Exercise - Control deployment order of resources

6 minutes

In this part, you start by performing a few basic setup tasks. In Visual Studio Code, you connect a terminal session to the Azure subscription that's provided by the free Azure sandbox environment. Doing so enables you to authenticate commands to Azure.

Then, you run a basic ARM template that provisions a Linux virtual machine (VM). After the deployment completes, you verify that the VM is running and connectable.

Although working with VMs is a common task, you discover that a VM resource requires networking and storage components that must exist before the VM can be created. You see how the dependsOn construct enables you to set the order in which resources are provisioned.

Setup

Here, you open Visual Studio Code, create a PowerShell session, and connect to the Azure subscription that's provided by the free Azure sandbox environment.

You need to perform these setup tasks one time during this module. You can refer back to these steps if you sign out or become disconnected in a later exercise.

Open PowerShell in Visual Studio Code

Open Visual Studio Code.
Open a terminal window by using the Terminal menu.
If the drop-down menu on the right of the terminal window shows pwsh, you have the right shell to work from, and you can skip to the next section.
If not, select the drop-down and choose Select Default Shell.
Select pwsh.
Select the + in the terminal to create a new terminal with pwsh as the shell.

Run Connect-AzAccount to sign in to your account.
```
Connect-AzAccount
```
A browser window appears.
Select the account that you used to activate the sandbox, and close the browser window when prompted.

Set the active subscription

Run Get-AzSubscription to get the subscription ID for the sandbox environment.
```
Get-AzSubscription
```
Look for Concierge Subscription, and copy the second column. It will look something like cf49fbbc-217c-4eb6-9eb5-a6a6c68295a0.
Run Set-AzContext to change your active subscription to the Concierge Subscription.

Note

Be sure to substitute {Your subscription ID} with the ID of the Concierge Subscription you just got in the last command.
```
$subscription = Get-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId {Your subscription ID}
Set-AzContext $subscription
```

Set default resource group

Normally, when you run an Azure CLI command, you need to specify a resource group.

The sandbox provides a default resource group for you. To make the Azure CLI commands that follow easier to run, here you set the default resource group.

Run the Set-AzDefault cmdlet to set the default resource group.

Set-AzDefault -ResourceGroupName <rgn>resource group name</rgn>

Note

Normally, when you use PowerShell to deploy resource on Azure, you need to specify a resource group. You're bypassing this requirement by setting the context of your deployment, using Set-AzDefault.

What's in a typical VM deployment

When you deploy a VM, keep in mind that there are several resources that need to be deployed along with it in order for the VM to work.

Here's a brief summary of the types of resources that typically need to be deployed along with a VM:

Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts. A storage account provides disk space for the operating system and files.
Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses. A public IP address enables you to connect to the VM from the internet.
Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups. A network security group contains rules for handling inbound and outbound traffic to your virtual network.
Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks. Your VM needs to be placed in a virtual network. This resource requires the network security group to be deployed before it.
Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces. This resource depends on two other resources: the public IP address and the virtual network.
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines. The virtual machine is the primary resource you want to deploy. It's dependent on two different resources: the storage account and the network interfaces.

Deploy a Linux VM

Here, you download an ARM template from a GitHub repository that we provide for you. The template provisions a Linux VM and all of the resources necessary to run it.

Run the following curl command to download the ARM template:

curl -O 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/master/quickstarts/microsoft.compute/vm-simple-linux/azuredeploy.json'

Run the ConvertTo-SecureString cmdlet, and assign the results to a PowerShell variable named $secure:
```
$secure = "insecurepassword123!" | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force
```
Now you have an encrypted version of your password that you can pass the deployment script next.

Run the command New-AzResourceGroupDeployment to deploy the template:

New-AzResourceGroupDeployment `
  -TemplateFile "./azuredeploy.json" `
  -adminUsername "azureuser" `
  -vmName "vm1" `
  -adminPasswordOrKey $secure

The command can take a few minutes to run. While the command runs, you can examine the ARM template from a separate browser tab if you'd like.

Note the resource dependencies by searching for the dependsOn key. For example, the virtual machine resource depends on the network interface:

"type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
"apiVersion": "2020-06-01",
"name": "[parameters('vmName')]",
"location": "[parameters('location')]",
"dependsOn": [
  "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/', variables('networkInterfaceName'))]"
],

Verify the deployment

Verify that the VM is provisioned and is connectable over SSH. To do so:

Run the Invoke-Expression command to connect to the VM over SSH:
```
Invoke-Expression (Get-AzResourceGroupDeployment -Name azuredeploy -ResourceGroupName <rgn>your resource group</rgn>).outputs.sshCommand.value
```
When prompted, enter yes to continue connecting. Then enter the administrator password, insecurepassword123!.

Important

In practice, keep passwords safe. You can also use public key authentication, which is typically more secure than using passwords.
From your SSH connection to the VM, run hostname to print the VM's hostname:
```
hostname
```
You see the VM's internal hostname, vm1:
```
vm1
```
Run exit to leave your SSH session.
```
exit
```

Congratulations, you've successfully deployed a Linux VM by using an ARM template. A VM is a common resource type that includes dependent resources.

