Deploy a Linux VM with PowerShell

Prerequisites

• Azure subscription
• PowerShell 7+ installed locally
• Az PowerShell module (Install-Module -Name Az -Scope CurrentUser -Repository PSGallery -Force)
• SSH key pair (run ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096)

Step 1 – Sign in to Azure

Connect-AzAccount

Step 2 – Create a Resource Group

$rgName = "RG-LinuxVM"
$location = "EastUS"
New-AzResourceGroup -Name $rgName -Location $location

Step 3 – Define VM Parameters

$vmName = "MyLinuxVM"
$vmSize = "Standard_B2s"
$adminUser = "azureuser"
$sshPublicKey = Get-Content "$HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub"

Step 4 – Create the Linux VM

New-AzVM `
  -ResourceGroupName $rgName `
  -Name $vmName `
  -Location $location `
  -Image "Canonical:UbuntuServer:18.04-LTS:latest" `
  -Size $vmSize `
  -Credential (New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($adminUser,(ConvertTo-SecureString "PlaceholderPassword" -AsPlainText -Force))) `
  -LinuxConfiguration @{ DisablePasswordAuthentication = $true; Ssh = @{ PublicKeys = @(@{ Path = "/home/$adminUser/.ssh/authorized_keys"; KeyData = $sshPublicKey }) } } `
  -Tag @{ Project="Demo" }

Step 5 – Verify Deployment

Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Name $vmName | Format-Table Name,Location,ProvisioningState

Step 6 – Connect via SSH

ssh $adminUser@$(az vm show -g $rgName -n $vmName --show-details --query publicIps -o tsv)