How to create a virtual machine using PowerShell

Overview

With UKCloud for Microsoft Azure, you can leverage the power of Microsoft Azure to create virtual machines (VMs) for your on-premises applications. As UKCloud for Microsoft Azure is built on UKCloud’s assured, UK-sovereign multi-cloud platform, those applications can work alongside other cloud platforms, such as Oracle, VMware and OpenStack, and benefit from native connectivity to non-cloud workloads in Crown Hosting and government community networks, including PSN, HSCN and RLI. Before creating the virtual machine, it is necessary to create storage and networking resources for the the VM to use.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure your PowerShell environment is set up as detailed in Configure the Azure Stack Hub user's PowerShell environment.

Creating a virtual machine

Declare variables

Enter details below to provide values for the variables in the following script in this article:

Variable name	Variable description	Input
$ArmEndpoint	The Azure Resource Manager endpoint for Azure Stack Hub
$RGName	Name of the resource group to be created
$SAName	Name of the storage account to be created
$SubnetName	Name of the subnet to be created
$SubnetRange	Address range of the subnet to be createdin CIDR notation
$VNetName	Name of the virtual network to be created
$VNetRange	Address range of the virtual network to be createdin CIDR notation
$PublicIPName	Name of the public IP to be created
$NSGName	Name of the network security group to be created
$NICName	Name of the network interface controller to be created
$Username	Username of the VM to be created
$Password	Password of the VM to be created
$ComputerName	Computer name of the VM to be created
$VMName	Name of the virtual machine to be created
$VMSize	Size of the virtual machine to be created (More info)
VMType (switch)	The type of virtual machine to be created (Linux or Windows)
$VMImage	The image template to deploy the virtual machine from

Deploy the virtual machine

From your PowerShell window:

Unmanaged Disk
Managed Disk

# Initialise environment and variables

# Declare endpoint
$ArmEndpoint = "https://management.frn00006.azure.ukcloud.com"

## Add environment
Add-AzureRmEnvironment -Name "AzureStackUser" -ArmEndpoint $ArmEndpoint

## Login
Connect-AzureRmAccount -EnvironmentName "AzureStackUser"

# Get location of Azure Stack Hub
$Location = (Get-AzureRmLocation).Location

# Input Variables
$RGName = "MyResourceGroup"
$SAName = "MyStorageAccount".ToLower()
$SubnetName = "MySubnet"
$SubnetRange = "192.168.1.0/24"
$VNetName = "MyVNetwork"
$VNetRange = "192.168.0.0/16"
$PublicIPName = "MyPublicIP"
$NSGName = "MyNSG"
$NICName = "MyNIC"
$ComputerName = "MyComputer"
$VMName = "MyVM"
$VMSize = "Standard_DS1_v2"
$VMImage = "*/CentOS/Skus/7.5"

# Create a new resource group
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating resource group"
New-AzureRmResourceGroup -Name $RGName -Location $Location

## Create storage resources

# Create a new storage account
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating storage account"
$StorageAccount = New-AzureRmStorageAccount -Location $Location -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Type "Standard_LRS" -Name $SAName

## Create network resources

# Create a subnet configuration
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating virtual network"
$SubnetConfig = New-AzureRmVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name $SubnetName -AddressPrefix $SubnetRange

# Create a virtual network
$VirtualNetwork = New-AzureRmVirtualNetwork -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -Name $VNetName -AddressPrefix $VNetRange -Subnet $SubnetConfig

# Create a public IP address
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating public IP address"
$PublicIP = New-AzureRmPublicIpAddress -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -AllocationMethod "Dynamic" -Name $PublicIPName

# Create network security group rule (SSH or RDP)
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating SSH/RDP network security rule"
$SecurityGroupRule = switch ("-Linux") {
    "-Linux" { New-AzureRmNetworkSecurityRuleConfig -Name "SSH-Rule" -Description "Allow SSH" -Access "Allow" -Protocol "TCP" -Direction "Inbound" -Priority 100 -DestinationPortRange 22 -SourceAddressPrefix "*" -SourcePortRange "*" -DestinationAddressPrefix "*" }
    "-Windows" { New-AzureRmNetworkSecurityRuleConfig -Name "RDP-Rule" -Description "Allow RDP" -Access "Allow" -Protocol "TCP" -Direction "Inbound" -Priority 100 -DestinationPortRange 3389 -SourceAddressPrefix "*" -SourcePortRange "*" -DestinationAddressPrefix "*" }
}

