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Windows Azure Pack components

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Applies To: Windows Azure Pack

Windows Azure Pack provides a core set of required components to support several optional components. You must install the required components and then, based on your hosting requirements, decide which optional service components to install.

Required components

  • Service Management API. The Service Management API exposes a unified interface to manage the Windows Azure Pack services through the management portals. There are three API interfaces:

    • The Admin API exposes functionality to complete administrative tasks from the management portal for administrators or through the use of Windows PowerShell cmdlets.

    • The Tenant API enables users, or tenants, to manage and configure cloud services that are included in the plans that they subscribe to.

    • The Tenant Public API enables end users to manage and configure cloud services that are included in the plans that they subscribe to. The Tenant Public API is designed to serve all the requirements of end users that subscribe to the various services that a hosting service provider provides.

  • Authentication sites. These sites provide authentication services for the management portal for administrators and the management portal for tenants.

    • Admin Authentication Site. By default, Windows Azure Pack uses Windows authentication for the administration portal. You also have the option to use Windows Azure Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) to authenticate users. For more information, see Configure Active Directory Federation Services for Windows Azure Pack.

    • Tenant Authentication Site. Windows Azure Pack uses an ASP.NET Membership provider to provide authentication for the management portal for tenants.

  • Service management portals. The management portals enable you and your tenants to interact with Windows Azure Pack:

    • Management portal for administrators. A portal for administrators to configure and manage resource clouds, user accounts, tenant plans, quotas, and pricing. In this portal, administrators create Web Site clouds, virtual machine private clouds, create plans, and manage user subscriptions.

    • Management portal for tenants. A customizable self-service portal to provision, monitor, and manage services, such as Windows Azure Pack: Web Sites, Windows Azure Virtual Machines, and Windows Azure Pack: Service Bus. In this portal, users sign up for services and create services, virtual machines, and databases.

Optional components

  • Web Sites. A service that helps provide a high-density, scalable shared web hosting platform for ASP.NET, PHP, and Node.js web applications. The Web Sites service includes a customizable web application gallery of open source web applications and integration with source control systems for custom-developed websites and applications. For more information and instructions about how to deploy the Web Sites service, see Deploy Windows Azure Pack: Web Sites.

  • Virtual Machines. A service that provides infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) capabilities for Windows and Linux virtual machines. The Virtual Machines service includes a virtual machine template gallery, scaling options, and virtual networking capabilities. For more information and instructions about how to deploy the Virtual Machines service, see Provision Virtual Machine Clouds.

  • Service Bus. A service that provides reliable messaging services between distributed applications. The Service Bus service includes queued and topic-based publish/subscribe capabilities. For more information and instructions on how to deploy the Service Bus service, see Integrate Service Bus into Windows Azure Pack.

  • Automation and Extensibility. The capability to automate and integrate additional custom services into the services framework, including a runbook editor and an execution environment. For more information and instructions about how to enable Automation, see Deploy Service Management Automation.

  • SQL and MySQL. You can provision Microsoft SQL and MySQL databases for tenant use. For more information see Using SQL Server or MySQL with Windows Azure Pack.