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Step-by-Step: Build a FREE SharePoint 2013 Dev/Test Lab in the Cloud with Windows Azure Infrastructure Services

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RECENT UPDATES:

  • This Step-by-Step Guide has been leveraged to define a new Windows Azure Deployment Planning Service ( AZDPS ) for Microsoft Partners and Customers: Implementing Develop and Test Scenarios on Windows Azure Virtual Machines.  Customers can now engage authorized partners for planning and delivery of this solution AND customers with Software Assurance ( SA ) benefits attached to a Volume Licensing ( VL ) agreement can leverage SA to pay for all or part of this partner engagement.  You can find full details on this new AZDPS offer at:
     
    Windows Azure Deployment Planning Service: Implementing Develop and Test Scenarios on Windows Azure Virtual Machines
     
    You can find a partner that is authorized to deliver this service at the Software Assurance Planning Service Providers portal page below:
     
    Software Assurance Planning Service Providers
     
  • At the end of this step-by-step article, I've also included a downloadable lab guide and a 130-line PowerShell script for initial provisioning.  The PowerShell script helps to reduce the initial configuration time by automating the provisioning of a new Windows Azure Storage account, Virtual Network and Virtual Machines - after running the script, you'll just need to Remote Desktop into each VM to finish the OS and application-level configuration tasks. 

Hope you enjoy!

Get Started with your Lab in the Cloud for FREE!

Now that Windows Azure Infrastructure Services has been released, I frequently get asked about ways in which a SharePoint 2013 lab environment can be easily built in the cloud for studying, testing, demos, developer environments and/or performing a proof-of-concept for production usage.  You could certainly build this lab environment on your own hardware, but due to the level of SharePoint 2013 hardware requirements, a lot of us may not have sufficient spare hardware to implement an on-premise lab environment.

This makes a great scenario for leveraging our Windows Azure FREE Trial Offer to get started building a free Dev/Test lab environment for SharePoint 2013 in the cloud.  Using the process outlined in this article, you’ll be able to build a basic functional farm environment for SharePoint 2013 with your free trial subscription for Windows Azure.

Note: If you are testing advanced SharePoint 2013 scenarios and need more resources than available in the lab configuration below, you can certainly scale-up or scale-out elastically by provisioning larger VMs or additional SharePoint web and application server VMs.  To determine the specific costs associated with higher resource levels after your free trial has concluded, please visit the Windows Azure Pricing Calculator for Virtual Machines. 

Configuring SharePoint Server 2013 on Windows Azure Infrastructure Services

To deliver a functional and expandable lab environment, this article provides step-by-step details for provisioning SharePoint Server 2013 on Windows Azure VMs that will require three (3) VMs on a common Windows Azure Virtual Network. Watch this short video for a quick primer on the configuration we'll be using:

In this lab, we’ll be using a naming convention of XXXlabYYY01, where XXX will be replaced with your unique initials and YYY will be replaced with an abbreviation representing the function of a virtual machine or Windows Azure configuration component (ie., ad, db or app).

Prerequisites

The following is required to complete this step-by-step guide:

  • A Windows Azure subscription with the Virtual Machines Preview enabled.
     
    DO IT: Sign up for a FREE Trial of Windows Azure
     
    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. 
     
  • Completion of the Getting Started tasks in the following article:
     
    DO IT: Getting Started with Servers in the Cloud
     
  • This step-by-step guide assumes that the reader is already somewhat familiar with configuring Windows Server Active Directory, SQL Server and SharePoint Server in an on-premise installation. This guide focuses on the unique aspects associated with configuring these components on the Windows Azure cloud platform.
     

Let’s Get Started!

In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to:

  • Register a DNS Server in Windows Azure
  • Define a Virtual Network in Windows Azure
  • Configure Windows Server Active Directory in a Windows Azure VM
  • Configure SQL Server 2012 in a Windows Azure VM
  • Configure SharePoint Server 2013 in a Windows Azure VM

Exercise 1: Register a DNS Server in Windows Azure

Register the internal IP address that our domain controller VM will be using for Active Directory-integrated Dynamic DNS services by performing the following steps:

  1. Sign in at the Windows Azure Management Portal with the logon credentials used when you signed up for your Free Windows Azure Trial.
     
  2. Select Networks located on the side navigation panel on the Windows Azure Management Portal page.
     
  3. Click the +NEW button located on the bottom navigation bar and select Networks | Virtual Network | Register DNS Server.
     