# Create a network security group
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating network security group"
$NetworkSG = New-AzureRmNetworkSecurityGroup -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -Name $NSGName -SecurityRules $SecurityGroupRule

# Create a virtual network card and associate it with the public IP address and NSG
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating network interface card"
$NetworkInterface = New-AzureRmNetworkInterface -Name $NICName -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -SubnetId $VirtualNetwork.Subnets[0].Id -PublicIpAddressId $PublicIP.Id -NetworkSecurityGroupId $NetworkSG.Id

## Create the virtual machine

# Define a credential object to store the username and password for the virtual machine
$Username = "MyUser"
$Password = 'Password123!' | ConvertTo-SecureString -Force -AsPlainText
$Credential = New-Object -TypeName PSCredential -ArgumentList ($Username, $Password)

# Create the virtual machine configuration object
$VirtualMachine = New-AzureRmVMConfig -VMName $VMName -VMSize $VMSize

# Set the VM Size and Type
$VirtualMachine = Set-AzureRmVMOperatingSystem -VM $VirtualMachine -Linux -ComputerName $ComputerName -Credential $Credential

# Enable the provisioning of the VM Agent
if ($VirtualMachine.OSProfile.WindowsConfiguration) {
    $VirtualMachine.OSProfile.WindowsConfiguration.ProvisionVMAgent = $true
}

# Get the VM Source Image
$Image = Get-AzureRmVMImagePublisher -Location $Location | Get-AzureRmVMImageOffer | Get-AzureRmVMImageSku | Where-Object -FilterScript { $_.Id -like $VMImage }

# Set the VM Source Image
$VirtualMachine = Set-AzureRmVMSourceImage -VM $VirtualMachine -PublisherName $Image.PublisherName -Offer $Image.Offer -Skus $Image.Skus -Version "latest"

# Add Network Interface Card
$VirtualMachine = Add-AzureRmVMNetworkInterface -Id $NetworkInterface.Id -VM $VirtualMachine

# Set the OS Disk properties
$OSDiskName = "OsDisk"
$OSDiskUri = "{0}vhds/{1}-{2}.vhd" -f $StorageAccount.PrimaryEndpoints.Blob.ToString(), $VMName.ToLower(), $OSDiskName

# Applies the OS disk properties
$VirtualMachine = Set-AzureRmVMOSDisk -VM $VirtualMachine -Name $OSDiskName -VhdUri $OSDiskUri -CreateOption "FromImage"

# Create the virtual machine.
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating virtual machine"
$NewVM = New-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -VM $VirtualMachine
$NewVM
Write-Output -InputObject "Virtual machine created successfully"

# Initialise environment and variables

# Declare endpoint
$ArmEndpoint = "https://management.frn00006.azure.ukcloud.com"

## Add environment
Add-AzureRmEnvironment -Name "AzureStackUser" -ArmEndpoint $ArmEndpoint

## Login
Connect-AzureRmAccount -EnvironmentName "AzureStackUser"

# Get location of Azure Stack Hub
$Location = (Get-AzureRmLocation).Location

# Input Variables
$RGName = "MyResourceGroup"
$SAName = "MyStorageAccount".ToLower()
$SubnetName = "MySubnet"
$SubnetRange = "192.168.1.0/24"
$VNetName = "MyVNetwork"
$VNetRange = "192.168.0.0/16"
$PublicIPName = "MyPublicIP"
$NSGName = "MyNSG"
$NICName = "MyNIC"
$ComputerName = "MyComputer"
$VMName = "MyVM"
$VMSize = "Standard_DS1_v2"
$VMImage = "*/CentOS/Skus/7.5"

# Create a new resource group
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating resource group"
New-AzureRmResourceGroup -Name $RGName -Location $Location

