One of the first things that many people want to do with Azure is set up a Virtual Machine (VM). Here is the process to follow to do that from the new Azure portal using the new Resource Manager configuration.

Please note that this post is only gong to cover creating a single, stand alone virtual machine (VM). if you want to create a group of virtual machines that are on the same network in Azure look out for future posts on that topic.

To commence this process login to the Azure management portal via https://manage.windowsazure.com.

This will log you into the ‘classic portal’ as shown above. Here you can create VMs but they won’t be using the newer Azure Resource Manager (ARM), this can only be done via the new Azure portal. To navigate to the new Azure portal select Check out the new portal at the top of the page as shown.

You can also get to the new portal by selecting the account name in the top right and then the option Switch to the new Azure Portal from the menu that appears.

Finally, you can also navigate directly to the portal using the address – https://portal.azure.com

The new Azure portal should look something like the above with a number of menu options on the left.

From these menu options on the left select New. A ‘blade’ will then appear to the right. From this blade select Virtual Machines. A further blade will appear listing all the VM images you can select from. What appears here will depend on your Azure subscription.

In this case the Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter VM will be selected.

A further blade will open with the details about the select VM. At the bottom of this you will see an option for the deployment method. Ensure this is set to Resource Manager and then press Create to continue.

You’ll now be stepped through entering the remaining details for the configuration of this VM.

The first step will require you to enter a machine Name, login User name, user Password, Azure subscription, Resource Group and Location for the VM.

The VM name, user login and password have to conform to certain standards. The Azure subscription doesn’t normally require altering. In this case, enter a name for a new Azure Resource Group (in this case rg1). Finally, the location option is the datacenter where you VM will be homed.

When complete press the OK button to continue.

You’ll then be taken to Step 2 where you’ll be prompted to select a VM type.

By default, you’ll only see VMs that Azure recommends. To see all the options available to you, select the View all link in the top right as shown above.

In this the A1 machine has been selected.

Press the Select button to continue.

In Step 3 you can view and edit of the other pre-configured options required for the VM. In this case no changes will be made so select the OK button to proceed.

Don’ forget to scroll down on the right to see all the options available here.

Step 4 will show you a review of all the options you have selected for this VM.

Select OK o continue.

You should now see a message, like that shown above, that tells you that the deployment has commenced.

You can always see you messages by select the Alerts icon along the top of the window as shown.

Select the blue refresh icon to the left of the text as shown.

This will give you more information about the deployment progress.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the list you will see the deployments actions that have been undertaken and their success as shown above.

If you select the Virtual Machines option from the menu on the left you should see the new VM listed. You should also see that it’s status is Creating.

Select this new VM.

A new blade should open giving you more information about the VM as shown above. You can select any of Settings here to get more information.

After a short period of time, you should receive a console message telling you that deployment is complete.

To connect to this new running VM via RDP simply select the Connect icon at the top of the blade as shown.

You will then be prompted to download and run an RDP connection stub. When opened you’ll need to enter the user name and password you created earlier for that VM. Once you have done that correctly you should be connected to the VM as shown above.

Now you can interact with the VM as you would any other machine you have remoted to.

If you return to the Azure portal and select the Resource groups option from the menu on the left, you should see the new Resource Group you created as part of the VM configuration (here rg1).

Select the new Resource Group you created during the VM set up process.

A blade will open showing all the resources that are of this group. This is the big difference between ‘classic’ VMs and the new Resource Manager VMs. All the items (such as storage, networks, etc) are place in a container called a Resource Group. This makes management much easier.

If, for example, you select the network from the list of resources, a further blade will open, as shown above, giving your insight into that resource.

Resource Manager is now the preferred method of working with Azure and provides many benefits over the previous ‘classic’ model.

More about Azure Resource Manager (ARM) will be covered in upcoming posts.

If you look at the option Virtual machines (classic) and

and Virtual Machines in the ‘classic’ portal you won’t see your new VM. That is because Azure Resource Manager VMs only appear in the new portal and are using a newer deployment method (i.e. not ‘classic’).

Thus, you now need to use the new Azure portal to work with this VM. You can of course also use PowerShell but that will be covered in another post.

The above process has given you a walk through of creating a stand alone Azure VM using the Resource Manager deployment option. Upcoming posts will detail how to create a network and place multiple VMs inside it.

One of the challenges of working in a virtual infrastructure envionment is that you need to keep track of all the different resources. Things like virtual machine images, storage, network cards, etc all need to be assembled into a completed virtual machine.

Typically, all of this has been done piecemeal and by hand. Microsoft’s best practice is to move away from this IaaS version 1 to IaaS version 2 or using something it calls Azure Resource Groups.