  4. Complete the DNS Server fields as follows:
     
    - NAME: XXXlabdns01
    - DNS Server IP Address: 10.0.0.4
     
  5. Click the REGISTER DNS SERVER button.

Exercise 2: Define a Virtual Network in Windows Azure

Define a common virtual network in Windows Azure for running Active Directory, Database and SharePoint virtual machines by performing the following steps:

  1. Sign in at the Windows Azure Management Portal with the logon credentials used when you signed up for your Free Windows Azure Trial.
     
  2. Select Networks located on the side navigation panel on the Windows Azure Management Portal page.
     
  3. Click the +NEW button located on the bottom navigation bar and select Networks | Virtual Network | Quick Create.
     
  4. Complete the Virtual Network fields as follows:
     
    - NAME: XXXlabnet01
    - Address Space: 10.---.---.---
    - Maximum VM Count: 4096 [CIDR: /20]
    - Affinity Group: Select the Affinity Group defined in the Getting Started steps from the Prerequisites section above.
    - Connect to Existing DNS: Select XXXlabdns01 – the DNS Server registered in Exercise 1 above.
     
  5. Click the CREATE A VIRTUAL NETWORK button.

Exercise 3: Configure Windows Server Active Directory in a Windows Azure VM

Provision a new Windows Azure VM to run a Windows Server Active Directory domain controller in a new Active Directory forest by performing the following steps:

  1. Sign in at the Windows Azure Management Portal with the logon credentials used when you signed up for your Free Windows Azure Trial.
     

  2. Select Virtual Machines located on the side navigation panel on the Windows Azure Management Portal page.
     

  3. Click the +NEW button located on the bottom navigation bar and select Compute | Virtual Machines | From Gallery.
     

  4. In the Virtual Machine Operating System Selection list, select Windows Server 2012 Datacenter and click the Next button.
     

  5. On the Virtual Machine Configuration page, complete the fields as follows:
     
    - Version Release Date: Select the latest version release date to build a new VM with the latest OS updates applied.
    - Virtual Machine Name: XXXlabad01 
    - New User Name: Choose a secure local Administrator user account to provision.
    - New Password and Confirm Password fields: Choose and confirm a new local Administrator password.
    - Size: Small (1 core, 1.75GB Memory)
     
    Click the Next button to continue.
     
    Note: It is suggested to use secure passwords for Administrator users and service accounts, as Windows Azure virtual machines could be accessible from the Internet knowing just their DNS.  You can also read this document on the Microsoft Security website that will help you select a secure password: https://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx.
     

  6. On the Virtual Machine Mode page, complete the fields as follows:
     
    - Standalone Virtual Machine: Selected
    - DNS Name: XXXlabad01.cloudapp.net
    - Storage Account: Select the Storage Account defined in the Getting Started steps from the Prerequisites section above.
    - Region/Affinity Group/Virtual Network: Select XXXlabnet01 – the Virtual Network defined in Exercise 2 above.
    - Virtual Network Subnets: Select Subnet-1 (10.0.0.0/23)
     
    Click the Next button to continue.
     

  7. On the Virtual Machine Options page, click the Checkmark button to begin provisioning the 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.
     

  8. After the new virtual machine has finished provisioning, click on the name ( XXXlabad01 ) of the new Virtual Machine displayed on the Virtual Machines page of the Windows Azure Management Portal.
     

  9. On the virtual machine Dashboard page for XXXlabad01, make note of the Internal IP Address displayed on this page located on the right-side of the page.  This IP address should be listed as 10.0.0.4. 
     
    If a different internal IP address is displayed, the virtual network and/or virtual machine configuration was not completed correctly.  In this case, click the DELETE button located on the bottom toolbar of the virtual machine details page for XXXlabad01, and go back to Exercise 2 and Exercise 3 to confirm that all steps were completed correctly.
     

  10. On the virtual machine Dashboard page for XXXlabad01, click the Attach button located on the bottom navigation toolbar and select Attach Empty Disk.  Complete the following fields on the Attach an empty disk to the virtual machine form:
     
    - Name: XXXlabad01-data01
    - Size: 10 GB
    - Host Cache Preference: None
     
    Click the Checkmark button to create and attach the a new virtual hard disk to virtual machine XXXlabad01.
     

  11. On the virtual machine Dashboard page for XXXlabad01, click the Connect button located on the bottom navigation toolbar and click the Open button to launch a Remote Desktop Connection to the console of this virtual machine.  Logon at the console of your virtual machine with the local Administrator credentials defined in Step 5 above.
     

  12. From the Remote Desktop console of XXXlabad01, create a new partition on the additional data disk attached above in Step 10 and format this partition as a new F: NTFSvolume.  This volume will be used for NTDS DIT database, log and SYSVOL folder locations.
     
