Stephen W. Thomas BizTalk MVP

BizTalk 2013 Installation Error on Windows Server 2012 64-bit

Stephen W. Thomas — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:32:05 GMT

I was doing some BizTalk installations this weekend with BizTalk Server 2013 on Windows Server 2012 VM’s.

I have done this before without any issues but in each case I already had Visual Studios 2012 installed on the server.

This time I was doing a Runtime Only installation. I received an error when trying to install the Enterprise Single Sign-on component.

The error I received was: The program can’t start because MSVCP100.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix the problem.

Followed by: The following platform components failed to install and will need to be manually installed before setup can proceed: Enterprise Single Sign-On Server. Unspecified error.

The error is saying it is missing the C++ Runtime components (probably why I did not see this error when I already had Visual Studios installed). After trial and error, it seems that it is only missing the 32-bit C++ Runtime. It seems that this does not get installed with the BizTalk CAB file.

The fix is simple, just download the 32-bit C++ Runtime and re-run the installation of BizTalk. You can find them here. If you still have issues, ensure you have the 64-bit version installed as well. That can be found here.

The BizTalk 2013 Hardware and Software Requirements states that this is a requirement to install BizTalk Server 2013. I did not even think to look at the Software List until I ran into issues with some else. The documentation says:

“Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package: On an x86 computer, install only the x86 version of the package. On an x64 computer, install both x86 and x64 versions of the package. The installer is available as part of the BizTalk Server installation media under \Platform\SSO\Platform.”

Hope this helps.

Help! I Cannot Attach My Azure Data Disk to my Windows Azure Virtual Machine

Stephen W. Thomas — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:59:04 GMT

Windows Azure Virtual Machines are the new IaaS offering from Windows Azure that allows for Virtual Machines in the Cloud. Using Windows Azure Virtual Machines you have the ability to add additional Data Disks in addition to your core Operating System Disk to your Virtual Machines. The number of disks you can add depends on the size of your Virtual Machine and range from 1 for an Extra Small VM to 16 for an Extra Large VM.

Data disks should be used for installing all your program files used on the Virtual Machines. In general, the Cache level should be set to Read Only to ensure optimal disk performance. Each data disk can get up to 500 IOPS (Input / Output Operations per Second). So as you can see spreading things out over more Data Disks should be able to boost IO throughput.

This brings me to the main point of this post – how to add a Data Disk to a Virtual Machine. To do so, select the Virtual Machine inside the Management Portal and hover over the Attach link on the bottom. If you have a Disk available to be attached, you will see an option to Attach A Disk or Attach Empty Disk. Use the Attach Empty Dish to create a new Data Disk. If you already have an uploaded VHD and want to attach it as a Data Disk, you must first go to the DISKS tab and create a Disk for the VHD.

What can get confusing is WHY any existing disk might not be able to be added to a Virtual Machine.

I have found four reasons why an existing Disk cannot be added to a Virtual Machine and two of them are not very obvious using the Portal.

The reasons you cannot add an existing Disk include:

It is being used by another Virtual Machine
You have reached the limit of adding Disks to your Virtual Machine
The Disk is created in a different data center / location than your Virtual Machine (view this on the DISK tab)
The Disk is created using a different subscription than the Virtual Machine (view this on the DISK tab)

Have you found any other reasons you cannot attach an existing Disk?

Hope this helps someone stuck trying to add a Data Disk to a Windows Azure Virtual Machine.

TechEd 2013 Session - Microsoft BizTalk Server 2013 in Windows Azure IaaS

Stephen W. Thomas — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:32:55 GMT

If you are planning to attend TechEd North America this June in New Orleans, LA and are looking for information on BizTalk Server running in Windows Azure IaaS then my session is for you!

With the general release of Windows Azure IaaS and BizTalk 2013 Pay-Per-Hour pricing yesterday I figured now is a great time to plug my session. The abstract is below.

Abstract: This session looks at the architecture of three new integration infrastructure scenarios that are made possible with BizTalk Server 2013 on Windows Azure IaaS. These scenarios include: Small Scale All Cloud, Hybrid Cloud Burst, and Near-Infinite Scale All Cloud. This session walks through each scenario in detail and explains the best use for each, including a cost analysis. Demos are provided to show key aspects of each scenario.

I’m excited about the opportunity to get to speak again at TechEd. My last TechEd presentation was in 2007 covering BizTalk Orchestrations.

One thing to note about the speakers this year at TechEd, I see both a Stephen Thomas and a Steve Thomas. How funny! Make sure if you want to learn more about BizTalk you attend the Stephen Thomas session – although I’m sure the other Thomas’s sessions will be good as well.

Look forward to seeing you at TechEd!

Windows Azure IaaS is Live and BizTalk Server 2013 Hourly Pricing Released

Stephen W. Thomas — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 03:25:37 GMT

Today Microsoft released to General Availability the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) side of Windows Azure. This includes Virtual Machines and Virtual Networking. Read complete details of the release here.

This is a huge milestone for BizTalk’ers because with the GA release we now have available on a per-per-hour basis both BizTalk Server 2013 Standard and Enterprise Editions. This opens up a whole new spectrum of scenarios using this per-per-use model.

We now have 3 new pre-built images for BizTalk 2013 available in the Image Gallery. They include a BizTalk Evaluation, BizTalk Standard, and BizTalk Enterprise editions. As best I can tell, the BizTalk Evaluation is just charged at the base rate of the VM. The other two editions are more expensive. They are priced as shown in the table below but they include the license to BizTalk.

COMPUTE INSTANCE NAME	VIRTUAL CORES	RAM	STANDARD	ENTERPRISE
Small (A1)	1	1.75 GB	$0.75/hr (~$558/month)	$2.99/hr (~$2,225/month)
Medium (A2)	2	3.5 GB	$0.84/hr (~$625/month)	$3.08/hr (~$2,292/month)
Large (A3)	4	7 GB	$1.02/hr (~$759/month)	$3.26/hr (~$2,425/month)
Extra Large (A4)	8	14 GB	$2.04/hr (~$1,518/month)	$6.52/hr (~$4,851/month)

COMPUTE INSTANCE NAME	VIRTUAL CORES	RAM	STANDARD	ENTERPRISE
A6	4	28 GB	$1.68/hr (~$1,250/month)	$3.92/hr (~$2,916/month)
A7	8	56 GB	$3.36/hr (~$2,500/month)	$7.84/hr (~$5,833/month)

Pricing current as of 4-16-13 per the Azure Pricing Page.