Setup

Here, you open Visual Studio Code, create a terminal session, and connect to the Azure subscription that's provided by the free Azure sandbox environment.

You need to perform these setup tasks one time during this module. You can refer back to these steps if you sign out or become disconnected in a later exercise.

Open a shell in Visual Studio Code

Open Visual Studio Code.
Open a terminal window by using the Terminal menu.
If the drop-down menu shows your preferred shell (bash or zsh, for example), you can skip to the next section.
If not, select the drop-down and choose Select Default Shell.
Select the type of shell you want.
Select the + in the terminal to create a new terminal with your selected shell type.

From the terminal, run az login:
```
az login
```
A browser window appears.
Select the account that you used to activate the sandbox and close the browser window when prompted.

Set the active subscription

Run the following az account set command to set the Azure sandbox environment as your active subscription:

az account set -s "Concierge Subscription"

Note

If the command fails, run az account list --refresh --all, and then rerun the az account set command.

Set the default resource group

Normally, when you run an Azure CLI command, you need to specify a resource group.

The sandbox provides a default resource group for you. To make the Azure CLI commands that follow easier to run, here you set the default resource group.

Run the following az configure command to set the default resource group:

az configure --defaults group=<rgn>resource group name</rgn>

What's in a typical VM deployment

When you deploy a VM, keep in mind that there are several resources that need to be deployed along with it in order for the VM to work.

Here's a brief summary of the types of resources that typically need to be deployed along with a VM:

Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts. A storage account provides disk space for the operating system and files.
Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses. A public IP address enables you to connect to the VM from the internet.
Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups. A network security group contains rules for handling inbound and outbound traffic to your virtual network.
Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks. Your VM needs to be placed in a virtual network. This resource requires the network security group to be deployed before it.
Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces. This resource depends on two other resources: the public IP address and the virtual network.
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines. The virtual machine is the primary resource you want to deploy. It's dependent on two different resources: the storage account and the network interfaces.

Deploy a Linux VM

Here, you download an Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template from a GitHub repository that we provide for you. The template provisions a Linux VM and all of the resources necessary to run it.

Run the following wget command to download the ARM template:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/master/quickstarts/microsoft.compute/vm-simple-linux/azuredeploy.json

If you don't have wget installed, you can run this curl command:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/master/quickstarts/microsoft.compute/vm-simple-linux/azuredeploy.json > azuredeploy.json

Run the az deployment group create command to deploy the template:

az deployment group create \
  --template-file azuredeploy.json \
  --parameters adminUsername=azureuser vmName=vm1 adminPasswordOrKey='insecurepassword123!'

The command can take a few minutes to run. While the command runs, you can examine the ARM template from a separate browser tab if you'd like.

Note the resource dependencies by searching for the dependsOn key. For example, the virtual machine resource depends on the network interface:

"type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
"apiVersion": "2020-06-01",
"name": "[parameters('vmName')]",
"location": "[parameters('location')]",
"dependsOn": [
  "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/', variables('networkInterfaceName'))]"
],

Verify the deployment

Verify that the VM is provisioned and is connectable over SSH. To do so:

Run the following az deployment group list command to list the deployment groups in your subscription:

az deployment group list --output table

You see one deployment group, named azuredeploy:

Name         ResourceGroup                               State      Timestamp                         Mode
-----------  ------------------------------------------  ---------  --------------------------------  -----------
azuredeploy  learn-1ef901aa-3f6a-46aa-8e93-a7f11e5192b8  Succeeded  2020-11-24T17:55:39.762517+00:00  Incremental

Run the following az deployment group show command to show the SSH command you can use to connect to the VM:
```
az deployment group show \
  --name azuredeploy \
  --query properties.outputs.sshCommand.value \
  --output tsv
```
The ARM template defines this property in the output section. Here's an example:
```
ssh azureuser@simplelinuxvm-a33zb3sc332ue.westus.cloudapp.azure.com
```
Run the command again, this time using the $() syntax to execute the SSH command:
```
$(az deployment group show \
  --name azuredeploy \
  --query properties.outputs.sshCommand.value \
  --output tsv)
```
When prompted, enter yes to continue connecting. Then enter the administrator password, insecurepassword123!.

Important

In practice, keep passwords safe. You can also use public key authentication, which is typically more secure than using passwords.
From your SSH connection to the VM, run hostname to print the VM's hostname:
```
hostname
```
You see the VM's internal hostname, vm1:
```
vm1
```
Run exit to leave your SSH session.
```
exit
```

Congratulations, you've successfully deployed a Linux VM by using an ARM template. A VM is a common resource type that includes dependent resources.

Exercise - Control deployment order of resources

Setup

Open PowerShell in Visual Studio Code

Sign in to Azure

Set the active subscription

Set default resource group

What's in a typical VM deployment

Deploy a Linux VM

Verify the deployment

Setup

Open a shell in Visual Studio Code

Sign in to Azure

Set the active subscription

Set the default resource group

What's in a typical VM deployment

Deploy a Linux VM

Verify the deployment

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