Deploy Workloads on Azure Resource Manager Virtual Machines

In this IT Pro Challenge, learners will understand how to create and deploy an Azure Resource Manager (ARM) virtual machine with Visual Studio installed, create an empty data disk for development use, allocate a drive, and create a new data disk. They will also learn how and why to use the sysprep tool to generalize a virtual machine, capture an image to create another virtual machine, and use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to verify the configuration. The skills acquired in this lab are beneficial for the role of an Azure developer or system administrator.

Overview

For this virtual lab, the scenario is that you are an Azure developer, and your company is migrating its primary web application from an on-premise datacenter to Azure. Your task is to create and deploy an Azure Resource Manager (ARM) virtual machine that hosts Microsoft Visual Studio and add a data disk to the virtual machine for development purposes.

The Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is a management service that allows you to manage Azure resources.

Create an ARM VM with Visual Studio

To begin, you need to sign in to the Azure portal and create an ARM virtual machine that is configured to include Visual Studio Community 2017 on Windows Server 2016. Then you will connect to the virtual machine using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and verify that Visual Studio was installed and is fully available for use.

Add a data disk to the Azure VM

Now you are going to add a new, empty data disk to the virtual machine for development purposes. Then you will connect to the virtual machine using RDP to format the disk you just created for NT File System (NTFS), and use Windows Disk Management to allocate a drive. Then you will create a folder in that drive.

Create a managed image of a generalized VM in Azure

Within the RDP session, you will run the system preparation (sysprep) tool to generalize the virtual machine image and then shut down the virtual machine. The sysprep tool allows system administrators to prepare an image that is going to be cloned multiple times. Generalizing a virtual machine removes drivers, the computer security identifier (SID), and other computer-specific information. In order to clone an image, it must first be generalized.

NOTE: Once you generalize a virtual machine, you cannot reverse or undo that process.

Next, you will capture the virtual machine image for future use and create a new virtual machine based on that newly captured image. Then, just like in the first step of the lab, you will use RDP to verify that the new virtual machine initialized properly and that there is a folder by the same name as the folder you created in the first step of the lab.

NOTE: The drive letter on the new virtual machine may be different from the original virtual machine.

Summary Conclusion

By taking this virtual lab, you will learn how to use Visual Studio to create an ARM virtual machine, add a data disk to a virtual machine for development, and create a managed image of a generalized virtual machine in Azure.