Service Teplates vs Virtual Machine Templates vs Cloning

I need to find the method with the best performance for creating new virtual machines when a customer joins our private cloud.
The use case is as follows.
Our customers will submit their application settings via our customer portal
Then our software creates a new virtual machine for the customer. This machine will have windows Server 2012 R2 with IIS and SQL Server 2014. It will also contain our desktop application with the settings the customer submitted.
After the virtual machine is created, the customer will be able to immediately access the application without any interaction with our staff.
Thanks,
Eric

Specifically for your case you have two options out of the box:
The Azure Pack Gallery Image (roll your own) or the SCVMM Service Template.
Both of these already have a UI, PowerShell support (therefore workflow), and allow the collection an injection of variables to customize the deployment.
I built this for a scaled out XenApp installation and found Service Templates to be the most mature today. Especially if you are supporting scale-out.
If it is only one self contained machine and you drink the Azure Pack cool-aid - then that fits better.
In the end, someone has to build all of the automation.
I don't subscribe to using SMA or workflows because you would need to open some backdoor to the machine in order to make it all happen. With Service templates and gallery images all the scripting executes within the VM and in the end, I as the owner
of the physical infrastructure have no login for that machine. The customer knows the local admin password and any other custom user accounts - and I have zero access to the machine.
An external workflow engine driving the deployment and customization cannot always claim this, as they must control the machine after customization happens to handle the applications after the OS is deployed.
Brian Ehlert
http://ITProctology.blogspot.com
Learn. Apply. Repeat.

Similar Messages

Having trouble with creation of a cloud service with multiple virtual machines using java sdk.

I am creating a cloud service on azure with 2 virtual machines using java sdk API. Service created successfully.
My input endpoint details are as follows.
INPUT ENDPOINTS
Head : 191.238.144.47:2400
Head : 191.238.144.47:22
Node0 : 191.238.144.47:43211
For Head instance port 2400 is for HTTPS and port 22 is for SSH and for Node0 instance port 43211 is for SSH.
But I am having problem with doing a ssh on Head instance. Sometimes it works sometimes doesn't. Same problem with HTTPS also.
I have some application running over there but when i try to access it thru browser sometimes it works but most of the time doesn't. When I restart the instances from azure portal, its works after
that(not always but most of the time).
Now I am confused what is going on there. I am creating cloud service and virtual machines using java sdk and setting input endpoints also. After creation of all instances i restart every instance programmatically .
I am not sure whether restart is required or not. It must be something to do with input endpoints only but not able to get the right thing i guess. When i do the same thing thru azure portal(creation of cloud service with virtual machines and setting up input
end points) everything works fine but not achieving the result when implementing it by java sdk API. Please help me.

