Procedure

1. Authenticate your system with Azure and log in.

   $ az login

   Note

   If a browser is available in your environment, the CLI opens your browser to the Azure sign-in page.

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az login
   To sign in, use a web browser to open the page https://aka.ms/devicelogin and enter the code FDMSCMETZ to authenticate.
     [
       {
         "cloudName": "AzureCloud",
         "id": "Subscription ID",
         "isDefault": true,
         "name": "MySubscriptionName",
         "state": "Enabled",
         "tenantId": "Tenant ID",
         "user": {
           "name": "clouduser@company.com",
           "type": "user"
         }
       }
     ]

2. Create a resource group in an Azure region.

   $ az group create --name resource-group --location azure-region

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az group create --name azrhelclirsgrp --location southcentralus
   {
     "id": "/subscriptions//resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp",
     "location": "southcentralus",
     "managedBy": null,
     "name": "azrhelclirsgrp",
     "properties": {
       "provisioningState": "Succeeded"
     },
     "tags": null
   }

3. Create a storage account.

   $ az storage account create -l azure-region -n storage-account-name -g resource-group --sku sku_type --kind StorageV2

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az storage account create -l southcentralus -n azrhelclistact -g azrhelclirsgrp --sku Standard_LRS --kind StorageV2
   {
     "accessTier": null,
     "creationTime": "2017-04-05T19:10:29.855470+00:00",
     "customDomain": null,
     "encryption": null,
     "id": "/subscriptions//resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/azrhelclistact",
     "kind": "StorageV2",
     "lastGeoFailoverTime": null,
     "location": "southcentralus",
     "name": "azrhelclistact",
     "primaryEndpoints": {
       "blob": "https://azrhelclistact.blob.core.windows.net/",
       "file": "https://azrhelclistact.file.core.windows.net/",
       "queue": "https://azrhelclistact.queue.core.windows.net/",
       "table": "https://azrhelclistact.table.core.windows.net/"
   },
   "primaryLocation": "southcentralus",
   "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
   "resourceGroup": "azrhelclirsgrp",
   "secondaryEndpoints": null,
   "secondaryLocation": null,
   "sku": {
     "name": "Standard_LRS",
     "tier": "Standard"
   },
   "statusOfPrimary": "available",
   "statusOfSecondary": null,
   "tags": {},
     "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts"
   }

4. Get the storage account connection string.

   $ az storage account show-connection-string -n storage-account-name -g resource-group

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az storage account show-connection-string -n azrhelclistact -g azrhelclirsgrp
   {
     "connectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net;AccountName=azrhelclistact;AccountKey=NreGk...=="
   }

5. Export the connection string by copying the connection string and pasting it into the following command. This string connects your system to the storage account.

   $ export AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING="storage-connection-string"

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ export AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net;AccountName=azrhelclistact;AccountKey=NreGk...=="

6. Create the storage container.

   $ az storage container create -n container-name

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az storage container create -n azrhelclistcont
   {
     "created": true
   }

7. Create a virtual network. All cluster nodes must be in the same virtual network.

   $ az network vnet create -g resource group --name vnet-name --subnet-name subnet-name

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az network vnet create --resource-group azrhelclirsgrp --name azrhelclivnet1 --subnet-name azrhelclisubnet1
   {
     "newVNet": {
       "addressSpace": {
         "addressPrefixes": [
         "10.0.0.0/16"
         ]
     },
     "dhcpOptions": {
       "dnsServers": []
     },
     "etag": "W/\"\"",
     "id": "/subscriptions//resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/azrhelclivnet1",
     "location": "southcentralus",
     "name": "azrhelclivnet1",
     "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
     "resourceGroup": "azrhelclirsgrp",
     "resourceGuid": "0f25efee-e2a6-4abe-a4e9-817061ee1e79",
     "subnets": [
       {
         "addressPrefix": "10.0.0.0/24",
         "etag": "W/\"\"",
         "id": "/subscriptions//resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/azrhelclivnet1/subnets/azrhelclisubnet1",
         "ipConfigurations": null,
         "name": "azrhelclisubnet1",
         "networkSecurityGroup": null,
         "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
         "resourceGroup": "azrhelclirsgrp",
         "resourceNavigationLinks": null,
         "routeTable": null
       }
     ],
     "tags": {},
     "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks",
     "virtualNetworkPeerings": null
     }
   }

