ITI8801 · Practice 1

The problem: no usable VM size, or a refused deployment

What it looks like:

• Size on the VM form lists nothing usable, or every size says not available
• or the deployment starts and fails, with an error that mentions a policy

What is behind it: an Azure for Students subscription comes with a policy called Allowed resource deployment regions. It is a list of about five regions, and the list differs from subscription to subscription. Anything created outside the list is refused.

The region dropdowns still offer every region in the world. Nothing on the form says which ones your subscription may use.

Fix 1 — find your allowed regions

1. Portal search box → Policy → in the left menu Compliance
2. The table has one row: Allowed resource deployment regions. Click it
3. View assignment in its toolbar
4. The Parameters tab → row Allowed locations. The Parameter value is your list, cut off in the table; the copy icon next to it gives all of it

Pick one region from that list and use it for everything, all semester.

Fix 1 — the Compliance page

Fix 1 — the list

Fix 2 — the resource group's region

A resource group can be created in any region, the allowed list does not apply to it, and the VM form then offers the group's region as the default. A group in the wrong region quietly steers every VM into a refused region.

Resource groups → your group → Overview → Location. If it is not on your list: create a new group in an allowed region and use that one.

Fix 3 — the VM form, three fields

On the VM's Basics tab, before anything else:

• Subscription Azure for Students, Resource group your group, not one the form picked
• Region one from your allowed list. The form fills it from the group; check it anyway
• Availability options No infrastructure redundancy required. The default pins the VM to one zone of the region, and a size can be out of stock in one zone while another zone has it. With no zone pinned, Azure puts the VM where the size exists

The pinned-zone default is the usual reason a size that exists in your region still says not available.

Then

With the region on the list, the group in that region and no zone pinned, See all sizes shows the free-tier size, B2ats_v2 or B1s, and the deployment goes through.

If it still does not: ask, in the practice session or by e-mail, with a screenshot of the error.