HI Nithin,
Thanks for your reply. I am setting the endpoints after creating my instances using update call. Here's the code snippet.
AzureService aServ = new AzureService(session);
if(aServ.checkNameAvailability(clusterName)) {
aServ.createHostedService(clusterName, "dbX cluster");
// Creating head instance
aServ.createHead(clusterName, imgName, headType, userName, pswd);
// Setting end points for head node
String name = "ssh";
int port = 22;
aServ.updateVMInputEndpoint(clusterName, "Head", name, port);
// Restarting head instance
aServ.restartVM(clusterName, "Head");
String roleName = "Node";
String tmpRoleName = "";
for(int i=0; i<noi; i++) {
port = 43210+(i+1);
tmpRoleName = roleName + i;
// Creating node instance
aServ.createVM(clusterName, tmpRoleName, imgName, nodeType, userName, pswd);
// Setting end points for node instance
aServ.updateVMInputEndpoint(clusterName, tmpRoleName, name, port);
// Restarting node instance
aServ.restartVM(clusterName, tmpRoleName);
// Method to update the input endpoint details
public void updateVMInputEndpoint(String clusterName, String vmName, String name, int port)
throws Exception {
VirtualMachineGetResponse resp = computeManagementClient.getVirtualMachinesOperations().
get(clusterName, clusterName, vmName);
VirtualMachineUpdateParameters updateParameters = new VirtualMachineUpdateParameters();
//get the configuration list
ArrayList<ConfigurationSet> configlist = resp.getConfigurationSets();
//get inputendpoint list and update it
ArrayList<InputEndpoint> endpointlist = configlist.get(0).getInputEndpoints();
InputEndpoint inputEndpoint = new InputEndpoint();
inputEndpoint.setEnableDirectServerReturn(false);
inputEndpoint.setPort(port);
inputEndpoint.setLocalPort(port);
inputEndpoint.setName(name);
inputEndpoint.setProtocol(InputEndpointTransportProtocol.TCP);
endpointlist.add(inputEndpoint);
// Open port for https on head node
if(vmName.equals("Head")) {
inputEndpoint = new InputEndpoint();
inputEndpoint.setEnableDirectServerReturn(false);
inputEndpoint.setPort(2400);
inputEndpoint.setLocalPort(2400);
inputEndpoint.setName("https");
inputEndpoint.setProtocol(InputEndpointTransportProtocol.TCP);
endpointlist.add(inputEndpoint);
updateParameters.setConfigurationSets(configlist);
//required for update
OSVirtualHardDisk osVirtualHardDisk = resp.getOSVirtualHardDisk();
updateParameters.setOSVirtualHardDisk(osVirtualHardDisk);
updateParameters.setRoleName(resp.getRoleName());
OperationResponse updtResp = computeManagementClient.getVirtualMachinesOperations().update(clusterName, clusterName, resp.getRoleName(), updateParameters);
And every time i am creating a new cloud service along with head and node instances. Region is "South Central US".
I am setting ProvisionGuestAgent field to true at instance creation time. Thank you.

Installing Adobe Document Services in SAP Virtual Machine Container

any plan to make available a new installation option for Adobe Document Services within an SAP Virtual Machine Container like IPC or Blue Ruby?
It would simplify so much SAP Landscapes increasing robustness in the same time.
Sergio

dreaming too much...

Upgrade pre-built Oracle Virtual Machine using Siebel VM template

Hello
I'm planning to deploy a Siebel environment for testing purposes using Oracle Virtual Machines templates (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/siebel-092480.html). this template has been made to deploy Siebel CRM SIA 8.1.1.ENU and i need the 8.1.1.7 version with ENU and ESN languages
My main questions are:
after complete the Siebel installation using this template (8.1.1 ENU), is it possible to upgrade to 8.1.1.7 version? is it possible to add ESN language?
thanks and best regards!
Francisco Ruiz
Oracle Consulting Mexico
Edited by: user733897 on 1/03/2013 11:59 AM

