VM images and marketplace in Azure - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Create and Configure an Azure VM Using Marketplace Images

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a virtual machine (VM) in Microsoft Azure for a small business. You want to use a ready-made VM image from the Azure Marketplace to save time and ensure security.

🎯 Goal: Build an Azure VM configuration using a specific Marketplace image and customize its size and resource group.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable for the resource group name

Create a variable for the VM size

Use a Marketplace image reference with publisher, offer, sku, and version

Combine these into a VM configuration dictionary

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Using Marketplace images speeds up VM setup by providing pre-configured operating systems and software.

💼 Career

Cloud engineers often configure VMs using Marketplace images to ensure consistency and security in deployments.

1

Create the resource group variable

Create a variable called resource_group and set it to the string "MyResourceGroup".

Azure

# Create a variable called resource_group and set it to "MyResourceGroup"
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Think of the resource group as a folder to keep your Azure resources organized.

2

Create the VM size variable

Create a variable called vm_size and set it to the string "Standard_DS1_v2".

Azure

resource_group = "MyResourceGroup"
# Create a variable called vm_size and set it to "Standard_DS1_v2"
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The VM size defines the CPU, memory, and other resources your VM will have.

3

Define the Marketplace image reference

Create a dictionary called image_reference with these exact keys and values: publisher set to "Canonical", offer set to "UbuntuServer", sku set to "18.04-LTS", and version set to "latest".

Azure

resource_group = "MyResourceGroup"
vm_size = "Standard_DS1_v2"
# Create a dictionary called image_reference with publisher, offer, sku, and version keys
# Your code here

Need a hint?

This dictionary tells Azure which VM image from the Marketplace to use.

4

Create the VM configuration dictionary

Create a dictionary called vm_config with keys resource_group, vm_size, and image_reference. Assign the variables resource_group, vm_size, and image_reference to these keys respectively.

Azure

resource_group = "MyResourceGroup"
vm_size = "Standard_DS1_v2"
image_reference = {
    "publisher": "Canonical",
    "offer": "UbuntuServer",
    "sku": "18.04-LTS",
    "version": "latest"
}
# Create a dictionary called vm_config with keys resource_group, vm_size, and image_reference
# Your code here

Need a hint?

This dictionary combines all your VM settings into one place for deployment.