Create a virtual machine on a virtual network

Virtual machines (VM) in Azure have a large number of dependencies. The CLI creates these resources for you based on the command-line arguments you specify. In this section, you learn how to deploy a VM to a virtual network (VNet).

To deploy a VM on a VNet, both must be in the same Azure location. You can't change the VNet the VM connects to after creating it.

Create a VM

Use the az vm create command to create a new virtual machine running Ubuntu. This virtual machine uses SSH authentication for sign in, and is connected to the subnet and VNet you created in the previous section. In PowerShell, declare variables with a "$", and use quotes for values, such as $vmName = "TutorialVM1".

# create Bash shell variable
vmName=TutorialVM1

az vm create \
  --resource-group $resourceGroup \
  --name $vmName \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --vnet-name $vnetName \
  --subnet $subnetName \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --output json \
  --verbose 

# Create PowerShell variable
$vmName = "TutorialVM1"

az vm create `
    --resource-group $resourceGroup `
    --name $vmName `
    --image Ubuntu2204 `
    --vnet-name $vnetName `
    --subnet $subnetName `
    --generate-ssh-keys `
    --output json `
    --verbose

As the VM is created, you see the local values used and Azure resources being created due to the --verbose option. Once the VM is ready, a JSON is returned from the Azure service including the public IP address.

{
  "fqdns": "",
  "id": "...",
  "location": "eastus",
  "macAddress": "...",
  "powerState": "VM running",
  "privateIpAddress": "...",
  "publicIpAddress": "<PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS>",
  "resourceGroup": "TutorialResources",
  "zones": ""
}

Confirm that the VM is running by connecting over SSH.

ssh <PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS>

Go ahead and sign out from the VM by typing exit.

There are alternative methods to obtain this IP address after the VM starts. In the next section, you'll see how to get detailed information on the VM, and how to filter it.