OpenStack on Microsoft Azure – Part 1 – Creating the Virtual Machine

In this 4 part article we take a look at how to deploy a single node all-in-one OpenStack cloud on an Azure VM. This has been possible because of the availability of Azure VMs that support nested virtualization. Needless to say this is purely for evaluation/learning purposes only.
OpenStack distribution: Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10
OpenStack upstream release: Newton
Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3
Azure VM size: D4s_v3

Pre-requisites

• An active Azure subscription (a trial can be obtained for 30 days)
• Red Hat OpenStack Platform subscription (a trial can be obtained for 60 days)
• An ssh client, for windows putty would do

Objective

Create an Azure VM that supports nested virtualization and runs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x.
NOTE: The Dv3 & the Ev3 series virtual machines support nested virtualization.

Creating an Azure VM with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3

1. Login to Azure portal, click + Create Resource, in the search box type Red Hat 7.3 and press Enter to search.
2. Select Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 from the list under Compute category.
3. Ensure the deployment model is set to Resource Manager and click Create to begin the process.
4. In the Basics blade enter/select the following information:
   Name for the VM
   Set VM disk type to SSD
   Provide a Username
   Set Authentication type – for simplicity Password based authentication is selected here
   Select Subscription
   Select Create new Resource group and provide a name
   Choose a Location closer to where you are
   Leave any other parameter not mentioned above to defaults and click Ok to move to the next blade.
5. In the Choose a size blade select D4s_v3 as the virtual machine size, click Select to move to the next blade.
6. In the Settings blade  select/change the below:
   Set Network Security Group to Basic
   Under Select public inbound ports check HTTP, HTTPS, SSH from the drop down
   Rest of the settings can be left as it is, if needed disable the Enable auto-shutdown and Boot diagnostics (leaving it enabled could add cost)
   Click Ok to proceed.
   
   
7. In the Summary blade ensure the Validation passed message and click Create to provision the VM.
8. Successful provisioning of the VM loads the VM details blade. Copy the Public IP address of the VM for use later.

In Part-2 of this article we will prepare the virtual machine for RHOSP installation by installing some pre-requisites such as kvm (for virtualization), registering the machine with Red Hat Satellite for subscription attachment, disabling & enabling the required repositories and updating the machine.