Megaphone Commons

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# Azure VPS setup notes

Azure is more complex than, say, Linode.  To set up a free account, you must:

* Get a Sponsorship.

* Create a Subscription linked to the Sponsorship.

* Create a Resource Group linked to the Subscription.

* Create a Virtual Machine (and associated resources) linked to the Resource Group.

[**NOTE**: Most of Microsoft's pages break with an ad blocker enabled.]

### Get a Sponsorship

* [Go to the Nonprofit Microsoft Getting Started page](https://nonprofit.microsoft.com/en-us/getting-started).  Fill out the paperwork to be approved as a 501c3.  Approval can take 1 day or 3-4 weeks - I've seen both multiple times.

* Once approved, go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/nonprofits/azure to claim credits.

### Create a Subscription

* Check that you have credits in your sponsored account: https://www.microsoftazuresponsorships.com/Balance

* Visit the [Azure Portal](https://portal.azure.com).  

* Click the **Subscriptions** icon.

* Click the **Add** button.

* Add a subscription of type "Microsoft Azure Sponsorship" from the Azure portal. You will likely need to select **Show other subscription types** to see it.

 * **Note**: Even sponsored subscriptions require a credit card, make sure you have one available.

#### Create a resource group

* Select "Resource Group" from the main Azure portal.  

* Select **Add** and give it a name.

* Your subscription should be pre-selected since you only have the one.

* Click **Review and Create**.

#### Create a virtual machine

* Click on your new resource group in the Azure Portal.

* Click **Add**.

* Search for the name of the image you want (e.g. Debian).

* See the screenshots below for configuration of the "Basics" and "Disk" tabs.  The other tabs I keep with the defaults.

* I've attached a downloaded template for this VM, which as of now I haven't used yet, not sure how it works.

![Create a VM - Basics Tab](https://hq.megaphonetech.com/attachments/download/1771/Selection_999(010).png)

![Create a VM - Disks Tab](https://hq.megaphonetech.com/attachments/download/1770/Selection_999(011).png)

#### Post-provisioning configuration

##### Partition and format the attached disk

Your VM (if it's D2s v3) will have an "OS disk" of 30GB it ships with.  Your attached disk is unformatted.  Partition and format the new disk with:

```shell

sudo parted --script -a optimal /dev/sdb mklabel gpt -- mkpart primary ext4 '0%' '100%'

sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdb1 

```

##### Mount the attached disk

Using the Microsoft Azure serial console, [follow these directions](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/131311/moving-var-home-to-separate-partition) for moving the contents of the `/var` directory to the attached disk and mount it.

##### Modify Firewall Rules

* Click on your new virtual machine in the Azure portal.

* Click **Networking** in the side navigation.

* You should see your firewall settings.  They should look like the screenshot below, except they'll be missing the two items circled.

* Add the "allow_ping" and "Port_5665" rules to the *Inbound Port Rules* as shown in the screenshot.

![Firewall Rules](https://hq.megaphonetech.com/attachments/download/1772/Selection_999(012).png)

##### Add a swapfile

[Complete instructions are here](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4010058/how-to-add-a-swap-file-in-linux-azure-virtual-machines) but in short, add this to `/etc/waagent.conf` for an 8GB swapfile:

```

    ResourceDisk.Format=y

    ResourceDisk.EnableSwap=y

    ResourceDisk.SwapSizeMB=8192

```

Then run `service walinuxagent restart`.