8. Create an availability set. All cluster nodes must be in the same availability set.

   $ az vm availability-set create --name MyAvailabilitySet --resource-group MyResourceGroup

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az vm availability-set create --name rhelha-avset1 --resource-group azrhelclirsgrp
   {
     "additionalProperties": {},
       "id": "/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp/providers/Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets/rhelha-avset1",
       "location": "southcentralus",
       "name": “rhelha-avset1",
       "platformFaultDomainCount": 2,
       "platformUpdateDomainCount": 5,
   
   ...omitted

Procedure

1. Enter the following grep command to determine if the required Hyper-V device drivers are installed.

   # lsinitrd | grep hv

   In the example below, all required drivers are installed.

   # lsinitrd | grep hv
   drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Aug 12 14:21 usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-932.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/hv
   -rw-r--r--   1 root     root        31272 Aug 11 08:45 usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-932.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/hv/hv_vmbus.ko.xz
   -rw-r--r--   1 root     root        25132 Aug 11 08:46 usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-932.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/hyperv/hv_netvsc.ko.xz
   -rw-r--r--   1 root     root         9796 Aug 11 08:45 usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-932.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/scsi/hv_storvsc.ko.xz

   If all the drivers are not installed, complete the remaining steps.

   Note

   An hv_vmbus driver may exist in the environment. Even if this driver is present, complete the following steps.

2. Create a file named hv.conf in /etc/dracut.conf.d.

3. Add the following driver parameters to the hv.conf file.

   add_drivers+=" hv_vmbus "
   add_drivers+=" hv_netvsc "
   add_drivers+=" hv_storvsc "

   Note

   Note the spaces before and after the quotes, for example, add_drivers+=" hv_vmbus ". This ensures that unique drivers are loaded in the event that other Hyper-V drivers already exist in the environment.

4. Regenerate the initramfs image.

   # dracut -f -v --regenerate-all

Verification steps

1. Reboot the machine.
2. Run the lsinitrd | grep hv command to verify that the drivers are installed.

Procedure

1. If necessary, power on the VM.

2. Register the VM and enable the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 repository.

   # subscription-manager register --auto-attach

Stopping and removing cloud-init

1. Stop the cloud-init service (if present).

   # systemctl stop cloud-init

2. Remove the cloud-init software.

   # yum remove cloud-init

Completing other VM changes

1. Edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and enable password authentication.

   PasswordAuthentication yes

2. Set a generic host name.

   # hostnamectl set-hostname localhost.localdomain

3. Edit (or create) the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 file. Use only the parameters listed below.

   Note

   The ifcfg-eth0 file does not exist on the RHEL 8 DVD ISO image and must be created.

   DEVICE="eth0"
   ONBOOT="yes"
   BOOTPROTO="dhcp"
   TYPE="Ethernet"
   USERCTL="yes"
   PEERDNS="yes"
   IPV6INIT="no"

4. Remove all persistent network device rules, if present.

   # rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
   # rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules
   # rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-name-slot-rules

5. Set ssh to start automatically.

   # systemctl enable sshd
   # systemctl is-enabled sshd

6. Modify the kernel boot parameters.

   1. Add crashkernel=256M to the start of the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line in the /etc/default/grub file. If crashkernel=auto is present, change it to crashkernel=256M.

   2. Add the following lines to the end of the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line, if not present.

      earlyprintk=ttyS0
      console=ttyS0
      rootdelay=300

   3. Remove the following options, if present.

      rhgb
      quiet

7. Regenerate the grub.cfg file.

   # grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

8. Install and enable the Windows Azure Linux Agent (WALinuxAgent). Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Application Stream (AppStream) includes the WALinuxAgent. See Using AppStream for more information.

   # yum install WALinuxAgent -y
   # systemctl enable waagent

9. Edit the following lines in the /etc/waagent.conf file to configure swap space for provisioned VMs. Set swap space for whatever is appropriate for your provisioned VMs.

