Windows Azure

File: Creating a New Virtual Machine with Windows Azure Video

Stephen W. Thomas — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 03:01:00 GMT

This 10 minute video walks through the new IaaS features of Windows Azure. It shows how simple it is to create a new Virtual Machine.

File: Windows Azure Virtual Machine and Virtual Hard Disk Management Tool

Stephen W. Thomas — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 01:50:00 GMT

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.

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 computing time
Bring a local Virtual Machine online to use it again

Featrues: 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

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

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 blog from one storage account to another.
Add your vhd back and recreate the virtual machine.

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.

File: Windows Azure REST API Simple Sample and Tool

Stephen W. Thomas — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:22:00 GMT

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.

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.

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.

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

Stephen W. Thomas — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 06:47:00 GMT

This tool is outdated - get the latest version here: http://www.biztalkgurus.com/windows_azure/m/windows_azure/37137.aspx

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 blog from one storage account to another.
Add your vhd back and recreate the virtual machine.

Known Issues (per my research) with VHD Copying– make sure you understand these issues and limitations. I assume most are related to preview issues.

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