In this task, you will deploy two Azure virtual machines into different availability zones by using the Azure portal. Availability zones offer the highest level of uptime SLA for virtual machines at 99.99%. To achieve this SLA, you must deploy at least two virtual machines across different availability zones.

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
2. Search for and select Virtual machines, on the Virtual machines blade, click + Create, and then select in the drop-down Azure virtual machine. Notice your other choices.
3. On the Basics tab, in the Availability zone drop down menu, place a checkmark next to Zone 2. This should select both Zone 1 and Zone 2.

   Note: This will deploy two virtual machines in the selected region, one in each zone. You achieve the 99.99% uptime SLA because you have at least two VMs distributed across at least two zones. In the scenario where you might only need one VM, it is a best practice to still deploy the VM to another zone.

4. On the Basics tab, continue completing the configuration:

   Setting	Value
   Subscription	the name of your Azure subscription
   Resource group	<yourName>-mst400-F67-rg
   Virtual machine names	<yourName>-mst400-F67-vm1 and <yourName>-mst400-F67-vm2 (After selecting both availability zones, select Edit names under the VM name field.)
   Region	East US
   Availability options	Availability zone
   Availability zone	Zone 1, 2 (read the note about using virtual machine scale sets)
   Security type	Standard
   Image	Windows Server 2025 Datacenter - x64 Gen2
   Azure Spot instance	unchecked
   Size	Standard D2s v3
   Username	localadmin
   Password	Provide a secure password
   Public inbound ports	None
   Would you like to use an existing Windows Server license?	Unchecked

5. Click Next : Disks >, specify the following settings (leave others with their default values):

   Setting	Value
   OS disk type	Standard HDD
   Delete with VM	checked (default)
   Enable Ultra Disk compatibility	Unchecked

6. Click Next : Networking > take the defaults but do not provide a load balancer.

   Setting	Value
   Delete public IP and NIC when VM is deleted	Checked
   Load balancing options	None

7. Click Next : Management > and specify the following settings (leave others with their default values):

   Setting	Value
   Patch orchestration options	Azure orchestrated

8. Click Next : Monitoring > and specify the following settings (leave others with their default values):

   Setting	Value
   Boot diagnostics	Disable

9. Click Next : Advanced >, take the defaults, then click Review + Create.
10. After the validation, click Create.

    Note: Notice as the virtual machine deploys the NIC, disk, and public IP address (if configured) are independently created and managed resources.

11. Wait for the deployment to complete. Screenshot must show your Odl_user account, the completed deployment of <yourName>-mst400-F67-vm1 and <yourName>-mst400-F67-vm2 in Zones 1 and 2

In this task, you will scale a virtual machine by adjusting its size to a different SKU. Azure provides flexibility in VM size selection so that you can adjust a VM for periods of time if it needs more (or less) compute and memory allocated. This concept is extended to disks, where you can modify the performance of the disk, or increase the allocated capacity.

1. On the <yourName>-mst400-F67-vm1 virtual machine, in the Availability + scale blade, select Size.
2. Set the virtual machine size to DS1_v2 and click Resize. When prompted, confirm the change.

   Note: Choose another size if Standard DS1_v2 is not available. Resizing is also known as vertical scaling, up or down.

3. In the Settings area, select Disks.
4. Under Data disks select + Create and attach a new disk. Configure the settings (leave other settings at their default values).

   Setting	Value
   Disk name	vm1-disk1
   Storage type	Standard HDD
   Size (GiB)	32

5. Click Apply.
6. After the disk has been created, click Detach (if necessary, scroll to the right to view the detach icon), and then click Apply.

   Note: Detaching removes the disk from the VM but keeps it in storage for later use.

7. Search for and select Disks. From the list of disks, select the vm1-disk1 object.

   Note: The Overview blade also provides performance and usage information for the disk.

8. In the Settings blade, select Size + performance.
9. Set the storage type to Standard SSD, and then click Save.
10. Navigate back to the <yourName>-mst400-F67-vm1 virtual machine and select Disks.
11. In the Data disk section, select Attach existing disks.
12. In the Disk name drop-down, select VM1-DISK1.
13. Verify the disk is now Standard SSD.
14. Select Apply to save your changes. Screenshot must show your Odl_user account, vm1 resized to Standard DS1_v2 and the vm1-disk1 data disk attached as Standard SSD (32 GiB)

In this task, you will deploy an Azure virtual machine scale set across availability zones. VM Scale Sets reduce the administrative overhead of automation by enabling you to configure metrics or conditions that allow the scale set to horizontally scale, scale in or scale out.

1. In the Azure portal, search for and select Virtual machine scale sets and, on the Virtual machine scale sets blade, click + Create.
2. On the Basics tab of the Create a virtual machine scale set blade, specify the following settings (leave others with their default values) and click Next : Spot >:

   Setting	Value
   Subscription	the name of your Azure subscription
   Resource group	<yourName>-mst400-F67-rg
   Virtual machine scale set name	vmss1
   Region	(US) East US
   Availability zone	Zones 1, 2, 3
   Orchestration mode	Uniform
   Security type	Standard
   Image	Windows Server 2025 Datacenter - x64 Gen2
   Run with Azure Spot discount	Unchecked
   Size	Standard D2s_v3
   Username	localadmin
   Password	Provide a secure password
   Already have a Windows Server license?	Unchecked

3. On the Spot tab, accept the defaults and select Next : Disks >.
4. On the Disks tab, change the OS disk type to Standard HDD and click Next: Networking >.
5. On the Networking page, click the Create virtual network link below the Virtual network textbox and create a new virtual network with the following settings (leave others with their default values). When finished, select OK.