    If you need additional guidance to complete this step, feel free to leverage the following study guide for assistance: Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” Challenge – Configure Local Storage
     

  13. Using the Server Manager tool, install Active Directory Domain Services and promote this server to a domain controller in a new forest with the following parameters:
     
    - Active Directory Forest name: contoso.com
    - Volume Location for NTDS database, log and SYSVOL folders: F:
     
    If you need additional guidance to complete this step, feel free to leverage the following study guide for assistance: Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” Challenge – Install and Administer Active Directory
     

  14. After Active Directory has been installed, create the following user accounts that will be used when installing and configuring SharePoint Server 2013 later in this step-by-step guide:

    - CONTOSO\sp_farm – SharePoint Farm Data Access Account
    - CONTOSO\sp_serviceapps – SharePoint Farm Service Applications Account
     
    If you need additional guidance to complete this step, feel free to leverage the following study guide for assistance: Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” Challenge – Install and Administer Active Directory

The configuration for this virtual machine is now complete, and you may continue with the next exercise in this step-by-step guide.

Exercise 4: Configure SQL Server 2012 in a Windows Azure VM

Provision a new Windows Azure VM to run SQL Server 2012 by performing the following steps:

  1. Sign in at the Windows Azure Management Portal with the logon credentials used when you signed up for your Free Windows Azure Trial.
     

  2. Select Virtual Machines located on the side navigation panel on the Windows Azure Management Portal page.
     

  3. Click the +NEW button located on the bottom navigation bar and select Compute | Virtual Machines | From Gallery.
     

  4. In the Virtual Machine Operating System Selection list, select SQL Server 2012 SP1 Enterprise and click the Next button.
     

  5. On the Virtual Machine Configuration page, complete the fields as follows: 

    - Virtual Machine Name: XXXlabdb01 
    - New User Name: Choose a secure local Administrator user account to provision.
    - New Password and Confirm Password fields: Choose and confirm a new local Administrator password.
    - Size: Medium (2 cores, 3.5GB Memory)
     
    Click the Next button to continue.
     

  6. On the Virtual Machine Mode page, complete the fields as follows:
     
    - Standalone Virtual Machine: Selected
    - DNS Name: XXXlabdb01.cloudapp.net
    - Storage Account: Select the Storage Account defined in the Getting Started steps from the Prerequisites section above.
    - Region/Affinity Group/Virtual Network: Select XXXlabnet01 – the Virtual Network defined in Exercise 2 above.
    - Virtual Network Subnets: Select Subnet-1 (10.0.0.0/23)
     
    Click the Next button to continue.
     

  7. On the Virtual Machine Options page, click the Checkmark button to begin provisioning the 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.
     

  8. After the new virtual machine has finished provisioning, click on the name ( XXXlabdb01 ) of the new Virtual Machine displayed on the Virtual Machines page of the Windows Azure Management Portal.
     

  9. On the virtual machine Dashboard page for XXXlabdb01, make note of the Internal IP Address displayed on this page.  This IP address should be listed as 10.0.0.5. 
     
    If a different internal IP address is displayed, the virtual network and/or virtual machine configuration was not completed correctly.  In this case, click the DELETE button located on the bottom toolbar of the virtual machine details page for XXXlabdb01, and go back to Exercise 2 and Exercise 3 to confirm that all steps were completed correctly.
     

  10. On the virtual machine Dashboard page for XXXlabdb01, click the Attach button located on the bottom navigation toolbar and select Attach Empty Disk.  Complete the following fields on the Attach an empty disk to the virtual machine form:
     
    - Name: XXXlabdb01-data01
    - Size: 50 GB
    - Host Cache Preference: None
     
    Click the Checkmark button to create and attach the a new virtual hard disk to virtual machine XXXlabdb01.
     

  11. On the virtual machine Dashboard page for XXXlabdb01, click the Connect button located on the bottom navigation toolbar and click the Open button to launch a Remote Desktop Connection to the console of this virtual machine.  Logon at the console of your virtual machine with the local Administrator credentials defined in Step 5 above.
     

  12. From the Remote Desktop console of XXXlabdb01, create a new partition on the additional data disk attached above in Step 10 and format this partition as a new F: NTFSvolume. After formatting this new volume, create the following folders:
     

    1. Create F:\MSSQL folder
       
    2. Create F:\MSSQL\DATA folder
       
    3. Create F:\MSSQL\LOGS folder
       
    4. Create F:\MSSQL\BACKUP folder

  13. Open SQL Server Management Studio from Start | All Programs | Microsoft SQL Server 2012 | SQL Server Management Studio and update default folder locations to the F: volume.

    1. Connect to the SQL Server 2012 default instance using your Windows Account.
       
    2. Now, you will update the database's default locations for DATA, LOGS and BACKUP folders. To do this, right click on your SQL Server instance and select Properties.
       
