Frequently Asked Questions¶

General¶

What is azlin?¶

azlin is a CLI tool for provisioning and managing Azure Ubuntu VMs for development. It automates VM creation, tool installation, SSH setup, and session management.

What language is azlin written in?¶

azlin is written in Rust (current version 2.6.17), providing 75-85x faster startup than the original Python implementation. A Python bridge (azlin-py) is still available for backward compatibility.

How much does it cost?¶

azlin itself is free and open source (MIT license). You pay only for Azure resources (VMs, storage, networking). azlin includes cost tracking (azlin cost) and auto-stop for idle VMs to minimize costs.

What Azure VM sizes are supported?¶

Any Azure VM size available in your subscription. Common choices for development:

Standard_B2s - Budget-friendly, burstable (2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM)
Standard_D2s_v3 - General purpose (2 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM)
Standard_D4s_v3 - Power user (4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM)
Standard_D8s_v3 - Heavy workloads (8 vCPUs, 32 GB RAM)

Installation¶

Do I need Python installed?¶

No. The recommended installation is a pre-built binary download which has no dependencies other than Azure CLI. Python is only needed if you use uvx or pip installation methods.

How do I update azlin?¶

azlin self-update

This downloads the latest binary from GitHub Releases and replaces the current one.

Does azlin work on Windows?¶

azlin works on Windows via WSL2. The binary runs natively on Linux, and WSL2 provides a Linux environment. Native Windows support is available for basic commands but WSL2 is recommended for the full experience (SSH, tmux, X11 forwarding).

VM Management¶

How long does it take to create a VM?¶

Typically 4-7 minutes. The breakdown:

VM provisioning: 4-5 minutes (Azure API)
Tool installation via cloud-init: 2-3 minutes
SSH setup: a few seconds

What tools are pre-installed on VMs?¶

Every VM gets: Docker, Azure CLI, GitHub CLI, Git, Node.js, Python 3.13+, Rust, Go, .NET, GitHub Copilot CLI, OpenAI Codex CLI, and Claude Code CLI.

Can I customize what gets installed?¶

Yes, through templates (azlin template create) and custom cloud-init scripts. You can also install additional tools after VM creation.

How do I access a GUI on the VM?¶

azlin supports two approaches:

X11 forwarding for lightweight apps: azlin connect --x11 myvm
VNC desktop for full desktop sessions: azlin gui myvm

See the GUI Forwarding guide for details.

Yes. Use Azure Files NFS storage:

azlin storage create
azlin storage mount --vm myvm1
azlin storage mount --vm myvm2

Networking¶

Does my VM need a public IP?¶

No. azlin supports Azure Bastion for secure access to VMs without public IPs. All features including GUI forwarding work through Bastion tunnels.

How is SSH secured?¶

azlin uses Ed25519 key-based authentication only (no passwords). Keys are stored at ~/.ssh/azlin_key with strict permissions. You can rotate keys with azlin keys rotate.

Troubleshooting¶

`azlin list` is slow¶

The first call queries Azure APIs. Subsequent calls use a local cache. Force a refresh with azlin list --refresh.

VM creation fails with quota error¶

You've hit your Azure vCPU quota for the region. Options:

Try a different region: azlin new --name myvm --region westus2
Request a quota increase in the Azure portal
Use a smaller VM size: azlin new --name myvm --vm-size Standard_B2s

Check your quota with az vm list-usage --location <region>.

I can't connect to my VM¶

Common causes:

VM is stopped (azlin start myvm)
NSG rules blocking SSH (port 22)
SSH key mismatch

Have a question not covered here? Open a discussion.