   Setting	Value
   Name	<yourName>-vmss-vnet
   Address range	10.82.0.0/20 (change what is there)
   Subnet name	subnet0
   Subnet range	10.82.0.0/24

6. In the Networking tab, click the Edit network interface icon to the right of the network interface entry.
7. For NIC network security group section, select Advanced and then click Create new under the Configure network security group drop-down list.
8. On the Create network security group blade, specify the following settings (leave others with their default values):

   Setting	Value
   Name	<yourName>-vmss1-nsg

9. Click Add an inbound rule and add an inbound security rule with the following settings (leave others with their default values):

   Setting	Value
   Source	Any
   Source port ranges	*
   Destination	Any
   Service	HTTP
   Action	Allow
   Priority	1020
   Name	allow-http

10. Click Add and, back on the Create network security group blade, click OK.
11. In the Edit network interface blade, in the Public IP address section, click Enabled and click OK.
12. In the Networking tab, under the Load balancing section, specify the following (leave others with their default values).

    Setting	Value
    Load balancing options	Azure load balancer
    Select a load balancer	Create a load balancer

13. On the Create a load balancer page, specify the load balancer name and take the defaults. Click Create when you are done then Next : Management >.

    Setting	Value
    Load balancer name	<yourName>-vmss-lb

    Note: Pause for a minute and review what you done. At this point, you have configured the virtual machine scale set with disks and networking. In the network configuration you have created a network security group and allowed HTTP. You have also created a load balancer with a public IP address.

14. On the Management tab, specify the following settings (leave others with their default values):

    Setting	Value
    Boot diagnostics	Disable

15. Click Next : Health >. On the Health tab, review the default settings without making any changes and click Next : Advanced >.
16. On the Advanced tab, click Review + create.
17. On the Review + create tab, ensure that the validation passed and click Create.
18. Wait for the virtual machine scale set deployment to complete. This should take approximately 5 minutes. Screenshot must show your Odl_user account, the completed vmss1 virtual machine scale set deployment

In this task, you scale the virtual machine scale set using a custom scale rule.

1. Select Go to resource or search for and select the vmss1 scale set.
2. Choose Availability + Scaling from the left side menu, then choose Scaling.

Scale out rule

1. Select Custom autoscale. Then change the Scale mode to Scale based on metric. And then select Add a rule.
2. Let's create a rule that automatically increases the number of VM instances. This rule scales out when the average CPU load is greater than 10% over a 1-minute period. When the rule triggers, the number of VM instances is increased by 1. These values are for demonstration and are not practical in real environments.

   Setting	Value
   Metric source	Current resource (<yourName>-vmss1)
   Metric namespace	Virtual Machine Host
   Metric name	Percentage CPU (review your other choices)
   Operator	Greater than
   Metric threshold to trigger scale action	10
   Duration (minutes)	1
   Time grain statistic	Average
   Operation	Increase count by (review other choices)
   Cool down (minutes)	1
   Instance count	1

3. Be sure to Save your changes.

Scale in rule

1. During evenings or weekends, demand may decrease so it is important to create a scale in rule.
2. Let's create a rule that decreases the number of VM instances in a scale set. The number of instances should decrease when the average CPU load drops below 30% over a 10-minute period. When the rule triggers, the number of VM instances is decreased by 20%.
3. Select Add a rule, adjust the settings, then select Add.

   Setting	Value
   Operator	Less than
   Threshold	10
   Operation	decrease count by
   Instance count	1

4. Be sure to Save your changes.

Set the instance limits

1. When your autoscale rules are applied, instance limits make sure that you do not scale out beyond the maximum number of instances or scale in beyond the minimum number of instances.
2. Instance limits are shown on the Scaling page after the rules.

   Setting	Value
   Minimum	2
   Maximum	6
   Default	2

3. Be sure to Save your changes.
4. Run the following PowerShell command in the Cloud Shell prompt to acquire the public IP of the load balancer and generate requests to initiate a scale out and increase the number of VMs running.

   $rgName = '<yourName>-mst400-F67-rg'
   $lbpipName = '<yourName>-vmss-lb-publicip'
   $pip = (Get-AzPublicIpAddress -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Name $lbpipName).IpAddress
   while ($true) { Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://$pip" }

5. On the <yourName>-vmss1 page, select Instances. This is where you would monitor the number of virtual machine instances. Screenshot must show your Odl_user account, the vmss1 Instances page with the scaled-out virtual machine instances

Minimum 2-3 sentences each — original thinking, your own words!

1. Describe the main focus of this lab and outline the new skills or concepts you learned during this Azure lab session.
2. What challenges did you encounter during this lab, and how did you overcome them?
3. How do the tasks performed in this lab enhance your understanding of Azure networking?
4. In what ways can you apply the knowledge gained from this lab to real-world scenarios? Please provide specific examples.

Screenshots you attach above and your Task 5 answers appear here. This is exactly what prints/exported as your PDF.

1. All screenshots attached in task order, each with your Odl_user account visible (underlined or highlighted).
2. A brief explanation added for each screenshot.
3. Export the PDF with Print / Save as PDF and upload it to the Blackboard assignment.