You can basically think of Azure Resource Group as a container into which you put everything your need for your infrastructure configuration. Because everything is now in a single object it makes it easier to build and delete if necessary. That way it makes it easier to build is that you can now basically script the whole process.

The following will take you through a very basic process of creating a single Azure virtual machine using the Azure Resource Manager so you get an idea of the differences from the ‘classic’ method of building infrastructure.

The easiest way to deploy using Azure Resource Manager is to use Visual Studio. However, don’t install Visual Studio first! You’ll have problems if you do.

Instead, visit the following location:

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/features/azure-tools-vs.aspx

and select the link to Download Azure SDK and then run the download.

This will launch the Web Platform Installer as shown above. This will download not only the free Visual Studio Community Edition but also add the appropriate Azure components for you automatically.

You should now see the installer for Visual Studio Community 2015 with Microsoft Azure SDK displayed as shown above.

Select Install to continue.

Ensure you have enough free space on the machine to install all the components. The total size of the installation is displayed as shown above.

Select I Accept to continue.

The installation will then commence. This whole process of downloading and installing the appropriate components will take a fair amount of time, so generally allow 45 – 60 minutes for the process to complete.

You’ll see the progress displayed on the lower bar along with the total of components that have been installed so far.

When the process is complete, you’ll see the above screen.

Select Continue.

You’ll then see a summary of installation process.

Select Finish.

You’ll then be given the option to download additional components if desired.

Select Exit.

Run Visual Studio. Select File | New | Project.

On the left hand side of the dialog that appears, open Installed | Templates | Visual C# | Cloud. On the right, you should see Azure Resource Group at the bottom of the list, as shown above.

Select Azure Resource Group, provide a name for the project and press the OK button to proceed.

You’ll then be prompted to select an Azure template. In this case Windows Virtual Machine will be selected.

After selecting the template, press OK to continue.

This will open Visual Studio proper on your desktop like shown above.

In the top right you’ll see the Solution Explorer box as shown above. In here will be a Templates folder that you need to open. You should then find two .JSON files inside.

Select WindowsVirtualMachine.json to continue.

This should open the file in a large window in the center of the page.

Take a look through the file to see all the options. If you want to customise your virtual machine deployment you’ll need to do it in this file.

However, don’t make any changes to the file at this stage.

Right mouse click on the project name in the Solution Explorer box in the top right of the Visual Studio desktop.

From the menu that appears, select Deploy and then New Deployment from the submenu.

This will open a new window as shown above. Here select Add an account.

You’ll then need to add the login details for the Azure account in which the new Virtual Machine will be created in.

When you have added your Azure account most of the remaining fields will be populated has shown above.

Select the pull down option for the empty Resource group.

From the pull down menu that appears select .

Enter a name for the Resource Group. This will the container in which all the assets live.

Next, select a region where this Resource Group and the items it contains will reside. Here, Australia East has been selected.

Select Create to continue.

You’ll be returned to the previous window. Here, select the Edit Parameters button.

Enter the virtual machine administrator login name in the adminUsername field.

Enter the virtual machine administrator password in the adminPassword field.

Enter a name in the dnsNameForPublicIP field. This fieldmust be in lowercase and not contain special characters (i.e. !@$%- etc is not supported).

All of these values could have be entered in the configuration JSON if desired.

It is also recommended that you select the option Save passwords, otherwise you’ll be prompted top continually enter all these details during the creation process.

When complete, select the Save button to continue.

Select the Deploy button.

The deployment of the Resource Group will now commence. You can view the progress in the Output box at the bottom of the Visual Studio desktop.

The results of each step in the deployment process will be displayed. If there are any errors they will also be displayed here.

If you now look in the new Azure portal, as shown above, under the Resources groups area, the Resource Group just created should appear. Select this.

This will then display all the assets contained within that group. Select any whitespasce in the lower part of this blade.

Doing so will open the Resources blade where you can see each individual resource as it is created. Select the Refresh button at the top of the page to see new resources as the configuration progresses.

After a while the Output box on the Visual Studio desktop should show you that the deployment process is complete as shown above.

If you then return to the Resource Group and drill down into the virtual machine, you should see something like shown above. That is a running virtual machine.

So, that’s the way to get a single basic virtual machine up and running with Azure Resource Manager. It may seem like more work but as you begin to scale and manage large and more complex configurations it makes life much easier.

It is also interesting to note, as I have said many time here before, the future is about software. Azure Resource Manager shows how important it is to be comfortable with coding, which is not something I see with most IT Professionals. So now is the time to start getting comfortable!

You can also do all of this using PowerShell, which will be post coming in the future. For now, be fruitful and multiply using Azure Resource Manager for your IaaS environment.