Deploy and Configure an Azure Virtual Machine

Mode	Profile	Best For
Flexible	Standard Azure VMs	New workloads (default)
Uniform	Identical VMs	Legacy large-scale workloads

Feature	Flexible	Uniform
Standard VM APIs	Yes	No
Mix instance types	Yes	No
RBAC per VM	Yes	No
Azure Backup	Yes	No
Site Recovery	Yes	No
Fault domains	1–3	1–5

Type	Layer	Best For
Internal LB	L4	Backend pools
Public LB	L4	External traffic
App Gateway	L7	HTTP/HTTPS + WAF

Policy	Rollout	Use
Automatic	Batch	App can tolerate disruption
Rolling	Controlled	Gradual, managed updates
Manual	On-demand	Full control; explicit API calls

Azure Virtual Machines — Exam Prep Cheat Sheet

Key facts for AZ-900/AZ-104: sizes, disks, availability, networking, identity, costs & common commands.

Exam Highlights (Know These!)

Sizing families: B (burstable), D (general), E (memory), F (compute), Ls (storage I/O), M (SAP HANA), N (GPU).
Disks: Premium SSD v2 / Premium SSD / Standard SSD / Standard HDD; managed disks by default.
Availability: Availability Sets (fault/update domains), Availability Zones (physically separate), Scale Sets (autoscale VMs).
Networking: NICs, NSGs, VNet/subnets, Public IP, Azure Bastion (no public RDP/SSH), Load Balancer (L4), App Gateway (L7/WAF).
Identity: System/User-assigned Managed Identity; use Key Vault for secrets.
Images: Marketplace, custom images, Azure Compute Gallery (share/version/replicate).
Costs: Pay-as-you-go, Reservations (1/3-yr commit), Spot (evictable); Hybrid Benefit & stop-deallocate.

VM Sizes (Family → Best Fit)

Family	Profile	Use
B	Burstable	Dev/Test, low baseline usage
D	Balanced	Web/app servers, general workloads
E	Memory-optimized	DB/analytics, in-memory cache
F	Compute-optimized	CPU-bound, batch, microservices
Ls	Storage I/O	NoSQL, data stores, high throughput
M	Very high RAM	SAP HANA
N	GPU	AI/ML, rendering, visualization

Start with D-series; move to E/F/Ls/N for specialized needs.

Disks & Storage

Type	Perf	Typical Use
Premium SSD v2	High, flexible IOPS/throughput	Production apps with tuning needs
Premium SSD	High	Most production workloads
Standard SSD	Moderate	Balanced cost/perf
Standard HDD	Lower	Cold data, backups, cost-sensitive

OS disk required; add data disks for app/data.
Ephemeral OS: OS on host cache/local SSD (fast, stateless).
Disk caching: ReadOnly vs ReadWrite (useful for OS/DB patterns).
Encryption at rest enabled by default; can use customer-managed keys.

Availability & Scale

Availability Set: distributes across fault domains & update domains (same datacenter).
Availability Zones: place VMs in zone 1/2/3 for datacenter-level fault isolation within region.
Scale Set: manage a group of identical VMs with autoscale rules & load balancing.
Use Managed Disks for availability features and simpler management.
Back up with Azure Backup; replicate images via Azure Compute Gallery.

Zones > Sets for resiliency; scale sets for horizontal scale.

Networking Essentials

Each VM has one or more NICs attached to a subnet in a VNet.
NSGs filter traffic at NIC/subnet; default deny inbound.
Public IP optional; prefer Azure Bastion for RDP/SSH without exposing VM.
Azure Load Balancer (L4) distributes TCP/UDP; App Gateway (L7) does HTTP(S)/WAF.
Private connectivity: Private Link to PaaS; VPN/ExpressRoute for hybrid.

Identity & Security

Managed Identity (system/user-assigned) to access Azure resources without secrets.
Store secrets/keys in Azure Key Vault; use RBAC for control plane, NSG for data plane.
Enable Microsoft Defender for Cloud recommendations & just-in-time VM access.
Patch via Update Manager; use Extensions for agents/config.

Images & Deployment

Sources: Marketplace, custom image (managed image), or Azure Compute Gallery (version/share).
Gen2 images support modern features (UEFI, larger disks, vTPM).
Use ARM/Bicep/Terraform for repeatable deployments.
Boot diagnostics for console screenshots/serial logs.

Cost Controls

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go; Reservations (1/3-yr); Spot (evictable).
Azure Hybrid Benefit: apply existing Windows Server/SQL licenses.
Stop (deallocate) to stop compute charges; storage still billed.
Right-size VMs; choose disk tier appropriately; use auto-shutdown for dev/test.

Ops & Troubleshooting

Capture image when generalized; use run command/serial console for recovery.
Common fixes: NSG rules, route conflicts, disk attachment, extension failures.
Move across resource groups/subscriptions with constraints (region/image support).

CLI Quick Commands

az group create -n rg-vm -l eastus az vm create -g rg-vm -n vm1 --image Win2022Datacenter --size Standard_D2s_v5 \ --admin-username azureuser --admin-password "P@ssw0rd1234!" --public-ip-sku Standard az vm stop -g rg-vm -n vm1 az vm deallocate -g rg-vm -n vm1 az vm start -g rg-vm -n vm1 az vm run-command invoke -g rg-vm -n vm1 --command-id RunPowerShellScript --scripts "ipconfig"

Remember: deallocate stops compute billing; stopping alone may not.

PowerShell Quick Commands

New-AzResourceGroup -Name 'rg-vm' -Location 'EastUS' New-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'rg-vm' -Name 'vm1' -Location 'EastUS' ` -Image 'Win2022Datacenter' -Size 'Standard_D2s_v5' ` -Credential (Get-Credential) -PublicIpSku Standard Stop-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'rg-vm' -Name 'vm1' -Force Set-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'rg-vm' -Name 'vm1' -Generalized:$true Start-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'rg-vm' -Name 'vm1'

Use Az modules; run in Cloud Shell or local with Az installed.

Rapid Q&A (Exam Triggers)

Need RDP/SSH without public IP? Use Azure Bastion.
Need zone-level resiliency? Deploy across Availability Zones.
Share custom images? Azure Compute Gallery with versions/replicas.
Cut VM cost for steady workloads? Reservations; apply Hybrid Benefit if eligible.
Autoscale front-end VMs? VM Scale Set + Load Balancer.
App-level routing/WAF? Application Gateway.

Disk	Perf	When
Standard HDD	Low	Archive / Rare
Standard SSD	Medium	General Workloads
Premium SSD	High	Production Apps
Premium SSD v2	High+	Tunable Perf
Ultra Disk	Extreme	Critical DB I/O

Series	Profile	Use
B	Burstable	Dev/Test
D	General	Web/App
E	Memory	DB / Analytics
F	Compute	Batch / CPU Heavy
Ls	Storage IO	NoSQL / Throughput
M	High RAM	SAP HANA
N	GPU	AI / ML / Rendering

An Introduction to Microsoft Entra ID

Azure vNets Explained

Ask The Author

VMs Made Easy: A Deep Dive Into All VM Settings