure CLI
az vm show --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM --query hardwareProfile.vmSize
Before resizing a VM, check if the desired size is available on the current Azure cluster. The az vm list-vm-resize-options command returns the list of sizes.
Azure CLI
az vm list-vm-resize-options --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM --query[].name
If the desired size is available, the VM can be resized from a powered-on state, however it is rebooted during the operation. Use the az vm resize command to perform the resize.
Azure CLI
az vm resize --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM --size Standard_D4s_v3
If the desired size is not on the current cluster, the VM needs to be deallocated before the resize operation can occur. Use the az vm deallocate command to stop and deallocate the VM. Note, when the VM is powered back on, any data on the temp disk may be removed. The public IP address also changes unless a static IP address is being used.
Azure CLI
az vm deallocate --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM
Once deallocated, the resize can occur.
Azure CLI
az vm resize --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM --size Standard_GS1
After the resize, the VM can be started.
Azure CLI
az vm start --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM
VM power states
An Azure VM can have one of many power states. This state represents the current state of the VM from the standpoint of the hypervisor.
Power states
Power State
Description
Starting
Indicates the virtual machine is being started.
Running
Indicates that the virtual machine is running.
Stopping
Indicates that the virtual machine is being stopped.
Stopped
Indicates that the virtual machine is stopped. Virtual machines in the stopped state still incur compute charges.
Deallocating
Indicates that the virtual machine is being deallocated.
Deallocated
Indicates that the virtual machine is removed from the hypervisor but still available in the control plane. Virtual machines in the Deallocated state do not incur compute charges.
-
Indicates that the power state of the virtual machine is unknown.
Find the power state
To retrieve the state of a particular VM, use the az vm get-instance-view command. Be sure to specify a valid name for a virtual machine and resource group.
Azure CLI
az vm get-instance-view \
--name myVM \
--resource-group myResourceGroupVM \
--queryinstanceView.statuses[1]--output table
Output:
Output
Code Level DisplayStatus
------------------ ------- ---------------
PowerState/running Info VM running
To retrieve the power state of all the VMs in your subscription, use the Virtual Machines - List All API with parameter statusOnly set to true.
Management tasks
During the life-cycle of a virtual machine, you may want to run management tasks such as starting, stopping, or deleting a virtual machine. Additionally, you may want to create scripts to automate repetitive or complex tasks. Using the Azure CLI, many common management tasks can be run from the command line or in scripts.
Get IP address
This command returns the private and public IP addresses of a virtual machine.
Azure CLI
az vm list-ip-addresses --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM --output table
Stop virtual machine
Azure CLI
az vm stop --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM
Start virtual machine
Azure CLI
az vm start --resource-group myResourceGroupVM --name myVM
Deleting VM resources
Depending on how you delete a VM, it may only delete the VM resource, not the networking and disk resources. You can change the default behavior to delete other resources when you delete the VM. For more information, see Delete a VM and attached resources.
Deleting a resource group also deletes all resources in the resource group, like the VM, virtual network, and disk. The --no-wait parameter returns control to the prompt without waiting for the operation to complete. The --yes parameter confirms that you wish to delete the resources without an additional prompt to do so.
Azure CLI
az group delete --name myResourceGroupVM --no-wait--yes
Next steps
In this tutorial, you learned about basic VM creation and management such as how to:
Create and connect to a VM
Select and use VM images
View and use specific VM sizes
Resize a VM
View and understand VM state
Advance to the next tutorial to learn about VM disks.