Azure bytes of the alphabet, part 12 Linux on Azure

This is part 12 of a blog about some of the components on the Microsoft Azure platform, like app service, blob storage, databases, databricks, Event Hubs, Functions, Gateways, Health, IoT, Linux, containers, Azure Kubernetes Service, compute, security and many more. I am using all the letters of alphabet to do this. This is twelve of twenty-six.

L for Linux

Linux virtual machines in Azure

Azure Virtual Machines (VM) is one of several types of on-demand, scalable computing resources that Azure offers. Typically, you choose a VM when you need more control over the computing environment than the other choices offer. This article gives you information about what you should consider before you create a VM, how you create it, and how you manage it.

An Azure VM gives you the flexibility of virtualization without having to buy and maintain the physical hardware that runs it. However, you still need to maintain the VM by performing tasks, such as configuring, patching, and installing the software that runs on it.

Azure virtual machines can be used in various ways. Some examples are:

  • Development and test – Azure VMs offer a quick and easy way to create a computer with specific configurations required to code and test an application.
  • Applications in the cloud – Because demand for your application can fluctuate, it might make economic sense to run it on a VM in Azure. You pay for extra VMs when you need them and shut them down when you don’t.
  • Extended datacenter – Virtual machines in an Azure virtual network can easily be connected to your organization’s network.

The number of VMs that your application uses can scale up and out to whatever is required to meet your needs.

What do I need to think about before creating a VM?

There are always a multitude of design considerations when you build out an application infrastructure in Azure. These aspects of a VM are important to think about before you start:

  • The names of your application resources
  • The location where the resources are stored
  • The size of the VM
  • The maximum number of VMs that can be created
  • The operating system that the VM runs
  • The configuration of the VM after it starts
  • The related resources that the VM needs

Locations

All resources created in Azure are distributed across multiple geographical regions around the world. Usually, the region is called location when you create a VM. For a VM, the location specifies where the virtual hard disks are stored.

This table shows some of the ways you can get a list of available locations.

MethodDescription
Azure portalSelect a location from the list when you create a VM.
Azure PowerShellUse the Get-AzLocation command.
REST APIUse the List locations operation.
Azure CLIUse the az account list-locations operation.

Singapore data residency

In Azure, the feature to enable storing customer data in a single region is currently only available in the Southeast Asia Region (Singapore) of the Asia Pacific Geo. For all other regions, customer data is stored in Geo. For more information, see Trust Center.

Availability

Azure announced an industry leading single instance virtual machine Service Level Agreement of 99.9% provided you deploy the VM with premium storage for all disks. In order for your deployment to qualify for the standard 99.95% VM Service Level Agreement, you still need to deploy two or more VMs running your workload inside of an availability set. An availability set ensures that your VMs are distributed across multiple fault domains in the Azure data centers as well as deployed onto hosts with different maintenance windows. The full Azure SLA explains the guaranteed availability of Azure as a whole.

VM Size

The size of the VM that you use is determined by the workload that you want to run. The size that you choose then determines factors such as processing power, memory, and storage capacity. Azure offers a wide variety of sizes to support many types of uses.

Azure charges an hourly price based on the VM’s size and operating system. For partial hours, Azure charges only for the minutes used. Storage is priced and charged separately.

VM Limits

Your subscription has default quota limits in place that could impact the deployment of many VMs for your project. The current limit on a per subscription basis is 20 VMs per region. Limits can be raised by filing a support ticket requesting an increase

Managed Disks

Managed Disks handles Azure Storage account creation and management in the background for you, and ensures that you do not have to worry about the scalability limits of the storage account. You specify the disk size and the performance tier (Standard or Premium), and Azure creates and manages the disk. As you add disks or scale the VM up and down, you don’t have to worry about the storage being used. If you’re creating new VMs, use the Azure CLI or the Azure portal to create VMs with Managed OS and data disks. If you have VMs with unmanaged disks, you can convert your VMs to be backed with Managed Disks.

You can also manage your custom images in one storage account per Azure region, and use them to create hundreds of VMs in the same subscription. For more information about Managed Disks, see the Managed Disks Overview.

Distributions

Microsoft Azure supports running a number of popular Linux distributions provided and maintained by a number of partners. You can find distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise, CentOS, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Debian, Ubuntu, CoreOS, RancherOS, FreeBSD, and more in the Azure Marketplace. Microsoft actively works with various Linux communities to add even more flavors to the Azure endorsed Linux Distros list.

If your preferred Linux distro of choice is not currently present in the gallery, you can “Bring your own Linux” VM by creating and uploading a Linux VHD in Azure.

Microsoft works closely with partners to ensure the images available are updated and optimized for an Azure runtime. For more information on Azure partners, see the following links:

Storage

Networking

How to Deploy a Linux VM on the Azure Portal

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