Wilson
Thanks by kind help, but im still face issues, the log indicates a license error but i already introduce the licenses codes but is still showing the error on login.
ServerLog     ProcessCreate     1     00000d67513a0900:0     2013-03-08 20:45:59     Created server process (OS pid =      2525     ) for SCCObjMgr_enu
ServerLog     ProcessCreate     1     00000d67513a0900:0     2013-03-08 20:45:59     Created server process (OS pid =      2542     ) for SMObjMgr_enu
ServerLog     ProcessExit     1     00000d68513a0900:0     2013-03-08 20:56:35     SvrTblCleanup      2431     SBL-OMS-00103 Process 2431 exited with error - Error %1 initializing the license key
ServerLog     ProcessCreate     1     00000d67513a0900:0     2013-03-08 20:56:35     Created server process (OS pid =      2656     ) for SvrTblCleanup
ServerLog     ProcessExit     1     00000d68513a0900:0     2013-03-08 20:56:35     SvrTaskPersist      2432     SBL-OMS-00103 Process 2432 exited with error - Error %1 initializing the license key
ServerLog     ProcessCreate     1     00000d67513a0900:0     2013-03-08 20:56:35     Created server process (OS pid =      2670     ) for SvrTaskPersist
Another log file
2021 2013-03-11 18:00:07 0000-00-00 00:00:00 -0700 00000000 001 ffff 0001 09 SvrTblCleanup 848297986 28037 1101329440 /u01/app/siebel/ses/siebsrvr/enterprises/siebel/siebel811/log/SvrTblCleanup_0809_848297986.log 8.1.1 [21111] ENU
ObjMgrLicense     Error     1     00000005513e6d85:0     2013-03-11 18:00:07     (dmlicmgr.cpp (133)) SBL-DAT-00171: A license key for this software has expired.
Please enter a new key to proceed, or contact your system administrator.
GenericLog     GenericError     1     00000005513e6d85:0     2013-03-11 18:00:07     Object manager error: ([0] A license key for this software has expired.
Please enter a new key to proceed, or contact your system administrator.(SBL-DAT-00171) (0x7500ab))
GenericLog     GenericError     1     00000005513e6d85:0     2013-03-11 18:00:07     ( (0) err=2818155 sys=7667883) SBL-OMS-00107: Object manager error: ([0] A license key for this software has expired.
Please enter a new key to proceed, or contact your system administrator.(SBL-DAT-00171) (0x7500ab))
GenericLog     GenericError     1     00000005513e6d85:0     2013-03-11 18:00:07     (ccfom.cpp (568) err=2818151 sys=0) SBL-OMS-00103: Error 7667883 initializing the license key
GenericLog     GenericError     1     00000005513e6d85:0     2013-03-11 18:00:07     (bsvcmgr.cpp (658) err=2818151 sys=0) SBL-OMS-00103: Error 7667883 initializing the license key
GenericLog     GenericError     1     00000005513e6d85:0     2013-03-11 18:00:07     (smishell.cpp (342) err=2818151 sys=0) SBL-OMS-00103: Error 7667883 initializing the license key
TaskConfig     TaskCfgParamError     1     00000005513e6d85:0     2013-03-11 18:00:07     ***********Dumping Parameters for the current task (848297986) because of errors**********

Virtual network, virtual machine and cloud service

Hi everyone
I am new to Microsoft Azure and very confused about Microsoft VM and Virtual network relationship.
I have a cloud service project created which has two worker roles in it and its deployed to Azure portal successfully, the problem is they need to connect to SQL database (which is on our prod machine outside of Azure) and in the config file of both these
worker roles I have the cluser IP address added ( I believe its an internal Ip address),
Now we have a virtual machine and a virtual network created on azure too (Not by me, so I have no idea how that is created)
Some how I need to connect my cloud service to either the virtual machine or virtual network to get the sql connection going. What do I need to do to make that happen?
How does the cloud service connect to virtual machine?
I am so confused .. Please help with this.
Thanks
-Sarah

Hi Sarah,
Once an Azure VM is created, it belongs to a cloud service.
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/cloud-services-connect-virtual-machine/
Do you mean that you want to create a VM in a virtual network and a cloud service?
If yes, please follow the steps below:
1. Create a Virtual network.
2. Create a VM and select "create a new cloud service", and choose the virtual network you have created.
3. After the VM is running, you can create other VMs into that exsting VM, and they will share the same public IP address and in the same virtual network.
Best regards,
Susie
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected]

Error when try to power on virtual machine after creating

I created the virtual machines from the virtual machine templates in the OVM server Manager console.After creating,status of the virtual machine turned to be power off. Then I tried to power on it. But it prompt error as " failed:<Exception: no server selected to run vm('/OVS/running_pool/18_Test01') mem_size=1024>".Then I check the /var/log/xend/xend.log. I can found messages of "VmError: HVM guest support is unavailable: is VT/AMD-V supported by your CPU and enabled in your BIOS?".
How should I deal with this error?
Thanks a lot,
Mary

Please check whether your box support fully virtualized guest or not beforehand.There are two main requirements for the hardware virtualization is to be enabled in a system:
1. BIOS should be setup for virtualization
go to "BIOS Setup" to enable "Virutalization Technology"
2. The CPU should support virtualization
check the keywords( "vmx" for Intel cpu "svm" for AMD cpu) from /proc/cpuinfo

Oracle VM 3.1.1: Using iSCSI LUN's as Device-Backed Virtual Machine Disks?

