Introduction
Spinning up a Virtual Machine (VM) for the first time is a milestone moment for anyone diving into cloud computing and IT infrastructure. After navigating through documentation, tutorials, and a few trial-and-error moments, I finally deployed my first VM on Microsoft Azure—and I couldn't be more excited to share the experience! 🤩
This article will walk you through how I successfully launched my first VM, the challenges I faced, and key takeaways that might help fellow beginners.
🌟 Why I Wanted to Deploy a Virtual Machine
As someone diving deeper into cloud computing and DevOps, I knew that understanding VM deployment was fundamental. Virtual Machines provide isolated environments for running applications, testing configurations, and simulating real-world infrastructure setups.
I decided to use Azure as my cloud provider for this project because of its reliability and comprehensive documentation.
⚙️ Step-by-Step Process: How I Created My First VM
1️⃣ Logging Into the Azure Portal
I logged into the Azure Portal and navigated to the Virtual Machines service.
2️⃣ Creating a New Virtual Machine
Here’s what I did:
- Clicked on Create a Virtual Machine
- Selected Windows Server 2022 as my operating system
- Chose a VM size (Standard B1s – 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM)
- Configured networking (enabled RDP access for remote login)
- Set storage and resource group
3️⃣ Deploying the VM 🚀
After reviewing the settings, I clicked Review + Create and waited a few minutes while my VM spun up. Once the deployment was complete, I noted my public IP address.
4️⃣ Connecting to the VM via RDP
I used the following steps to connect to my instance:
- Opened Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) on my local machine
- Entered the public IP address of my VM
- Logged in using the admin username and password set during VM creation
And just like that—I was inside my first virtual machine on Azure! 🎉
🔥 Challenges I Faced & How I Fixed Them
💡 RDP Connection Issues – Initially, I couldn’t connect via RDP. I realized I had to allow inbound RDP traffic (port 3389) in my Network Security Group settings.
💡 Incorrect VM Size – My first attempt used an underpowered VM, causing slow performance. I later resized it to a better configuration.
💡 Storage Misconfiguration – I forgot to allocate enough disk space at first. Using Azure Disk Expansion, I adjusted the size.
📌 Key Takeaways & Next Steps
✅ Understand Networking & Security – Always configure firewall rules & security groups properly.
✅ Choose the Right VM Size – Picking the right CPU/RAM/storage matters for performance.
✅ Leverage Azure Documentation – Microsoft's detailed guides are lifesavers!
Next, I’ll be exploring automating VM deployments using Terraform on Azure—stay tuned! 🚀
🚀 What’s Your Experience?
Have you deployed a virtual machine before? What challenges did you face? Let’s discuss in the comments! 👇