## Create storage resources

# Create a new storage account
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating storage account"
$StorageAccount = New-AzureRmStorageAccount -Location $Location -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Type "Standard_LRS" -Name $SAName

## Create network resources

# Create a subnet configuration
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating virtual network"
$SubnetConfig = New-AzureRmVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name $SubnetName -AddressPrefix $SubnetRange

# Create a virtual network
$VirtualNetwork = New-AzureRmVirtualNetwork -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -Name $VNetName -AddressPrefix $VNetRange -Subnet $SubnetConfig

# Create a public IP address
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating public IP address"
$PublicIP = New-AzureRmPublicIpAddress -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -AllocationMethod "Dynamic" -Name $PublicIPName

# Create network security group rule (SSH or RDP)
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating SSH/RDP network security rule"
$SecurityGroupRule = switch ("-Linux") {
    "-Linux" { New-AzureRmNetworkSecurityRuleConfig -Name "SSH-Rule" -Description "Allow SSH" -Access "Allow" -Protocol "TCP" -Direction "Inbound" -Priority 100 -DestinationPortRange 22 -SourceAddressPrefix "*" -SourcePortRange "*" -DestinationAddressPrefix "*" }
    "-Windows" { New-AzureRmNetworkSecurityRuleConfig -Name "RDP-Rule" -Description "Allow RDP" -Access "Allow" -Protocol "TCP" -Direction "Inbound" -Priority 100 -DestinationPortRange 3389 -SourceAddressPrefix "*" -SourcePortRange "*" -DestinationAddressPrefix "*" }
}

# Create a network security group
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating network security group"
$NetworkSG = New-AzureRmNetworkSecurityGroup -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -Name $NSGName -SecurityRules $SecurityGroupRule

# Create a virtual network card and associate it with the public IP address and NSG
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating network interface card"
$NetworkInterface = New-AzureRmNetworkInterface -Name $NICName -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -SubnetId $VirtualNetwork.Subnets[0].Id -PublicIpAddressId $PublicIP.Id -NetworkSecurityGroupId $NetworkSG.Id

## Create the virtual machine

# Define a credential object to store the username and password for the virtual machine
$Username = "MyUser"
$Password = 'Password123!' | ConvertTo-SecureString -Force -AsPlainText
$Credential = New-Object -TypeName PSCredential -ArgumentList ($Username, $Password)

# Create the virtual machine configuration object
$VirtualMachine = New-AzureRmVMConfig -VMName $VMName -VMSize $VMSize

# Set the VM Size and Type
$VirtualMachine = Set-AzureRmVMOperatingSystem -VM $VirtualMachine -Linux -ComputerName $ComputerName -Credential $Credential

# Enable the provisioning of the VM Agent
if ($VirtualMachine.OSProfile.WindowsConfiguration) {
    $VirtualMachine.OSProfile.WindowsConfiguration.ProvisionVMAgent = $true
}

# Get the VM Source Image
$Image = Get-AzureRmVMImagePublisher -Location $Location | Get-AzureRmVMImageOffer | Get-AzureRmVMImageSku | Where-Object -FilterScript { $_.Id -like $VMImage }

# Set the VM Source Image
$VirtualMachine = Set-AzureRmVMSourceImage -VM $VirtualMachine -PublisherName $Image.PublisherName -Offer $Image.Offer -Skus $Image.Skus -Version "latest"

# Add Network Interface Card
$VirtualMachine = Add-AzureRmVMNetworkInterface -Id $NetworkInterface.Id -VM $VirtualMachine

# Applies the OS disk properties
$VirtualMachine = Set-AzureRmVMOSDisk -VM $VirtualMachine -CreateOption "FromImage"

# Enable boot diagnostics.
$VirtualMachine = Set-AzureRmVMBootDiagnostics -VM $VirtualMachine -Enable -StorageAccountName $SAName -ResourceGroupName $RGName

# Create the virtual machine.
Write-Output -InputObject "Creating virtual machine"
$NewVM = New-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Location -VM $VirtualMachine
$NewVM
Write-Output -InputObject "Virtual machine created successfully"

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