“Open source has always provided a number of benefits, including easing adoption costs, propagating a better understanding of the technology, and allowing for faster evolution and commercialization of products and services based on it,” noted Terry Woloszyn, Founder & CEO, Leeward Security Ltd., in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This is clearly evident with the OpenStack and CloudStack,” Woloszyn continued, “and others that have been quickly commercialized as...| By Keith Mayer | Article Rating: |
|
| January 12, 2013 05:00 PM EST | Reads: |
4,524 |
The Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering supports running Windows virtual machines and Linux virtual machines in the Cloud. In this article, I provide step-by-step guidance for running a new Linux virtual machine in the cloud using our Windows Azure platform.
Linux?
That’s right, Linux!
Windows Azure runs Linux VMs as a first-class citizen on our cloud platform, with support in the Preview offering for four common Linux distributions:
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP2
- OpenSUSE 12.1
- CentOS 6.3
- Ubuntu 12..04.1 and 12.10
The best news is … you can try this out for FREE by signing up for a FREE Windows Azure 90-day Trial of our Virtual Machine Preview.
- Do It: Sign up for your FREE Windows Azure 90-Day Trial Account so that you can follow along with the steps in this article.
NOTE: When activating your FREE Trial for Windows Azure, you will be prompted for credit card information. This information is used only to validate your identity and your credit card will not be charged, unless you explicitly convert your FREE Trial account to a paid subscription at a later point in time.
What about custom Linux images?
If the standard Linux platform images don’t meet your exact needs, there’s several options for leveraging or customizing other images for Windows Azure VMs …
- We’ve recently announced our own Open Source VM Depot for Linux images for Windows Azure VMs.
- SUSE Studio provides integrated Windows Azure support for deploying customized SLES and OpenSUSE images directly to Windows Azure. You’ll need to enable support for Windows Azure deployment under your SUSE Studio Account Settings by activating “Experimental Features” after registering on the SUSE Studio site.
- We also provide step-by-step guidance for preparing your own Linux images for use with Windows Azure if you need further customization flexibility.
Step-by-Step: Build a Linux Apache Web Server VM in the Windows Azure Cloud
In this scenario, we’ll work through the process of provisioning a new Linux Apache web server running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 in a virtual machine on the Windows Azure cloud platform.
- To prepare your Windows Azure environment, make sure you’ve first completed all steps in our Getting Started article.
- After you’ve provisioned a new Linux virtual machine, we’ll be configuring it via a remote Secure Shell (SSH) console session. If you don’t already have an SSH client installed on your PC, I highly recommend PuTTY. Download PuTTY and install it before proceeding.
-
Open Internet Explorer and browse to https://manage.windowsazure.com/ to enter the Windows Azure portal. Then, log in with your credentials.
-
In the menu located at the bottom, select New | Compute | Virtual Machine | From Gallery to start creating a new virtual machine.
-
On the VM OS Selection page, click Platform Images on the left menu and select the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 OS image from the list. Click the
button to continue. -
On the Virtual Machine Configuration page, specify a unique Virtual Machine Name and Administrative Password to be provisioned for the new VM.
Virtual Machine Configuration
Note: It is suggested to use secure passwords for administrative users and service accounts, as Windows Azure virtual machines could be accessible from the Internet knowing just their public DNS host names. You can also read this document on the Microsoft Security website that will help you select a secure password: http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx.
Record the username and password information that you’ve entered above for use when remotely connecting to this new virtual machine later in this step-by-step guide.
Click the
button to continue. -
On the Virtual Machine Mode page, specify a unique public DNS host name that you’ll use to initially access this new VM remotely. For the Storage Account and Region/Affinity Group/Virtual Network fields, select the storage account and affinity group that you previously created in the Getting Started article.
Click the
button to continue.
Virtual Machine Mode
Record the public DNS hostname for testing this new virtual machine after the configuration steps are complete. -
On the Virtual Machine Options page, accept the default values and click the
button to begin provisioning your new virtual machine.
Virtual Machine Options -
You will be returned to the Virtual Machines page and your new virtual machine will be listed with a status of Starting (Provisioning) while it is being initially provisioned on the Windows Azure cloud platform.
Provisioning a New Virtual Machine
As the new virtual machine is being provisioned, you will see the Status column on the Virtual Machines page of the Windows Azure Management Portal cycle through several values including Stopped, Stopped (Provisioning), and Running (Provisioning). When provisioning for this new Virtual Machine is completed, the Status column will display a value of Running and you may continue with the next step in this guide. -
After the new virtual machine has finished provisioning, click on the Name of the new Virtual Machine displayed on the Virtual Machines page of the Windows Azure Management Portal. This will navigate to a Dashboard page for this new virtual machine.
