Azure PowerShell tasks, deploying a VM in Azure with PowerShell, resizing a VM, and managing VM states, much more
What you will learn
Deploying a VM in Azure with PowerShell
Resizing a VM, and managing VM states
Deploying of VMs using PowerShell with Marketplace images
Creating custom images and deploying VMs from such custom images
Deploying and attaching of data disks using PowerShell
Creating of VM snapshots, and how to deploy new VMs from such snapshots
Deploying of availability sets and how to load balance Azure VMs
Much more…
Description
The course starts with covering the basics of Azure PowerShell and introduces you to basic PowerShell tasks, including the installation of Azure PowerShell and how to connect to Azure with it. It also covers remedial tasks, such as deploying a VM in Azure with PowerShell, resizing a VM, and managing VM states—all with PowerShell.
Then we start ‘Working with Images’, introducing a few image-related Azure tasks that can be completed with PowerShell. We’ll discuss the deployment of VMs using PowerShell with Marketplace images as well as how to create custom images and how to deploy VMs from such custom images.
Working with Disks, covers more advanced topics, including the deployment and attachment of data disks using PowerShell. Also covered in this chapter is the creation of VM snapshots, and how to deploy new VMs from such snapshots.
High Availability, explores the deployment of availability sets and how to load balance Azure VMs.
Other Cool Stuff, explores various other cool tricks that you can do with Azure PowerShell. Covered in this sectionis the creation and attachment of NICs to VMs using PowerShell. Tagging VMs with PowerShell and redeploying VMs with PowerShell are also covered, as are admin password resets. Find out about the management of VMs with custom script extensions.
Content
Basic Tasks
Working with Images
Working with Disks
High Availability
Overview: Moving Beyond the “Point-and-Click” Trap
If you have spent any significant time in the Azure Portal, you know the “portal fatigue” is real. Clicking through blade after blade to deploy a single Virtual Machine is fine for a beginner, but if you want to be treated like a professional, you need to automate. I recently went through the “Azure PowerShell Step-by-Step” course, and honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air for anyone tired of manual configuration. This isn’t just a dry documentation read; it’s a practical guide on how to treat your infrastructure like code.
The course doesn’t just teach you commands; it teaches you a workflow. Most tutorials stop at “here is how to create a VM,” but this course dives into the messy, real-world projects stuff—like what happens when you need to resize that VM because your dev team underestimated the workload, or how to handle managed VM states without breaking your billing cycle. It bridges the gap between basic scripting and full-scale cloud orchestration. If you’re looking for job-ready skills that move you away from being a “Portal Admin” to a “Cloud Engineer,” this is a solid place to start.
Prerequisites: What You Need Before You Type `Connect-AzAccount`
Don’t jump into this if you’ve never seen a terminal before. While the course is billed as beginner to advanced, you’ll have a much better time if you have the following under your belt:
- Basic Azure Knowledge: You should know what a Resource Group is and have a general idea of how VNETs work.
- PowerShell Fundamentals: You don’t need to be a scripting wizard, but knowing how variables and pipes (`|`) work will save you a lot of pausing and rewinding.
- An Active Subscription: You need a sandbox. Reading about hands-on labs is useless; you need to actually run the code to see how Azure reacts (and sometimes how it errors out).
Skills & Tools: Your New Automation Toolkit
The course focuses heavily on the industry-standard tools that dominate the current DevOps and SysAdmin landscape. You aren’t just learning “PowerShell”; you’re learning the Az Module, which is the backbone of modern Azure management. By the end of the modules, your toolkit will include:
- Azure Cloud Shell & VS Code: Mastering the environment where the magic happens.
- VM Lifecycle Management: Deep dives into Marketplace images versus custom images (the latter is a lifesaver for standardized enterprise deployments).
- Storage Orchestration: Managing data disks and VM snapshots—essential for backup strategies and scaling.
- High Availability: Configuring Availability Sets and Load Balancers to ensure your “five nines” of uptime aren’t just a dream.
Career Benefits & Job Roles
Let’s talk about career growth. No one is hiring a “Cloud Architect” who manually clicks through the portal to deploy twenty servers. This course is a direct investment in your certification prep—specifically for the AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) and AZ-305 (Azure Solutions Architect) exams. The ability to script infrastructure is a non-negotiable skill for roles such as:
- Cloud Systems Administrator: Automating daily maintenance and reporting.
- DevOps Engineer: Integrating PowerShell scripts into CI/CD pipelines.
- Site Reliability Engineer (SRE): Using snapshots and state management for disaster recovery.
- Cloud Consultant: Providing scalable, repeatable solutions for multiple clients.
Pros: Why This Course Stands Out
- Zero Fluff: The instructor gets straight to the point. In an era of 40-hour courses that could have been 5, this Azure PowerShell guide respects your time.
- Practical VM Management: The section on deploying VMs from snapshots is gold. It’s a common real-world project scenario that many other courses gloss over.
- Logical Progression: It builds beautifully. You start with a single VM and end up managing Load Balancers and Availability Sets. It feels like a natural evolution of skill rather than a disconnected list of tasks.
Cons: The One “Gotcha”
If I have one gripe, it’s that the cloud moves fast. Azure updates their cmdlets and portal UI frequently. While the core logic of the scripts remains sound, you might occasionally find a parameter that has been deprecated or a button that has moved. It requires you to have a bit of a “troubleshooter” mindset rather than just blindly copying and pasting code. However, mastering that troubleshooting is arguably a job-ready skill in its own right.