    3. Select Database Settings from the left side pane.
       
    4. Locate the Database default locations section and update the default values for each path to point to the new folder paths defined above in Step 12.
       
    5. Close SQL Server Management Studio.

  14. In order to allow SharePoint to connect to the SQL Server, you will need to add an Inbound Rule for the SQL Server requests in the Windows Firewall. To do this, open Windows Firewall with Advanced Security from Start | All Programs | Administrative Tools.

    1. Select Inbound Rules node, right-click it and select New Rule to open the New Inbound Rule Wizard.

    2. In the Rule Type page, select Port and click Next.

    3. In Protocols and Ports page, leave TCP selected, select Specific local ports, and set its value to 1433. Click Next to continue.

    4. In the Action page, make sure that Allow the connection is selected and click Next.

    5. In the Profile page, leave the default values and click Next.

    6. In the Name page, set the Inbound Rule's Name to SQLServerRule and click Finish

    7. Close Windows Firewall with Advanced Security window.

  15. Using the Server Manager tool, join this server to the contoso.com domain and restart the server to complete the domain join operation.

  16. After the server restarts, connect again via Remote Desktop to the server’s console and login with the local Administrator credentials defined above in Step 5.

  17. Open SQL Server Management Studio from Start | All Programs | Microsoft SQL Server 2012 | SQL Server Management Studio and add the CONTOSO\Administrator user to SQL Server with the Sysadmin server role selected.

    1. Expand Security folder within the SQL Server instance. Right-click Logins folder and select New Login.

    2. In the General section, set the Login name to CONTOSO\Administrator, and select the Windows Authentication option.

    3. Click Server Roles on the left pane.  Select the checkbox for the Sysadmin server role.

    4. Click the OK button and close SQL Server Management Studio.

The configuration for this virtual machine is now complete, and you may continue with the next exercise in this step-by-step guide.

Exercise 5: Configure SharePoint Server 2013 in a Windows Azure VM

Provision a new Windows Azure VM to run SharePoint Server 2013 by performing the following steps:

  1. Sign in at the Windows Azure Management Portal with the logon credentials used when you signed up for your Free Windows Azure Trial.
     

  2. Select Virtual Machines located on the side navigation panel on the Windows Azure Management Portal page.
     

  3. Click the +NEW button located on the bottom navigation bar and select Compute | Virtual Machines | From Gallery.
     

  4. In the Virtual Machine Operating System Selection list, select SharePoint Server 2013 Trial and click the Next button.
     

  5. On the Virtual Machine Configuration page, complete the fields as follows: 
      
    - Virtual Machine Name: XXXlabapp01 
    - New User Name: Choose a secure local Administrator user account to provision.
    - New Password and Confirm Password fields: Choose and confirm a new local Administrator password.
    - Size: Large (4 cores, 7GB Memory)
     
    Click the Next button to continue.
     

  6. On the Virtual Machine Mode page, complete the fields as follows:
     
    - Standalone Virtual Machine: Selected
    - DNS Name: XXXlabapp01.cloudapp.net
    - Storage Account: Select the Storage Account defined in the Getting Started steps from the Prerequisites section above.
    - Region/Affinity Group/Virtual Network: Select XXXlabnet01 – the Virtual Network defined in Exercise 2 above.
    - Virtual Network Subnets: Select Subnet-1 (10.0.0.0/23)
     
    Click the Next button to continue.
     

  7. On the Virtual Machine Options page, click the Checkmark button to begin provisioning the 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.
     

  8. After the new virtual machine has finished provisioning, click on the name ( XXXlabapp01 ) of the new Virtual Machine displayed on the Virtual Machines page of the Windows Azure Management Portal.
     

  9. On the virtual machine Dashboard page for XXXlabapp01, make note of the Internal IP Address displayed on this page.  This IP address should be listed as 10.0.0.6. 
     
    If a different internal IP address is displayed, the virtual network and/or virtual machine configuration was not completed correctly.  In this case, click the DELETE button located on the bottom toolbar of the virtual machine details page for XXXlabapp01, and go back to Exercise 2,  Exercise 3 and Exercise 4 to confirm that all steps were completed correctly. 
     

  10. On the virtual machine Dashboard page for XXXlabapp01, click the Connect button located on the bottom navigation toolbar and click the Open button to launch a Remote Desktop Connection to the console of this virtual machine.  Logon at the console of your virtual machine with the local Administrator credentials defined in Step 5 above. 
     

  11. In the Server Manager tool, click on Local Server in the left navigation pane and click on the Workgroup option.  Join this server to the contoso.com domain and restart the server to complete the domain join operation.
     

  12. After the server restarts, re-establish a Remote Desktop connection to the server and logon with the CONTOSO\Administrator domain user credentials defined earlier in Exercise 3.

