Cloud Compute Services Guide

Introduction

Cloud compute services form the foundation of modern cloud infrastructure, providing on-demand virtual machines that can be provisioned in minutes and scaled to meet any workload. Understanding how to effectively use these services across providers is essential for any cloud practitioner.

Core Concepts

Virtual Machine Components

Every cloud VM consists of several key components:

• vCPUs - Virtual CPU cores (typically hyperthreaded)
• Memory (RAM) - Allocated system memory
• Storage - Root disk and additional data disks
• Network - Virtual NICs, IP addresses, bandwidth
• Machine Image - OS and pre-installed software template

Instance Families

All providers organize instance types into families optimized for different workloads:

Provider Comparison

AWS EC2

Launching EC2 Instances

# List available AMIs (Amazon Linux 2023)
aws ec2 describe-images \
    --owners amazon \
    --filters "Name=name,Values=al2023-ami-*-x86_64" \
    --query 'Images | sort_by(@, &CreationDate) | [-1].ImageId' \
    --output text

# Launch a basic instance
aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 \
    --instance-type t3.micro \
    --key-name my-key-pair \
    --security-group-ids sg-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --subnet-id subnet-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=my-instance}]'

# Launch with user data script
aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 \
    --instance-type t3.small \
    --key-name my-key-pair \
    --user-data file://startup-script.sh \
    --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=web-server}]'

# Launch with IAM role
aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 \
    --instance-type t3.medium \
    --iam-instance-profile Name=my-instance-profile \
    --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=app-server}]'

Managing EC2 Instances

# List all instances
aws ec2 describe-instances \
    --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,State.Name,InstanceType,PublicIpAddress,Tags[?Key==`Name`].Value|[0]]' \
    --output table

# Get instance details
aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0

# Start instance
aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0

# Stop instance
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0

# Reboot instance
aws ec2 reboot-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0

# Terminate instance
aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0

# Modify instance type (must be stopped first)
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0
aws ec2 wait instance-stopped --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0
aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute \
    --instance-id i-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --instance-type "{\"Value\": \"t3.large\"}"
aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0

EC2 Key Pairs and Security Groups

# Create key pair
aws ec2 create-key-pair \
    --key-name my-key-pair \
    --query 'KeyMaterial' \
    --output text > my-key-pair.pem
chmod 400 my-key-pair.pem

# List key pairs
aws ec2 describe-key-pairs --output table

# Create security group
aws ec2 create-security-group \
    --group-name my-sg \
    --description "My security group" \
    --vpc-id vpc-0123456789abcdef0

# Add inbound rules
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
    --group-id sg-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --protocol tcp \
    --port 22 \
    --cidr 0.0.0.0/0

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
    --group-id sg-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --protocol tcp \
    --port 80 \
    --cidr 0.0.0.0/0

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
    --group-id sg-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --protocol tcp \
    --port 443 \
    --cidr 0.0.0.0/0

# List security group rules
aws ec2 describe-security-groups --group-ids sg-0123456789abcdef0

EC2 Storage (EBS)

# Create EBS volume
aws ec2 create-volume \
    --availability-zone us-east-1a \
    --size 100 \
    --volume-type gp3 \
    --iops 3000 \
    --throughput 125 \
    --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=volume,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=data-volume}]'

# Attach volume to instance
aws ec2 attach-volume \
    --volume-id vol-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --instance-id i-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --device /dev/sdf

# Detach volume
aws ec2 detach-volume --volume-id vol-0123456789abcdef0

# Create snapshot
aws ec2 create-snapshot \
    --volume-id vol-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --description "Daily backup" \
    --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=snapshot,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=daily-backup}]'

# List volumes
aws ec2 describe-volumes \
    --query 'Volumes[*].[VolumeId,State,Size,VolumeType,Attachments[0].InstanceId]' \
    --output table

Azure Virtual Machines

Azure VM Naming Convention & the D-Series Family

Azure VM sizes follow a structured naming pattern that can look confusing at first (e.g., Standard_D4s_v5), but once you understand the formula, you can instantly decode any Azure VM size:

Azure VM Naming Convention
==========================

    Standard_D4s_v5
    │        │││ ││
    │        │││ └┴─ Version (v3, v4, v5 = newer hardware generations)
    │        │││
    │        ││└─── Capability: s = Premium SSD support
    │        ││            a = AMD processor
    │        ││            d = local temp disk
    │        ││            l = low memory
    │        ││            p = ARM-based (Ampere)
    │        ││
    │        │└──── vCPU count (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 48, 64, 96)
    │        │
    │        └───── Family letter:
    │                D = General Purpose (balanced CPU/memory)
    │                B = Burstable (variable workloads)
    │                F = Compute Optimized (high CPU)
    │                E = Memory Optimized (high memory)
    │                L = Storage Optimized (high disk throughput)
    │                N = GPU Accelerated (ML/rendering)
    │                M = Memory Intensive (SAP, large DBs)
    │
    └───────── Pricing tier (always "Standard" for regular VMs)

The D-Series: Azure's Most Popular VM Family

The D-series is Azure's general-purpose workhorse — the most widely used VM family for production workloads. It offers a balanced ratio of CPU to memory (typically 1 vCPU : 4 GB RAM) and is suitable for the majority of workloads including web servers, application servers, small-to-medium databases, and development environments.

Creating Azure VMs

# Create resource group
az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus

# List available VM sizes
az vm list-sizes --location eastus --output table

# List available images
az vm image list --output table
az vm image list --publisher Canonical --offer 0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy --all --output table

# Create VM with defaults
az vm create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVM \
    --image Ubuntu2204 \
    --admin-username azureuser \
    --generate-ssh-keys

# Create VM with specific configuration
az vm create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVM \
    --image Ubuntu2204 \
    --size Standard_D2s_v3 \
    --admin-username azureuser \
    --ssh-key-values ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub \
    --public-ip-sku Standard \
    --vnet-name myVNet \
    --subnet mySubnet \
    --nsg myNSG \
    --tags Environment=Dev Project=Demo

# Create VM with custom data (cloud-init)
az vm create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name webServer \
    --image Ubuntu2204 \
    --size Standard_B2s \
    --admin-username azureuser \
    --generate-ssh-keys \
    --custom-data cloud-init.yaml

Managing Azure VMs

# List all VMs
az vm list --output table

# List VMs with details
az vm list \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --show-details \
    --output table

# Get VM details
az vm show \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVM

# Start VM
az vm start --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM

# Stop VM (deallocate - stops billing)
az vm deallocate --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM

# Stop VM (keep resources allocated)
az vm stop --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM

# Restart VM
az vm restart --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM

# Delete VM
az vm delete --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM --yes

# Resize VM
az vm resize \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVM \
    --size Standard_D4s_v3

# List available sizes for resize
az vm list-vm-resize-options \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVM \
    --output table

Azure VM Networking

# Create network security group
az network nsg create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myNSG

# Add NSG rule for SSH
az network nsg rule create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --nsg-name myNSG \
    --name AllowSSH \
    --protocol tcp \
    --priority 1000 \
    --destination-port-range 22 \
    --access allow

# Add NSG rule for HTTP/HTTPS
az network nsg rule create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --nsg-name myNSG \
    --name AllowHTTP \
    --protocol tcp \
    --priority 1001 \
    --destination-port-range 80 443 \
    --access allow

# Get public IP
az vm list-ip-addresses \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVM \
    --output table

# Open port on existing VM
az vm open-port \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVM \
    --port 80 \
    --priority 1002

Azure VM Disks

# Create managed disk
az disk create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myDataDisk \
    --size-gb 128 \
    --sku Premium_LRS

# Attach disk to VM
az vm disk attach \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --vm-name myVM \
    --name myDataDisk

# Detach disk
az vm disk detach \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --vm-name myVM \
    --name myDataDisk

# List disks
az disk list \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --output table

# Create snapshot
az snapshot create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name mySnapshot \
    --source myDataDisk

# Resize OS disk
az vm deallocate --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM
az disk update \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVM_OsDisk \
    --size-gb 256
az vm start --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM

GCP Compute Engine

GCP Machine Families & Types

Unlike Azure and AWS where you choose from a fixed catalogue of named sizes, Google Compute Engine uniquely lets you create custom machine types with any vCPU/memory combination. But GCP also provides predefined machine families optimized for specific workloads:

Creating GCP Instances

# List available machine types
gcloud compute machine-types list --filter="zone:us-central1-a" | head -20

# List available images
gcloud compute images list --filter="family:ubuntu"

# Create basic instance
gcloud compute instances create my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --machine-type=e2-medium \
    --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
    --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud

# Create instance with custom configuration
gcloud compute instances create web-server \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --machine-type=n2-standard-2 \
    --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
    --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud \
    --boot-disk-size=50GB \
    --boot-disk-type=pd-ssd \
    --tags=http-server,https-server \
    --metadata-from-file=startup-script=startup.sh

# Create custom machine type
gcloud compute instances create custom-vm \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --custom-cpu=4 \
    --custom-memory=8GB \
    --image-family=debian-12 \
    --image-project=debian-cloud

# Create with service account
gcloud compute instances create app-server \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --machine-type=e2-standard-2 \
    --service-account=my-sa@project.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
    --scopes=cloud-platform \
    --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
    --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud

Managing GCP Instances

# List instances
gcloud compute instances list

# List instances in specific zone
gcloud compute instances list --filter="zone:us-central1-a"

# Describe instance
gcloud compute instances describe my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

# Start instance
gcloud compute instances start my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

# Stop instance
gcloud compute instances stop my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

# Reset instance (hard restart)
gcloud compute instances reset my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

# Delete instance
gcloud compute instances delete my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

# Change machine type (requires stop)
gcloud compute instances stop my-instance --zone=us-central1-a
gcloud compute instances set-machine-type my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --machine-type=e2-standard-4
gcloud compute instances start my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

# SSH into instance
gcloud compute ssh my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

# SSH with specific user
gcloud compute ssh myuser@my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

GCP Firewall Rules

# Create firewall rule for SSH
gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-ssh \
    --direction=INGRESS \
    --priority=1000 \
    --network=default \
    --action=ALLOW \
    --rules=tcp:22 \
    --source-ranges=0.0.0.0/0

# Create firewall rule for HTTP/HTTPS
gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-http \
    --direction=INGRESS \
    --priority=1000 \
    --network=default \
    --action=ALLOW \
    --rules=tcp:80,tcp:443 \
    --target-tags=http-server,https-server \
    --source-ranges=0.0.0.0/0

# List firewall rules
gcloud compute firewall-rules list

# Delete firewall rule
gcloud compute firewall-rules delete allow-ssh

# Update firewall rule
gcloud compute firewall-rules update allow-http \
    --source-ranges=10.0.0.0/8,192.168.0.0/16

GCP Persistent Disks

# Create persistent disk
gcloud compute disks create my-data-disk \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --size=100GB \
    --type=pd-ssd

# Attach disk to instance
gcloud compute instances attach-disk my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --disk=my-data-disk

# Detach disk
gcloud compute instances detach-disk my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --disk=my-data-disk

# List disks
gcloud compute disks list

# Create snapshot
gcloud compute disks snapshot my-data-disk \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --snapshot-names=my-snapshot

# List snapshots
gcloud compute snapshots list

# Resize disk (online resize supported)
gcloud compute disks resize my-data-disk \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --size=200GB

Auto Scaling

Auto scaling automatically adjusts the number of instances based on demand, ensuring performance during traffic spikes while minimizing costs during low usage.

AWS Auto Scaling

# Create launch template
aws ec2 create-launch-template \
    --launch-template-name my-template \
    --version-description "v1" \
    --launch-template-data '{
        "ImageId": "ami-0abcdef1234567890",
        "InstanceType": "t3.micro",
        "KeyName": "my-key-pair",
        "SecurityGroupIds": ["sg-0123456789abcdef0"],
        "UserData": "IyEvYmluL2Jhc2gKZWNobyAiSGVsbG8gV29ybGQi"
    }'

# Create Auto Scaling group
aws autoscaling create-auto-scaling-group \
    --auto-scaling-group-name my-asg \
    --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=my-template,Version='$Latest' \
    --min-size 1 \
    --max-size 5 \
    --desired-capacity 2 \
    --vpc-zone-identifier "subnet-0123456789abcdef0,subnet-0fedcba9876543210" \
    --target-group-arns "arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-east-1:123456789012:targetgroup/my-tg/1234567890123456" \
    --health-check-type ELB \
    --health-check-grace-period 300

