Create a virtual machine with PowerShell

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This script creates an Azure Virtual Machine running Windows Server 2016. After running the script, you can access the virtual machine over RDP.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Sample script

# Variables for common values
$resourceGroup = "myResourceGroup"
$location = "westeurope"
$vmName = "myVM"

# Create user object
$cred = Get-Credential -Message "Enter a username and password for the virtual machine."

# Create a resource group
New-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroup -Location $location

# Create a virtual machine
New-AzVM `
  -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup `
  -Name $vmName `
  -Location $location `
  -Image "Win2016Datacenter" `
  -VirtualNetworkName "myVnet" `
  -SubnetName "mySubnet" `
  -SecurityGroupName "myNetworkSecurityGroup" `
  -PublicIpAddressName "myPublicIp" `
  -Credential $cred `
  -OpenPorts 3389

Clean up deployment

Run the following command to remove the resource group, VM, and all related resources.

Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name myResourceGroup

Script explanation

This script uses the following commands to create the deployment. Each item in the table links to command specific documentation.

Command Notes
New-AzResourceGroup Creates a resource group in which all resources are stored.
New-AzVM Creates the virtual machine and connects it to the network card, virtual network, subnet, and network security group. This command also opens port 80 and sets the administrative credentials.
Remove-AzResourceGroup Removes a resource group and all resources contained within.

Next steps

For more information on the Azure PowerShell module, see Azure PowerShell documentation.

Additional virtual machine PowerShell script samples can be found in the Azure Windows VM documentation.