On Prem VMs

Introduction

⚠️ Are you are on an Azure Arc for Servers partner hack with Cloud Solution Architects from the UK GPS team at Microsoft?

If the answer is yes then you can skip this page. Join the hack when it starts, and then you can go straight to the foundation page once the introduction session has finished.

If not then you’re going to need some on prem VMs. Read on…

Overview

Your Azure Arc pilot requires a small number of Windows and linux servers.

These will be your “on prem” machines.

You will be onboarding these VMs as Azure Arc-enabled VMs. The hack scenario assumes a pilot of:

• 3 x Windows Server VMs
• 3 x Linux VMs

You have a choice here. Either:

1. Create your own (preferred)

   If you have access to your own test/dev hardware then create a few VMs of each type.

   Azure Arc can onboard VMs from VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, Xen, Nutanix, AWS, GCP, bare metal servers etc. Refer to the supported list for Azure Arc and ensure your VMs have outgoing internet access.

   If you are providing your own “on prem” VMs then you can skip the rest of this page and go to the foundation page.

2. Use our Terraform repo

   We have created a repo that allows you to generate a few “on prem” VMs. This is how we prepare environments for partners to use in the hacks.

Terraform prereqs

If using the Terraform repo then you will need an Azure subscription with sufficient credits and CPU quota.

If possible, deploy “on prem” into a separate subscription to the one used for onboarding. Seeing the “on prem” VMs in the same subscription as the matching Azure Arc-enabled Servers can prove confusing.

1. Contributor access

2. CPU quota

   #	SKU	Description	Quota
   3	Standard_D2s_v3	Windows Server 2019	6 Standard DSv3 Family vCPUs
   3	Standard_A1_v2	Ubuntu 18.04	3 Standard Av2 Family vCPUs

   Check quota:

   az vm list-usage --location uksouth --output table
   

   Restrictions apply to some subscription offer types. Check SKU availability:

   az vm list-skus --location uksouth --size Standard_D --all --output table
   

   Note that the repo allows you to create the Windows and Linux servers in different paired regions and to change the VM SKUs from the defaults.

3. Providers

   az provider register --namespace Microsoft.Compute
   az provider register --namespace Microsoft.Storage
   az provider register --namespace Microsoft.Network
   

Terraform deployment

The Terraform repo is https://github.com/terraform-azurerm-examples/arc-onprem-servers.

1. Open a Bash shell

   You may use Cloud Shell with the Bash experience.

   Use code . in Cloud Shell to edit files with the Monaco editor.

2. SSH Key Pair

   Create an SSH key pair if you don’t already have one.

3. Clone and deploy

   Follow the instructions in the README to deploy the VMs.

   Experience with Terraform is not required or assumed.

   If there are any issues with the repo then please open an issue.

Guidance

⚠️ Please do not interact directly with the Azure resources in the onprem_servers resource group!

These VMs represent VMs that exist outside of Azure, so think of them as on prem servers, e.g. VMs running in an ESXi cluster in a datacentre.

You shouldn’t configure anything in the portal or CLI that directly accesses the VMs in the onprem_servers resource group az Azure resources, e.g. resetting passwords, installing extensions or applying policies.

Hint: You can also shut down these VMs in the portal when they are not needed so that they are deallocated and do not incur compute costs.

Resources

• https://github.com/terraform-azurerm-examples/arc-onprem-servers

Next up

You now have on prem servers. Next you will prepare a resource group to onboard them into.

Move onto foundation.

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