   Provisioning.DeleteRootPassword=n
   ResourceDisk.Filesystem=ext4
   ResourceDisk.EnableSwap=y
   ResourceDisk.SwapSizeMB=2048

Preparing to provision

1. Unregister the VM from Red Hat Subscription Manager.

   # subscription-manager unregister

2. Prepare the VM for Azure provisioning by cleaning up the existing provisioning details. Azure reprovisions the VM in Azure. This command generates warnings, which is expected.

   # waagent -force -deprovision

3. Clean the shell history and shut down the VM.

   # export HISTSIZE=0
   # poweroff

Procedure

1. Ensure you are an Administrator or Owner for the Microsoft Azure subscription. You need this authorization to create an Azure AD application.

2. Log in to your Azure account.

   $ az login

3. Enter the following command to create the Azure AD Application. To use your own password, add the --password option to the command. Ensure that you create a strong password.

   $ az ad sp create-for-rbac --name FencingApplicationName --role owner --scopes "/subscriptions/SubscriptionID/resourceGroups/MyResourseGroup"

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost ~] $ az ad sp create-for-rbac --name FencingApp --role owner --scopes "/subscriptions/2586c64b-xxxxxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx/resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp"
   Retrying role assignment creation: 1/36
   Retrying role assignment creation: 2/36
   Retrying role assignment creation: 3/36
   {
     "appId": "1a3dfe06-df55-42ad-937b-326d1c211739",
     "displayName": "FencingApp",
     "name": "http://FencingApp",
     "password": "43a603f0-64bb-482e-800d-402efe5f3d47",
     "tenant": "77ecefb6-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxx-757a69cb9485"
   }

4. Save the following information before proceeding. You need this information to set up the fencing agent.

   • Azure AD Application ID
   • Azure AD Application Password
   • Tenant ID
   • Microsoft Azure Subscription ID

Procedure

1. Convert the image from qcow2 to raw format.

   $ qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw <image-name>.qcow2 <image-name>.raw

2. Create a shell script using the contents below.

   #!/bin/bash
   MB=$((1024 * 1024))
   size=$(qemu-img info -f raw --output json "$1" | gawk 'match($0, /"virtual-size": ([0-9]+),/, val) {print val[1]}')
   rounded_size=$((($size/$MB + 1) * $MB))
   if [ $(($size % $MB)) -eq  0 ]
   then
    echo "Your image is already aligned. You do not need to resize."
    exit 1
   fi
   echo "rounded size = $rounded_size"
   export rounded_size

3. Run the script. This example uses the name align.sh.

   $ sh align.sh <image-xxx>.raw

   • If the message "Your image is already aligned. You do not need to resize." displays, proceed to the following step.
   • If a value displays, your image is not aligned.

4. Use the following command to convert the file to a fixed VHD format.

   The sample uses qemu-img version 2.12.0.

   $ qemu-img convert -f raw -o subformat=fixed,force_size -O vpc <image-xxx>.raw <image.xxx>.vhd

   Once converted, the VHD file is ready to upload to Azure.

1. Resize the raw file using the rounded value displayed when you ran the verification script.

   $ qemu-img resize -f raw <image-xxx>.raw <rounded-value>

2. Convert the raw image file to a VHD format.

   The sample uses qemu-img version 2.12.0.

   $ qemu-img convert -f raw -o subformat=fixed,force_size -O vpc <image-xxx>.raw <image.xxx>.vhd

   Once converted, the VHD file is ready to upload to Azure.

Procedure

1. Upload the VHD file to the storage container. It may take several minutes. To get a list of storage containers, enter the az storage container list command.