  13. In the Server Manager tool, click on Local Server in the left navigation pane and select IE Enhanced Security Configuration.   Turn off enhanced security for Administrators and click the OK button.
     
    Note: Modifying Internet Explorer Enhanced Security configurations is not good practice for production environments and is only for the purpose of this particular step-by-step lab guide.

  14. On the Desktop, double-click on the SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard shortcut to launch the configuration wizard.  Click the Next button to continue. If prompted to start or reset services, click the Yes button. 

  15. In the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard, when prompted on the Connect to server farm dialog, select the option to Create a new server farm.
     

  16. On the Specify Configuration Database Settings, specify the following values for each field:
     
    - Database Server: XXXlabdb01
    - Username: CONTOSO\sp_farm
    - Password: Type the password specified when the sp_farm domain user account was created earlier in Exercise 3, Step 14.
     

  17. Click the Next > button and accept all other default values in the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard.  Click the Finish button when prompted to complete the wizard.
     

  18. The SharePoint 2013 Central Administration web page should launch automatically.  When prompted, click the Start the Wizard button to begin the Initial Farm Configuration Wizard.
     

  19. When prompted for Service Account, type the CONTOSO\sp_serviceapps domain username and password specified when this account was created earlier in Exercise 3, Step 14.
     

  20. Accept all other default values and click the Next > button to continue.
     

  21. On the Create a Site Collection page, create a new top-level Intranet site collection using the following field values:
     
    - Title and Description: Enter your preferred Title and Description for the new site collection
    - URL: Select the root URL path – https://XXXlabapp01/
    - Select experience version:     2013
    - Select a template: Publishing | Publishing Portal
     
    Click the OK button to provision a new top-level Intranet site collection. 
     
    After the new top-level Intranet site collection is provisioned, test navigating to the URL for this site collection from within the Remote Desktop session to the server.
     

  22. On the SharePoint 2013 Central Administration site, configure a Public URL alternate access mapping for accessing the new top-level Intranet site collection from the Internet.
     

    1. On the Central Administration site home page, click the Configure alternate access mappings link.
       
    2. On the Alternate Access Mappings page, click the Edit Public URLs link.
       
    3. On the Edit Public Zone URLs page, select and specify the following values:
       
      - Alternate Access Mapping Collection: SharePoint - 80
      - Internet: https://XXXlabapp01.cloudapp.net
       
      Click the Save button to complete the Alternate Access Mapping configuration.
       

  23. Close the Remote Desktop session to the server.
     

  24. Sign in at the Windows Azure Management Portal with the logon credentials used when you signed up for your Free Windows Azure Trial.
     

  25. Select Virtual Machines located on the side navigation panel on the Windows Azure Management Portal page.
     

  26. On the Virtual Machines page, click on the name of the SharePoint virtual machine – XXXlabapp01.
     

  27. On the XXXlabapp01 virtual machine details page, click on Endpoints in the top navigation area of the page.
     

  28. Click the +Add Endpoint button in the bottom navigation bar of the page to define a new virtual machine endpoint that will permit HTTP web traffic inbound to the SharePoint virtual machine. 
     

  29. On the Add an endpoint to a virtual machine form, select the Add Endpoint option and click the Next button to continue.
     

  30. On the Specify the details of the endpoint form, specify the following field values:
     
    - Name: WebHTTP
    - Protocol: TCP
    - Public Port: 80
    - Private Port: 80
     
    Click the Checkmark button to create a new endpoint definition that will permit inbound web traffic to the SharePoint virtual machine.
     

  31. After the endpoint configuration has been successfully applied, test browsing to the following public URL to confirm that you are able to access the Intranet site collection that is configured on SharePoint:
     
    - URL: https://XXXlabapp01.cloudapp.net

The configuration for this virtual machine is now complete, and you may continue with the next exercise in this step-by-step guide. Be sure to shutdown your lab VMs from the Windows Azure Management Portal when not in use to save on compute charges.

Get the associated 16-Page Step-by-Step Lab Guide and 130-line PowerShell Provisioning Script for FREE ...

If you'd like a copy of the 16-Page Step-by-Step Lab Guide and 130-line PowerShell Provisioning Script that is associated with this article for reference when building our your own SharePoint Server 2013 Lab in the Cloud ... just follow the easy steps below to get it sent to you!

  1. Activate a FREE Windows Azure Trial Evaluation Kit. ( You'll need this to build out your own SharePoint 2013 Lab in the Cloud ) 
  2. Shortly after activating your Windows Azure Evaluation Kit, you'll receive an email titled "Welcome to 3-Month Free Trial"
  3. Forward the email received in Step 2 above to: EarlyExperts@Microsoft.com.