Virtual Machine Dashboard -
On the Virtual Machine Dashboard page, make note of the SSH Details. You’ll use this information to connect to the new virtual machine remotely via an SSH client to configure the Apache web server daemon.
-
On the Virtual Machine Dashboard page, click on the Endpoints link located in the top navigation area of this page. This will navigate to the Endpoints page for this virtual machine, listing all firewall endpoint traffic that is currently permitted inbound to this virtual machine.
Virtual Machine Endpoints
Note that SSH traffic has automatically been permitted inbound to this new Linux virtual machine, but no other network traffic is permitted by default. In the next two steps, we’ll add a new endpoint to permit inbound web http traffic to our virtual machine. -
On the Virtual Machine Endpoints page, click the +Add Endpoint button located on the bottom toolbar of this page. This will launch the Add Endpoint wizard.
Add Endpoint Wizard
Click the
button to continue. -
On the Specify the details of the endpoint wizard page, enter a name ( web-http ), a public port ( 80 ) and a private port ( 80 ) in the respective fields.
Specify the Details of the Endpoint
Click the
button to provision the new endpoint. -
On your PC, launch an SSH client, such as PuTTY, and establish a new remote SSH session to your virtual machine using the SSH details recorded in Step 9 above in the Host Name and Port fields of the SSH connection properties.
Establish a new Remote SSH Session with PuTTY
Click the Open button to establish a remote SSH session to your virtual machine. -
Because this is the first time connecting to this virtual machine, you may be presented with a Security Alert dialog box prompting you to accept the host key for securing this SSH session.
PuTTY Security Alert during First-Time SSH Connection
Click the Yes button to accept this host key into your SSH client cache and continue with establishing the connection. -
In the new SSH session window, authenticate with the Username and Password information recorded above in Step 4 above.
SSH Session Window -
In the SSH session window, enter the following command to elevate your session for performing root-level administrative commands:
sudo su -
When prompted, confirm your identity by re-entering the same Password used to authenticate in Step 17 above. -
In the SSH session window, install the packages needed for running the YaST2 setup and configuration tool by entering each of the following commands, pressing ENTER after each line:
zypper install yast2
zypper install yast2-ncurses
zypper install yast2-ncurses-pkg
zypper install yast2-qt
zypper install yast2-packager
zypper install yast2-runlevel
zypper install yast2-network
zypper install yast2-http-server -
In the SSH session window, launch the YaST2 setup and configuration tool by entering the following command:
yast2
This will launch the YaST2 Control Center menu-based setup and configuration tool.
YaST2 Control Center -
In the YaST2 Control Center, press ENTER on the Software menu choice and then select Software Management by pressing ENTER again. This will launch the YaST2 Software Management tool shown below.
YaST2 Software Management -
In the YaST2 Software Management tool, press ALT+F to change the Filter type, select Patterns using your arrow keys and press ENTER.
Selecting a Pattern Filter -
In the YaST2 Software Management tool, press TAB to switch your cursor focus to the Patterns List and scroll down using your arrow keys until Web and LAMP Server is highlighted.
Selecting the Web and Lamp Server Pattern Filter -
In the YaST2 Software Management tool, press ALT+T to open the Actions menu, then press ALT+A to select All Listed Packages, then press ALT+I to select the option to Install All. After this is completed, a + ( plus sign ) should appear next to each of the 9 selected packages.
Selecting to Install All Packages in the Web and Lamp Server Pattern Filter -
In the YaST2 Software Management tool, press ALT+A to start the installation. Press ENTER when prompted for confirmation.
Performing the Web and Lamp Server Package Installation
Once the installation is complete, the YaST2 Control Center main menu will appear again. -
In the YaST2 Control Center main menu, use arrow keys to select Network Services –> HTTP Server to configure the newly installed Web server.
Selecting the HTTP Server Wizard Configuration Tool
Press ENTER on the HTTP Server menu selection. -
In the HTTP Server Wizard, press F10 on each screen of the wizard to accept default configuration values and finish the wizard.
HTTP Server Configuration Wizard
Once the configuration process is complete, the YaST2 Control Center main menu will appear again. -
In the YaST2 Control Center main menu, use arrow keys to select System –> System Services (Runlevel) to start the Web server.
