coder/examples/templates/azure-linux

display_name, description, icon, maintainer_github, verified, tags

display_name	description	icon	maintainer_github	verified	tags
Azure VM (Linux)	Provision Azure VMs as Coder workspaces	../../../site/static/icon/azure.png	coder	true	vm linux azure

Remote Development on Azure VMs (Linux)

Provision Azure Linux VMs as Coder workspaces with this example template.

Prerequisites

Authentication

This template assumes that coderd is run in an environment that is authenticated with Azure. For example, run az login then az account set --subscription=<id> to import credentials on the system and user running coderd. For other ways to authenticate, consult the Terraform docs.

Architecture

This template provisions the following resources:

• Azure VM (ephemeral, deleted on stop)
• Managed disk (persistent, mounted to /home/coder)
• Resource group, virtual network, subnet, and network interface (persistent, required by the managed disk and VM)

What happens on stop

When a workspace is stopped, only the VM is destroyed. The managed disk, resource group, virtual network, subnet, and network interface all persist. This is by design. The managed disk retains your /home/coder data across workspace restarts, and the other resources remain because the disk depends on them.

This means you will see these Azure resources in your subscription even when a workspace is stopped. This is expected behavior.

What happens on delete

When a workspace is deleted, all resources are destroyed, including the resource group, networking resources, and managed disk.

Workspace restarts

Since the VM is ephemeral, any tools or files outside of the home directory are not persisted across restarts. To pre-bake tools into the workspace (e.g. python3), modify the VM image, or use a startup script. Alternatively, individual developers can personalize their workspaces with dotfiles.

Note

This template is designed to be a starting point! Edit the Terraform to extend the template to support your use case.

Persistent VM

Important

This approach requires the az CLI to be present in the PATH of your Coder Provisioner. You will have to do this installation manually as it is not included in our official images.

It is possible to make the VM persistent (instead of ephemeral) by removing the count attribute in the azurerm_linux_virtual_machine resource block as well as adding the following snippet:

# Stop the VM
resource "null_resource" "stop_vm" {
  count      = data.coder_workspace.me.transition == "stop" ? 1 : 0
  depends_on = [azurerm_linux_virtual_machine.main]
  provisioner "local-exec" {
    # Use deallocate so the VM is not charged
    command = "az vm deallocate --ids ${azurerm_linux_virtual_machine.main.id}"
  }
}

# Start the VM
resource "null_resource" "start" {
  count      = data.coder_workspace.me.transition == "start" ? 1 : 0
  depends_on = [azurerm_linux_virtual_machine.main]
  provisioner "local-exec" {
    command = "az vm start --ids ${azurerm_linux_virtual_machine.main.id}"
  }
}