I have already played around with the Enterprise Edition running as a Small VM. I would say, don’t even bother with this size. If you want to give it a run, go right to the Large. The few cents I saved per hour was more than eaten up with latency and overall general slowness of the small VM instance. Giving the few cents price difference between Small and Large, I’ve surprised Small and Medium are even an option. I also do not know how this pricing relates to any free usage you might get in the 90 day trial or MSDN.

CRITICAL – please remember you are charged for a VM even when it is STOPPED. So if you create a Large BizTalk Enterprise VM you are charged until you DELETE the VM.

Let me know if you have played around with these new VM’s and what you think of them! More to come on BizTalk and IaaS in the upcoming months.

Windows Azure IaaS and Creating a New Azure Virtual Machine Video

Stephen W. Thomas — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:40:00 GMT

I have put together a quick 10 minute video that introduced Windows Azure IaaS and walks you through creating your first Windows Azure Virtual Machine!

I put a lot of time into adding cool animations and fun dialog, or so I think.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Download this video from BizTalkGurus.com or view on YouTube.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

BizTalk Server 2013 is Released to Manufacturing (RTM) – Now on MSDN

Stephen W. Thomas — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:05:00 GMT

Today Microsoft announced BizTalk Server 2013 is now Released to Manufacturing (RTM).

The software is now available for download through MSDN in English only. Just do a search for "BizTalk 2013" to find it.

This release brings new adapters, better Azure integration, enhanced SharePoint integration, support for SQL and Visual Studios 2012, and more.

Enjoy!

Windows Azure Virtual Machine and Virtual Hard Disk Management Tool – Can save you Money!

Stephen W. Thomas — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:16:23 GMT

Did you know you are charged for a Windows Azure Virtual Machine every hour it is deployed even if it is not running? I would guess many people are not using their Virtual Machines at night when they sleep so shouldn’t we have a simple way to take them offline? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a simple GUI interface to view Virtual Machines (VM) and Virtual Hard Disks (VHD)?

This tool solves all those problems! This tool can be used to easily reduce your monthly Windows Azure compute usage and SAVE YOU MONEY!

I am pleased to announce the release of a community project called the Windows Azure Virtual Machine and Virtual Hard Disk Management Tool. I have put over 300 hours into researching, building, and testing this tool.

Download Link: Windows Azure Virtual Machine and Virtual Hard Disk Management Tool

Read the current list of Known Issues: Known Issues
The list of issues currently relates to Virtual Machines, Disks, and Virtual Networks that were created more than a few months ago.

The purpose of this tool is to make working with Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Hard Disk easier to use, easier to understand, and more cost effective. Take a look at the feature list below.

Sure – things like taking a VM offline can be done via PowerShell, but I have made it so easy using a simple WinForm even my mom could take a VM offline (if she only knew what offline meant)! Better yet, setting up and configuring PowerShell for Azure is not required to run this tool. All you need is .Net 4.0 or higher, a management certificate installed in Azure, and your subscription ID.

Features:

Virtual Machines
- View the Service Name, Deployment Name, Virtual Machine Name, and Location of online Virtual Machines
- Take a Virtual Machine offline to save on compute time charges (they are stored on your local file system as XML)
- Bring a local Virtual Machine online to use it again
Virtual Hard Disks
- View all the VHD’s in the Source and Destination storage account container
- Copy a VHD from one account to another account, even in a different data center
- View the Lease status of VHD’s in the Source or Destination storage account
- Break the Lease of a VHD in the Source or Destination storage account (for orphaned VHDs)
- Delete a VHD in the Source or Destination storage account
- Download a VHD in the Source storage account (this is slow – do not close the form)
- View all the Disks and Disk Details associated with a single Azure subscription
- View all the Images and Image Details associated with a single Azure subscription
- Prevents you from making a copy of a vhd with an existing Lease

See the download link or ReadMe.txt for more details and basic How To’s.

Please keep in mind this is a free tool without support or warranty of any kind. In the event of “bad things happening” I store a backup of the raw exported XML in the local folder. I also do not touch the underlying VHDs when taking a VM offline. Worse case, the VMs would need to be recreated using the Windows Azure portal.

If you run into any issues, please use the Email Me link inside the form to let me know so I can research the issue. I want this to be the best tool possible.

Stay current with the latest information on Windows Azure Virtual Machines Management by joining our Windows Azure Virtual Machine and Virtual Hard Disk Management Newsletter.

To use this tool you need to setup on values in the App.Config file.

  <!-- Enter the Source Storage Account Details here. -->

 <add key="SourceStorageConnection" value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=NAME;AccountKey=KEY" />

  <!-- Uncomment and Enter the Destination Storage Account Details here. To work with only one account leave commented out.

      To copy to the same store set this to the same as Source Account above. -->

  <add key="DestinationStorageConnection" value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=NAME;AccountKey=KEY" />

  <!-- Select to enable REST API Advanced Features - Subscription ID and Certificate are Required for this feature.  true | false -->

  <add key='EnableRESTApi' value='true' />

  <!-- Enter the full path to the -->

  <add key='CertificatePath' value='--Required for REST API not for File Copy--'/>

  <!-- Your Windows Azure Subscription ID -->

  <add key='SourceSubscriptionID' value='--Required for REST API not for File Copy--' />

  <!-- Local folder for exported VMs -->

  <add key='LocalVMLocation' value='--Required for REST API not for File Copy--' />

Basic Steps to take a Virtual Machine Offline - Note - the Disk and VHD are not touched in this process

Ensure the 4 REST related configuration values are set in the App.config file
Make sure you have clicked Start Query on the Manage and Copy VHD tab
On the Manage Virtual Machines, select the VMs you want to take offline
Click Take Selected VMs Offline
Process will run in more than one thread unless you have more than one operation on the same service, those will queue
Output is stored on the file system in the Local VM Location defined in the App.config
Watch for Status and Error messages in the Status window

Basic Steps to take a Virtual Machine Online - Note - the Disk and VHD are not touched in this process

Launch the tool and click on the Manage Virtual Machine tab
Select the VMs you want to bring online
Click Restore Selected VMs
Process will run in more than one thread unless you have more than one operation on the same service, those will queue
Watch for Status and Error messages in the Status window

Download Link: Windows Azure Virtual Machine and Virtual Hard Disk Management Tool

Tricks for Deleting Windows Azure Virtual Machines via the REST API

Stephen W. Thomas — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 01:42:30 GMT

While I call this post “tricks” for deleting a Windows Azure Virtual Machine it really is not a trick. It does require a little deeper understanding of how Windows Azure creates and hosts Virtual Machines in order to use the REST API to delete them.