Selecting System Services (Runlevel) to Start Web Server
Press ENTER on the System Services (Runlevel) menu selection. -
In the YaST2 System Services (Runlevel) tool, use arrow keys to select apache2 in the Service list. Press ALT+E to enable and start the Apache HTTP daemon.
Enabling the Apache Web Daemon -
In the YaST2 System Services (Runlevel) tool, after the Apache Web Daemon is started, press ENTER and then ALT+O to accept the new Runlevel changes.
Accepting the Runlevel Changes
Press ENTER to confirm that changes will be saved.
We’re done! Let’s test it!
After the above steps are completed, the Apache Web Daemon will be running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 in a virtual machine on the Windows Azure cloud platform.
- Test the new virtual machine by opening a new browser window and navigating to:
http://<public_DNS_hostname>.cloudapp.net
Use the public DNS hostname value recorded in Step 7 above.
Testing the Linux HTTP Web Server VM
What’s Next? Keep Building!
Learn more about Windows Azure Virtual Machines with this FREE online training:
In addition to running Linux virtual machines on the Windows Azure cloud platform, did you know that Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and our FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 products support running Linux virtual machines in your on-premise data center?
- Do It: Learn more about these products at:
Which Linux workloads are you planning to virtualize?
Feel free to leave your comments below with your thoughts, questions and ideas for virtualizing Linux workloads on the Windows Azure cloud platform, Windows Server 2012 and our FREE Hyper-V Server 2012.
Keith
Published January 12, 2013 Reads 4,524
Copyright © 2013 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
More Stories By Keith Mayer
Keith Mayer is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft focused on Windows Infrastructure, Data Center Virtualization, Systems Management and Private Cloud. Keith has over 17 years of experience as a technical leader of complex IT projects, in diverse roles, such as Network Engineer, IT Manager, Technical Instructor and Consultant. He has consulted and trained thousands of IT professionals worldwide on the design and implementation of enterprise technology solutions.
Keith is currently certified on several Microsoft technologies, including System Center, Hyper-V, Windows, Windows Server, SharePoint and Exchange. He also holds other industry certifications from IBM, Cisco, Citrix, HP, CheckPoint, CompTIA and Interwoven.
Keith is the author of the IT Pros ROCK! Blog on Microsoft TechNet, voted as one of the Top 50 "Must Read" IT Blogs.
Keith also manages the Windows Server 2012 "Early Experts" Challenge - a FREE online study group for IT Pros interested in studying and preparing for certification on Windows Server 2012. Join us and become the next "Early Expert"!
- Cloud People: A Who's Who of Cloud Computing
- AMD and Adobe Collaborate on Upcoming Version of Adobe Premiere Pro Software to Enable Breakthrough Video Editing Performance Through Open Standards
- New Relic Q1 2013 Blazes Past Growth Targets and Reaches 40,000 Active Customer Accounts
- Predixion Software Announces General Availability of the Latest Version of its Predictive Analytics Platform
- Social Loginwall Failure
- Five Big Data Features in SQL Server
- GoBank Announces Timing of General Availability and National Distribution Relationships at FinovateSpring
- Cloud Expo NY: Cloud & Location-Aware Big Data Is Changing Our World
- MicroStrategy Announces General Availability of MicroStrategy 9.3.1
- How Bon-Ton Stores Align Business Goals with IT Requirements
- WordsEye Announces Upcoming Beta of a First-of-Its-Kind Text-to-Scene Application
- MicroStrategy Announces General Availability of MicroStrategy 9.3.1
- Cloud People: A Who's Who of Cloud Computing
- AMD and Adobe Collaborate on Upcoming Version of Adobe Premiere Pro Software to Enable Breakthrough Video Editing Performance Through Open Standards
- New Relic Q1 2013 Blazes Past Growth Targets and Reaches 40,000 Active Customer Accounts
- Predixion Software Announces General Availability of the Latest Version of its Predictive Analytics Platform
- Red Hat Reinforces Java Commitment
- Social Loginwall Failure
- VCE Revisited, Now and Zen
- Five Big Data Features in SQL Server
- Big Data Is Not Just About Marketing: Don’t Forget the IT Department’s Needs
- GoBank Announces Timing of General Availability and National Distribution Relationships at FinovateSpring
- Cloud Expo NY: Cloud & Location-Aware Big Data Is Changing Our World
- MicroStrategy Announces General Availability of MicroStrategy 9.3.1
- Building a Drag-and-Drop Shopping Cart with AJAX
- What Is AJAX?
