Manage Azure Virtual Machines with Azure CLI

This guide covers common operations for managing Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) using the Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI). The Azure CLI provides a powerful and flexible way to interact with your Azure resources.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

An Azure subscription.
The Azure CLI installed on your local machine or use Azure Cloud Shell.
Logged in to your Azure account using az login.

Common Management Tasks

Start and Stop VMs

You can start or stop a VM to manage costs or perform maintenance.

Start a VM

az vm start --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyVM

Stop a VM

az vm stop --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyVM

Deallocate a VM (stops billing for compute costs)

az vm deallocate --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyVM

Restart a VM

To restart a running VM:

az vm restart --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyVM

View VM Status

Check the current power state of your VM.

az vm show --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyVM --query instanceView.statuses[1].displayStatus

The output will typically be "VM running" or "VM stopped".

Resize a VM

Change the size of your VM to adjust its CPU, memory, and other resources. You must stop and deallocate the VM before resizing.

List available VM sizes in a region

az vm list-sizes --location eastus --output table

Resize the VM

az vm resize --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyVM --size Standard_D4s_v3

Attach and Detach Disks

Manage data disks for your VM.

Attach an existing managed disk

az vm disk attach --resource-group MyResourceGroup --vm-name MyVM --name MyManagedDisk --lun 1

Detach a disk

az vm disk detach --resource-group MyResourceGroup --vm-name MyVM --name MyManagedDisk

Take Snapshots

Create point-in-time snapshots of your VM disks for backup and disaster recovery.

Create a snapshot of an OS disk

az snapshot create --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyVMSnapshot --source /subscriptions/YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID/resourceGroups/MyResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/MyVM/osDisk

For comprehensive backup and restore solutions, consider Azure Backup.

Delete a VM

Remove a VM and its associated resources (network interfaces, public IP addresses, etc.).

Caution: This action is irreversible.

az vm delete --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyVM

To delete the VM and its associated resource group:

az group delete --name MyResourceGroup

Get VM IP Addresses

Retrieve the public and private IP addresses assigned to your VM.

az vm show --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyVM --show-details --query '{PrivateIP:privateIps, PublicIP:publicIps}'

Update VM Extensions

Manage VM extensions, such as the Custom Script Extension or desired state configuration.

List installed extensions

az vm extension list --resource-group MyResourceGroup --vm-name MyVM --output table

Set (install/update) an extension

az vm extension set --resource-group MyResourceGroup --vm-name MyVM --name CustomScript --publisher Microsoft.Azure.Extensions --settings '{"fileUris": ["https://example.com/script.sh"], "commandToExecute": "sh script.sh"}'