Let us start with some background. When you use the Windows Azure Portal to create a new Virtual Machine, a hidden service is created for you that will host the virtual machine role. This will allow more than one Role (i.e. Virtual Machine) to be connected to this service to allow for the automatic round-robin of calls made to the exposed ports.

Below is a list of the Services in one of my Azure Account.

Using the REST API to list all Services, I see that not all of the services returned are shown on the screen in the portal. The service named Test0206D is not listed inside the portal.

  <HostedService>

    <Url>https://management.core.windows.net/<subscription-id>/services/hostedservices/Test0206D</Url>

    <ServiceName>Test0206D</ServiceName>

    <HostedServiceProperties>

      <Description>Implicitly created hosted service2013-02-07 01:20</Description>

      <Location>West US</Location>

      <Label>VGVzdDAyMqZE</Label>

      <Status>Created</Status>

      <DateCreated>2013-02-07T01:20:58Z</DateCreated>

      <DateLastModified>2013-02-07T01:21:32Z</DateLastModified>

      <ExtendedProperties />

    </HostedServiceProperties>

  </HostedService>

In this case the Description clearly tells us this was created for us and when. When we delete a Virtual Machine, the service will start to show up inside the portal. If you never want to deploy a new Virtual Machine to that service again, it can be deleted. Otherwise, keeping the service allows the DNS Name to be reserved and allows a new Virtual Machine Role to be added to this service at a later point.

In order to Add a new Role (i.e. Virtual Machine) to an existing service, use the From Gallery option to create the Virtual Machine. Then, on step 4, Virtual Machine mode, select the Connect To An Existing Virtual Machine option. You will get a drop down of available options.

This background leads to the reason it might be tricky to delete a Virtual Machine using the REST API.

To Delete a stand-alone Virtual Machine

In an earlier blog post I listed the way to delete a Virtual Machine was to do an HTTP DELETE to the following URL.

https://management.core.windows.net/<Subscription-ID>/services/hostedservices/<Service-Name>/deploymentslots/Production

While this work, it only works in the case of a strand-alone Virtual Machine. If you do not know if the Virtual Machine is stand-along or attached, do an HTTP GET to the URL above. If you only have one <Role> element than it is a stand-alone Virtual Machine.

To Delete a Virtual Machine that is attached to another Virtual Machine

In order to Delete a Virtual Machine that is part of another service, you need to Remove the PersistentVMRole. This is done by an HTTP DELETE to the following URL.

https://management.core.windows.net/<subscription-id>/services/hostedservices/<service-name>/deployments/<deployment-name>/roles/<vm-name>

The service name and virtual machine name are straight forward but the deployment name is tricky. The deployment name is usually the Service Name but it can also be the name of the first virtual machine you put into the service. To find out for sure, do an HTTP GET to the following URL to get the details of the service deployment.

https://management.core.windows.net/<subscription-id>/services/hostedservices/<service-name>/deploymentslots/Production

This will return an XML response that looks like the following.

<Deployment xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

  <Name>Test0202A</Name>

  <DeploymentSlot>Production</DeploymentSlot>

  ...removed...

</Deployment>

The Name element is the name of the Deployment.

In summary, a single call can be made to delete a stand-alone Virtual Machine. For scenarios that join several Virtual Machines together inside a single service it takes a deeper understanding of that service’s properties in order to remove a Virtual Machine from that service.

Looking for a simple tool to work with the Windows Azure REST APIs? I have a free tool here that greatly simplifies making REST calls.

BizTalk Server 2013 Image Available on Windows Azure Virtual Machines

Stephen W. Thomas — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 07:46:06 GMT

Windows Azure Virtual Machines now has a pre-built image for BizTalk Server 2013. This will enable you to get up and running with BizTalk 2013 in just a few minutes. Configuration is needed once you create a new virtual machine using this image.

The pre-built Image includes the following:

Windows Server 2012
SQL 2012
Visual Studios 2012 Professional RC (I think this does not support the Windows Azure SDK)
BizTalk 2013 Beta Enterprise Edition

I was able to create a new virtual machine using this image and configure BizTalk. The Rules Engine failed to configure, but I did not look into why.

Let me know if you run into any issues with the Image.

October Images of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 Available for Windows Azure Virtual Machines

Stephen W. Thomas — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 04:01:02 GMT

I noticed today that the Platform Images for Windows Azure Virtual Machines has been updated to include a Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 Image for October.

The great news is I re-tested installing BizTalk Server 2013 Beta on the new Windows Server 2012 Image and everything installed and is running without issues! This time I used a Medium Virtual Machine as compared to the Small to do the initial software installation. I noticed a huge difference in performance and installation time. Since I am not using the VM now, I have bumped it down to an extra-small that costs just over $0.01 per hour.

If you want to get BizTalk 2013 running before the official image is available, make sure you use the October Images. Best of luck.

Setting Up BizTalk Server 2013 Beta on a Windows Azure Virtual Machine

Stephen W. Thomas — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:14:40 GMT

A few days ago BizTalk 2013 Beta was announced and released for download. The plan is to make this available as a Windows Azure Virtual Machine Image just like the CTP but it has not yet been released.

Since the prebuilt image is not available, I wanted to try to manually install BizTalk Server 2013 Beta on a Windows Azure Virtual Machine. I did the same thing with the BizTalk 2010 R2 CTP without any issues. Below is a quick overview of BizTalk 2013 and my experience trying to get this running in an Azure Virtual Machine.