- Google Maps! AJAX-Style Web Development Using ASP.NET
- Flashback to January 2006: Exclusive SYS-CON.TV Interviews on "OpenAjax Alliance" Announcement
- How and Why AJAX, Not Java, Became the Favored Technology for Rich Internet Applications
- Where Are RIA Technologies Headed in 2008?
- AJAXWorld Conference & Expo to Take Place October 2-4, 2006, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, California
- "Real-World AJAX" One-Day Seminar Arrives in Silicon Valley
- AJAX Sponsor Webcasts Are Now Available at AJAXWorld Website
- AJAXWorld University Announces AJAX Developer Bootcamp
- AJAX Support In JadeLiquid WebRenderer v3.1
- Struts Validations Framework Using AJAX
“Open source has always provided a number of benefits, including easing adoption costs, propagating a better understanding of the technology, and allowing for faster evolution and commercialization of products and services based on it,” noted Terry Woloszyn, Founder & CEO, Leeward Security Ltd., in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This is clearly evident with the OpenStack and CloudStack,” Woloszyn continued, “and others that have been quickly commercialized as...May. 23, 2013 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,334 |
By Liz McMillan SYS-CON Events announced today that OpenStack will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. OpenStack software controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed by a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.
OpenStack powers some of the most widely-used SaaS app...May. 23, 2013 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,111 |
By Elizabeth White SYS-CON Events announced today that Wowrack will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
Wowrack’s core expertise lies in high-availability Private and Public Cloud IaaS Hosting Solutions. Wowrack provides a true Hybrid service – where business release all IT management and hardware provisioning – taking the data center and server system administrative headaches off our customer’s shoulders. ...May. 23, 2013 12:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,098 |
By Liz McMillan Many have heard of OAuth but are unsure of how it might apply to their business.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Alistair Farquharson, CTO of SOA Software, will describe how OAuth can be used to facilitate certain business models and simplify the sharing of private data.
Alistair Farquharson is a visionary industry veteran focused on using disruptive technologies to drive business growth and improve efficiency and agility within organizations. As the CTO of SOA Software A...May. 23, 2013 11:14 AM EDT Reads: 739 |
By Elizabeth White May. 23, 2013 11:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,206 |
By Pat Romanski SYS-CON Events announced today that nfina Technologies, a provider of highly reliable cloud server products, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
nfina Technologies develops, manufactures, and markets highly reliable cloud server products, designed to solve the most demanding data center requirements in mission-critical cloud applications. Nfina’s staff has decades of experience in co...May. 23, 2013 11:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,048 |
By Liz McMillan “Social, mobile, analytics and cloud can’t be looked at as distinct technology trends; they are facets of the same movement and an everyday reality for consumers and businesses alike,” said Craig Sowell, IBM VP of SmartCloud Marketing, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This means that businesses need to start looking at trends as one: cloud is the delivery, analytics is the unique insight, social is a shareable service, and mobile is the ubiquitous access.”
...May. 23, 2013 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,063 |
By Pat Romanski In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Dave Eichorn, Global Data Center Practice Head at Zensar, will share a case study describing how a utility services company handled the migration of its Microsoft platform to the cloud. Challenged with the time-consuming task of opening operations out of temporary offices, this company struggled with the need to simultaneously access data that was accumulated from a vast amount of data-intensive jobs. Zensar migrated the company’s application ...May. 23, 2013 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,072 |
By Liz McMillan Organizations across the world are increasingly starting to see the benefits of moving more and more services to the cloud. The focus on the cost-saving potential of cloud is rapidly shifting to completely transforming the business with cloud. As organizations are investing enormous sums on technology they are starting to realize that in order to maximize the return on investment and accelerate the business transformation process the first area of focus should be people. By ensuring the organiza...May. 23, 2013 09:45 AM EDT Reads: 930 |
By Elizabeth White You're getting pitched every day from your legacy enterprise software and hardware vendors about "cloud." They're doing an amazing job of convincing your CIO and CTO about what cloud is and how you should use it. The reality is they're defending their shrinking market share and keeping you on the legacy treadmill for as long as they can by selling you solutions that aren't "cloud."
In her session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Niki Acosta, Cloud Evangelista for Rackspace, will talk thro...May. 23, 2013 09:38 AM EDT Reads: 528 |










SYS-CON Events announced today that OpenStack will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. OpenStack software controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed by a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.
OpenStack powers some of the most widely-used SaaS app...
SYS-CON Events announced today that Wowrack will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
Wowrack’s core expertise lies in high-availability Private and Public Cloud IaaS Hosting Solutions. Wowrack provides a true Hybrid service – where business release all IT management and hardware provisioning – taking the data center and server system administrative headaches off our customer’s shoulders. ...
Many have heard of OAuth but are unsure of how it might apply to their business.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Alistair Farquharson, CTO of SOA Software, will describe how OAuth can be used to facilitate certain business models and simplify the sharing of private data.
Alistair Farquharson is a visionary industry veteran focused on using disruptive technologies to drive business growth and improve efficiency and agility within organizations. As the CTO of SOA Software A...
SYS-CON Events announced today that nfina Technologies, a provider of highly reliable cloud server products, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
nfina Technologies develops, manufactures, and markets highly reliable cloud server products, designed to solve the most demanding data center requirements in mission-critical cloud applications. Nfina’s staff has decades of experience in co...
“Social, mobile, analytics and cloud can’t be looked at as distinct technology trends; they are facets of the same movement and an everyday reality for consumers and businesses alike,” said Craig Sowell, IBM VP of SmartCloud Marketing, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This means that businesses need to start looking at trends as one: cloud is the delivery, analytics is the unique insight, social is a shareable service, and mobile is the ubiquitous access.”
...
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Dave Eichorn, Global Data Center Practice Head at Zensar, will share a case study describing how a utility services company handled the migration of its Microsoft platform to the cloud. Challenged with the time-consuming task of opening operations out of temporary offices, this company struggled with the need to simultaneously access data that was accumulated from a vast amount of data-intensive jobs. Zensar migrated the company’s application ...
Organizations across the world are increasingly starting to see the benefits of moving more and more services to the cloud. The focus on the cost-saving potential of cloud is rapidly shifting to completely transforming the business with cloud. As organizations are investing enormous sums on technology they are starting to realize that in order to maximize the return on investment and accelerate the business transformation process the first area of focus should be people. By ensuring the organiza...
You're getting pitched every day from your legacy enterprise software and hardware vendors about "cloud." They're doing an amazing job of convincing your CIO and CTO about what cloud is and how you should use it. The reality is they're defending their shrinking market share and keeping you on the legacy treadmill for as long as they can by selling you solutions that aren't "cloud."
In her session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Niki Acosta, Cloud Evangelista for Rackspace, will talk thro...
Hyper-V Replica is our included asynchronous site-to-site VM replication capability for Windows Server 2012 and our free Hyper-V Server 2012 bare-metal enterprise-grade hypervisor. Using Hyper-V Replica, you can quickly implement a cost-effective disaster recovery plan for your business critical VM...
Imagine if you could take a time machine five years into the future, so that you would know which of today’s new technologies panned out and which did not.
Most companies have only started using cloud in the past two years. But there are some companies that have been using cloud for five years or...
Don and I have four children, all of whom have had the fortune to take piano lessons (I'm not sure if the youngest would agree he's fortunate at this point in his life but at five, he's not really able to answer the question with any degree of wisdom, anyway. Come to think of it, not sure the other ...
Our prior post, A Roadmap to High-Value Cloud Infrastructure: Disaster Recovery and Data Protection, discussed both the benefits and limitations of a cloud-based disaster recovery (DR) strategy. As we highlighted last week, traditional disaster recovery options leave open a huge hole: At one extreme...
Online collaboration has evolved during the last decade, delivering even greater value -- thanks to a new generation of business technology applications. Forbes Insights released "Collaborating in the Cloud," a Cisco-sponsored study examining the ways business leaders increasingly look at cloud coll...
New technologies allow schools, colleges and universities to analyze absolutely everything that happens. From student behavior, testing results, career development of students as well as educational needs based on changing societies. A lot of this data has already been stored and is used for statist...
A recent Gartner study states that the function of the modern CIO is in flux and that his or her future focus must incorporate digital assets (aka cloud-based data and applications) to remain relevant. Towards the goal of riding the sea change a compiler of stacks to a broker of business needs, secu...
In the coming years, big data will change the way organisations and societies are operated and managed. Big data however, is not the only trend that will impact significantly how organisations operate. Another major trend at the moment is gamification. Gamification will change the way organisations ...
We all talk about cloud differently, but is there a way we should be speaking about this tech?
Cloud computing is now a widely reported, if not accepted, IT movement that, depending on who you talk to, has changed or is changing the way businesses utilize infrastructure.