   $ az storage blob upload --account-name <storage-account-name> --container-name <container-name> --type page --file <path-to-vhd> --name <image-name>.vhd

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az storage blob upload --account-name azrhelclistact --container-name azrhelclistcont --type page --file rhel-image-8.vhd --name rhel-image-8.vhd
   Percent complete: %100.0

2. Get the URL for the uploaded VHD file to use in the following step.

   $ az storage blob url -c <container-name> -n <image-name>.vhd

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az storage blob url -c azrhelclistcont -n rhel-image-8.vhd
   "https://azrhelclistact.blob.core.windows.net/azrhelclistcont/rhel-image-8.vhd"

3. Create the Azure custom image.

   $ az image create -n <image-name> -g <resource-group> -l <azure-region> --source <URL> --os-type linux

   Note

   The default hypervisor generation of the VM is V1. You can optionally specify a V2 hypervisor generation by including the option --hyper-v-generation V2. Generation 2 VMs use a UEFI-based boot architecture. See Support for generation 2 VMs on Azure for information on generation 2 VMs.

   The command may return the error "Only blobs formatted as VHDs can be imported." This error may mean that the image was not aligned to the nearest 1 MB boundary before it was converted to VHD.

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost]$ az image create -n rhel8 -g azrhelclirsgrp2 -l southcentralus --source https://azrhelclistact.blob.core.windows.net/azrhelclistcont/rhel-image-8.vhd --os-type linux

Procedure

1. Launch an SSH terminal session and connect to the VM using the administrator name and public IP address.

   $ ssh administrator@PublicIP

   To get the public IP address for an Azure VM, open the VM properties in the Azure Portal or enter the following Azure CLI command.

   $ az vm list -g <resource-group> -d --output table

   Example:

   [clouduser@localhost ~] $ az vm list -g azrhelclirsgrp -d --output table
   Name    ResourceGroup           PowerState      PublicIps        Location
   ------  ----------------------  --------------  -------------    --------------
   node01  azrhelclirsgrp          VM running      192.98.152.251    southcentralus

2. Register the VM with Red Hat.

   $ sudo -i
   # subscription-manager register --auto-attach

   Note

   If the --auto-attach command fails, manually register the VM to your subscription.

3. Disable all repositories.

   # subscription-manager repos --disable=*

4. Enable the RHEL 8 Server and RHEL 8 Server HA repositories.

   # subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-8-server-rpms
   # subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-8-for-x86_64-highavailability-rpms

5. Update all packages.

   # yum update -y

6. Install the Red Hat High Availability Add-On software packages, along with all available fencing agents from the High Availability channel.

   # yum install pcs pacemaker fence-agents-azure-arm

7. The user hacluster was created during the pcs and pacemaker installation in the previous step. Create a password for hacluster on all cluster nodes. Use the same password for all nodes.

   # passwd hacluster

8. Add the high availability service to the RHEL Firewall if firewalld.service is installed.

   # firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=high-availability
   # firewall-cmd --reload

9. Start the pcs service and enable it to start on boot.

   # systemctl start pcsd.service
   # systemctl enable pcsd.service
   
   Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pcsd.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/pcsd.service.

Procedure

1. On one of the nodes, enter the following command to authenticate the pcs user hacluster. In the command, specify the name of each node in the cluster.

   # pcs host auth  hostname1 hostname2 hostname3
   Username: hacluster
   Password:
   hostname1: Authorized
   hostname2: Authorized
   hostname3: Authorized

   Example:

   [root@node01 clouduser]# pcs host auth node01 node02 node03
   Username: hacluster
   Password:
   node01: Authorized
   node02: Authorized
   node03: Authorized

2. Create the cluster.

   # pcs cluster setup cluster-name hostname1 hostname2 hostname3

   Example:

   [root@node01 clouduser]# pcs cluster setup --name newcluster node01 node02 node03
   
   ...omitted
   
   Synchronizing pcsd certificates on nodes node01, node02, node03...
   node02: Success
   node03: Success
   node01: Success
   Restarting pcsd on the nodes in order to reload the certificates...
   node02: Success
   node03: Success
   node01: Success

Verification steps

1. Enable the cluster.

   [root@node01 clouduser]# pcs cluster enable --all

2. Start the cluster.

   [root@node01 clouduser]# pcs cluster start --all

   Example:

   [root@node01 clouduser]# pcs cluster enable --all
   node02: Cluster Enabled
   node03: Cluster Enabled
   node01: Cluster Enabled
   
   [root@node01 clouduser]# pcs cluster start --all
   node02: Starting Cluster...
   node03: Starting Cluster...
   node01: Starting Cluster...

