The setup of this attempt consists of a domain controller and a file server and 10 domain joined Windows 8 clients.
There is no standard image of Windows 8 in the Azure Cloud. They offer by default (as in December 2012) some Unix distributions and Windows Server 2012 Data Center, SQL and so on.
I was curious to find out whether it is possible to upload Windows 8 to Azure and run it in the cloud and in which degree of automation. I am clueless about the licensing policies of Microsoft concerning Windows 8 and Azure, so this attempt is only experimental and not productive.
Part 2: See how to upload your VHD to Azure
Part 3: See how to create a Virtual Machine from VHD in Azure
Part 4: See how to capture an image in Azure after Sysprep
Part 5: See how to deploy Windows 8 in Azure
The goal was to automatically deploy Windows 8 and join it into a domain via PowerShell Script.
I created a Video Tutorial that contains most of the described parts of this tutorial. (Watch in HD)
Perquisites: You need to have a Domain Controller that is already deployed in the network.
Here you find a tutorial:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/services/networking/active-directory-forest/
Execute the script
#-------------------------------------------
#Specify my DC's DNS IP (10.4.3.5)
$clientName = 'clo-vdi-007'
$myDNS = New-AzureDNS -Name 'clo-svr-dc01' -IPAddress '10.4.3.5'
# OS Image to Use
$image = 'img-win8-basic-v1'
$service = $clientName
$AG = 'agn-cloudtec'
$vnet = 'nwk-cloudtec'
$pwd = 'P@$$w0r.d'
$size = 'Small'
#VM Configuration
# -MachineOU (is optional, REMOVE IT IF YOU DONT HAVE IT
#I created a specific OU for the machine to join. There I can apply GPOs)
$vmname = $clientName
$MyVM1 = New-AzureVMConfig -name $vmname -InstanceSize $size -ImageName $image |
Add-AzureProvisioningConfig -WindowsDomain -Password $pwd -Domain 'cloudtec' -DomainPassword 'P@$$w0r.d' -DomainUserName 'Administrator' -JoinDomain 'cloudtec.local' -MachineObjectOU 'OU=Clients,OU=cloudtec,DC=cloudtec,DC=local'|
Set-AzureSubnet -SubnetNames 'sub-backend'
New-AzureVM -ServiceName $service -AffinityGroup $AG -VMs $MyVM1 -DnsSettings $myDNS -VNetName $vnet
Now the machine is provisioning...
After the machine is done and ready. You can connect with RDP and immediately access it. In the embedded YouTube Video I explain in detail how to create a user group and link it with GPOs to the local clients User Group of Remote Desktop Users, to enable multiple users to connect to set of creatd virtual machine.
This tutorial was very experimental. But it helped me to better understand Azure.
Always create a mini project to learn something ,-)
