Can we install a version of azure locally? In other words, can we manage an independent azure cloud? I am using the emulator. But I want a real azure system. This question seems meaningless but my professor asked it unfortunately.
If you're big enough, then there's the Azure Appliance - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/appliance/
On a smaller scale, many of the Azure facilities are available through "Server 2008 AppFabric" products and Microsoft's management platforms are striving to make private datacenters and public Azure clouds interchangeable.
Your question isn't meaningless, as it's important to understand what's offered via Windows Azure. Currently, Windows Azure offers a public cloud. There are a "very" limited number of Windows Azure Appliances that have been built for use by enterprises such as eBay (see the link Stuart provided). However, these are not for general sale, and these are extremely expensive.
Related
I am provisioning a new VM for Windows to run some samples using Python notebooks and sql server. The existing samples are using the classic portal. In the new portal, I have the options to add or provision one of two VMs:
Data Science Virtual Machine runs on Windows
Data Science Virtual Machine runs on Windows (CSP)
I want to know the difference; I might be misreading it, it seems one has license (CSP's description says "Bring Your Own License enabled.")? Also, When should one pick one over the other?
Thanks.
The CSP editions of the Data Science Virtual Machine (#DSVM) are only deployable in CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) based subscriptions. CSPs are Microsoft Partner companies that are certified to re-sell Microsoft cloud services and provide value added services on top.
Here's a comparison of the different licensing modes that are available:
Licensing Modes for Cloud Services
If you are not using a CSP subscription you deploy the non CSP offers. As the CSP offers require the licenses to be provided by a CSP and on a CSP Licensing Agreement.
We will be hosting TFS in a private cloud on VM(s). Are there technical differences to hosting TFS on Azure or AWS, or is it only a matter of pricing and which cloud a team prefers and has past knowledge of? I also think we won't go the Visual Studio Online route.
At InCycle, we have a full TFS 2015 installation hosted in Azure spread across something like 6-8 VMs. You'll need to take into account the standard considerations (virtual machine sizing and performance), especially on the data tier, which should have plenty of fast disks and lots of CPU and RAM.
You'll also need to consider Active Directory sync and how you'll get access to things like build drops on-premise from Azure.
Honestly, VSO will almost certainly be a lot cheaper for you, and you won't have to worry about the infrastructure requirements or upgrading TFS on a regular basis.
The ALM rangers have excellent guidance on this, as well: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2014/06/06/team-foundation-server-on-azure-iaas-guidance.aspx
I want to use Windows Azure. However, my admin guy is fighting against me using it. From my understanding, I can setup a private cloud so that I can use Azure's features, but on an internal environment. I have convinced him to let me try it. I have one Windows Server 2008 server that I can try this out on. Unfortunately, I don't know how to setup a private cloud.
Does anyone know of a step-by-step walkthrough of how to do this? Or am I misunderstanding the idea of a private cloud? Thank you so much for any insights.
As #Alan pointed out, you can not create a Windows Azure private cloud. However: If you're a hosting service provider, you can now start working with two Windows Azure services on Windows Server+System Center: Websites and Virtual Machine provisioning, along with service management API and portal. More details are here.
Also: You can create a hybrid environment: Windows Azure services in the cloud, and local services in your own data center, bridged via Virtual Network VPN. Here's some info on Virtual Networks from MSDN.
You cannot set up a private cloud using Windows Azure.
If you want to set this up internally on Server 2008 you should look at System Center or Hyper V for hosting VMs. It will be quite a large underatking to do this reliably, and if you are new to the technology there will be a lot to learn.
If you would like to use Windows Azure you can currently hosy Virtual Machines in the Windows Azure data centers. This is very easy to get started with, will be much more productive than creating an on-preimise solution.
You can register for a free 90 day Azure trial account here:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/
There is some information on Windows Azure Virtual Machines here:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/virtual-machines/
There are some VM labs in the Windows Azure Training kit here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8396
It will probably take you about 15 minutes to get your first Windows Server 2008 Virtual Machine up and running in Azure.
Regards,
Alan
If you own the data center, you can setup a private cloud with the help of windows azure pack.
WAP is simply a control panel of managing your cloud. It offered an option to create and manage VM"S on your data center.