Some of the top improvements I am excited about with BizTalk 2013 include:

Slick and clean integration with Windows Azure Service Bus including the ability to follow meta data across the exchange
Easy ESB installation (I am already counting the hours per developer this will save in the future)
New adapters for calling and exposing REST Services and SFTP
Dependency tracking through BizTalk Admin Console

Below is what the Dependency Tracking looks like. It is somewhat basic but will be very helpful for someone new looking at an Application for the first time.

Below is my experience trying to get BizTalk 2013 running in a Windows Azure Virtual Machine.

Issues with Windows Server 2012 – End Result: Failure

I started off trying to get BizTalk 2013 to run on a Windows Server 2012 Image provided in the Image Gallery. While I admit I am still totally lost on the new Windows layout I figured no better way to learn than just jumping in.

I got SQL 2012 and Visual Studios 2012 installed without any issues. I installed and configured BizTalk 2013 Beta and also installed the ESB 2.2 from the main menu. Everything seemed fine, except the ESB 2.2 installation gave me a silent completion. That is, the install box just went away. I never got confirmation it was complete or if it had any errors.

I did not know anything was wrong until I tried to create my first project inside Visual Studios. Visual Studios was unable to find the BizTalk Template to create the project although the BizTalk Project was available as a selection. I have seen this in the past with other versions of BizTalk. I then went into the BizTalk Server Admin Console and got an error that it was unable to load the MMC.

I tried to do a BizTalk Repair, but that did not fix the issues, in fact I do not think it ever completed. I deleted the Virtual Machine and associated Virtual Hard Disk. I will give it a try again later when I have more time.

Issues with Windows Server 2008 R2 – End Result: Success, after fixing the issue

After already being in a down mood after my Windows 2012 experience I set out to try installing BizTalk on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Image. Like before, everything installed and configured fine. This time, I was able to create a new BizTalk project in Visual Studios. I was even able to deploy.

I ran into an issue when I tried to create a new Receive Port inside the BizTalk Admin Console. I received an error that pointed me to the Enterprise Single Sign-on Service. Sure enough, it was not started. I tried to start it and received the following error message. The error message was from source SideBySide:

“ Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Enterprise Single Sign-On\ENTSSO.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "C:\Windows\WinSxS\manifests\amd64_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6195_none_8a1dd9552ed7f8d8.manifest" on line 5. Component identity found in manifest does not match the identity of the component requested. Reference is Microsoft.VC80.ATL,processorArchitecture="amd64",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="8.0.50727.6195". Definition is Microsoft.VC80.ATL,processorArchitecture="amd64",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="8.0.50727.42". Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.”

I was able to find the file named amd64_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6195_none_8a1dd9552ed7f8d8.manifest inside the above directory but the file was blank. This seems to be related to something in Visual Studios 2005. After an hour or two of research I found Johan fixed a similar issue related to SQL. I followed the same process to fix this issue.

To fix this issue I did the following :

1. From a command prompt I ran:
dropown C:\Windows\WinSxS\manifests\amd64_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6195_none_8a1dd9552ed7f8d8.manifest
 
icacls C:\Windows\WinSxS\manifests\amd64_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6195_none_8a1dd9552ed7f8d8.manifest /grant Administrators:F
2. Open the file and update as follows – I got this from a virtual machine running BizTalk Server 2010.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
    <noInheritable/>
    <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC80.ATL" version="8.0.50727.6195" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"/>
    <file name="ATL80.dll" hash="c7e340d6abcbb023cbfd848a292f6583f4227105" hashalg="SHA1"/>
</assembly>

I am now up and running with BizTalk Server 2013 Beta on a Windows Azure Virtual Machine!

Has anyone else tried to install the new BizTalk 2013 Beta on a Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 2012 Azure Virtual Machine?

I would love to hear about your experience.

November 11th – International Check Your Enterprise Single Sign-On Master Secret Key Day

Stephen W. Thomas — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:13:32 GMT

Let this go down in the record books… that today marks the First Annual Celebration of International Check Your Enterprise Single Sign-On Master Secret Key Day!

Picture this, it is 2 AM and you are sound asleep. All of a sudden your work pager goes off. The datacenter is flooded (why they had a datacenter in the basement is a whole other story) and you lost the Master BizTalk Server. The power went off and backup initially failed so all the servers restarted. Your other BizTalk boxes are just fine but can not talk to the Master SSO server so they are not working. Your SQL database is ok because it was higher on the rack. Would you know where your SSO Master Secret Key is in order to promote another server to be the Master? If so, you would be up and running in less than 2 minutes. Otherwise…it might take hours or even days to recover.

Did the expensive implementation consultants who have now left your company tell you something about a SSO Key file someplace… but you do not know where it is or what the password is on the file (you can always try “password” first if you do not remember it)?

Put all those worries behind you thanks to today! 11-11 should be your day to re-export your SSO Master Secret Key and keep it in a safe place.

Exporting out the Master Secret is as simple as 1, 2, 3 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa559192(v=bts.10).aspx)

1. On the Start menu, click All Programs, click Microsoft Enterprise Single Sign-On, and then click SSO Administration.

2. In the scope pane of the ENTSSO MMC Snap-In, expand the Enterprise Single Sign-On node

3. Right-click System, and then click Back up Master Secret.

Remember first thing Monday, double check your SSO Master Secret Key file and have a Happy International Check Your Enterprise Single Sign-On Master Secret Key Day!

Vote for “The Story of Your Life - Mr. Virtual Machine” in the Windows Azure Makes Me FAST Contest

Stephen W. Thomas — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:48:14 GMT

Over the past few months I have been blogging a lot about the new Windows Azure Virtual Machines. That is because I can see the huge impact on projects for having this type of infrastructure available literally at your fingertips – for pennies an hour.

Just yesterday I setup a full windows domain with 4 servers accessible worldwide in a matter of an hour or two.

I wanted to highlight the general complexity I see at many client related to setting up a new Virtual Machine. I created a video and entered it into the Windows Azure Makes Me FAST Contest. The video is called “The Story of your Life – Mr. Virtual Machine”. It is a “remake” of the old TV Show This Is Your Life… well at least that was the goal.

Take a look at the video below and vote for it if you like what you see!

Step 1: Got to http://www.meetwindowsazure.com/fast and find my video. The videos are in the middle of the page. You might have to click the right arrow to see it.

Step 2: Look for video titled “The Story of your Life – Mr. Virtual Machine by Stephen W. Thomas”.

Step 3: Watch it and Vote for it if you like it.

Of course, if you do not like the video please do not vote for it. This website has a lot of other interesting videos. The coolest, next to mine of course, is the one by Alan Smith – “Rapid Massive On-Demand Scalability Makes Me Fast!”. It is well worth a watch.

How To Create a Base Disk or Image in Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Share It Across Accounts

Stephen W. Thomas — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 04:19:47 GMT

The Windows Azure Storage API now have the ability to do cross account, asynchronous blob transfers. This means it is no longer required to download the blob in order to upload it to a different Windows Azure account. You can read all about this here.

Over the past few weeks I have been working with the Windows Azure Virtual Machine feature that is currently in preview mode. I talked in a past blog post and video about using the Gallery to create a BizTalk 2010 R2 CTP Virtual Machine.

The HUGE value I see here is we now have the ability to quickly and easily create Virtual Machines using a given Image or Virtual Hard Drive (VHD). We can even create our own custom Images that can be quickly distributed out to a large development team. VHDs created in Windows Azure can be downloaded and used locally and local VHDs can be uploaded to run inside Window Azure Virtual Machines. Related to that, keep in mind the bandwidth is charged for downloads and that it can take 3 hours or more to download a 30 GB VHD.

I have worked on several large scale development projects in the past and we have had full teams of people who in the beginning were responsible for creating and maintaining the developer image not to mention the internal IT resources required to support, for a limited amount of time, sometimes hundreds of new virtual machines. Add in the “corporate red tape” that is involved with getting new hardware and setting up a new Virtual Machine… resulting in massive time (i.e. money) costs to projects.

Some of that time and money can now be saved with Windows Azure Virtual Machines!

Below I am going to walk through the steps in creating a custom, standalone VHD to be shared with developers for local, isolated development. I am creating a VHD and not an Image since this is an isolated Virtual Machine I do not need to join a Domain.

Fist off, why create an Image vs. a Disk (VHD). Shan McArthur has a great blog post on the difference between an Image and a Disk. To sum it up:

Windows Azure Image – is a syspreped version of Windows ready to be setup like a brand new install. You get to create a new Administrator password and you get a new machine name. This would be OK to connect to a domain but ensure the image does not have Machine Name specific items configured, like BizTalk. Creating an Image would require more work for the end user once they got it.

Details on how to create a custom image can be found here.

CRITICAL – I have found that once you sysprep and Capture an Image from an existing VHD, that VHD is now unusable. Kind of makes sense, since you did just sysprep it. You can always re-create a new Virtual Machine by using the new Image you just created.

Windows Azure Disk – is a an exact copy of a Virtual Hard Drive. The Administrator password is the same and so is the machine name. This works well for machines that will run as Stand Alone, not connected to a domain. This would work well to share an already running BizTalk VHD that is fully configured and ready for development.

If we wanted something connected to a domain we would go the Image route since they are syspreped. In this case, I just want to give someone a quick, working version of BizTalk 2010 ready to go so I am going with a Windows Azure Disk (VHD) route.

CRITICAL – The only reliable and repeatable way I have found to copy an Image or VHD is to ensure it does not have any existing leases. A lease is held when you create a Virtual Machine Image or Azure Disk from a VHD in Cloud Storage. Ensure you delete these Images and Disks before copying the blob – do not delete the underlying blob storage. Sometimes, these will get orphaned and you need to remove them using PowerShell. A assume these are all issues related to being a Preview Feature and will be resolved soon.

Below are the steps to create and transfer a VHD to another user. For simplicity, the user will be in the same data center. Cross data center copies are supported, they just take longer.

To help with the cross account copy, I am using my custom tool available here: Windows Azure Virtual Hard Disk (blob storage) Cross Account Copy, Lease Break, and Management Tool

Step 1: Create your Master VHD.

Start with using a custom or prebuild Image to create a new Virtual Machine. Once the Machine is setup like you wish, shut it down and delete the Virtual Machine. Then, inside the Portal Delete the Disk. Ensure you select the “Retain The Associated VHD” option to keep the underlying blob storage of the VHD.

Step 2: Set up the Source and Destination Windows Azure Storage Account Details in the Helper Tool. Download the tool here.

To enable more advanced features, set EnableRESTApi to True and set the Certificate Path and Source Windows Azure Subscription ID.

<appSettings>

  <!-- Enter the Source Storage Account Details here. -->

  <add key="SourceStorageConnection" value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=NAME;AccountKey=KEY" />

  <!-- Uncomment and Enter the Destination Storage Account Details here. To work with only one account leave commented out.

      To copy to the same store set this to the same as Source Account above. -->

  <add key="DestinationStorageConnection" value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=NAME;AccountKey=KEY" />

  <!-- Select to enable REST API Advanced Features - Subscription ID and Certificate are Required for this feature.  true | false -->

  <add key='EnableRESTApi' value='true' />

  <!-- Enter the full path to the -->

  <add key='CertificatePath' value='C:\DemoFolder\AzureCerts\Cert.cer'/>

  <!-- Your Windows Azure Subscription ID -->

  <add key='SourceSubscriptionID' value='GUID' />

</appSettings>

Step 3: Select the VHD to Copy to the Destination Storage Account.

Launch the Helper Tool. Click on START QUERY on the top left. Select the VHD you want to copy. Note that only Available (i.e. blobs without a lease) can be copied with the tool. Rename the destination VHD if desired. Click on Copy.

If your VHD is Leased, that means it is used by an Azure Disk and could be used by a running Virtual Machine. Or it could be a known issue that leaves the VHD in a stuck state. If you know for sure the VHD is not used by an Azure Disk or Virtual Machine, you can select the VHD blob and click Break VHD Lease. You also have the ability to Delete or Download an VHD if you wish all using this Helper Tool.

Step 4: See the results in the Destination Storage Account

At this point, if the copy was within the same datacenter it should take only a few seconds. A cross datacenter copy takes much longer. Once you have the VHD, create an Azure OS Disk inside the Portal and use that Disk as the OS Disk of a new Virtual Machine. Just make sure you know the log in account details for the VHD.

Step 5: Enjoy using your new VHD.

If you gave someone else your Azure Storage Key information make sure you regenerate it for security reasons.

Below is the code that is used to make the copy. This is using 1.7.1 of the Azure Storage APIs. At present, I am still working though checking the status of Cross Data Center copies. The method below returns the Copy ID, not the Request ID. The Request ID can easily be used with the API to check the status of a request. Still working on what to do with the Copy ID.

// This is the method that copies the selected VHD

// Account details are read from the App.config file.

// Source and Destination VHD are inputs on the Form.

// Container name is hard coded to vhds.

// If you want to copy to/from other containers just change this and remove the text validation on the Destination Blob Name.

internal void CopyVHD()

    // Reads Configuration details from the App.config file.  Needs a reference to Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Configuration.dll.

    // Watch out of issues when using Copy and Paste from the portal.  I pasted into Notepad first and that seemed to mess something up.

    CloudStorageAccount sourceStorageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("SourceStorageConnection"));

    CloudStorageAccount destinationStorageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("DestinationStorageConnection"));

    // Create the blob client using the Accounts above

    CloudBlobClient sourceBlobClient = sourceStorageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();

    CloudBlobClient destinationBlobClient = destinationStorageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();

    // Retrieve reference to a previously created container

    // Rename "vhds" as needed.  Can be used to read from any container.

    CloudBlobContainer sourceContainer = sourceBlobClient.GetContainerReference(containerName);

    CloudBlob sourceBlob = sourceContainer.GetBlobReference(lstBoxVHDSSource.SelectedItem.ToString());

    CloudBlobContainer destinationContainer = destinationBlobClient.GetContainerReference(containerName);

    // Created the container if it does not exist

    CreateContainerIfNeeded(destinationContainer);

    CloudBlob destinationBlob = destinationContainer.GetBlobReference(txtNewVHDName.Text);

    // Logic added to check if a security token has already been created

    if (!hasSecurityToken)

        // Create a permission policy, consisting of a container-level access policy and a public access setting, and store it on the container.

        BlobContainerPermissions destinationContainerPermissions = new BlobContainerPermissions();

        // The container-level access policy provides read/write access to the container for 1 day.

        destinationContainerPermissions.SharedAccessPolicies.Add("imageCopyPolicy", new SharedAccessBlobPolicy()

            SharedAccessExpiryTime = DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(1),

            Permissions = SharedAccessBlobPermissions.Write | SharedAccessBlobPermissions.Read

});

        destinationContainerPermissions.PublicAccess = BlobContainerPublicAccessType.Off;

        sourceContainer.SetPermissions(destinationContainerPermissions);

        // This gets the token needed for cross-account copies.  This is not needed to copy into the same account.

        globalSecurityToken = sourceContainer.GetSharedAccessSignature(new SharedAccessBlobPolicy(), "imageCopyPolicy");

        // Set the Global Variable

        hasSecurityToken = true;

    // This does the copy using the StartCopyFromBlog method in the 1.7.1 SDK.

    string copyID = destinationBlob.StartCopyFromBlob(new Uri(sourceBlob.Uri.AbsoluteUri + globalSecurityToken));

How to Create a Windows Azure Virtual Machine Image without using the Windows Azure Management Portal

Stephen W. Thomas — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 04:27:07 GMT

Currently the Windows Azure Management Portal is having some difficulty using the UI to create an Image from an existing Virtual Machine.

You have two different options to create an Image without using the UI. The two options are using the REST API or PowerShell. The details of each approach our outlined below. I have tested both approaches and was able to create an Image and use that Image to create a new Virtual Machine.

Options 1: Using Windows Azure REST API

1. Sysprep the Virtual Machine and ensure it is shut down according to the instructions here.

2. Download my REST API Helper Tool or use your own.

3. Update the VM-CaptureImage.xml file to have the label name as the name of the Virtual Machine (it can really be anything) and the Image Name as the name of your output image.

4. Set your Management Certificate, Subscription ID, and working folder path inside the App.config file as outlined in the blog post.

5. Make an HTTP POST to: https://management.core.windows.net/<Subscription-ID>/services/hostedservices/<VM-Name>/deployments/<VM-Name>/roleInstances/<VM-Name>/Operations (assumes the Service Name and VM Name are the same).

6. Select the updated VM-CreateImage.xml as the POST Body.

7. This is an Async call and the tool will return an Operations Request ID and auto populate the ability to check the status of that request.

8. In about 3 to 5 minutes click on “Make REST Service Call” to check the status of the Async Request created above. You will eventually see a HttpStatusCode 200 and Status Succeeded (rather than Status In Progress).

Options 2: Using Windows Azure PowerShell

1. Sysprep the Virtual Machine and ensure it is shut down according to the instructions here.

2. Setup and configure PowerShell as outlined here. This takes about 10 minutes.

3. Run the following command: Save-AzureVMImage –ServiceName <Service-Name / Usually VM Name> –Name <Vm-Name> –NewImageName <New-Image-Name> -NewImageLabel <SomeLabel>

4. In about 3 to 5 minutes the screen will update to show the process was successful.

Keep in mind that Windows Azure Virtual Machines are a Preview Feature so from time to time things like this will happen. I am sure the Portal will be corrected soon to allow Images via the UI. Never the less, it is always good to know how to do them programmatically. Enjoy.

Windows Azure REST API Sample and Tool – GET, POST, & DELETE with One Click

Stephen W. Thomas — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:16:52 GMT

Windows Azure has a few different, somewhat disjointed, toolsets available to create new artifacts and maintain existing ones. The best known is the Web Portal. Very quickly when working with the web portal you discover the portal is not able to do all the tasks needed to support development and maintenance. This brings into play Windows Azure PowerShell Commands, a .Net SDK, and REST API.

If you are new to working with the Windows Azure REST API or if you are looking for sample code working with the Windows Azure REST API, this tool can help you.

This tool is intended to get you moving in the right direction and not intended to solve all your problems out of the box. You will need to use the Windows Azure REST API Reference guide when working with this tool.

I have provided a few sample Request Body templates for Creating a Hosted Service, Creating an Azure Storage Account, Adding a Virtual Machine Disk, and Creating a Virtual Machine (note to create a VM is a multi-step process, see below). Others can easily be added by using the online reference guide.

Download: Windows Azure REST API Sample Tool

To use this sample tool you need to configure some basic information inside the App.Config file. You need to set the path to your management certificate, your subscription id, and the path to the folder location of your POST bodies.

    <!--  Enter the full path to the Windows Azure Management Certificate. More details at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ee460782.aspx -->
    <add key='CertificatePath' value='C:\DemoFolder\yourcert.cer'/>

    <!-- Subscription ID for the account and must match Management Certificate -->
    <add key='Subscription' value='your account id' />

    <!--  Default folder location of REST API Post Bodies.  This exists to save time selecting the Post Body file. -->
    <add key='PostBodiesFolder' value='C:\DemoFolder\WindowsAzureRESTApiHelper\WindowsAzureRESTApiHelper\RESTAPIBodies\'/>

How to Use this Sample Tool

1. Once the App.config is setup simply launch the tool. It was built with Visual Studios 2010 but should upgrade to 2012 without issues.

2. Select one of the GET, POST, or DELETE radio buttons.

3. Select your basic action from the drop down or paste in your URL into the text box.

4. Click on “Make A REST Service Call” to complete your request.

5. If you are doing a POST, you will be prompted to select the body of your request.

6. If you do a POST or a DELTE that is an asynchronous process a Request ID is returned in the Response Header. The tool will detect this and auto populate a URL to check the result of the request.

7. You can keep clicking the “Make REST Service Call” button to check the results of the submitted operation until it is competed.

It is that simple!!! Like I said before, this tool is intended to be a starting point for someone new to working with the Windows Azure REST API’s.

Download: Windows Azure REST API Sample Tool

Other useful pieces of information

1. To create a new Virtual Machine you need to do the following: First, create the Service using Create Hosted Service. Second, you can use the Quick Create using that Service to create the Virtual Machine.

2. If you plan to work with Virtual Machines using the API, read this blog post about the URLs.

3. If you run into issues the best way to confirm the URL and Post Body is to perform the actions using PowerShell with Fiddler running. This will show the URL and exact Post Body.

Window Azure Preview Portal Enhancements for Virtual Machines, Disks, Service Bus, and More

Stephen W. Thomas — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 06:25:58 GMT

Some enhancements were made this weekend to the Windows Azure Preview Portal. With these enhancements is the addition of Service Bus features and I think the ability to create Containers inside a Storage Account. I do not remember that being in place before.

As it relates to Virtual Machines I noticed the following two changes:

1. When you Capture An Image from an existing Virtual Machine you get a notice saying the Virtual Machine will be deleted.

2. When you delete a DISK you are now giving the option to also delete the underlying blob storage vhd associated with that DISK. This is a nice, money saving feature.

On a side note, it seems the ability to create and capture an Image is no longer working. I have been trying since Friday with no luck. It was working a few weeks ago. So if you are trying to create an Image you may run into issues.

Working with Windows Azure Virtual Machines using the Windows Azure REST API

Stephen W. Thomas — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 05:43:17 GMT

Windows Azure has a rich Management REST API for working with all types of artifacts.

Continuing on with my current theme of working with the Windows Azure Virtual Machines in Preview mode I came across some details of the REST API that might be helpful to others. While the documentation seem to say for GET and DELETE requests you need something like the following:

https://management.core.windows.net/<subscription-id>/services/hostedservices/<service-name>/deployments/<deployment-name>/roles/<role-name>

The only way I have been able to get GET and DELTET requests to work is using “deploymentslots” rather than “deployments”. Below are some samples of REST API URLs that I was able to get working. For POST requests, the below URL was used for sending in a Request Body with additional XML payload details.

The Service Name listed below is the Virtual Machine Name witch is usually the same as the underlying Service (although it does not have to be). When deleting, the Hosted Service used by the Virtual Machine may also need to be deleted.

To Get Virtual Machine Details – HTTP GET

https://management.core.windows.net/<Subscription-ID>/services/hostedservices/<Service-Name>/deploymentslots/Production

To Delete a Virtual Machine – HTTP DELETE

https://management.core.windows.net/<Subscription-ID>/services/hostedservices/<Service-Name>/deploymentslots/Production

Make sure to clean up the Service – HTTP DELETE

https://management.core.windows.net/<Subscription-ID>/services/hostedservices/<Service-Name>

To Import a VM State (exported using PowerShell): – HTTP POST with Post Body

https://management.core.windows.net/<Subscription-ID>/services/hostedservices/<Service-Name>/deployments

To use Quick Create or Create a New Virtual Machine: – HTTP POST with Post Body

https://management.core.windows.net/<Subscription-ID>/services/hostedservices/<Service-Name>/deployments

Hope this helps someone else trying to use the Windows Azure REST API with Virtual Machines.

Working with the Add Disk Operation of the Windows Azure REST API

Stephen W. Thomas — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 05:38:55 GMT

Recently I was looking at a forum question of someone trying to add a disk to the Azure Virtual Machines using the Windows Azure REST API.

You have two types of Disks. You have a Data Disk that do not have an operating system and are used to store user files. You also have OS Disks. The OS Disks contain the operation system and is the main disk used when creating an Azure Virtual Machine.

These can be created using the REST API, PowerShell, or the Management Portal.

The REST API documentation outlines the following body for the post to create a new disk.

<Disk xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <HasOperatingSystem>true|false</HasOperatingSystem> 
   <Label>disk-description</Label>
   <MediaLink>uri-of-the-containing-blob</MediaLink>
   <Name>disk-mame</Name>
   <OS>Linux|Windows</OS>
</Disk>

While these are the right items to send to create the Disk, the order matters if you want to create an OS Disk. I found that the OS Element needed to be first in order to create an OS Disk vs. a Data Disk.

The correct body for the post to create an OS Disk should be:

<Disk xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <OS>Linux|Windows</OS>
   <HasOperatingSystem>true|false</HasOperatingSystem> 
   <Label>disk-description</Label>
   <MediaLink>uri-of-the-containing-blob</MediaLink>
   <Name>disk-mame</Name> 
</Disk>

Hope this helps someone out. More to come in the next few days on working with the Windows Azure REST API.

Windows Azure Virtual Hard Disk (blob storage) Cross Account Copy, Lease Break, and Management Tool

Stephen W. Thomas — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:24:00 GMT

Recently the Windows Azure Storage API’s were updated to include the ability to do cross account, asynchronous blob transfers. This means it was no longer necessary to download the blob in order to upload it to a different Windows Azure account. You can read all about this here.

I am working on proving out and understanding the scenario of creating a Master Image (or Master VHD for non-domain Virtual Machines) and sharing it with a large team of developers. Why? Because on past projects we have spent considerable time and resources (i.e. money) creating, maintaining, and provisioning developer images. For example on a recent project an urgent issue arose and we needed a dedicated BizTalk environment to test a cumulative update release. It was requested on Friday morning. Still today on Wednesday it was not created (4 business days later). With Windows Azure Virtual Machines and a pre-built image this would literally be a few minute task and something I could do myself without the involvement of 3 to 5 other people. In total, so much time (i.e. money) can now be saved with Windows Azure Virtual Machines!

This type of example leads me to my tool and why I created it. In my scenario, a Windows Azure Virtual Machine guru would create a master image or vhd for distribution. With the new asynchronous cross account copy, sending an Image or VHD to a new developer is a snap… as long as you know the “rules”. I created, copied, deleted, and destroyed over 100 Virtual Machines at a total cost of around $5.00 across multiple Azure accounts to fully understand how to successfully copy an Image and VHD from one account to another without issues. I put all that into a simple tool that anyone can use to manage vhds and copy them from one account to another. See below for known issues, features of the tool, and quick how to’s.

I welcome all feedback! Please note this tool is an excellent example of why I am NOT a Windows Form guy and in no way should anything done in this tool be considered a best practice. This tool is more about getting the job done and trying to make things easy to understand.

Download: Windows Azure VHD Helper Tool

Basic Steps for Cross Account VHD Copy:

Shut down your Virtual Machine.
Delete your Virtual Machine.
Delete the associated Image or Disk inside the Virtual Machine Portal. This does not remove the underlying blob of the vhd.
Copy the blob from one storage account to another.
Add your vhd back and recreate the virtual machine.

Issues (per my research) with VHD Copying as a Preview Feature– make sure you understand these issues and limitations. I assume most are related to preview issues and this process will get simpler with time.

If you copy a vhd that is Leased (configured as an Image or Disk inside the Virtual Machine Portal) the Source Disk will become unusable.
If you copy a vhd that is Leased (configured as an Image or Disk inside the Virtual Machine Portal) the Destination Disk will likely not work. I would say about 75% of the time they do not work. I just re-tested this tonight and they worked.
Copying from one data center to another seems to be as slow as downloading the file.
When downloading the file, make sure you do not close the form or the download will stop.
Copy Status does not seem to be working. I either get NULL or Pending all the time. Probably a user error on my part…. The best way to find out if the copy is complete is to check the file size on the destination. It is 0 MB until the copy is complete.

Features:

Visual view of vhds contained inside a Storage Account
Simple, one click Delete of vhds
Simple, one click Lease Break of vhds (for orphaned vhds – see more here)
One click download of a vhd, tested to work with Hyper-V (downloads at a rate of about 3 MB/sec)
Support for easily making a copy of a VHD within the same Azure account
Support for making a vhd copy across Window Azure Accounts within the same region within a few seconds
Support for making a vhd copy to any account in any region (slow when out of region)
Prevents you from making a copy of a vhd with an existing Lease
Uses the Windows Azure Storage API version 1.7.1 (github)

Advanced Features (with REST API Management Certificate):

Visual view of all vhds contained inside a single Windows Azure Account
See a “***” by vhds inside the Source storage account
List all custom user images inside a single Windows Azure Account

Missing Features (i.e. items I hope to add later):

Ability to upload a vhd
Ability to get details on an Image

Quick How-To’s:

How to work with just one Storage Account:

Set just a Source Configuration inside the app.config file. I also have a check box for “source only” that will try to auto determine what you want to do. The default is Source Only.

How to Copy a vhd into the same account:

Inside the app.config file for the tool, set the Source and Destination to the same Storage Account.

How to Copy a vhd into another account in the same region (inter-account or cross-account):

Inside the app.config file for the tool, set the Source to the Storage Account that has the source vhd and set Destination to Storage Account that you want for the Destination. The destination container vhds does not need to exist. The tool will create it for you. Click “Copy”. The Destination list should refresh and the copy already be compete. You will know it is complete when the size of the vhd is not 0.

How to Copy a vhd cross region:

Inside the app.config file for the tool, set the Source to the Storage Account that has the source VHD and set Destination to Storage Account that you want for the Destination. The destination container vhds does not need to exist. The tool will create it for you. Select a vhd in the List box that is not lease. Change the vhd name if you wish. Click “Copy”. Click on “List All VHDS” on the top right until you see the file size of the Destination change from 0 to the size of the VHD. This will take a long time, up to 8 hours. I would not close the form until I have confirmed it was completed.

How to Download a Source vhd:

Inside the app.config file for the tool, set the Source to the Storage Account that has the source VHD. Click on “List All VHDS”. Select the VHD you want to download inside the List Box. Click on “Download”. You will be prompted for the download location. Make sure you have enough disk space. Leave the tool open until you see a Completed notice on the top right of the tool. This will take up to 8 hours. Do not close the form or the download will stop.

How to Break a Lease or Delete a vhd on the Source or Destination:

Inside the app.config file for the tool, set the Source and Destination to the Storage Accounts that has the VHDS. Click on “List All VHDS”. Using the List Box, select a single vhd from the list. Click on “Break VHD Lease” to break the existing lease or “Delete VHD” to delete the vhd. Note: this operations are not undoable. Using these incorrectly can result in loss of data or vhds.

I would like to thank the following references:
- How not to throw an exception using CreateIfNotExists on a container - http://blog.smarx.com/posts/testing-existence-of-a-windows-azure-blob
- How to do an Azure REST API Service call - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ee460782.aspx
- How to have a 2nd thread update the main windows form - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10775367/cross-thread-operation-not-valid-control-textbox1-accessed-from-a-thread-othe
- Async across copy with SDK 1.7.1 - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2012/06/12/introducing-asynchronous-cross-account-copy-blob.aspx

Download: Windows Azure VHD Helper Tool