In this tutorial we are going to setup a virtual machine in Windows Azure which is a new feature released in the Meet Windows Azure edition recently. It was a interesting day for the public when Microsoft released the Virtual Machines which made Windows Azure as a Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) platform from its initial stage of Platform as a Service (PAAS). Virtual Machines are one which can provide the end users with their own customized server that can be easily picked from the list of pre images servers from the gallery or can use their own image.
Let us start on how to use this Virtual Machines right from the scratch of picking an image from the gallery and configure it effectively to setup an environment step by step. Open http://windows.azure.com using your valid subscription, we can see the list of available services and the configured components as shown in the screen below (if you are a new customer then register for a free trial and you can see empty list of component as the environment is newly setup for the subscription.) [more]
Now in the left side menu we can see the option Virtual Machines, click on that will open the window which has the list of Virtual Machines that are configured previously as shown in the screen below.
Now at the bottom left we can see an option NEW, clicking on that will provide the option to create a new virtual machine from the scratch by selecting an Image from the gallery or from the own vhd as shown in the screen below.
Clicking on From Gallery will open the windows which has the list of available images from which we can select the appropriate image on which we are going to build our application as shown in the screen below.
Let us select the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Evaluation Edition (64-bit) which is on Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1. This image contains the full version of SQL Server, including all components except Distributed Replay, Always On, and Clustering capabilities. Some SQL Server 2012 components require additional setup and configuration before use. Selecting the image will proceed to the next task where we need to configure as shown in the screen below.
Provide the Virtual Machine configurations as per the requirement like the VM Name, password to authenticate (Remember password setting follows a policy which need to be satisfied) and the Size of the VM which differs on the size and the memory as shown in the screen below.
[ad]Now we need to provide the DNS Settings and the subscription details on which the VM account will be hosted and charged, along with which we need to provide a storage medium which is where the .vhd file will be saved on the storage service. Once we provide the valid information we can see the screen looks like below.
This is our final set of configuration where we can provide an availability set if at all required which will be very much effective to have a high available system in place. If we are good with the configuration click on the right button and the VM initialization starts.
Once the Virtual Machine initialization starts, we can see the status as provisioning which will take quite some time to get it completely provisioned and available for accessing using the remote desktop. Once the Virtual machine is completely configured and provisioned we can see the instance listed in the Virtual machine path in the portal (Here we are using the existing provisioned instance as new instance takes some time to get provisioned) as shown in the screen below.
Our new Virtual Machine is ready to use now, we can connect to the machine basically Remote desktop to the machine using the credentials which we provided while configuring. To connect to the VM, at the bottom of the screen we can see the option Connect clicking on that will download the rdp file as shown in the screen below.
Save the file locally and open it which remote desktop the virtual machine, requesting for the credentials as shown in the screen below. Provide the password which we entered while configuring the machine.
Providing a valid password and authenticating ourself will open the Windows Azure Virtual Machine environment where we can do our requirement without much of the restrictions as shown in the screen below.
Conclusion:
Windows Azure Virtual Machines are going to be more effectively used in the Cloud arena which provides more flexible and easy to use options to configure and provision within minutes on any type of environment. Hope this article of some use to my readers, see you all in the next tutorial until then Happy Programming!!!
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HI Karthikeyan,
i have little bit query…
Actually, I want to convert my Physical Machine into Virtual Machine. And also i want my physical virtual machine is connect with window azure Virtual Machine.?
Please Tell Me. How would i do it. ???