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Create a VM Scale Set in Azure with Terraform

Hey, Gurus! Welcome to the Create a VM Scale Set in Azure with Terraform lab. In this lab, we will cover these 4 objectives: 1. First, we will log into the Azure Portal, configure the Cloud Shell, and download and run the lab setup script to setup the lab. 1. Second, we will import the resource group. 1. Third, we will add our VM scale set to our configuration and set CPU thresholds to allow for autoscaling. 1. And for the fourth objective, we will add a jumpbox to our configuration to give us a server to connect to that we can use to connect to our cluster. We will then deploy our VM cluster resources.

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Path Info

Level
Clock icon Advanced
Duration
Clock icon 45m
Last updated
Clock icon Sep 01, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Set Up Cloud Shell and the Lab Environment

    In the Portal

    1. Go to the Azure Portal and log in using your lab credentials.
    2. Click the Cloud Shell icon next to the search bar in the Portal.
    3. Select Bash at the prompt.
    4. Click Show advanced settings.
    5. Set the Cloud Shell region to the same location as the resource group.
    6. Select the existing Resource group, and select Use Existing for the Storage account.
    7. In the File share section, choose Create new and enter "terraform".
    8. Click Create storage.
    9. Download the lab_6_setup.sh script at https://github.com/ACloudGuru/advanced-terraform-with-azure/raw/main/lab_vm_scale_set_resources/lab_6_setup.sh.
    10. Add execute permissions to the script.
    11. Run the lab_6_setup.sh script.

  2. Challenge

    Import the Resource Group into Terraform

    In the Cloud Shell

    1. In the Cloud Shell, review the networking.tf.
    2. Make note of the resource group name and label at the top and then close the file.
    3. Run the az group list command to get the subscription id.
    4. Import your resource group into Terraform using the resource name, label, and subscription id.
    5. After the import, add the name and location of your resource group to the networking.tf file so it looks like the code below (fill in with your resource group and location): 
      resource "azurerm_resource_group" "guru" {
    name     = "<RESOURCE_GROUP>"
    location = "<LOCATION>"
}
    6. Save the file.

  3. Challenge

    Define the Azure VM Scale Set

    In the Cloud Shell

    1. Create a file called vmss.tf file.
    2. Define the vm scale set configuration so it will deply a 2 vm cluster.
    3. Use variables to define the location, admin_username, admin_password, and tags.
    4. Make sure you associate your scale set with your subnet and load balancer backend pool in the networking.tf file.
    5. Save the changes.

  4. Challenge

    Define the Jumpbox Configuration

    In the Cloud Shell

    1. Create a file called jumpbox.tf file.
    2. Define the jumpbox vm configuration.
    3. Use variables to define the location, admin_username, admin_password, and tags..
    4. Make sure you create a network interface and a public ip for your jumpbox.
    5. Save the changes.

  5. Challenge

    Create the Variables and Outputs, then Deploy

    In the Cloud Shell

    1. Create the variables.tf file and define these variables: a) location b) tags c) application port (used in the networking.tf file) d) admin_user e) admin_password
    2. Create the output.tf file and define these output variables: a) vmss_public_ip_fqdn b) jumpbox_public_ip_fqdn c) jumpbox_public_ip
    3. Create the web.conf file and add the Nginx package to the config. This will configure your cluster to run Nginx.
    4. Save both files and apply your configuration.
    5. Confirm you have successfull deployed your resources and you can interact with your cluster.
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