Creating VMs
Building a virtual machine from scratch with the New Virtual Machine wizard.
This article covers building a virtual machine from scratch. If you want to deploy from a prebuilt image instead, see How to create a virtual machine from a template.
Before you start, impersonate the tenant administrator for the customer you are building the VM for. See Working in a tenant: impersonating a tenant administrator.
Open the Virtual Data Center you want to build in, then click New Virtual Machine at the top of the page. The wizard has seven pages and you can move back and forth with the Back and Next Step buttons. Nothing is created until you click Create Virtual Machine on the last page.
General Configuration
Enter a Name for the virtual machine
Choose the OS Type tile: Windows, Linux, Unix or Other
Pick the Version from the dropdown
For Windows, leave Attach VirtIO driver ISO ticked. Windows cannot see a VirtIO disk during setup without it
Click Next Step
System Settings
Choose the BIOS. SeaBIOS is the default. Choose OVMF (UEFI) for modern Windows or anything that needs Secure Boot
Tick Enable QEMU Guest Agent. The agent has to be installed in the guest for it to do anything
Tick Add TPM if you are building Windows 11 or Windows Server 2025, then choose the TPM version
Click Next Step
Hardware Settings
Set the Sockets and Cores. The wizard shows a live Total Cores figure, and that is what is drawn from the VDC quota
Choose a CPU Type. (x86-64-v3 recommended)
Enter the Memory in GiB
Click Next Step
Storage Configuration
Enter the Disk Size in GiB
Choose the Storage Policy for the tier you want
Click Add Storage Device if the machine needs more than one disk, then repeat
Click Next Step
Network Configuration
Click Add Network Device
Choose the Network the adapter connects to. WAN is the internet facing network, an internal network such as Demo LAN keeps traffic inside the Virtual Data Center
Choose the NIC Model. VirtIO gives the best performance on Linux, Intel PRO/1000 (e1000) is the safest choice for older Windows builds, VMware vmxnet3 suits machines migrated from VMware
Tick Connected so the adapter is live when the machine boots
Add a second adapter if the machine needs to sit on more than one network, for example a firewall or router
Click Next Step
CD/DVD Drive
Click Add CD/DVD Drive
Pick the installation ISO from the Select ISO list, for example Windows Server 2022 or Ubuntu 24.04 server
Add a second drive with the VirtIO drivers ISO if you are installing Windows on VirtIO storage or a VirtIO network adapter
Click Next Step
Boot Order
Drag the devices into the order you want the machine to try them
Put the CD/DVD drive first when you are installing an operating system, and the disk first once the install is finished
Use the toggle next to a device to include it in or exclude it from the boot sequence
Click Create Virtual Machine to build the machine
After the machine is built
Watch the Recent Tasks panel at the bottom of the screen for progress
The new machine appears in the Virtual Machines list on the Virtual Data Center, powered off
Open the machine, power it on and use the console to run through the operating system install
Once the install is finished, edit the boot order so the disk boots first and eject the installation ISO
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