Azure Linux VM Deployment and Maintenance

Deploying an Azure Linux VM is a straightforward process that can be completed in a matter of minutes. You can create a VM from the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or Azure PowerShell.

To deploy an Azure Linux VM, you'll need to choose a Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu or CentOS, and select a storage account and network settings. You'll also need to configure the VM's size and location.

Azure offers a range of Linux distributions to choose from, including Ubuntu, CentOS, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Each distribution has its own set of features and requirements.

Creating a Linux virtual machine is a straightforward process on Azure. You can learn how to do it using the Azure portal.

To get started, you'll need to navigate to the Azure portal and follow the instructions. This will walk you through the steps of creating a new virtual machine.

Choose a suitable Linux distribution for your virtual machine, such as Ubuntu or CentOS. You can then configure the virtual machine's settings, including the size of the virtual machine and the storage.

Once you've completed the configuration, you can create the virtual machine. This will take a few moments, and then you'll be able to access your new Linux virtual machine.

Networking and Security is a crucial aspect of Azure Linux VM, and here's what you need to know:

Azure Linux VM manages routes to improve compatibility with platform DHCP servers.

This ensures that your network is stable and efficient, which is especially important for businesses that rely on online transactions.

Azure Linux VM ensures the stability of the network interface name, which means you can count on your network to be up and running without any issues.

Networking is a critical aspect of any computer system, and it's essential to understand how it works to ensure stability and compatibility.

A well-managed network can improve compatibility with platform DHCP servers by managing routes.

To achieve this, network administrators must ensure the stability of the network interface name.

Here are some key points to consider when it comes to network stability:

Communication plays a vital role in networking and security. Information flow from the platform to the agent occurs through two channels.

The first channel is a boot-time attached DVD for VM deployments, which includes an Open Virtualization Format (OVF)-compliant configuration file that contains all provisioning information other than the SSH key pairs.

The second channel is a TCP endpoint that exposes a REST API used to get deployment and topology configuration.

Keep in mind that FIPS 140-3 Enforced is not supported on RHEL/Ubuntu with extensions using 'protectedSettings'.

The SSH Host Key Pair is a crucial aspect of secure networking. It's used to authenticate the connection between your device and the server.

You can configure the SSH Host Key Pair during the provisioning process by setting the Provisioning.RegenerateSshHostKeyPair value to "y". This will delete all existing SSH host key pairs and generate a fresh key pair.

The encryption type for the fresh key pair can be configured using the Provisioning.SshHostKeyPairType entry. Typically supported values are rsa, dsa, and ecdsa.

If you plan to use putty.exe on Windows to connect to a Linux deployment, it's recommended to use rsa or dsa encryption type, as putty.exe doesn't support ecdsa.

Some distributions may re-create SSH key pairs for missing encryption types when the SSH daemon is restarted, such as after a reboot.

You can verify the public IP address your VM is using by checking its public endpoint attached.

One way to do this is by using services like http://ifconfig.me/ip, which can be easily used in a PowerShell script or bash-script.

To compare the public IP address with the IP address ranges reserved for Azure data centers, you can download the Azure data center IP address ranges from the Microsoft Download Center at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41653.

This can be a valuable tool for troubleshooting and security purposes.

The configuration file for waagent is located at /etc/waagent.conf and controls the actions of waagent. This file is crucial for managing your Azure Linux VM.

You can specify configuration options as Boolean, String, or Integer. Boolean options can be set to y or n, and some string type configuration entries might use the special keyword None.

The waagent daemon can be run in the background using the daemon command, or started as a background process using the start command. This is specified in the waagent init script.

Some useful commands for managing waagent include:

The Azure Linux Agent is a crucial tool for provisioning Linux virtual machines in Azure. It's released under the Apache 2.0 license and is easily installable and updatable through .rpm or .deb packages provided by many distributions.

The agent requires Python v2.6+ and the python-pyasn1 module, which is usually provided as a separate package. In some cases, it might not be compatible with NetworkManager, which can cause issues.