Will Oracle VM Manager 3.1.1 support the use of iSCSI LUN's as device-backed virtual machine disks? i.e., Can iSCSI LUN's be treated like directly-attached storage (DAS) and used as virtual machine disks?
Eric Pretorious
Truckee, CA

user12273962 wrote:
I don't personally use ISCSI. BUT, I don't see why you can't create physical pass through attachments to virtual guests using ISCSI LUNS. It is no different than FC or direct attach storage. Worst case scenerio... you can create a repo on the ISCSI LUN and then create virtual disks.
Oracle VM Getting Started Guide for Release 3.1.1Chapter 7. Create a Storage Repository
A storage repository is where Oracle VM resources may reside... Resources include virtual machines, templates for virtual machine creation, virtual machine assemblies, ISO files (DVD image files), shared virtual disks, and so on. This would have the effect of using file-backed virtual machine disks but at least they'd be centrally-located on shared storage (and, therefore, the virtual machine could run as an HA guest)
budachst wrote:
I have kicked this idea around as well, but I decided do it slightly different, by providing the storage repo via multipathed iSCSI and use iSCSI within my guests if needed for better speed or lower disk latency.
If you want to use iSCSI as the virtual devices for your guests in a clustered server pool, you'd have to grant access to all of your iSCSI targets to any VM server and I was not feeling comfortable with that. I rather grant only the guest directly access to "its" iSCSI target. So I will keep all of my guests system images on the clustered server pool - and additionally also the virtual disks that don't need a high performance and have the really heavy-duty vdisks as separate iSCSI targets.That seems logical, Budy:
<ul>
<li>Use a multipathed iSCSI repository for hosting the virtual machine's disk image, and then;
<li>Utilize iSCSI LUN's for "more performant" parts of the guest's file system (e.g., /var).
</ul>
I'm still puzzled about that image, though. +i.e., the fourth image from the bottom of Chapter 7.7, "Creating a Virtual Machine" ("To add a physical disk:...") where it's clear that the exising "physical" disks are actually iSCSI LUN's that are attached to the OVM server.+
I suppose that I'll have to configure some iSCSI LUN's and try it out to be certain. Just another tool that I don't have +but will need to add to my toolbox+.

HotSpot Virtual Machine Error, Intenal Error on Windows XP

I have unzipped the JBoss 3.2.3 to C: drive in JBoss-3.2.3 directory. When I clicked on the run.bat file in bin directory, DOS window popped and showed some messages proceeding until the following error occurred:
22:46:07,211 INFO [MainDeployer]Starting deployment of package: file:C:/jboss-3.2.3/server/default/conf/jboss-service.xml
#HotSpot Virtual Machine Error, Intenal Error
#Please report this error at
#http://java.sun.com/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi
#Error ID: 43113F32554E54494D45110E4350500290
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.Please contact the application's support team for more information.
Press any key to continue...
I am not getting what this error is? Please help me to solve this problem.
Bye.

Update your JDK to 1.4.1_03 , see bug 4799414 .
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/bugParade/bugs/4799414.html

The connection to Virtual Machine Manager Server [..] was lost.

