In a series of articles about Windows Azure, I will present the actions to build a complete virtual network platform based on cloud computing. In this first part I will present actions to create virtual networks, virtual machine and connect your computer to virtual machine on Windows Azure.
To benefit from Windows Azure, you must first register for the trial http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us.
In this article, is use a computer running Windows 8, you can use one of the following operationg system: Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit), Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit), Windows 8 (32 or 64 bit), Windows Server 2012 (64 bit) and I also use a Windows Azure free trial account
Steps to implementing Windows Azure Virtual Network and Vitual Machine
- Create a Virtual Network
- Create a Virtual Machine
- Connect to a Virtual Machine
- Attach a hard disk to a virtual machine
- Veriry services on virtual machine
Create a Virtual Network
Before deloying virtual machines, you must create virtual Networks depending on your infrastructrure that you want to build in your datacenter. Logon to Portal - Select NETWORKS - Select CREATE A VIRTUAL NETWORK.
NAME: Type any name for virtual network.
AFFINITY GROUP: From the drop-down list, select Create a new affinity group. Affinity groups are a way to physically group Windows Azure services together at the same data center to increase performance. Only one virtual network can be assigned an affinity group.
REGION: From the drop-down list, select the desired region. Your virtual network will be created at a datacenter located in the specified region.
AFFINITY GROUP NAME: Type any name for affinity group.
DNS Server: If you want to use another DNS server (example 8.8.8.8) you can specify DNS server name and IP address, however, because Windows Azure will provide DNS services for you, so I do not need to specify DNS Server
Check the Configure point-to-site VPN checkbox if you want to allow VPN connection from computers within your local network to virtual network on Windows Azure. Click Next
Specify the client side address space- Click Next
Specify Network ID for virtual machines that you will deploy on virtual network. Windows Azure will automatically a subnet. You can specify the various Subnets as planned. In this article, I use only one subnet so I did not create another subnet. Click add gateway subnet.
Type gateway for subnet. Click Complete
Observe and wait for the process of creating virtual network
When completed, the PORTAL interface will look like the image below
Create a Virtual Machine
To create a virtual machine, you can upload your virtual hard disks (VHD/VHDX files) to Windows Azure for the purpose of bring your available virtual machines to Windows Azure, or you can use available galleries of Windows Azure. I will create a virtual machine by using available gallery. Select VITUAL MACHINES - Select CREATE A VIRTUAL MACHINE
Select VIRTUAL MACHINE - FROM GALLERY
Select one of available galleries, I select Windows Server 2012 Datacenter. Click Next
VERSION RELEASE DATE: I Select lastest version.
VIRTUAL MACHINE NAME: Type the name for virtual machine (MCTHUBSERVER1)
SIZE: Select size of virtual machine. Microsoft charges for Virtual Machines by the minute. You can see at http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-machines/
Type a name for administrator user account (Note that you are not allowed to use the common name as Administrator or Admin), type a complex password and click Next
CLOUD SERVICE: From the drop-down list, select Create a new cloud service, Windows Azure will create cloud service for you.
CLOUD SERVICE DNS NAME: Windows Azure will automatically give a FQDN for the virtual machine with cloudapp.net domain name, you also use your domain name by configuring your DNS server, for this, I accept to use the default domain name.
REGION/AFFINITY GROUP/VITUAL NETWORK: Select Net1 virtual network that you created earlier VIRTUAL NETWORK SUBNET: Select Subnet-1 (192.168.11.0/27) subnet. Click Next
Specify ports that virtual machine will accept from external network. By default, two pre-specified port is 3389 and 5986. Here I added HTTP (TCP port 80) for the purposes of testing Web access from the Internet. Click Complete
Observe and wait for the process of creating virtual network. This process can take from 5 to 10 minutes
When completed, the PORTAL interface will look like the image below, you will see STATUS column displayed Running
Connect to virtual machine
To connect to virtual machine by using Remote Desktop Connection, first you you need to know port generated by Windows Azure for this service. Select VIRTUAL MACHINES - Select virtual machine that you created - Click ENPOINTS tab. You will see Public Port for Remote Desktop service is 63879 (Note that each virtual machine can be generated different ports)
Switch to client machine, open Remote Desktop Connection by using MSTSC command
Connect to virtual machine using FQDN and port that you know in the previous step
Type MCTHUBSERVER1.cloudapp.net:63879 - Click Connect
Click Connect
Enter username and password - Click OK
Click Yes
Check your connection to the virtual machine
Verify TCP/IP connection of virtual machine by using IPCONFIG /ALL command. You will see the virtual machine has obtained IP in the range which you created for virtual network earlier. You should note that, static IP addresses are NOT supported on Windows Azure virtual machines
Check the processor, memory and disk capacity of your virtual machine
Attach a disk to virtual machine
You also can add disks to your virtual machine. Select VIRTUAL MACHINES - highlight on your virtual machine - Click ATTACH - Select Attach empty disk
Enter the size of virtual disk, in HOST CACHE PREFERENCE session, select READ/WRITE. Click OK
Observe and wait for process
Next you need to create volumes and format them.Connect to virtual machine, open Disk Management by using DISKMGMT.MSC command
Click OK
Create a volume on your new disk
I have created a Simple Volume named Disk2 using F: letter
In order to test Web services, I will add Role Web Server (IIS)
Switch back to client machine, check the access to web services in virtual machines, open browser and type following URL: http://mcthubserver1.cloudapp.net, verify you have successfully accessed
In next article, I will show you the necessary steps to configure VPN Point-To-Site to allow computers in local network or home connect to virtual network on Windows Azure by using VPN connection, through this connection, this computers can use all the services that you have deployed on the virtual machines
Thank you for reading my article
To view my article in Vietnamese, click the link below mcthub.com