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What are Azure Virtual Machines?

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) are on-demand, scalable computing resources that you can access immediately. They provide the same compute capabilities as a physical computer, but with the added benefits of flexibility, scalability, and manageability that come with cloud computing.

VMs are ideal for:

• Running applications that can't be moved to the cloud without modification.
• Developing and testing applications in a flexible environment.
• Extending your datacenter to the cloud.
• Running high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.

Key Features and Benefits

Azure VMs offer a robust set of features:

• Scalability: Easily scale up or down your compute resources as needed.
• High Availability: Leverage Azure's resilient infrastructure for your applications.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Pay only for what you use with flexible pricing models.
• Security: Benefit from Azure's comprehensive security measures.
• Variety of OS: Deploy Windows Server, Linux distributions, and more.

Learn more about the benefits of using Azure VMs.

Getting Started

Deploying your first VM is straightforward. You can choose from:

• Azure Portal: A user-friendly web interface for managing resources.
• Azure CLI: A powerful command-line tool for automation.
• Azure PowerShell: For Windows-centric scripting and automation.
• ARM Templates/Bicep: For infrastructure-as-code deployments.

See our quickstart guide to create your first Linux VM or create your first Windows VM.

VM Sizes and Configurations

Azure offers a wide range of VM sizes optimized for different workloads, from general-purpose to memory-intensive and compute-intensive. Each series offers specific CPU, memory, storage, and networking capabilities.

• General Purpose: Balanced CPU-to-memory ratio.
• Compute Optimized: High CPU performance.
• Memory Optimized: High memory-to-CPU ratio.
• Storage Optimized: High disk throughput and IOPS.
• GPU Optimized: For graphics and visualization workloads.

Explore available VM sizes and performance tiers.

Managing your VMs

Once deployed, you can manage your VMs through various tools:

• Monitoring: Track performance and health with Azure Monitor.
• Networking: Configure virtual networks, load balancers, and firewalls.
• Storage: Attach and manage disks (managed disks, unmanaged disks).
• Backups: Protect your data with Azure Backup.
• Updates: Keep your operating systems and applications patched.

Read about best practices for VM management.

Example Deployment (Azure CLI)

Here's a basic example of how to create a Linux VM using the Azure CLI:

az vm create \
  --resource-group MyResourceGroup \
  --name MyVM \
  --image UbuntuLTS \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys
                        

This command creates a resource group, a VM named 'MyVM' using the UbuntuLTS image, and configures SSH access for 'azureuser'.