Hello, I'm asking for help.
I got this error with these logs:
The System Center Virtual Machine Manager service terminated unexpectedly. It has done 3 time(s).
Event id 7034
Have anyone had such problems?
Looking forward for help. Thank you

Please review the eventlog: Application and Services Logs > Microsoft > Virtual Machine Manager > Server
This should give you an insight why Virtual Machine Manager is crashing.
Alternately you can enable Debug logging for Virtual Machine Manager to get more information.
Please see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2913445/

Virtual machine metric values using timegrain

Hi,
I refered the below link URL to get the path of virtual machines metrics to collect the data
https://convective.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/using-azure-monitoring-service-with-azure-virtual-machines/
I refered the below URL link for sample java code
http://gauravmantri.com/2013/08/25/consuming-windows-azure-service-management-api-in-java/
I used the below string url in my java code to collect the metric values of virtual machines for every five minitues.
But it does not give output.
How to reterive the last five minitues of data?
How to use timegrain in below query? Am i used it correct way?
Input
=====
Syntax
https://management.core.windows.net/<subscription_ID>/services/monitoring/metricvalues/query?&resourceId=/hostedservices/<SERVICE_NAME>/deployments/<DEPLOYMENT_NAME>/roles/<VM_NAME>&namespace=&names=Percentage CPU&timeGrain=PT5M&startTime=2014-12-22T14:30:00Z&endTime=2014-12-22T14:35:00Z
(Example)
https://management.core.windows.net/<subscription_ID>/services/monitoring/metricvalues/query?&resourceId=/hostedservices/egazuresqldb/deployments/egazuresqldb/roles/egazuresqldb&namespace=&names=Percentage CPU&timeGrain=PT5M&startTime=2014-12-22T14:30:00Z&endTime=2014-12-22T14:35:00Z
output
======
<MetricValueSetCollection xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><Value><MetricValueSet><Name>Percentage CPU</Name><Namespace></Namespace><DisplayName>CPU
Percentage</DisplayName><Unit>Percentage</Unit><PrimaryAggregation>Average</PrimaryAggregation><TimeGrain>PT5M</TimeGrain><StartTime>2014-12-22T14:30:00Z</StartTime><EndTime>2014-12-22T14:35:00Z</EndTime><MetricValues/></MetricValueSet></Value></MetricValueSetCollection>
Please help me to resolve this.
Thanks & Regards
Rathidevi

Hi,
Thank you for reaching out to us. From a support perspective the way forward would be to open up a support ticket. Please refer to
this documentation on how to open a support ticket. Hope this helps.
Warm Regards;
Prasant

Virtual machine performance data

Hi,
I have a cloud service in our lab environment. In that , i have one virtual machine and one web role. When i access that Virtual machine from azure console, i would see the dashboard and monitor tab. In that page, when i access that monitor tab , have measures
like grpah for cpu, memory, disk and network related metrics (attached screenshot1). I want to know
1) where or which location these data's are stored. How these data's are displayed in graph..
2) I am using the below link (REST API) to collect these details. But i didnt get the last five min data
http://convective.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/using-azure-monitoring-service-with-azure-virtual-machines/

Hi;
Thank you for your post.
The data is stored in an Counter (Internal Data Base Table). The display works very similarly to what you would see on a OS resource monitor.
The data is refreshed every 5 min hence you might have noticed a lag.
Warm Regards
Prasant

Trying to deploy a Service using Orchestrator and Virtual Machine Manager

Hello,
I'm trying to create a runbook to deploy a Service in a cloud using Orchstrator and Virtual Machine Manager, 2012 R2 both of them.
I'm following these 2 links, but not luck.
http://daniyar-tech.blogspot.com.es/2013/07/system-center-2012-sp1-orchestrator.html
http://www.systemcentercentral.com/orchestrator-by-example-deploying-a-service-from-template-with-vmm-and-orchestrator-2/
I'm receiving this error in "Configure Service Deployment" step:
The following errors occurred when invoking PowerShell script:Could not find service template
I configured the Cloud Name and it does not work for me...
Thanks!

