A couple weeks ago I demonstrated how you could deploy a Python application to Azure App Services but other than application development, what else can you do with Python in Azure? Over the next couple weeks I’ll look at some of the different ways Python can be used in Azure from Serverless to Machine Learning. This week let’s get started provisioning a virtual machine in Azure using Python and the Python Azure SDK.
Prerequisites
Install Azure Library Packages
- Open Visual Studio Code
- Create a requirements.txt and copy/paste the following libraries into this file. This file contains the management libraries we’ll need deploy our virtual machine.
azure-mgmt-resource
azure-mgmt-compute
azure-mgmt-network
azure-identity - Open a new terminal in Visual Studio Code and run the following command:
pip install -r requirements.txt
This command downloads and installs the management libraries listed in the requirements.txt file you created in step two. Make sure you have a have your Python environment configured or this command may fail.
Write your Code
- In Visual Studio Code, create a file called azure_vm.py (or any name, it just needs to end with the .py extension
- Copy/paste the following code into the file created in step 1 and save your file.
# Import credential and management objects.
from azure.identity import AzureCliCredential
from azure.mgmt.resource import ResourceManagementClient
from azure.mgmt.network import NetworkManagementClient
from azure.mgmt.compute import ComputeManagementClient
import os
print(f"Provisioning a virtual machine in Azure using Python.")
# Acquire credential object using CLI-based authentication.
credential = AzureCliCredential()
# Retrieve subscription ID from environment variable.
subscription_id = os.environ["AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID"] = "YOUR_AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID"
# 1 - create a resource group
# Get the management object for resources, this uses the credentials from the CLI login.
resource_client = ResourceManagementClient(credential, subscription_id)
# Set constants we need in multiple places. You can change these values however you want.
RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME = "python-azure-vm-example-rg"
LOCATION = "eastus"
# create the resource group.
rg_result = resource_client.resource_groups.create_or_update(RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME,
{
"location": LOCATION
}
)
print(f"Provisioned resource group {rg_result.name} in the {rg_result.location} region")
# 2 - provision the virtual network
# A virtual machine requires a network interface client (NIC). A NIC requires a virtual network (VNET) and subnet along with an IP address.
# To support this requirement, we need to provision the VNET and Subnet first, then provision the NIC.
# Network and IP address names
VNET_NAME = "python-azure-vm-example-vnet"
SUBNET_NAME = "python-azure-vm-example-subnet"
IP_NAME = "python-azure-vm-example-ip"
IP_CONFIG_NAME = "python-azure-vm-example-ip-config"
NIC_NAME = "python-azure-vm-example-nic"
# Get the management object for the network
network_client = NetworkManagementClient(credential, subscription_id)
# Create the virtual network
poller = network_client.virtual_networks.begin_create_or_update(RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME,
VNET_NAME,
{
"location": LOCATION,
"address_space": {
"address_prefixes": ["10.0.0.0/16"]
}
}
)
vnet_result = poller.result()
print(f"Provisioned virtual network {vnet_result.name} with address prefixes {vnet_result.address_space.address_prefixes}")
# 3 - Create the subnet
poller = network_client.subnets.begin_create_or_update(RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME,
VNET_NAME, SUBNET_NAME,
{ "address_prefix": "10.0.0.0/24" }
)
subnet_result = poller.result()
print(f"Provisioned virtual subnet {subnet_result.name} with address prefix {subnet_result.address_prefix}")
# 4 - Create the IP address
poller = network_client.public_ip_addresses.begin_create_or_update(RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME,
IP_NAME,
{
"location": LOCATION,
"sku": { "name": "Standard" },
"public_ip_allocation_method": "Static",
"public_ip_address_version" : "IPV4"
}
)
ip_address_result = poller.result()
print(f"Provisioned public IP address {ip_address_result.name} with address {ip_address_result.ip_address}")
# 5 - Create the network interface client
poller = network_client.network_interfaces.begin_create_or_update(RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME,
NIC_NAME,
{
"location": LOCATION,
"ip_configurations": [ {
"name": IP_CONFIG_NAME,
"subnet": { "id": subnet_result.id },
"public_ip_address": {"id": ip_address_result.id }
}]
}
)
nic_result = poller.result()
print(f"Provisioned network interface client {nic_result.name}")
# 6 - Create the virtual machine
# Get the management object for virtual machines
compute_client = ComputeManagementClient(credential, subscription_id)
VM_NAME = "PythonAzureVM"
USERNAME = "pythonazureuser"
PASSWORD = "ChangeM3N0w!"
print(f"Provisioning virtual machine {VM_NAME}; this operation might take a few minutes.")
# Create the VM (Ubuntu 18.04 VM)
# on a Standard DS1 v2 plan with a public IP address and a default virtual network/subnet.
poller = compute_client.virtual_machines.begin_create_or_update(RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME, VM_NAME,
{
"location": LOCATION,
"storage_profile": {
"image_reference": {
"publisher": 'Canonical',
"offer": "UbuntuServer",
"sku": "16.04.0-LTS",
"version": "latest"
}
},
"hardware_profile": {
"vm_size": "Standard_DS1_v2"
},
"os_profile": {
"computer_name": VM_NAME,
"admin_username": USERNAME,
"admin_password": PASSWORD
},
"network_profile": {
"network_interfaces": [{
"id": nic_result.id,
}]
}
}
)
vm_result = poller.result()
print(f"Provisioned virtual machine {vm_result.name}")This code is also available on my GitHub page.
Create the Virtual Machine
- Run the following script in your terminal to create your virtual machine in Azure.
python azure_vm.py
If you used a different name for your file replace azure_vm with that filename. - It will take a few minutes for the script to run and create your resources. When the script has completed running, you will receive similar output.
Confirm Resources were Created
- Login to the Azure Portal.
- Browse to your resource groups and click on the python-azure-vm-example-rg resource group
- Verify the virtual network, virtual machine, public IP address, network interface and virtual disk are all present.
- It’s a good idea to clean up any resources related to your virtual machine to avoid any unnecessary charges. You can do this by deleting the resource group you created for this application either in the portal or by running the following command in Azure CLI.
az group delete -n python-azure-vm-example-rg
If you’re interested in learning more about using the Azure Python SDK, be sure and check out the Microsoft Documentation for additional details and tutorials.
Summary
In this blog post we created a virtual machine and the supporting resources using Python. Next week I’ll look at Azure Functions and show you how to build your first serverless Python function.
Thank you for reading!
Dave McCollough 