Creating a Windows Virtual Machine Seamlessly in Azure

Firstly, why do you need a virtual machine? As exciting as creating a virtual machine might be , it is important to understand the reasons for creating a virtual machine. Here are few reasons:

1. Cost Savings: Virtual machines can help businesses save money. Instead of buying lots of physical computers/servers, a business can use one powerful computer and create many virtual machines on it. This means less resources is spent buying and maintaining several physical machines.

2. Flexibility: Virtual machines make work a lot more flexible. Businesses can easily create, change, or delete virtual machines based on their needs. It's like having a different computer to serve different purposes.

3. Scalability: Virtual machines can grow with the business. If a business needs more computers, they can easily create more virtual machines. It's like adding more seats to a table when more guests arrive.

To summarize, having virtual machines is like having a magical tool that helps businesses save money, work flexibly, increase work efficiency at a defined speed, and do many many other things at once without necessarily using multiple physical devices.

Prerequisites for getting started

With Microsoft Azure, starting a virtual machine or any other Azure Service has been made seamless. You basically need 2 things to get started.

1. An email (Any email will do e.g. gmail, yahoomail, aol, Microsoft etc.)

2. A credit card, debit card to get you through the sign up process. Click here to signup on Azure.

Upon signing up ,you'll need to validate your account.

For a first time Azure user, you'll be given a $200 credit or you can simply opt for a pay as you use subscription.

Note: Before you are able to use the Azure services, you'll need to have an active subscription, then you're ready to get started.

Steps in creating an Azure Virtual Machine of your choice

Step 1: Sign in to Azure Portal

1. Open your web browser and go to the Azure Portal.

2. Sign in with your Azure account (use your email and password).

Step 2: Skip this step and proceed to Step 3 if you have a Resource Group else continue to create one.

Type Resource groups in the search bar and select resource group.

Next, click create.

Following the guidelines below, select a subscription. (upon setting your account, you'll setup a subscription service".

Name your Resource group. For the purpose of this tutorial I named mine "RedCounty".

Pick a region. I used (US) East US.

Finally, click "Review + Create"

You should get "Validation Passed" notification, provided you have an active subscription. Next, click Create.

Your Resource group is created and displayed as shown below. Now we can proceed to create our Virtual Machine.

Step 3: Navigate to Virtual Machines

1. In the Azure Portal Search bar, type "virtual machine" and click virtual machine.

2. 

   Click Create and select "Azure Virtual Machine" from the dropdown as seen in the image below.

   

3. 7 configuration tabs are displayed after clicking create "Azure Virtual machine " . Proceed with the Basics

   

   The first configuration is the "Project Details". Select your subscription and the Resource group of choice. My Resource group is Red County.

   Note: All starred(*) fields are compulsory.

4. 

   Next, give your Virtual Machine a name. I've named mine "BusinessIntel". You may select the other options as desired, or simply follow the selected instances below. If creating a Linux Operating System, select ubuntu from the image dropdown.

   

5. After the Instance Section, provide a desired login credential, username and password which will be used in accessing the Virtual Machine remotely. My username is "Busintel". For the inbound port rule section, select all options except SSH. Use SSH when setting up a Linux Virtual Machine.

6. Be sure to check the Licensing box, then click Next.

   

Step 4: Configure Disks Configure the Disk settings, including OS disk type and size.

1. OS Disk Type: I selected "Standard SSD OS" feel free to select the disk type of your choice. A Premium SSD cost a lot more to run.:)

2. Disk Size (GB): I selected ":128 GB" for this test.

3. Click "Next" to proceed to Networking.

Note: You won't need to configure anything else for the remaining configuration types i.e., Networking, Management, Monitoring, Advanced, Tags as they are configured by default from this point. You may however Proceed with configuring each of the aforementioned services if you have your preference, else click on Review + Create.

1. Next, you should get the notification below showing "Validation Passed". Scroll down to see an overview of your configuration. If you're happy with your setup, click Create to proceed to deploy your virtual machine.

2. This only takes few minutes to deploy.

1. The image below is displayed upon successful deployment.

Step 6 : Connecting to Your virtual Machine

1. Click "Go to resource" to display the image below. Then click "Connect"

1. Next, your Virtual machine ip address is displayed. You can also download the RDP file to connect remotely to your new virtual machine from your PC.

1. After downloading the file, open same and click on connect.

1. Next, the dialog box below pops up showing the username created upon setting up your Admin login credential. Enter your password and click Ok to proceed.

The dialog box below opens up after successful authentication. Click, Yes.

This then take few seconds to connect successfully.

Your virtual machine is now being setup for the first time

Congratulations. Setup is complete and you have your Virtual Machine up and running and ready for activities.

Step 7: How to delete a Virtual Machine if it's no longer needed

1. To delete your virtual machine, search and click on virtual machine in the Azure portal then select the virtual machine you wish to delete. Next click delete.

1. Once the confirmation window opens, type delete as instructed to activate the delete button. Click Delete to proceed.

Now your virtual machine has now been deleted.

With these steps, you're able to spin up a virtual machine and delete same.