I’m developing a Java application and need to gather detailed information about virtual machines in Azure. Specifically, I want to access parameters like the names of the VMs, their types, the times they were created, and any other relevant data. This will help me implement error handling that gives clear details if there are any problems with the VMs in my Azure setup. What is the best way to achieve this using Java? Are there particular Azure SDK methods that facilitate collecting all this VM information effectively?
The Azure SDK for Java has great tooling with the azure-resourcemanager library. I’ve worked on VM monitoring for several enterprise clients, and here’s what I’d focus on: the VirtualMachine object’s metadata features are really solid. You get basic properties, but the real value is in vm.instanceView() - that’s where you’ll find power states, boot diagnostics, and extension statuses. For timestamps, use vm.timeCreated() and pair it with vm.tags() for any custom metadata your team added. Watch out for pagination though - I learned this the hard way. If you’ve got lots of VMs, use pageBy() instead of list() or you’ll run into memory problems. Also, filter by resource groups when you’re only monitoring specific clusters. Makes a huge difference in performance.
I’ve been managing Azure VMs with Java for two years - the Azure Resource Management libraries work great for this. Use the ComputeManager class to get comprehensive VM details. First authenticate with DefaultAzureCredentialBuilder, then iterate through VMs using computeManager.virtualMachines().list(). You can grab properties like vm.name(), vm.size(), vm.computerName(), and vm.provisioningState(). Pro tip: wrap everything in proper exception handling because network timeouts happen when querying multiple VMs. And make sure your service principal has subscription-level permissions or you’ll get cryptic authorization errors.
Been there! Azure Management Client is your friend here. Don’t forget to check vm.powerState() - super useful for error handling when VMs get deallocated unexpectedly. Also, vm.osDiskSize() and vm.networkInterfaceIds() give you storage and network info. Just remember to handle ResourceNotFoundException properly since VMs get deleted all the time.