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--- title: Create infrastructure for a cluster on Azure VMs description: In this tutorial, you learn how to set up the Azure VM infrastructure to run a Service Fabric cluster. ms.topic: tutorial ms.author: tomcassidy author: tomvcassidy ms.service: azure-service-fabric services: service-fabric ms.date: 03/22/2026 # Customer intent: As an IT administrator, I want to set up the necessary Azure VM infrastructure for a Service Fabric cluster, so that I can efficiently host and manage applications in a scalable environment. --- # Tutorial: Create Azure VM infrastructure to host a Service Fabric cluster Service Fabric standalone clusters offer you the option to choose your own environment and create a cluster as part of the "any OS, any cloud" approach that Service Fabric is taking. In this tutorial series, you create a standalone cluster hosted on Azure VMs and install an application onto it. This tutorial is part one of a series. In this article, you generate the Azure VM resources required to host your standalone cluster of Service Fabric. In future articles you need install the Service Fabric standalone suite, install a sample application into your cluster, and finally, clean up your cluster. In part one of the series, you learn how to: > [!div class="checklist"] > * Create a set of AzureVM instances > * Modify the security group > * Log in to one of the instances > * Prep the instance for Service Fabric ## Prerequisites To complete this tutorial, you need an Azure subscription. If you don't already have an account, create an account using the [Azure portal](https://portal.azure.com). ## Create Azure Virtual Machine instances 1. Sign in to the Azure portal and select **Virtual machines** (not Virtual Machines (classic)). ![Azure portal VM][az-console] 2. Select the **Add** button, which will open up the **Create a virtual machine** form. 3. In the **Basics** tab, be sure to choose the subscription and resource group you want (using a new resource group is recommended). 4. Change the **Image** type to **Windows Server 2016 Datacenter**. 5. Change the instance **Size** to **Standard DS2 v2**. Set an administrator **Username** and **Password**, noting what they are. 6. Leave the **Inbound Port Rules** blocked for now; we will configure those in the next section. 7. In the **Networking** tab, create a new **Virtual Network** and take note of its name. 8. Next, set the **NIC network security group** to **Advanced**. Create a new security group, noting its name, and create the following rules to allow TCP traffic from any source: ![Screenshot shows creation of rules to allow inbound TCP traffic.][sf-inbound] * Port `3389`, for RDP and ICMP (basic connectivity). * Ports `19000-19003`, for Service Fabric. * Ports `19080-19081`, for Service Fabric. * Port `8080`, for web browser requests. > [!TIP] > To connect your virtual machines together in Service Fabric, the VMs that are hosting your infrastructure need to have the same credentials. There are two common ways to get consistent credentials: join them all to the same domain, or set the same administrator password on each VM. Fortunately, Azure allows all virtual machines on the same **Virtual network** to easily connect, so we are sure to have all our instances on the same network. 9. Add another rule. Set the source to be **Service Tag** and set the source service tag to **VirtualNetwork**. Service Fabric requires the following ports to be open for communication within the cluster: 135,137-139,445,20001-20031,20606-20861. ![Screenshot shows creation of rules to allow TCP traffic for a cluster.][vnet-inbound] 10. The rest of the options are acceptable in their default state. Review them if you like, and then launch your virtual machine. ## Creating more instances for your Service Fabric cluster Launch two more **Virtual Machines**, being sure to maintain the same settings outlined in the previous section. Particularly, maintain the same administrator username and password. The **Virtual Network** and **NIC network security group** shouldn't be recreated; select the ones you already created from the dropdown menu. It may take a few minutes for each of your instances to be deployed. ## Connect to your instances 1. Select one of your instances from the **Virtual Machine** section. 2. In the **Overview** tab, take note of the *private* IP address. Then, click **Connect**. 3. In the **RDP** tab, note that we're using the public IP address and port 3389, which we specifically opened earlier. Download the RDP file. 4. Open the RDP file, and when prompted enter the username and password you provided in the VM setup. 5. Once you're connected to an instance, you need to validate that remote registry was running, enable SMB, and open the requisite ports for SMB and remote registry. To enable SMB, this is the PowerShell command: ```powershell netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="File and Printer Sharing" new enable=Yes ``` 6. To open the ports in the firewall here's the PowerShell command: ```powershell New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Service Fabric Ports" -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -RemoteAddress LocalSubnet -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 135, 137-139, 445 ``` 7. Repeat this process for your other instances, again noting the private IP addresses. ## Verify your settings 1. To validate the basic connectivity, connect to one of the VMs using RDP. 2. Open up the **Command Prompt** from within that VM, then, use the ping command to connect from one VM to another, replacing the below IP address with one of the private IP addresses you noted earlier (not the IP of the VM you're connected to already). ``` ping 172.31.20.163 ``` If your output looks like `Reply from 172.31.20.163: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128` repeated four times then your connection between the instances is working. 3. Now validate that your SMB sharing works with the following command: ``` net use * \\172.31.20.163\c$ ``` It should return `Drive Z: is now connected to \\172.31.20.163\c$.` as the output. Now your instances are properly prepared for Service Fabric. ## Next steps In part one of the series, you learned how to launch three Azure VM instances and get them configured for the Service Fabric installation: > [!div class="checklist"] > * Create a set of Azure VM instances > * Modify the security group > * Log in to one of the instances > * Prep the instance for Service Fabric Advance to part two of the series to configure Service Fabric on your cluster. > [!div class="nextstepaction"] > [Install Service Fabric](service-fabric-tutorial-standalone-create-service-fabric-cluster.md) <!-- IMAGES --> [az-console]: ./media/service-fabric-tutorial-standalone-azure-create-infrastructure/az-console.png [sf-inbound]: ./media/service-fabric-tutorial-standalone-azure-create-infrastructure/sf-inbound.png [vnet-inbound]: ./media/service-fabric-tutorial-standalone-azure-create-infrastructure/vnet-inbound.png