Deploying A Linux Workload To An Azure Virtual Machine

One of the best gifts that the technological world has given us is cloud computing. No more aching for storage when your computer hard drives are killing you. We may be thinking that cloud computing is only good for storing things, but it is a lot more than that. As developers begin to worry about carrying their workload everywhere in fragile storage devices, there was need for a place where they could not only store their workload data, but also use the same space to deploy develop and process the apps.

Since cloud computing is the next best thing when it comes to shifting your workload, it is a good idea to get ahead of the curve while you’re at it. Before we start plugging our Microsoft Azure training to you, let’s cut to the chase and talk about the basic architecture that you will need for a successful Azure Virtual Machine with a Linux workload.

There are some additional components required for proper provisioning of an Azure VM such as networking, compute and resources for storage.

Resource Group

In other words, this is a container that will hold your related resources. A rule of thumb for resources is that they should be grouped in a solution which is based on the management and more specifically the lifetime.

In case of a single VM workload, it is best to manage resources in a single resource group.

Virtual Machine

Virtual machines can be provisioned from a list of published images, or from virtual hard drives or custom managed image. Azure is able to run Linux distributions like Debian, CentOS, Ubuntu, Red Hat, Enterprise and FreeBSD.

OS Disk

A virtual hard drive that is present in the Azure storage that will give you access to your data even when the host machine is down.

For Linux Virtual Machines, the OS disk is “/dev/sdai”

Temp Disk

When creating a Virtual Machine, it is to have a temporary disk which is stored on a physical drive on the host machine. Since it may be deleted reboots or other lifecycle events, it is not stored on Azure. This is strictly to be used for temporary data which include swap or page files. Microsoft azure training and certification classes can help you better understand the Dos and Don’ts of the Virtual Machine architecture.

For Linux Virtual Machines, the temp disk is /dev/sdb1and is usually mounted at “/mnt” or “/mnt/resource”

Data Disks

Similar to the OS Disk, the data disk is stored on Azure and is a Virtual Hard Drive for app data.

Virtual Network and subnet

Virtual Network or VNet is necessary for deploying a Virtual Machine and it can later be segmented in to multiple subnets according to preferences.

Public IP address

Essential to communicate with the Virtual Machine, e.g through SSH

Azure DNS

As the name suggests, it’s a hosting service for DNS domains. It provides name resolution by using the Microsoft Azure infrastructure. It is more convenient to use Azure DNs because it allows you to use the same credentials, tools, APIs and billing for other Azure services.

Network Interface

Network Interface (NIC) when assigned, allows the Virtual Machine to communicate with the Virtual Network.

Network security Group

A very useful tool in allowing or denying network traffic to a resource, NSGs can be associated with individual NICs or a subnet. Association with a subnet means the same rules for all the Virtual Machines in that Subnet.

Diagnostics

Extremely important in the case of troubleshooting errors and managing the Virtual Machine.

This architecture shows most of the basics that are needed to deploy a Linux workload to an Azure Virtual Machine. There is however a drawback of using a single virtual machine for mission critical workloads as it becomes vulnerable to single point of failure.

To fully understand the risks and benefits of Azure, acquiring an Azure solution architect certification can not only help you understand the cloud better, but certify you as a professional that can create the architecture for different developers who are looking towards switching to the service. If you are someone who wants to become the leader in cloud computing innovation, Microsoft Azure training is available to all through different educational portals and sites.