Hello, I’d like to share with you how I created my first virtual machine on Microsoft Azure. To start, let me briefly explain what virtual machines are. Essentially, virtual machines serve as operating systems or software that mimic physical machines. They make it easier to provision applications, hardware, software, data, and computing power, which is essential for achieving scalability, flexibility, and cost optimization in modern business and computing environments.
Below is my simple step-by-step process for launching a Windows machine in Azure.
On the Microsoft Azure dashboard, you can create new resources by clicking on the section highlighted with a red square.
This image displays the variety of resources that can be launched. Click on the Azure virtual machine to initiate the deployment process.
You will be directed to a section where you can customize the virtual machine according to your requirements and assign it a suitable name.
Be sure to specify a region for your resource. An Azure region includes several data centres in one geographic area.
Choose suitable availability zones, which are isolated data centres with independent cooling, power, security, and network resources.
For the virtual machine, select a machine image and choose an operating system. I chose the free tier Windows 11 OS.
Create a secure username and password to access your virtual machine.
To initiate the launch, click on the “Review and Create” tab and then click on the Create button below.
Please wait until the deployment is complete. Afterwards, click “Go to Resource.”
Click where you see the virtual machine’s public IP address to modify its Idle timeout.
Please set the idle timeout to 15 minutes and navigate back to the previous page.
To configure features for your virtual machine on Azure, please click on the “connect” button.
To start the configuration process, please click on the ‘Select’ button.
Please wait until the configuration process is complete. Once the process is done, you will see a message that says “configured”.
Click the ‘Download RDP file’ button after completing the configuration.
After downloading the RDP file, simply click on it to start the installation process. Follow the instructions provided to log in using the username and password you previously provided. Once the process is complete, you will have access to your newly created virtual machine. Below, you can find a screenshot of my virtual machine for reference.
Hopefully, you will be able to follow these easy steps to create your virtual machine after reading this article.
