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Hands-On Linux Administration on Azure
Hands-On Linux Administration on Azure

Hands-On Linux Administration on Azure: Explore the essential Linux administration skills you need to deploy and manage Azure-based workloads

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Hands-On Linux Administration on Azure

Chapter 2. Getting Started with the Azure Cloud

In the first chapter, I covered the history of, and the ideas behind, virtualization and cloud computing. After that, you read about the Microsoft Azure Cloud. This chapter will help you take your first steps into the world of Azure, get access to Azure, explore the different Linux offerings, and deploy your first Linux virtual machine. 

After deployment, you will need access to your virtual machine using SSH with password authentication, or using an SSH key pair. 

To take the first steps on your journey into the Azure Cloud, it is important to complete all the exercises and examine the outcome. 

Note

Everything in this chapter is tested on macOS, Windows Subsystem for Linux, and the latest versions of CentOS and openSUSE LEAP.

Technical requirements


If you want to try all the examples in this chapter, you'll need at least a browser. For stability reasons, it's important to use a very recent version of a browser. Microsoft offers a list of supported browsers in the documentation on the Azure documentation website:

  • Microsoft Edge (latest version)
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Safari (latest version, Mac only)
  • Chrome (latest version)
  • Firefox (latest version)

 

Based on personal experience, I recommend using Google Chrome or a browser based on a recent version of its engine, such as Vivaldi. 

You can do all the exercises in your browser, even the exercises involving the command line. In daily life, it's a better idea to use a local installation of the software; it's faster, easier to copy and paste code, and you can save history and the output from the commands. 

Getting access to Azure


To start in Azure, the first thing you'll need is an account. Go to https://azure.microsoft.com and get yourself a free account to get started, or use the corporate account that is already in use. Another possibility is to use Azure with a Visual Studio Dev Essentials subscription, a Visual Studio subscription, or an Enterprise/Dev subscription. 

If you are using a free account, you'll get some credits to start, some of the popular services for a limited time, and some services that will stay free forever, such as the container service. You can find the most recent list of free services at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free. You won't be charged during the trial period, except for virtual machines that need additional licensing, but you do need a credit card to identify yourself.

Logging in using the Azure portal

Point your browser to https://azure.microsoft.com and use your credentials to log in. You are ready to start using Azure, or, in other words, to start using...

Linux and Azure


Linux is everywhere, on many different devices, in many different environments. There are many different flavors. Why? The choice is yours, but what do you choose? There are any questions, and many different answers are possible. But one thing's for sure: in corporate environments, support is important.

Linux distributions

There are many different Linux distributions around. There are often discussions on internet forums about this fact. But, there are reasons why there are so many:

  • A Linux distribution is a collection of software. Some collections are there for a specific objective. A good example of such a distribution is Kali Linux, which is an advanced penetration testing Linux distribution.
  • Linux is not a multi-purpose operating system. You can use Linux on many different devices: from cars to servers, from synthesizers to workstations. Every Linux implementation must be optimized for a specific goal.
  • Open source is Darwinist by nature. Sometimes, a project is forked, for...

Deploying a Linux virtual machine


After covering the the available Linux distributions in Azure and the level of support you can get, after setting up an environment where you can create a virtual machine, it's time to deploy our first virtual machine. 

Your first virtual machine

The resource group is created, a storage account is created in this resource group, and now you are ready to create your first Linux Virtual Machine in Azure.

In PowerShell use the following command:

New-AzureRmVM -Name "UbuntuVM" -Location westus `
  -ResourceGroupName MyResource1 -ImageName UbuntuLTS `
  -Size Standard_B1S

The cmdlet will prompt you to provide a username and password:

In Bash use the following command:

az vm create --name UbuntuVM --resource-group MyResource2 \
  --image UbuntuLTS --authentication-type password \
  --admin-username student –size Standard_B1S

This was very easy, but if you create a virtual machine instance this way, the number of options you can set is very limited. Many things are automatically...

Connecting to Linux


The virtual machine is running, ready for you to log in remotely using the credentials (username and password) you provided during the deployment of your first virtual machine. Another, more secure method using SSH key pairs is available as well.

Logging in to your Linux VM using password authentication 

In the Virtual machine networking section, the public IP address of a virtual machine was queried from the information attached to the virtual machine.  This IP address is needed to connect to an SSH client to the virtual machine. 

SSH, or Secure Shell, is an encrypted protocol used to administer and communicate with servers. Linux, macOS, and the Windows subsystem for Linux comes with the command-line based openSSH client, but there are more advanced clients available, some examples are as follows: 

  • Windows: Putty, MobaXterm and Bitvise Tunnelier 
  • Linux: Putty, Remmina and Pac Manager
  • Mac OS: Putty, Termius and RBrowser  

Using the openSSH command-line client, connect to the...