You'll receive an email in response with your 16-Page Lab Guide Attached, the 130-line PowerShell Provisioning Script and additional FREE resources for continued learning about Windows Azure Infrastructure Services.

What’s Next? Keep Learning!

Now that your SharePoint Server 2013 lab environment is running in the cloud, be sure to explore the resources below to continue your learning:

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Very good content. Good Job.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi HC, Great suggestion to add Office Web Apps to the scenario - I'll work on getting this step-by-step lab guide updated to accommodate this. Thanks! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Microsoft announced in the TechEd Keynote that Azure no longer charges for stopped virtual machines. When a customer stops using one, billing stops. Also billing is now by the minute, instead of by the hour.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    i am stuck here: 16.On the Desktop, double-click on the SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard shortcut to launch the configuration wizard.  Click the Next button to continue. If prompted to start or reset services, click the Yes button. error says "Access Denied" any help is appreciated

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Gaurav, No problem - if the only the October edition is available in your region, you can select that release instead.  The lab will still work fine. Best regards, Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Gaurav, If you accidentally deleted the original VM, your virtual hard disks should still be sitting in your storage account ( on the Virtual Machines tab, check the Disks tab to confirm ).  When a VM is deleted, the VHDs are not automatically deleted.  If your VHDs are still present, you should be able to recreate the VM using the New->Compute->Virtual Machine->From Gallery->My Disks choice to save needing to reconfigure the VM from scratch. On the other hand, if you suspect that the OS inside a VM is not restarting properly, you can also use the Shutdown / Restart buttons on the bottom toolbar to attempt to force a shutdown and startup of the VM. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Excellent article!  You represent one of the giants upon whose shoulders I will be standing.  All credit goes back to you.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Great article. Worked like a charm! One question: I'm interested to extend this setup to work on SharePoint Development using Visual Studio. Is this fairly straightforward to do to an existing machine on your Azure server or do you have to start from a brand new server from the gallery? Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Devendra, If the VMs are completely deleted and do not appear in your Windows Azure Management Portal, there will be no accumulating compute charges for them.  If you're seeing something different, I recommend opening a ticket with the Windows Azure support team at www.windowsazure.com/.../contact, as they can review your subscription configuration with you. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Frank, What error or message are you receiving when running the Stop-AzureVM and Export-AzureVM cmdlets? Thanks! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Sharad, Try performing an "iisreset /noforce" to see if that resolves the issue. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Awesome guide, thanks a bunch Keith! When I de-provision the VMs, there are 3 cloud services running. However, MSFT is still charging the cloud service compute hours. Is there a way to stop those cloud service?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Tárik, It sounds like Exercise 4, Step 15 may not have been performed?  Can you go back and confirm that the SQL Server VM has been joined to the CONTOSO Active Directory domain? Thanks! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    It sounds like it's hitting a different website in IIS other than your SharePoint - 80 web site.  Check that the correct Public URL is configured and verify that this public URL externally is resolving to the Public IP Address assigned to the SharePoint App VM.  You may also want to try performing an "iisreset /noforce" to reset IIS. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Kevin, Once the VM's are de-provisioned, you'll be left with empty Cloud Services - these are the Cloud Services that previously hosted the VMs.  Because the Cloud Services are not running any active roles or VMs, there's no cost associated with these empty Cloud Services. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Marlon, Double-check to make sure that the C:ExportVMs folder exists. Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi LZandman, You are correct that compute charges no longer apply for Stopped VMs when they are shutdown via the portal - as announced on June 3rd at TechEd 2013.  As a result, the last exercise in this step-by-step guide is no longer required. However, this is conditional on how VMs are shutdown ... get the full details at blogs.technet.com/.../windows-azure-virtual-machines-there-s-more-than-1-way-to-shutdown-a-vm.aspx Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Essam, The re-provisioning script is included in my article above.   In terms of provisioning a new set of VMs completely from scratch via a script ... this is now possible with the newly updated PowerShell module from Windows Azure.  If you haven't recently ( in the past few days ) downloaded the modules, be sure to download it again to get the latest module.  When provisioning a new VM, it automatically opens a PSRemoting endpoint into the VM OS itself so that you can write a single script that not only provisions the VMs and Virtual Networks, but also configures the OS and applications inside each VM. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Raut, If you want to run Visual Studio on a VM within Azure, I'd recommend preparing a new VM in your virtual network from the Windows Server 2012 platform image.  You'll likely want to customize it a bit to act more like a development client environment - check out my prior article at blogs.technet.com/.../step-by-step-building-a-free-windows-8-app-dev-lab-in-the-cloud-with-windows-azure-virtual-machines.aspx for the steps.  This article if primarily oriented towards setting up a Windows 8 App Development environment on Azure, but a full copy of Visual Studio with SharePoint development support could easily be substituted at the end of the article instead of using Visual Studio Express. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Very useful information. Thanks for Sharing this.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Ralph, Thanks very much for your feedback and I'm sorry to hear that you ran into a bit a difficulty when exporting the VMs.  Based on your feedback, I've updated the last exercise to better highlight the note on confirming that the $ExportPath folder location exists, and I've also separated the snippets for exporting vs removing VMs into two separate snippets for safety. I'm glad that you enjoyed this lab! Best regards, Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Tárik, That's the correct spot - you should've changed the domain to "contoso.com" and been prompted to enter your Active Directory admin credentials.  After restarting the SQL Server, it should be a member of the contoso.com domain. Try logging in via the RDP session to the SQL Server as CONTOSOAdministrator to make sure it's communicating properly with Active Directory.  The issue you're experiencing seems like it's not able to connect with the domain controller running in the AD virtual machine. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Frank, VM snapshots, per-se, are not currently supported on the Windows Azure Infrastructure Services platform.  However, you can perform BLOB storage snapshots using either the storage API or 3rd party tools, such as CloudXplorer.  However, these storage snapshot operations are only safe to perform when the VM is in a stopped state, because BLOB snapshots are not aware of VM and application state. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Tárik, It sounds like the SQL Server was not successfully added to the Active Directory domain.  Try removing the SQL Server from the domain, restart it, login as local Administrator, re-add to the AD domain, and restart again. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Rod, In exercise 4, step12 - try right-clicking on the disk and select the option to Initialize the disk and bring online. In exercise 4, step 15 - you can join to a domain using Server Manager by clicking on the Local Server page and then clicking on the link located next to the "WORKGROUP" Note, that you'll not want to store any persistent data on the D: volume of an Azure VM, as this volume is intended only for temporary storage files and does not persist if the VM is moved to another compute node in the future. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Sarah, Double-check your settings in Exercise 4 to make sure you've given the sysadmin role to CONTOSOAdministrator and that your firewall rule is configured correctly.  Also, confirm the paths that you've set for the DATA and LOG folders and that these paths exist on the Database server. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Mayk2, Make sure you've logged in to the Remote Desktop console on the SharePoint VM as CONTOSOAdministrator rather than your local Admin user account. Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanks Dillon! I've updated the PowerShell code in the re-provisioning step above to reflect a change that's needed due to post GA updates of Windows Azure Infrastructure Services.  This should correct the issue you were experiencing.  Let me know if you're successful. Thanks! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Hassan, Step through the following KB article to see if any of the issues explained track back to your environment: How to troubleshoot SQL Server Error 15401 support.microsoft.com/.../324321 Hope this helps! Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Great work, thanks a lot for sharing this

