Create custom virtual machines and images in Windows Azure
Greetings to all, dear geek readers!
Today I want to talk about something virtual, virtual machine - and preferably public.
And if so, then I don’t have much options - so we will talk about Windows Azure virtual machines , or rather about creating custom virtual machines, as well as about the mechanisms that take part in this.
Well then - let's dive!
When it comes to virtual machines in a public cloud, many have their eyes lit up and quite logical thoughts appear: “Can I put my virtual machine in a cloud that is already set up so that it lives THERE, NOT HERE?” .
The question, as I said, is quite fair and deserving of attention - let's deal with it.
Indeed, Windows Azure Virtual Machines not only allows you to create VMs from ready-made images, but also import pre-configured VHD disks for their further work already in the public Windows Azure cloud. This suggests that you can fully configure and configure the virtual machine with the software you need on the Hyper-V hypervisor locally in your data center - and continue to continue working, as they say, “from outside”.
And here, any experienced specialist will have another, quite interesting, question: “OK, I downloaded the custom VHD, everything works - all the fire! Well, if I need to fill such VMs with 100 or 1000 - do I need to clone them or load them later !? Now, if I process and load a virtual server with sysprep, can I then clone this disk from the library? ”
And here an interesting point arises: if you“ pass ”a VHD disk with a pre-installed OS and software through sysprep, generalize the OS - then in fact, from a Windows Azure point of view, it’s not a drive, but an image for deploying the following OS instances. There are several points to consider if you want to import not a disk, but an image in Windows Azure:
1) Generalization using sysprep is required;
2) In no case do not perform an unattended installation using the unattended.xml file - i.e. just do not place this file on the target disk;
3) Do not install Windows Azure Integration Components into VHD with the OS;
4) Do not install the Windows Azure Agent (Windows Azure Agent).
To make it easier to remember, I propose a simple picture:
Another important point - the drives for import should be fixed (fixed), in terms of their size and extensibility properties.
Simply put, it’s easier to say and it doesn’t work out - everything is really simple and interesting if you remember the small rules that I told you about today. The only thing that should be mentioned is that just like you upload disks from the data center to the public cloud - you can also safely download the VHD-disk and use it to work in Hyper-V.
An observant reader and geek will ask: “Stop, why VHD, not VHDX?” Is the format newer and more promising? ”The
answer will be this: today we can only offer import and export of VHD disks, but not VHDX. Over time, of course, there will be such an opportunity.
When loading a virtual disk using the CSUpload command, you can convert the disk to VHD format when loading the VM.
Well, colleagues - that's all for today.
I hope it was concise and helpful!
Have a good week.
Sincerely,
Human Fire,
Georgy A. Gadzhiev
Information Infrastructure Expert
Microsoft Corporation.
Today I want to talk about something virtual, virtual machine - and preferably public.
And if so, then I don’t have much options - so we will talk about Windows Azure virtual machines , or rather about creating custom virtual machines, as well as about the mechanisms that take part in this.
Well then - let's dive!
Disks and Images
When it comes to virtual machines in a public cloud, many have their eyes lit up and quite logical thoughts appear: “Can I put my virtual machine in a cloud that is already set up so that it lives THERE, NOT HERE?” .
The question, as I said, is quite fair and deserving of attention - let's deal with it.
Indeed, Windows Azure Virtual Machines not only allows you to create VMs from ready-made images, but also import pre-configured VHD disks for their further work already in the public Windows Azure cloud. This suggests that you can fully configure and configure the virtual machine with the software you need on the Hyper-V hypervisor locally in your data center - and continue to continue working, as they say, “from outside”.
And here, any experienced specialist will have another, quite interesting, question: “OK, I downloaded the custom VHD, everything works - all the fire! Well, if I need to fill such VMs with 100 or 1000 - do I need to clone them or load them later !? Now, if I process and load a virtual server with sysprep, can I then clone this disk from the library? ”
And here an interesting point arises: if you“ pass ”a VHD disk with a pre-installed OS and software through sysprep, generalize the OS - then in fact, from a Windows Azure point of view, it’s not a drive, but an image for deploying the following OS instances. There are several points to consider if you want to import not a disk, but an image in Windows Azure:
1) Generalization using sysprep is required;
2) In no case do not perform an unattended installation using the unattended.xml file - i.e. just do not place this file on the target disk;
3) Do not install Windows Azure Integration Components into VHD with the OS;
4) Do not install the Windows Azure Agent (Windows Azure Agent).
To make it easier to remember, I propose a simple picture:
Another important point - the drives for import should be fixed (fixed), in terms of their size and extensibility properties.
Simply put, it’s easier to say and it doesn’t work out - everything is really simple and interesting if you remember the small rules that I told you about today. The only thing that should be mentioned is that just like you upload disks from the data center to the public cloud - you can also safely download the VHD-disk and use it to work in Hyper-V.
An observant reader and geek will ask: “Stop, why VHD, not VHDX?” Is the format newer and more promising? ”The
answer will be this: today we can only offer import and export of VHD disks, but not VHDX. Over time, of course, there will be such an opportunity.
When loading a virtual disk using the CSUpload command, you can convert the disk to VHD format when loading the VM.
Well, colleagues - that's all for today.
I hope it was concise and helpful!
Have a good week.
Sincerely,
Human Fire,
Georgy A. Gadzhiev
Information Infrastructure Expert
Microsoft Corporation.