Summary


This chapter covered the first steps into the Microsoft Azure Cloud. And the first step always involves creating a new account or using an existing company account. With an account, you're able to log in and start discovering the Azure cloud.

In this chapter, the discovery of the Azure cloud was done within the Azure CLI command az, or via PowerShell; example by example, you learned more about the following:

  • The log in process into Azure
  • Regions
  • The storage account
  • Images provided by publishers
  • The creation of virtual machines
  • Query of information attached to a virtual machine
  • What Linux is and the support available for Linux virtual machines

Last, but not least: log into your Linux virtual machine, using SSH. The next chapter starts here, with a new journey: the Linux operating system

 

 

Questions


  1. What are the advantages of the command-line to access Microsoft Azure?
  2. What is the purpose of a storage account?
  3. Can you think of a reason why you can get the following error message?Code=StorageAccountAlreadyTakenMessage=The storage account named mystorage is already taken.
  4. What is the difference between an offer and an image?
  5. What is the difference between a stopped and a de-allocated virtual machine?
  6. What is the advantage of using the private SSH key for authentication to your Linux virtual machine?
  7. The az vm create command has a parameter —generate-ssh-keys. Which keys are created, and where are they stored?

Further reading


By no means is this chapter a tutorial on using PowerShell. But if you want a better understanding of the examples or learn more about PowerShell, I can recommend you reading the book Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripts (ISBN 9781787126305). I suggest that you start with second chapter Working with PowerShell and continue until at least fourth chapter Working with Objects in PowerShell.

You can find more then enough online documentation about using SSH. A very good start is the wikibook: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSSH.

There is also a very old book, SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide (ISBN 978-0596008956), which is still a valid source of information, especially for system engineers.

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Key benefits

  • Manage and deploy virtual machines in your Azure environment
  • Explore various open source tools to integrate automation and orchestration
  • Leverage Linux features to create, run, and manage containers

Description

Azure’s market share has increased massively and enterprises are adopting it rapidly, while Linux is a widely-used operating system and has proven to be one of the most popular workloads on Azure. It has thus become crucial for Linux administrators and Microsoft professionals to be well versed with managing Linux workloads in an Azure environment. With this guide, system administrators will be able to deploy, automate, and orchestrate containers in Linux on Azure. The book follows a hands-on approach to help you understand DevOps, monitor Linux workloads on Azure and perform advanced system administration. Complete with systematic explanations of concepts, examples and self-assessment questions, the chapters will give you useful insights into Linux and Azure. You’ll explore some of Linux’s advanced features for managing multiple workloads and learn to deploy virtual machines (VMs) in Azure. Dedicated sections will also guide you with managing and extending Azure VMs’ capabilities and understanding automation and orchestration with Ansible and PowerShell DSC. In later chapters, you’ll cover useful Linux troubleshooting and monitoring techniques that will enable you to maintain your workload on Azure. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to make the most out of Azure’s services to efficiently deploy and manage your Linux workloads.

Who is this book for?

This book is for system administrators who want to deploy and manage their workloads in Azure. Prior experience with system administration and a basic understanding of Azure would be useful.

What you will learn

  • Understand why Azure is the ideal solution for your open source workloads
  • Successfully deploy Linux in an Azure environment
  • Use configuration management to manage Linux in Azure
  • Work with containers in Linux
  • Use Azure's identity management systems to enhance Linux security
  • Automate deployment with Azure Resource Manager (ARM) and PowerShell
  • Employ Ansible to manage Linux instances in a public cloud environment

Product Details

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Publication date : Aug 31, 2018
Length: 410 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789135107
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Publication date : Aug 31, 2018
Length: 410 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789135107
Vendor :
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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
Exploring the Azure Cloud Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Getting Started with the Azure Cloud Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Basic Linux Administration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Managing Azure Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced Linux Administration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Managing Linux Security and Identities Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Deploying Your Virtual Machines Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Exploring Continuous Configuration Automation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Container Virtualization in Azure Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Azure Kubernetes Service Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Troubleshooting and Monitoring Your Workloads Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
(2 Ratings)
5 star 100%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Paola Nov 28, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
this book is perfect if you are planning linux workloads on Azure, I specifically liked the part on containers strategy. Containers logic is clearly explained and helps understanding all of its modern applications."Containers are very popular nowadays. But they are not new, they didn't come out of theblue. It's even not easy to point to an exact time when they started. As explained earlier, Idon't want to give you a lesson in the facts of history, but history can give you a betterunderstanding of the technology and even give you a clue about why or when you shoulduse it in your organization."
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer Feb 01, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Nice book as a basic for azure administration
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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