System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Role Authoring Guide - VHD Tags
This topic is part of the System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Role Authoring Guide.
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Introduction
You specify the VHD with the operating system (OS VHD) for a Virtual Machine Role in the Resource Definition. This property requires the name and version of the VHD in format Name:Version. The version is in the form major.minor.build.release. These values map to the Family Name and Release properties of the VHD in the VMM Library. For example, the initial version of a VHD with Windows Server 2012 Data Center installed might have a reference of WindowsServer2012DatacenterENU:1.0.0.0.
You can explicitly define a specific OS VHD in the Resource Definition. In this case though, you must make sure that the VHD has the tags required by the Resource Extension. If it does not, then the provisioning of the Virtual Machine Role will fail.
Instead of specifying an OS VHD in the Resource Definition though, you should collect its reference using a parameter so that the user can specify the VHD when they provision a new Virtual Machine Role. The Resource Extension specifies the tags that are required, and the View Definition ensures that only those VHDs with the required tags are listed for the user to select.
While any values can be used for tags on a VHD, following best practices for setting these values ensure that they are flexible and consistent with other installations. The basic strategy for setting tags is to use specific simple tags that represent a single function. That function might refer to an operating system, a version, or an architecture. Since multiple tags can be specified in the Resource Extension, and all specified tags must match tags on the VHD, you can create very specific requirements by using multiple tags together in the same Resource Extension.
You should add all relevant tags to each of your VHDs so that they can be properly identified by Resource Extensions with different requirements. This allows the VHD to be used by multiple Resource Extensions that specify different requirements.
A set of common tags is provided in the table below. You should select from these tags when specifying tags for a Resource Extension. If a tag is not specified for the particular operating system or version that you are specifying, then you should still be able to determine the appropriate tag based on the standard format illustrated here.
Category |
Tags |
General |
Windows |
Major Version |
WindowsServer2008 |
Architecture |
64-bit |
Release Related |
Preview |
Windows Editions |
Standard |
SQL Server |
MicrosoftSQLServer2012 |
Prerequisties |
.NET3.5.1 |
Examples
The following table provides examples of tags to use in a Resource Extension based on the requirements of the application. In each case, at least one VHD would need to be available that had at least the specified tags.
Resource Requirements |
Recommended Tags |
Windows Server 2012 Datacenter edition |
WindowsServer2012 |
Windows Server 2012 with SQL Server 2012 |
WindowsServer2012 |
Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview |
WindowsServer2012 |
Windows Web Server 2008 R2 |
WindowsServer2008 |
Windows Server 2012 (RTM or R2) |
Windows Server 2012 |
Windows - any version |
Windows |
CentOS Linux 6 (64-bit) |
CentOSLinux6 |
Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 (64-bit) |
SuseLinuxEnterpriseServer11 |
Ubuntu Linux 12.04 (64-bit) |
UbuntuLinux12.04 |
See Also
Resource Definition Package
Resource Extension Package
Parameters
Installing a Virtual Machine Role
Sample Virtual Machine Role Packages
Virtual Machine Role Resource JSON Reference