Procedure

1. Identify the Azure node name for each RHEL VM. You use the Azure node names to configure the fence device.

   # fence_azure_arm -l AD-Application-ID -p AD-Password --resourceGroup MyResourceGroup --tenantId Tenant-ID --subscriptionId Subscription-ID -o list

   Example:

   [root@node01 clouduser]# fence_azure_arm -l e04a6a49-9f00-xxxx-xxxx-a8bdda4af447 -p z/a05AwCN0IzAjVwXXXXXXXEWIoeVp0xg7QT//JE= --resourceGroup azrhelclirsgrp --tenantId 77ecefb6-cff0-XXXX-XXXX-757XXXX9485 --subscriptionId XXXXXXXX-38b4-4527-XXXX-012d49dfc02c -o list
   node01,
   node02,
   node03,

2. View the options for the Azure ARM STONITH agent.

   pcs stonith describe fence_azure_arm

   Example:

   # pass:quotes[pcs stonith describe fence_apc]
   Stonith options:
   password: Authentication key
   password_script: Script to run to retrieve password

   Warning

   For fence agents that provide a method option, do not specify a value of cycle as it is not supported and can cause data corruption.

   Some fence devices can fence only a single node, while other devices can fence multiple nodes. The parameters you specify when you create a fencing device depend on what your fencing device supports and requires.

   You can use the pcmk_host_list parameter when creating a fencing device to specify all of the machines that are controlled by that fencing device.

   You can use pcmk_host_map parameter when creating a fencing device to map host names to the specifications that comprehends the fence device.

3. Create a fence device.

   # pcs stonith create clusterfence fence_azure_arm

4. Test the fencing agent for one of the other nodes.

   # pcs stonith fence azurenodename

   Example:

   [root@node01 clouduser]# pcs status
   Cluster name: newcluster
   Stack: corosync
   Current DC: node01 (version 1.1.18-11.el7-2b07d5c5a9) - partition with quorum
   Last updated: Fri Feb 23 11:44:35 2018
   Last change: Fri Feb 23 11:21:01 2018 by root via cibadmin on node01
   
   3 nodes configured
   1 resource configured
   
   Online: [ node01 node03 ]
   OFFLINE: [ node02 ]
   
   Full list of resources:
   
     clusterfence  (stonith:fence_azure_arm):  Started node01
   
   Daemon Status:
     corosync: active/disabled
     pacemaker: active/disabled
     pcsd: active/enabled

5. Start the node that was fenced in the previous step.

   # pcs cluster start hostname

6. Check the status to verify the node started.

   # pcs status

   Example:

   [root@node01 clouduser]# pcs status
   Cluster name: newcluster
   Stack: corosync
   Current DC: node01 (version 1.1.18-11.el7-2b07d5c5a9) - partition with quorum
   Last updated: Fri Feb 23 11:34:59 2018
   Last change: Fri Feb 23 11:21:01 2018 by root via cibadmin on node01
   
   3 nodes configured
   1 resource configured
   
   Online: [ node01 node02 node03 ]
   
   Full list of resources:
   
   clusterfence    (stonith:fence_azure_arm):  Started node01
   
   Daemon Status:
     corosync: active/disabled
     pacemaker: active/disabled
     pcsd: active/enabled

Procedure

1. Create a Basic load balancer. Select Internal load balancer, the Basic SKU, and Dynamic for the type of IP address assignment.
2. Create a back-end address pool. Associate the backend pool to the availability set created while creating Azure resources in HA. Do not set any target network IP configurations.
3. Create a health probe. For the health probe, select TCP and enter port 61000. You can use TCP port number that does not interfere with another service. For certain HA product applications (for example, SAP HANA and SQL Server), you may need to work with Microsoft to identify the correct port to use.
4. Create a load balancer rule. To create the load balancing rule, the default values are prepopulated. Ensure to set Floating IP (direct server return) to Enabled.

Procedure

1. Install the nmap-ncat resource agents on all nodes.

   # yum install nmap-ncat resource-agents

   Perform the following steps on a single node.

