diff --git a/docs/devops/single_azure_vm/setup.sh b/docs/devops/single_azure_vm/setup.sh
index cc962083..35c7981f 100755
--- a/docs/devops/single_azure_vm/setup.sh
+++ b/docs/devops/single_azure_vm/setup.sh
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ phase1_system() {
     log "Installing Docker..."
     install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
     curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg \
-      | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
+      | gpg --batch --yes --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
     chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
 
     echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" \
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ DJSON
     # Modern NodeSource method (GPG key + apt source — the curl|bash setup_XX.x scripts are deprecated)
     install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
     curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key \
-      | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg
+      | gpg --batch --yes --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg
     echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_${NODE_VERSION}.x nodistro main" \
       > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list
     apt-get update -qq
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ phase2_gitea() {
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"name":"vm-deploy","scopes":["write:package","read:package","write:organization","read:organization"]}')
 
-  GITEA_NPM_TOKEN=$(echo "$token_response" | jq -r '.sha1 // .token')
+  GITEA_NPM_TOKEN=$(echo "$token_response" | jq -r '.sha1 // .token' 2>/dev/null || echo "")
   if [ -z "$GITEA_NPM_TOKEN" ] || [ "$GITEA_NPM_TOKEN" = "null" ]; then
     fail "Failed to create Gitea API token. Response: $token_response"
   fi
@@ -398,11 +398,15 @@ NPMRC
 
   # Install workspace deps (no --frozen-lockfile: shallow clones may have drift)
   log "  Installing workspace dependencies..."
-  pnpm install 2>&1 | tail -3
+  if ! pnpm install 2>&1 | tail -3; then
+    fail "pnpm install failed. Check ${INSTALL_DIR}/setup.log for full output."
+  fi
 
   # Build all packages
   log "  Building all packages..."
-  pnpm -r --if-present build 2>&1 | tail -5
+  if ! pnpm -r --if-present build 2>&1 | tail -5; then
+    fail "pnpm build failed. Check ${INSTALL_DIR}/setup.log for full output."
+  fi
 
   ok "Phase 4 complete. All packages built."
 }
@@ -599,6 +603,12 @@ build_one_service() {
 phase7_deploy() {
   log "Phase 7: Deploying ecosystem (per-service build + fallback)..."
 
+  # Free RAM: stop Ollama during Docker builds (Phase 1 will restart it, or we do at end)
+  if systemctl is-active --quiet ollama 2>/dev/null; then
+    log "  Stopping Ollama to free RAM for Docker builds..."
+    systemctl stop ollama 2>/dev/null || true
+  fi
+
   setup_compose_env
 
   local plat_dir="${INSTALL_DIR}/learning_ai_common_plat"
@@ -679,6 +689,12 @@ phase7_deploy() {
     --env-file "${plat_dir}/.env.ecosystem" \
     up -d "${start_services[@]}" 2>&1 | tail -10 || true
 
+  # Restart Ollama (stopped at start of phase 7 to free RAM)
+  if command -v ollama &>/dev/null; then
+    log "  Restarting Ollama..."
+    systemctl start ollama 2>/dev/null || nohup ollama serve > /var/log/ollama.log 2>&1 &
+  fi
+
   if [ ${#build_fail[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
     # Signal to run_phase() that phase 7 should NOT be marked done
     PHASE7_HAD_FAILURES=1
@@ -873,6 +889,14 @@ main() {
 
   [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ] || fail "This script must be run as root (sudo)."
 
+  # ── Pre-flight checks ───────────────────────────────────────────
+  local disk_gb mem_gb
+  disk_gb=$(df -BG / | awk 'NR==2 {gsub(/G/,"",$4); print $4}')
+  mem_gb=$(free -g | awk '/^Mem:/ {print $2}')
+  log "Available disk: ${disk_gb} GB, Total RAM: ${mem_gb} GB"
+  [ "${disk_gb:-0}" -ge 40 ] || warn "Low disk space (${disk_gb} GB). Recommend 128 GB+."
+  [ "${mem_gb:-0}" -ge 16 ] || warn "Low memory (${mem_gb} GB). Recommend 32 GB+."
+
   local start_time
   start_time=$(date +%s)