Thanks, Marc! This solution worked for me, after many other attempts failed.
Senior Tech Writer, SharePoint Performance and Capacity Management

Remote Desktop Services Role on a Virtual Machine (VM) Requirements

Does MS recommend installing RDS Role on Hardware or Virtual Machine? I have a use case where I have about 35 people that will be using the Internet Explorer and possibly run additional piece of software. I'm having trouble determining if the RDS Role on
Virtual Machine will be able to sustain the load of so many users. Should the same performance metric used in hardware selection be appropriate to apply for Virtual Machines. We are using VMware on pretty powerful DELL hardware, which is also hosting
120 existing VMs as of now. So my questions is would VM with 4 CPU's, 8GB of RAM, 80 GB Virtual Disk and 1 GBPs NIC would be handle the job?

Hi,
Thank you for posting in Windows Server Forum.
There is no any particular requirement to run RDS on physical or virtual machine. But if you want to install RD Virtulization role then you need to see that Hyper- V role installed because “when the RD Virtualization Host role service is installed, Server
Manager checks to see if Hyper-V is installed. If Hyper-V is not installed, Server Manager will install it”. And Hyper-V role cannot be installed on virtual machine so for that you need to install on Physical machine. Other all RDS role can be installed
on virtual machine also.
Install the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host Role Service
In addition, please check below articles.
1. Remote Desktop Services: Server and client requirements
2. RDS Hardware Sizing and Capacity Planning Guidance.
Hope it helps!
Thanks,
Dharmesh

FYI Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 - Virtual Machine Manager (KB2965413) Stops SCVMM service starting

I just applied update:
Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 - Virtual Machine Manager (KB2965413)
and (KB2965414) but it failed to install.
After a reboot I could not login to the VMM and the service would not start
An event id 0 was reported with:
Service cannot be started. System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeModule.GetTypes(RuntimeModule module)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeModule.GetTypes()
   at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetTypes()
   at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Remoting.IndigoSerializableObject.BuildKnownAssemblyTypes(Assembly assembly)
   at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Remoting.IndigoSerializableObject.InitializeKnownTypesCache(List`1 assembliesToExamine)
   at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.Remoting.IndigoServiceHost.InitializeKnownTypesCache()
   at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.VirtualManagerService.TimeStartupMethod(String description, TimedStartupMethod methodToTime)
   at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.VirtualManagerService.OnStart(String[] args)
   at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.ServiceQueuedMainCallback(Object state)
After I removed the update the VMM was able to start, no reboot required.
When I have time I will try to apply both updates again successfully and see if the issue still occurs.
Vista Ultimate Dell XPS M1330

FYI. I've had the same issue after I installed Update Rollup 3 (KB2965413), seeing the exact same error on event log. Tried to start the service manually, getting service unable to start error. This is a machine running
with Windows Server 2012 Standard. Solution for me is simple. I just install
KB2965414 (Update Rollup 3 for SCVMM 2012 R2), reboot the server, and the SCVMM service auto start up by itself.

Error when creating a new Virtual Machine from VMs and Templates

I try to created a VM from a Template. On a Step 1.5 (Install VM components) and falid. This is a error:
Error (10659)
Cannot run Sysprep on virtual machine SRV2k8test because the template does not have a virtual hard disk attached that has been generalized.
Recommended Action
Specify a template that has been generalized and then try the operation again.
we expect your help.

Sorry to dredge up an old topic - but got some really weird behavior.
I knew that I had to sysprep the vhdx's before bringing them into a template. I've done this (verified twice), and I still end up with the error list at the top of the thread:
Error (10659)
Cannot run Sysprep on virtual machine SRV2k8test because the template does not have a virtual hard disk attached that has been generalized.
Recommended Action
Specify a template that has been generalized and then try the operation again.
we expect your help.
I am running SCVMM 2012 R2, and things were actually running smooth as of three days ago. Templates built before then are still working and can be deployed with no problem.
However, building a new template today gives the above error when testing the deployment.
http://www.fortypoundhead.com

Service Teplates vs Virtual Machine Templates vs Cloning

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