VM

Azvise

Repair / troubleshoot a Linux VM – Azure

If you encounter a boot or disk error with a VM, you need to get the OS disk into another VM to troubleshoot the issue.

The command we will run into Azure Cloud Shell is az vm repair create. To create a troubleshooting VM, follow these steps:

  • Open Azure Cloud Shell in bash or install Azure CLI in your bash environment.
  • Run the following command: az vm repair create -g “resourcegroupname” -n “VMname” –verbose
  • Insert admin credentials for the newly created VM into the bash shell
  • Connect to the newly created server and start analyzing the problem

Azvise

Configure a SLES VM for Azure Site Recovery

To configure a VM for Azure Site Recovery we’ll need to configure the Microsoft Azure Linux Agent and enable the console. The VM will automatically get the DHCP network settings that it will need to get an IP from Azure.

First, add the repository and install the agent:

SLES 12 SP3:

zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Cloud:Tools/SLE_12_SP3/Cloud:Tools.repo
zypper refresh
zypper install python-azure-agent

SLES 12 SP4

zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Cloud:Tools/SLE_12_SP4/Cloud:Tools.repo
zypper refresh
zypper install python-azure-agent

SLES 15

zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Cloud:Tools/SLE_15/Cloud:Tools.repo
zypper refresh
zypper install python-azure-agent

SLES 15 SP1

zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Cloud:Tools/SLE_15_SP1/Cloud:Tools.repo
zypper refresh
zypper install python-azure-agent

SLES 15 SP2

zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Cloud:Tools/SLE_15_SP2/Cloud:Tools.repo
zypper refresh
zypper install python-azure-agent

Then enable automatic updates for the agent:

vi /etc/waagent.conf

Go to AutoUpdate.Enabled and enable it. It should look like this:

# AutoUpdate.Enabled=y
AutoUpdate.Enabled=y

Restart waagent and enable it:

systemctl restart waagent.service
systemctl enable waagent.service

Enable the serial console, to be able to access the VM even without connection from Azure: 

systemctl start serial-getty@ttyS0.service
systemctl enable serial-getty@ttyS0.service

Azvise

Enable Azure Serial Console for replicated Linux VMs – Azure

If you replicate a Linux VM right away you might end up with the serial console not working. This could be especially an issue if you have your network interfaces set as static and you have to change the IP addresses.

To enable the Serial Console you have to log into your on-premise Linux VM and run the following:

systemctl start serial-getty@ttyS0.service ​

systemctl enable serial-getty@ttyS0.service

Wait until the changes will be replicated, then connect directly from the Azure Console.