I recently found myself in the situation where I wanted to build a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure (Resource Manager) with multiple network interface cards (vNICs). This isn’t available from the portal, but it is possible from the command line.

My colleague Leo D’Arcy pointed me to Samir Farhat’s blog post on how to create a multiple NIC Azure virtual machine (ARM). Samir has posted his script on the TechNet Gallery but I made a few tweaks in my version:

#Variables
$VMName = Read-Host "Virtual Machine Name"
$RGName = Read-Host "Resource Group where to deploy the VM"
$Region = Read-Host "Region/Location"
$SAName = Read-Host "Storage Account Name"
$VMSize = Read-Host "Virtual Machine Size"
$AvailabilitySet = Read-Host "Availability Set ID (use Get-AzureRMAvailabilitySet to find this)"
$VNETName = Read-Host "Virtual Network Name"
$Subnet01Name = Read-Host "Subnet 01 Name"
$Subnet02Name = Read-Host "Subnet 02 Name"
$cred=Get-Credential -Message "Name and password for the local Administrator account"
 
# Getting the Network
$VNET = Get-AzureRMvirtualNetwork | where {$_.Name -eq $VNETName}
$SUBNET01 = Get-AzureRmVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name $Subnet01Name -VirtualNetwork $VNET
$SUBNET02 = Get-AzureRmVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name $Subnet02Name -VirtualNetwork $VNET
 
# Create the NICs
$NIC01Name = $VMName+'-NIC-01'
$NIC02Name = $VMName+'-NIC-02'
Write-Host "Creating" $NIC01Name
$VNIC01 = New-AzureRmNetworkInterface -Name $NIC01Name -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Region -SubnetId $SUBNET01.Id

Write-Host "Creating" $NIC02Name
$VNIC02 = New-AzureRmNetworkInterface -Name $NIC02Name -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Region -SubnetId $SUBNET02.Id
 
# Create the VM config
Write-Host "Creating the VM Configuration"
$VM = New-AzureRmVMConfig -VMName $VMName -VMSize $VMSize -AvailabilitySetId $AvailabilitySet
$pubName="MicrosoftWindowsServer"
$offerName="WindowsServer"
$skuName="2012-R2-Datacenter"
Write-Host " - Setting the operating system"
$VM = Set-AzureRmVMOperatingSystem -VM $vm -Windows -ComputerName $vmName -Credential $cred -ProvisionVMAgent -EnableAutoUpdate
Write-Host " - Setting the source image"
$VM = Set-AzureRmVMSourceImage -VM $vm -PublisherName $pubName -Offer $offerName -Skus $skuName -Version "latest"
#Adding the VNICs to the config, you should always choose a Primary NIC
Write-Host " - Adding vNIC 1"
$VM = Add-AzureRmVMNetworkInterface -VM $VM -Id $VNIC01.Id -Primary
Write-Host " - Adding vNIC 2"
$VM = Add-AzureRmVMNetworkInterface -VM $VM -Id $VNIC02.Id
 
# Specify the OS disk name and create the VM
$DiskName=$VMName+'-OSDisk'
Write-Host " - Getting the storage account details"
$SA = Get-AzureRmStorageAccount | where { $_.StorageAccountName -eq $SAName}
$OSDiskUri = $SA.PrimaryEndpoints.Blob.ToString() + "vhds/" + $vmName+"-OSDisk.vhd"
Write-Host " - Setting up the OS disk"
$VM = Set-AzureRmVMOSDisk -VM $VM -Name $DiskName -VhdUri $osDiskUri -CreateOption fromImage
Write-Host "Creating the virtual machine"
New-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName $RGName -Location $Region -VM $VM