Make sure the udf and vfat modules are enabled, as disabling them can cause provisioning failures. However, if you're using Cloud-init version 21.2 or later, you might be able to provision VMs without requiring UDF, as long as you created the VM with SSH public keys and didn't provide any custom data.

The Azure Agent can also be used as a detection strategy on Linux VMs by reading its configuration and trying to reach its host-agent counterpart. If the VM is not running in Azure, this will result in a timeout.

You can use the following commands with the Azure Linux Agent:

The Azure Linux Guest Agent has a feature to automatically collect some logs and upload them, which requires systemd and is available from version 2.7+. This feature produces a .zip file of diagnostics logs that can be retrieved for offline analysis.

Extension is a powerful tool for automating software and configuration tasks on Linux VMs. It injects components authored by Microsoft and its partners into these VMs.

These components are designed to streamline automation and make it easier to manage complex configurations.

One notable example of a VM Extension is the reference implementation found on GitHub.

The /etc/waagent.conf configuration file is where the magic happens for waagent. This file controls the actions of waagent, and it's essential to understand how it works.

You can think of configuration options as being one of three types: Boolean, String, or Integer. Boolean options are specified as y or n, making it easy to understand their values.

For some string type configuration entries, you might see the special keyword None used. This can be a bit confusing, but it's a legitimate option.

To give you a better idea of what this looks like in practice, here's an example of a configuration file: Ubuntu wiki: AzureSwapPartitionsDeploy applications to a Windows virtual machine in Azure with the Custom Script Extension

Deleting the root password is a crucial step in securing your system. If the value is y, the agent erases the root password in the /etc/shadow file during the provisioning process.

This means that the root password will be blank, requiring you to set a new one after provisioning is complete. The provisioning process will not prompt you to enter a new password, so be sure to do so immediately.

Deleting the root password ensures that your system is more secure, as it prevents unauthorized access to the root account. This is a key aspect of system security and should not be overlooked.

By erasing the root password, you're taking a proactive step in protecting your system from potential threats.

Disk.Enable Swap is a configuration option that allows you to enable a swap file on the resource disk.

The agent creates a swap file, specifically /swapfile, on the resource disk when you set this option.

This swap file is then added to the system's swap space, effectively increasing the available disk space for use as virtual memory.

With Azure, you can get a seamless Linux experience for every workload. You can create your own Linux virtual machines (VMs), deploy and run containers in Kubernetes, or choose from hundreds of preconfigured images and Linux workloads in Azure Marketplace.

Azure offers several common Linux distributions, including Red Hat, SUSE, and Ubuntu by Canonical. You can select Azure Linux as the container host operating system (OS) for your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters. To run community-supported Linux distributions on Azure, simply upload your preferred Linux OS image.

Here are some benefits of using Azure for your Linux workloads:

With Azure, you can manage your Linux services across cloud and on-premises environments using Azure Arc. This allows you to build a truly consistent hybrid cloud infrastructure by integrating your on-premises and cloud environments with Azure Stack and the Open Service Broker API.

Using the Azure REST Management API or CLI interfaces is an option for detecting if a Virtual Machine runs in Azure. This approach requires you to force the user to provide credentials or a management certificate that gives the VM access to the customer's subscription.

You can achieve this by writing explicit documentation for your customers explaining what they need to do after provisioning the VM from the Azure Marketplace. Alternatively, you can create a little provisioning web application that is shipped as part of the VM image, which the user needs to browse to immediately after provisioning.

This provisioning-app should be active only in the provisioned instance after the initial creation from the marketplace to avoid security issues. The Azure Marketplace service will eventually enable publishers to require users to provide additional details through the Azure portal as part of the provisioning process.

Here are the possible steps you can take:

Migrating and modernizing Linux-based workloads with Azure can improve scalability.

You can discover how to do this with Azure's learning collection.

Azure offers improved security for Linux-based workloads.

This is especially useful for organizations that need to protect sensitive data.

With Azure, you can also improve privacy for your workloads.

This means you have more control over how your data is handled.