Azure Virtual Machines

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) provide on-demand, scalable computing resources. VMs give you full control over the operating system, installed software, and configuration — making them ideal for workloads that need customisation or lift-and-shift migration from on-premises.

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What Is an Azure VM?

An Azure VM is a virtualised server running on Microsoft's physical hardware. You choose the:

• Operating system — Windows Server, Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE, Debian, CentOS, and more
• Size — CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity
• Region and availability zone — where the VM runs
• Disks — OS disk plus optional data disks

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VM Sizes (Families)

Azure VMs are grouped into families optimised for different workloads:

Family	Optimised For	Example Sizes
B-series	Burstable, low-cost dev/test	B1s, B2s
D-series	General purpose	D2s_v5, D4s_v5
E-series	Memory optimised	E2s_v5, E8s_v5
F-series	Compute optimised	F2s_v2, F16s_v2
N-series	GPU-enabled (AI/ML, graphics)	NC6s_v3, ND40rs_v2
L-series	Storage optimised	L8s_v3, L32s_v3

Size Naming Convention

Standard_D4s_v5
  |       | | |
  |       | | +-- Version
  |       | +--- "s" = Premium Storage capable
  |       +----- 4 vCPUs
  +------------- D family (general purpose)

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Creating a VM

Via Azure CLI

az vm create \
  --resource-group rg-demo \
  --name myVM \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --size Standard_B2s \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --zone 1

Key Configuration Options

Setting	Description
Image	The OS and pre-installed software (marketplace or custom)
Size	CPU, memory, and disk performance
Authentication	SSH key (Linux) or password (Windows)
Networking	VNet, subnet, public IP, NSG
Disks	OS disk type and additional data disks
Availability	Availability zone or availability set

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VM Disks

Disk Type	Description	Use Case
OS Disk	Contains the operating system. Created with every VM.	Boot disk
Temporary Disk	Ephemeral storage on the host. Data is lost on redeployment.	Swap, temp files
Data Disk	Additional persistent disks attached to the VM.	Databases, application data

Managed Disk Tiers