The CloudSOE OpenEMR image gives you a fully installed OpenEMR 8.0 — Apache, PHP, MariaDB and the Node.js C-CDA service — on a hardened Ubuntu base. OpenEMR is installed and configured at build time, so there is no setup wizard: on first boot the VM rotates the Administrator password to a per-instance value and regenerates the TLS certificate for your public IP. You log in with the rotated credentials.
What you’ll need
- An Azure subscription
- An SSH public key (password login is disabled in the image)
- About ten minutes
Step 1 — Create the VM
- Find the CloudSOE OpenEMR offer in the Azure Marketplace and click Create.
- Choose a resource group, region and VM name.
- Pick a size — 2 vCPU / 4 GB (for example
Standard_B2sorStandard_D2as_v4) suits a small practice. - Under Administrator account, select SSH public key, pick a username (e.g.
azureuser) and paste your key. This account is the uid-1000 admin user that owns the credentials file. - Create or attach a public IP so you can reach the system. For production, make it Static so the address survives stop/start.
Step 2 — Open the firewall ports
In the VM’s network security group, allow inbound:
| Port | Protocol | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | TCP | SSH administration |
| 80 | TCP | HTTP (redirects to HTTPS) |
| 443 | TCP | HTTPS (OpenEMR) |
Restrict port 22 to your own IP range where possible — this is a medical records system, so consider restricting ports 80/443 to your clinic’s network too.
Step 3 — Let first boot finish
On the very first boot the VM runs a one-time setup service (openemr-firstboot) that:
- waits about a minute for the network to settle,
- rotates the Administrator password to a per-instance value (a generated instance identifier),
- regenerates the self-signed TLS certificate with your public IP as its CN,
- writes the credentials to a root-protected file and fills your public IP into the login banner.
Give it two to three minutes after the VM is running. You can watch it:
ssh <admin-user>@<public-ip>
systemctl status openemr-firstbootStep 4 — Retrieve your credentials
SSH in with the admin username you chose at deployment. The login banner (MOTD) shows the VM’s public IP and points at the credentials file:
sudo cat /opt/openemr-default-credentials.txtThis file (mode 600) holds the Administrator username and the rotated password. If the automatic reset ever fails, the file says so explicitly and tells you to change the password immediately after login.
Step 5 — Log in to OpenEMR
From your own machine (note: an Azure VM often cannot reach its own public IP from inside), browse to https://<public-ip>/ — plain HTTP redirects to HTTPS. Your browser will warn about the self-signed certificate — expected on a fresh instance; see the configuration guide for switching to a trusted certificate and your own domain.
Log in as Administrator with the password from the credentials file, then change it from within OpenEMR. The system is fully installed — start configuring your facility, users and calendars.
Next steps
- Configure OpenEMR — file locations, database access, HTTPS, domains and password resets
- Tips & tricks — backups, updates and troubleshooting