2. Create the pcs resources and group. Use your load balancer FrontendIP for the IPaddr2 address.

   # pcs resource create resource-name IPaddr2 ip="10.0.0.7" --group cluster-resources-group

3. Configure the load balancer resource agent.

   # pcs resource create resource-loadbalancer-name azure-lb port=port-number --group cluster-resources-group

Procedure

1. Create a shared block volume using the Azure command az disk create.

   $ az disk create -g <resource_group> -n <shared_block_volume_name> --size-gb <disk_size> --max-shares <number_vms> -l <location>

   For example, the following command creates a shared block volume named shared-block-volume.vhd in the resource group sharedblock within the Azure Availability Zone westcentralus.

   $ az disk create -g sharedblock-rg -n shared-block-volume.vhd --size-gb 1024 --max-shares 3 -l westcentralus
   
   {
     "creationData": {
       "createOption": "Empty",
       "galleryImageReference": null,
       "imageReference": null,
       "sourceResourceId": null,
       "sourceUniqueId": null,
       "sourceUri": null,
       "storageAccountId": null,
       "uploadSizeBytes": null
     },
     "diskAccessId": null,
     "diskIopsReadOnly": null,
     "diskIopsReadWrite": 5000,
     "diskMbpsReadOnly": null,
     "diskMbpsReadWrite": 200,
     "diskSizeBytes": 1099511627776,
     "diskSizeGb": 1024,
     "diskState": "Unattached",
     "encryption": {
       "diskEncryptionSetId": null,
       "type": "EncryptionAtRestWithPlatformKey"
     },
     "encryptionSettingsCollection": null,
     "hyperVgeneration": "V1",
     "id": "/subscriptions/12345678910-12345678910/resourceGroups/sharedblock-rg/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/shared-block-volume.vhd",
     "location": "westcentralus",
     "managedBy": null,
     "managedByExtended": null,
     "maxShares": 3,
     "name": "shared-block-volume.vhd",
     "networkAccessPolicy": "AllowAll",
     "osType": null,
     "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
     "resourceGroup": "sharedblock-rg",
     "shareInfo": null,
     "sku": {
       "name": "Premium_LRS",
       "tier": "Premium"
     },
     "tags": {},
     "timeCreated": "2020-08-27T15:36:56.263382+00:00",
     "type": "Microsoft.Compute/disks",
     "uniqueId": "cd8b0a25-6fbe-4779-9312-8d9cbb89b6f2",
     "zones": null
   }

2. Verify that you have created the shared block volume using the Azure command az disk show.

   $ az disk show -g <resource_group> -n <shared_block_volume_name>

   For example, the following command shows details for the shared block volume shared-block-volume.vhd within the resource group sharedblock-rg.

   $ az disk show -g sharedblock-rg -n shared-block-volume.vhd
   
   {
     "creationData": {
       "createOption": "Empty",
       "galleryImageReference": null,
       "imageReference": null,
       "sourceResourceId": null,
       "sourceUniqueId": null,
       "sourceUri": null,
       "storageAccountId": null,
       "uploadSizeBytes": null
     },
     "diskAccessId": null,
     "diskIopsReadOnly": null,
     "diskIopsReadWrite": 5000,
     "diskMbpsReadOnly": null,
     "diskMbpsReadWrite": 200,
     "diskSizeBytes": 1099511627776,
     "diskSizeGb": 1024,
     "diskState": "Unattached",
     "encryption": {
       "diskEncryptionSetId": null,
       "type": "EncryptionAtRestWithPlatformKey"
     },
     "encryptionSettingsCollection": null,
     "hyperVgeneration": "V1",
     "id": "/subscriptions/12345678910-12345678910/resourceGroups/sharedblock-rg/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/shared-block-volume.vhd",
     "location": "westcentralus",
     "managedBy": null,
     "managedByExtended": null,
     "maxShares": 3,
     "name": "shared-block-volume.vhd",
     "networkAccessPolicy": "AllowAll",
     "osType": null,
     "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
     "resourceGroup": "sharedblock-rg",
     "shareInfo": null,
     "sku": {
       "name": "Premium_LRS",
       "tier": "Premium"
     },
     "tags": {},
     "timeCreated": "2020-08-27T15:36:56.263382+00:00",
     "type": "Microsoft.Compute/disks",
     "uniqueId": "cd8b0a25-6fbe-4779-9312-8d9cbb89b6f2",
     "zones": null
   }

3. Create three network interfaces using the Azure command az network nic create. Run the following command three times using a different <nic_name> for each.