  • Anonymous
    January 23, 2013
    Very helpful. Got me started with Azure. Enjoying every bit of it !!

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2013
    Hi Keith Great article. Many thanks Azam

  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2013
    Keith, Great post and everything was going along great until step 12 and 15 of Exercise 4.  Could you please review my issues below and provide some help?  Thanks so much! (1) Exercise 4 step 12.  When I went to my Remote Desktop console for my labdb and when trying to format as a new partition F:NTFS volume on the additional data disk, I couldn't for the life of me do that.  The disk was there but I tried everything and the disks (I rebuild my labdb virtual and added 2 additional disks and still could not use them.  I went ahead and added the directories to the D: dirve and continued.  Any idea why that happened? (2) Exercise 4 step 15. I could not figure out how to join my server to the contoso.com domain.  I tried everything in "Server Manager" in my virtual and could not figure out how to join it.  Could you please help me? Thanks again for your help in advance. Sincerely, Rod (rkeinc@rke-inc.com)

  • Anonymous
    March 15, 2013
    Keith - Thanks for this valuable information. I have one minor thing though: Instead of windows server 2012 December edition, I am able to see October edition in list of OS while creating new virtual machine. Is it a problem?

  • Anonymous
    March 16, 2013
    Hi Keith, Thanks for the great post.

  • Anonymous
    March 16, 2013
    Thanks. I have configured everything and sites are working just fine. I have question at last step: I have created alternate access mappings and end point for making the site internet facing. When I am trying to open the internet site outside of VM and login with admin, it gives access denied page and sometimes it keeps on prompting for user id/pwd even if I entered it right. Am I missing something here. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2013
    Great post.. I would love to give it a try. I wanted to see if you can install ADFS, Office Web Apps, and use SSL Certs in your SharePoint Lab environments in Azure.. Additionally, I am wondering if you build real world farm  with 2 load-balanced WFEs, 2 App Servers, 2 clustered SQL, 2 loadbalnced Office Web Apps in free trial or Are there any limitations on number of servers?