# Create scaling policy (target tracking)
aws autoscaling put-scaling-policy \
    --auto-scaling-group-name my-asg \
    --policy-name cpu-target-tracking \
    --policy-type TargetTrackingScaling \
    --target-tracking-configuration '{
        "PredefinedMetricSpecification": {
            "PredefinedMetricType": "ASGAverageCPUUtilization"
        },
        "TargetValue": 70.0
    }'

# Describe Auto Scaling group
aws autoscaling describe-auto-scaling-groups \
    --auto-scaling-group-names my-asg

# Update desired capacity
aws autoscaling set-desired-capacity \
    --auto-scaling-group-name my-asg \
    --desired-capacity 3

Azure VM Scale Sets

# Create VM Scale Set
az vmss create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myScaleSet \
    --image Ubuntu2204 \
    --upgrade-policy-mode automatic \
    --admin-username azureuser \
    --generate-ssh-keys \
    --instance-count 2 \
    --vm-sku Standard_B2s \
    --lb-sku Standard

# Enable autoscale
az monitor autoscale create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --resource myScaleSet \
    --resource-type Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets \
    --name autoscale-config \
    --min-count 1 \
    --max-count 10 \
    --count 2

# Add autoscale rule (scale out on CPU > 70%)
az monitor autoscale rule create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --autoscale-name autoscale-config \
    --condition "Percentage CPU > 70 avg 5m" \
    --scale out 1

# Add autoscale rule (scale in on CPU < 30%)
az monitor autoscale rule create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --autoscale-name autoscale-config \
    --condition "Percentage CPU < 30 avg 5m" \
    --scale in 1

# List scale set instances
az vmss list-instances \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myScaleSet \
    --output table

# Scale manually
az vmss scale \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myScaleSet \
    --new-capacity 5

GCP Managed Instance Groups

# Create instance template
gcloud compute instance-templates create my-template \
    --machine-type=e2-medium \
    --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
    --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud \
    --boot-disk-size=20GB \
    --tags=http-server \
    --metadata-from-file=startup-script=startup.sh

# Create managed instance group
gcloud compute instance-groups managed create my-mig \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --template=my-template \
    --size=2

# Enable autoscaling
gcloud compute instance-groups managed set-autoscaling my-mig \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --min-num-replicas=1 \
    --max-num-replicas=10 \
    --target-cpu-utilization=0.7 \
    --cool-down-period=60

# List instances in group
gcloud compute instance-groups managed list-instances my-mig \
    --zone=us-central1-a

# Resize group manually
gcloud compute instance-groups managed resize my-mig \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --size=5

# Update template (rolling update)
gcloud compute instance-groups managed rolling-action start-update my-mig \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --version=template=my-template-v2 \
    --max-surge=1 \
    --max-unavailable=0

Pricing Models

Using Spot/Preemptible Instances

# AWS Spot Instance
aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 \
    --instance-type t3.large \
    --instance-market-options 'MarketType=spot,SpotOptions={MaxPrice=0.05,SpotInstanceType=persistent}'

# Azure Spot VM
az vm create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name mySpotVM \
    --image Ubuntu2204 \
    --size Standard_D2s_v3 \
    --priority Spot \
    --eviction-policy Deallocate \
    --max-price 0.05

# GCP Spot VM
gcloud compute instances create spot-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --machine-type=n2-standard-2 \
    --provisioning-model=SPOT \
    --instance-termination-action=STOP \
    --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
    --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud

Best Practices

Scheduled Start/Stop

# AWS: Use EventBridge + Lambda or Instance Scheduler
# Simple example with AWS CLI (for automation scripts)
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0
aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0

# Azure: Auto-shutdown configuration
az vm auto-shutdown \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVM \
    --time 1900

# GCP: Use instance schedules
gcloud compute resource-policies create instance-schedule my-schedule \
    --region=us-central1 \
    --vm-start-schedule="0 9 * * 1-5" \
    --vm-stop-schedule="0 18 * * 1-5" \
    --timezone="America/New_York"

gcloud compute instances add-resource-policies my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --resource-policies=my-schedule

Conclusion

Cloud compute services provide the flexibility to run any workload at any scale. While AWS EC2, Azure VMs, and GCP Compute Engine share core concepts, each offers unique features: