The foundation has announced a new course to help professionals manage Linux VMs in Azure cloud.

Linux dominates Microsoft’s Azure Cloud platform. Linux not only powers some of Azure’s components, it also accounts for more than 50% virtual machines running on Azure.

Microsoft very well knows the increasing demand for Linux on its platform. It’s enabling developers and sysadmins to manage their Linux workloads on Azure with greater ease. The company has baked Linux subsystem (WSL) within Windows, which means anyone can run Linux utilities and commands in Windows 10. The company is also bringing its own set of tools and products to Linux users – SQL Server, PowerShell, Visual Studio Code, etc….to name a few.

But that solves the technology part of the problem. There is another problem – people. The explosive growth and adoption of Open Source technologies has created a huge demand for open source professionals who are well qualified to work on these technologies.

The Linux Foundation has been working on creating training courses to address this supply and demand problem. The organization has now released a new training course called –  LFS205 – Administering Linux on Azure.

“This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, as the world today is run in the cloud. Azure is one of the most popular public clouds, and a huge portion of its instances run on Linux. That’s why we feel this new course is essential to give Azure professionals the Linux skills they need, give Linux professionals the Azure skills they need, and train new professionals to ensure industry has the talent it needs to meet the growing demand for Linux on Azure,” said Clyde Seepersad, General Manager for Training & Certification at the Linux Foundation.

LFS205 is taught by Sander van Vugt, a Linux professional living in the Netherlands and working for customers around the globe. Some of the key aspects of the course include:

• Advanced Linux features and how they are managed in an Azure environment
• Managing containers
• Deploying virtual machines in Azure, and managing them
• Monitoring and troubleshooting Linux in Azure

The course helps professionals from both side of the aisle – whether you are a Linux professional who wants to learn about Azure or an Azure professional who wants to learn about running Linux on Azure. It’s designed for both groups.

The course starts with an introduction to Linux and Azure, after which students will learn more about advanced Linux features and how they are managed in an Azure environment. Next, the course goes into information about managing containers, either in Linux or with the open source container technology that is integrated in Azure. After that, LFS205 covers how to deploy virtual machines in Azure, discussing different deployment scenarios. Once the VMs are available in Azure, students will need to know how to manage them in an efficient way, which is covered next. The last part of this course teaches how to troubleshoot Linux in Azure, and to monitor Linux in Azure using different open source tools.

“We look forward to continued collaboration with The Linux Foundation to continue to deliver trainings to make customers’ lives easier,” said John Gossman, Distinguished Engineer, Microsoft Azure, and Linux Foundation Board Member.

The course is available to begin immediately. The $299 course fee provides unlimited access to the course for one year to all content and labs. Interested individuals may enroll here.