  • Anonymous
    March 22, 2013
    Thanks Keith.. I guess we have no issues of number of servers running on free Azure trial as long as you adhere 105 hours of compute time per month... Great info..

  • Anonymous
    March 22, 2013
    I have one ques: I have created all the VMs, but after some time I accidently deleted app VM from powershell commands. Now I have created new app VM and trying to run pre requisite installer. When the installer asks for the restart of the VM, it shows as restarting and gets disconnected. After that not able to connect to that VM. I am not sure if it is restarting properly. Can you please help here? Thanks Keith!

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2013
    Thanks Keith! Yes I was able to create that deleted VM again from the VHDs. I hope what ever I installed earlier on the VM will already be there.

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2013
    Thanks for your post. When running the sharepoint wizard I get the message Failed to create the configuration database. Any ideas how to fix it?

  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2013
    Keith, I have ran your deprovision script over and over, and still cannot create the .xml file or stop the VM. And yes, the folder does exist. Any other suggestions you can provide would be grateful. If the VM is new, is there an allotted time I must wait in order to be able perform these steps, the scripts seems very basic. Thanks, Frank

  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2013
    It was my own issue, I discovered my servicname was not identical to my VM name, so I needed to create another variable for ServiceName and then all worked as expected. And I wasn't receiving any errors before, the script ran as though all was good. Too bad it hadn't indicated that there was no such ServiceName as my VM Name. And Thanks for the quick response.

  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2013
    One last questions, any suggestions on snapshots similar to they way HyperV does it? I know it can't be entirely the same, but it would be nice to somehow revert to another state.

  • Anonymous
    April 26, 2013
    Is it possible to share the re-provisioning script, and use it for creating a new environment directly instead of building it from scratch ?

  • Anonymous
    April 30, 2013
    Hi Keith, fantastic post, thanks. I'm stuck on very last step. When I try to re-provision, I get an error "New-AzureVM : CurrentStorageAccount is not set. Use Set-AzureSubscription subname -CurrentStorageAccount storageaccount to set it" I tried Set-AzureSubscription and still get error. Suggestions? Thanks so much

  • Anonymous
    May 09, 2013
    I like to add the Office Web App server into this Azure SharePoint lab environment as well.  Is there any step by step instruction on how to do that?  Thank you!

  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2013
    Hi Keith, Thanks for great article! I have create VM's due to some problem i have deleted them and disks attached to the same also has been deleted but still the hours against them are getting accumulated. Can you please tell me what needs to be done? Thanks in advance. Devendra

  • Anonymous
    May 18, 2013
    Not sure why Frank's solution worked for me also, I must have mistyped my ad server name at some point, because it had a different service name. All of the troubleshooting was fun though, and I learned something. great article.

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 27, 2013
    Excellent Lab. I will definitely give it a try within a week or so.

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2013
    Hi Keith, Very good post. Its very detailed. I am getting stuck right at end. For me everything worked as expected uptill Exercise 6 step 18. However when it is time to launch the SharePoint 2013 Central Administration, it indicates that there is server error. To see more details change the web.config settings. The port for admin is 20663. Any idea where things are going wrong. The wizard runs fine. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2013
    Hi Keith, Thank you for the post, it's really helpful. I'm having a problem in Exercise 4 step 17. When I click OK i get the error message: Create failed for Login 'CONTOSOAdministrator'.  (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo) An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch. (Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo) Any idea how to fix this? Thanks

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2013
    That might be the case. I wans't sure about that step. To perform step 15 I simply went to "Server Manager -> Local Server" and changed the "Domain" to contoso.com. Is that correct? Did i miss any action? Thanks for helping!

  • Anonymous
    August 22, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2013
    I am not sure my question got published hence asking again. Sorry if it duplicated. I am not able to add ContosoAdministrator to the SQL Server Login. Get following error. HassanLab is the domain I am using. Create failed for Login 'HASSANLABAdministrator'.  (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)

Windows NT user or group 'HASSANLABAdministrator' not found. Check the name again. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 15401) I checked the server is in the HassanLab domain. Also checked on the AD server and the DB server shows up their as well. So I am assuming setting up of Domain for the DB server is working but now sure why I am not able to add HassanLabAdministrator. Is this a user that has to be explicitly created or am I just missing something big here. Please let me know what I am doing wrong. Thanks a ton.

  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2013
    Pingback from Enable Office Web Apps working in both Internal and External environment - A soldier of fortune
  • Anonymous
    June 24, 2014
    The comment has been removed
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    March 16, 2015
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