AZ-104 Lab 1 - Deploying My First Azure Virtual Machine
I've been working professionally in IT since 2021, with hands-on experience in endpoint management, desktop support, SaaS administration, and hybrid cloud environments. I started jmcnairtech to document what I learn along my journey and share practical solutions with others. This blog is about breaking down real-world troubleshooting with clear, actionable steps. Whether you're just starting out or refining your skills, I share what works, what breaks, and how to fix it.
As part of my journey to earn the Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) certification, I’ve started documenting my labs here on jmcnairtech.com. Each lab showcases the real-world skills I’m learning to manage and deploy cloud infrastructure in Microsoft Azure.
In this first lab, I built a simple yet essential Azure environment — a Virtual Network (VNet) and a Virtual Machine (VM) — the basic foundation for everything else in cloud administration.
Lab Objective
The goal of this lab was to deploy a Windows Server 2022 virtual machine inside a secure virtual network using best practices like:
Organizing resources with a Resource Group
Creating a Virtual Network and Subnet
Deploying a VM with secure access controls
Configuring Network Security Groups (NSGs)
Enabling monitoring and auto-shutdown
This type of setup is the backbone of most Azure workloads — from application servers to lab environments.
Step 1: Create a Resource Group
Resource Groups in Azure act as logical containers to organize and manage related resources.
I started by creating a new group called RG-Lab1-AZ104 in the East US region.
Azure Portal → Resource groups → + Create
Name: RG-Lab1-AZ104
Region: East US
Step 1.1: Add Tags for Organization and Cost Management
Before finishing the resource group setup, I added tags to help identify and manage my resources.
Tags in Azure are key-value pairs that make a big difference in real-world environments. They’re used for:
Cost tracking — seeing how much each project or department spends
Automation — applying policies or scripts based on tags
Organization — grouping resources logically across regions and subscriptions
For this lab, I added these tags:
| Tag Name | Value | Purpose |
Project | AZ104-Lab1 | Identifies the lab or project |
Environment | Test | Marks this as a non-production environment |
Owner | Joshua McNair | Notes who created or manages the resource |
Cost Center | Education | Used to track the cost center for billing |
Adding tags even in a small lab like this helps build good habits early — Azure administrators rely heavily on tagging for cost analysis and lifecycle management.
Step 2: Create a Virtual Network (VNet) and Subnet
Next, I set up a private network for my virtual machine to live in.
Azure Portal → Virtual Networks → + Create
Name: VNET-Lab1
Address space: 10.0.0.0/16
Subnet: Subnet-VMs (10.0.1.0/24)
This subnet acts like a private section of the network where the VM can securely communicate.
Step 3: Deploy a Windows Server 2022 VM
With the network in place, I created a virtual machine inside that subnet.
Azure Portal → Virtual Machines → + Create
Name: VM-Lab1-Server
Image: Windows Server 2022 Datacenter (Gen2)
Size: Standard_D2 (lowest allowed at the time for Windows Server 2022 testing)
Username: azureuser
Password: (*******************)
Inbound ports: RDP (3389)
After validation, I clicked Create, and Azure began provisioning the VM.
🔌 Step 4: Connect to the VM
Once the deployment finished, I connected to the VM using Remote Desktop.
From the VM overview page → Connect → RDP
Downloaded the
.rdpfile and logged in using my credentials
Seeing the Windows Server desktop for the first time confirmed that the environment was working perfectly.
Step 5: Monitoring and Auto-Shutdown
While Azure Monitor VM Insights offers deeper performance tracking, I chose not to enable it for this lab to keep costs low and focus on foundational deployment skills. The default metrics provided by Azure — like CPU and disk usage — were sufficient for validating the VM’s health and connectivity.
- Auto-shutdown: Set for 7 PM daily
These features help simulate how administrators manage uptime and costs in real production environments.
Step 6: Cleanup
Once testing was complete, I cleaned up my environment to avoid extra charges:
az group delete --name RG-Lab1-AZ104 --no-wait --yes
Azure automatically removed every resource inside that resource group.
What I Learned
How Azure resources are logically grouped and connected
The purpose of VNets, subnets, and NSGs in secure networking
How to provision, connect to, and manage a Windows Server VM
Why cost management and monitoring are essential for administrators
This lab helped me connect the dots between core networking, resource management, and infrastructure deployment — all key areas of the AZ-104 exam.
Thanks for reading!
If you’re learning Azure too, follow along here on jmcnairtech.com — I’ll be posting new labs as I work toward the AZ-104 and my goal of becoming an Azure Administrator.