Vconnect with vm ware and billing integrations on azure pack details are available on the following link. Register here for free demo trial access
http://www.cloudassert.com/Solutions/VConnect
From my personal experience, I am suggesting Cloud Assert, a team made of founders who are ex-Microsoft managers with many years of hands-on experience in designing, building and running truly large scale hosted services on Windows Azure.
They helped me in setting up my own private cloud and educated through customized solution that works best for my use cases.
Also, Cloud Assert will help to create hybrid cloud environment as well. For more details
Microsoft Azure is for public cloud. For private cloud, Microsoft's solution is Azure Stack (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/azure-stack/). Take care checking the hardware requirements before taking actions.
I've recently been asked to redevelop an .Net 2.0 WinForms application with a back end SQL Server Express DB.
One of the requirements is to allow remote users access to the application, so I've been considering hosted options to avoid VPN setup. The data is not sensitive and does not fall under data protection act, so a basic security approach for the web will cover me.
I like the idea of using Azure for a few reasons, but I'm not sure if a good fit for a users base of 5 or 6 with no real scope to grow. I've never used Azure and I plan to develop using MVC and a SQL backend as this is my main skillset.
A few points in favour of Azure in my mind are:
Tight integration with the TFS preview that I'm using for this project
Easy to setup a sandpit and a live version
Easy maintenance as I expect other hosted options will require more knowledge of underlying OS
Sticking to a full Microsoft stack should hopefully make things simpler
From what I find on the Azure site the message is all about scalability, which is great if you need it.
My question is simply, do you need a large user base, or plans to grow quickly, to use azure or is it how we should be hosting apps now?
What you're asking here is the perfect case for Windows Azure Web Sites:
You get 10 web sites for free (no custom DNS, but this is perfect for your 'sandpit'/test version). The shared mode supports custom DNS and is very cheap.
Tight integration with TFS preview and GitHub
You don't need to worry about the underlying OS, you simply publish from Visual Studio or with TFS Preview.
Sticking to the Microsoft stack is the easiest solution, but other technologies work great aswell. Since you're talking about MVC I'm assuming you are considering ASP.NET MVC, which is a perfect match with Windows Azure. Take a look at the training kit for some good examples.
The day you'll need a solution which more scalable (meaning you'll have more users and more income) you can easily upgrade to a reserved instance or to a Cloud Service (Web/Worker Role).
About your question: "My question is simply, do you need a large user base, or plans to grow quickly, to use azure or is it how we should be hosting apps now?"
Windows Azure is a cloud service platform (includes PaaS as Cloud Services, IaaS as Windows Azure Virtual Machines and also Websites suggest by Sandrino above), and with cloud services you have ability to start very small and grow as much and as quickly as your user requirement is, so you can use Azure with both cases. On the other hand there are some advantages using certain offering depend on your which service you are going to use to run your application.
I think article (Section: "What Should I Use? Making a Choice") will explain the strategy about how you make a selection among various services.
This SO discussion does talks about the difference between cloud Services and Azure WebSites as well.
I want start developing with Azure platform. My question is: is there any chance to run azure environment on Windows Server? I don't want to test in Visual Studio, but on separate environment.
What software I need to emulate Azure environment?
The best you can do is to run the Azure Emulator that you're currently running on your desktop on the server, but that really won't achieve anything meaningful.
Windows Azure is not a set of features that can be installed on top of an OS. It's a complete data centre environment comprising bespoke hardware, customised OS, network systems, storage, SQL Azure, AppFabric and a whole host of other things.
If you have many millions of dollars to invest, Microsoft can build you a Windows Azure capability. We have one in Japan. One day, hopefully in the not too distant future, you'll be able to buy a much smaller one, but it's still likely to cost millions (if you're lucky, only a few $100k).
Practically speaking, it's much more cost effective to test your Azure applications on the public Azure platform.
From a practical perspective, you can architect your application to abstract out any direct dependencies on Azure into independent classes that can be substituted using Dependency Injection. By implementing versions of these classes that are designed to run in a standard Windows environment, you can test the vast majority of your application in your environment before deploying to Azure. Use SQL Server as a local equivalent to SQL Azure. Azure storage replacements may take some more thought and if you use features such as Service Bus or ACS, you've got yet more work to do.
But be sure to run a comprehensive test phase with your application running on Azure before you roll it into production.