   $ az network nic create -g <resource_group> -n <nic_name> --subnet <subnet_name> --vnet-name <virtual_network> --location <location> --network-security-group <network_security_group> --private-ip-address-version IPv4

   For example, the following command creates a network interface with the name shareblock-nodea-vm-nic-protected.

   $ az network nic create -g sharedblock-rg -n sharedblock-nodea-vm-nic-protected --subnet sharedblock-subnet-protected --vnet-name sharedblock-vn --location westcentralus --network-security-group sharedblock-nsg --private-ip-address-version IPv4

4. Create three VMs and attach the shared block volume using the Azure command az vm create. Option values are the same for each VM except that each VM has its own <vm_name>, <new_vm_disk_name>, and <nic_name>.

   $ az vm create -n <vm_name> -g <resource_group> --attach-data-disks <shared_block_volume_name> --data-disk-caching None --os-disk-caching ReadWrite --os-disk-name <new-vm-disk-name> --os-disk-size-gb <disk_size> --location <location> --size <virtual_machine_size> --image <image_name> --admin-username <vm_username> --authentication-type ssh --ssh-key-values <ssh_key> --nics <nic_name> --availability-set <availability_set> --ppg <proximity_placement_group>

   For example, the following command creates a VM named sharedblock-nodea-vm.

   $ az vm create -n sharedblock-nodea-vm -g sharedblock-rg --attach-data-disks shared-block-volume.vhd --data-disk-caching None --os-disk-caching ReadWrite --os-disk-name sharedblock-nodea-vm.vhd --os-disk-size-gb 64 --location westcentralus --size Standard_D2s_v3 --image /subscriptions/12345678910-12345678910/resourceGroups/sample-azureimagesgroupwestcentralus/providers/Microsoft.Compute/images/sample-azure-rhel-8.3.0-20200713.n.0.x86_64 --admin-username sharedblock-user --authentication-type ssh --ssh-key-values @sharedblock-key.pub --nics sharedblock-nodea-vm-nic-protected --availability-set sharedblock-as --ppg sharedblock-ppg
   
   {
     "fqdns": "",
     "id": "/subscriptions/12345678910-12345678910/resourceGroups/sharedblock-rg/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/sharedblock-nodea-vm",
     "location": "westcentralus",
     "macAddress": "00-22-48-5D-EE-FB",
     "powerState": "VM running",
     "privateIpAddress": "198.51.100.3",
     "publicIpAddress": "",
     "resourceGroup": "sharedblock-rg",
     "zones": ""
   }

Verification steps

1. For each VM in your cluster, verify that the block device is available by using the ssh command with your VM <ip_address>.

   # ssh <ip_address> "hostname ; lsblk -d | grep ' 1T '"

   For example, the following command lists details including the host name and block device for the VM IP 198.51.100.3.

   # ssh 198.51.100.3 "hostname ; lsblk -d | grep ' 1T '"
   
   nodea
   sdb    8:16   0    1T  0 disk

2. Use the ssh command to verify that each VM in your cluster uses the same shared disk.

   # ssh <ip_address> "hostname ; lsblk -d | grep ' 1T ' | awk '{print \$1}' | xargs -i udevadm info --query=all --name=/dev/{} | grep '^E: ID_SERIAL='"

   For example, the following command lists details including the host name and shared disk volume ID for the instance IP address 198.51.100.3.

   # ssh 198.51.100.3 "hostname ; lsblk -d | grep ' 1T ' | awk '{print \$1}' | xargs -i udevadm info --query=all --name=/dev/{} | grep '^E: ID_SERIAL='"
   
   nodea
   E: ID_SERIAL=3600224808dd8eb102f6ffc5822c41d89