You created a Yellow Circle account in Project 1-2, Get Started in Yellow Circle. If you dont sign in to your Yellow Circle account at least weekly, it will automatically be deleted for inactivity, and youll get an email notification. If this happened to you, sign in at yellowcircle.net using the same account credentials as before, and create a new, free subscription. Then complete the following steps to spin up a VM in Yellow Circle:

Sign in to the Yellow Circle platform at mylab.yellowcircle.net. In the left pane, click Instances. In the top-right corner, click Launch Instance.

Name your instance. The AZ (availability zone) is set for you. At this time, youll create only one instance. Click Next.

For this project, youll use a Windows server image as the boot source. Make sure Image is showing under Select Boot Source, and then click the + sign next to the Windows Server 2012 image, which is the newest version of Windows Server that you can use within the limitations of a free account. Scroll back to the top of the list, and confirm that the image you selected is listed under Allocated. Click Next.

In Yellow Circle, different available size combinations of compute, memory, and storage are referred to as flavors. If youre using the free account, youre limited in available flavor options. Point to each of the yellow triangles, and read the warning messages about minimum requirements for the selected image and maximum limitations for your account type. Choose one of the acceptable flavor options, and click Next.

Your instance is automatically assigned a network, which already contains a subnet. Click Next. You dont have available network ports. Click Next again.

Your instance is automatically assigned the Default security group. Click Next.

If you have a paid subscription (not a free account) and you want to connect to your instance, youll need a key pair. Click Create Key Pair, give the key pair a name, and then click Create Keypair. Youll be prompted to save the .pem file. Save it in a safe place on your computer where you can find it later. The key pair is automatically associated with the instance. This step is not required to complete the project.

Youre now ready to launch your instance. Click Launch Instance.

Youll see the Spawning status as the instance is being created. This will take several minutesgrab a cup of coffee while you wait. After the spawning process is complete, the power state will change to Running.

1: Take a few minutes to explore the actions you can perform on your instance. What options do you have for changing its power state?

2: Click the instance name. What are the RAM, VCPU, and Disk specs for your instance?

3: What is the IP address of your instance?

4: Click the Console tab. What screen do you see in your instance console? If you have a product key, you can install Windows Server if youd like and see what you can do in it. You also have the option to skip the product key step and complete the installation as a test run. However, completing the installation is not necessary for this project.

5: When youre finished, shut down the instance so it wont keep running when youre not using it. While youre not charged for instances in a free Yellow Circle account, shutting down unused instances is a good habit to develop.