# Getting Started on Azure

Follow these instructions to get started with HEAVY.AI on Microsoft Azure.

## Prerequisites

You must have a Microsoft Azure account. If you do not have an account, go to [the Micrsoft Azure home page](https://azure.microsoft.com/) to sign up for one.

## Configure Your HEAVY.AI Instance

To launch HEAVY.AI on Microsoft Azure, you configure a GPU-enabled instance.

1\) Log in to you Microsoft Azure portal.

2\) On the left side menu, create a **Resource group**, or use one that your organization has created.

![azure\_resource\_group.png](/files/8DC5wAlLxbm0GdEUoVc7)

3\) On the left side menu, click **Virtual machines**, and then click **Add**.

![azure\_vm](/files/Nj6NGyeleu9bde0cHb0z)

4\) Create your virtual machine:

![azure\_configure\_vm](/files/F7O1YamSacQAwsjUvZbn)

* On the **Basics** tab:
  * In **Project Details**, specify the Resource group.
  * Specify the **Instance Details**:
    * Virtual machine name
    * Region
    * Image (Ubuntu 16.04 or higher, or CentOS/RHEL 7.0 or higher)
    * Size. Click **Change size** and use the **Family** filter to filter on **GPU**, based on your use case and requirements. Not all GPU VM variants are available in all regions.
  * For **Username**, add any user name other than admin.
  * In **Inbound Port Rules**, click **Allow selected ports** and select one or more of the following:
    * HTTP (80)
    * HTTPS (443)
    * SSH (22)
* On the **Disks** tab, select Premium or Standard SSD, depending on your needs.
* For the rest of the tabs and sections, use the default values.

5\) Click **Review + create**. Azure reviews your entries, creates the required services, deploys them, and starts the VM.

6\) Once the VM is running, select the VM you just created and click the Networking tab.

![azure\_networking](/files/6WtakGQXLVbGF8oSwEHl)

7\) Click the **Add inbound** button and configure security rules to allow any source, any destination, and destination port 6273 so you can access Heavy Immerse from a browser on that port. Consider renaming the rule to **6273-Immerse** or something similar so that the default name makes sense.

8\) Click **Add** and verify that your new rule appears.

Azure-specific configuration is complete. Now, follow standard [HEAVY.AI installation instructions](/installation-and-configuration/installation.md) for your Linux distribution and installation method.


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