Creating a new virtual machine
1. Navigate to the Azure portal. This can be done by visiting azure.microsoft.com and selecting the portal link in the top right as seen below.
2. To access the Marketplace in the Azure portal, select "More Services" and type "Marketplace" in the filter field. Select the Marketplace link.
3. In the search field enter "QuerySurge" and click enter.
4. Locate the QuerySurge offering and select the item.
5.Click the "Create" button to start the creation process.
6. Fill out the required fields. Information on each field can be found below.
Name: Name of the Virtual Machine. Must be unique to the Azure location.
VM Disk Type: Azure provides two disk types HDD (Hard Disk Drives) and SSD (Solid State Drives) We highly recommend SSD due to its higher performance as QuerySurge is a disk intensive application.
User Name: The account which will be used to log into the virtual machine.
Password/Confirm Password: The password to log into the virtual machine.
Subscription:The account which will be charged for the compute hours.
Resource Group: The container which will hold all resources for the current solution. An existing container can be used or a new one can be created.
Location:The Azure datacenter which will host the virtual machine. Its recommended to select a datacenter near the sources/targets in which QuerySurge will be communicating with to avoid network latency.
7. Select a VM size. Recommeded VM sizes are provided, for more information on QuerySurges hardware requirmeents ant recommendations please see QuerySurge System Requirements.
8. Most setting fields are optional, however by default auto shutdown is enabled on the VM. It is recommended that this setting be disabled.
Availability Set: Provides a group for virtual machines, ensuring that all items are placed on across multiple servers, storage units, ext...
Use Managed Disks: Managed disks provides automatic data redundancy. For more information please see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/managed-disks-overview
Virtual network:Network in Azure the virtual machine should exist in. If testing sources/targets in Azure its recommended that the QuerySurge VM exist in the same Virtual Network. Virtual machines created in the same network will be able to communicate with each other without having to enable end points.
Subnet:Range of IP address which can be utilized
Public IP Address: IP address which will be used to allow outside communication (internet). Static and Dynamic IP addresses are available. For more information please see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-ip-addresses-overview-arm
Network security group (firewall): Firewall group which the VM will belong to. Groups allow for sharing of firewall rules such as opening port 80.
Extensions: Provides the ability to add features like virus scan to virtual machine.
Enable Auto Shutdown: Configures virtual machine to automatically shutdown each day.
Shutdown time/Time Zone: Time in which the virtual machine will shut down including time zone.
Notification before shutdown: Email alert prior to shutdown.
Boot diagnostics: Stores console output and screenshots during the startup of the virtual machine for debugging purposes.
Guest OS diagnostics: Gathers health statistics on the Virtual machine. For more information please see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/monitoring-and-diagnostics/monitoring-overview-metrics
Diagnostics storage account: Storage account to store diagnostic data.
9. Read over the summary and click "Create" when ready to proceed. Status updates will be provided while the deployment process is occurring.
Connecting to the virtual machine
Once the creation process has completed, the Virtual Machine can be connected to directly using Remote Desktop. Using the left navigation select "Virtual Machines" and locate the new QuerySurge machine. Once selected, a summary panel will be displayed highlighting key information on the new machine. Located on the top is a "Connect" button which will download a RDP file to connect to the new instance. Use the user name and password entered in the prior steps to connect (Please note the domain which is utilized)
Note: When using any cloud service provider, its important to ensure the proper level of security. For more information on Microsoft Azure's Security features please see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/TrustCenter/Security/default.aspx and https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/best-practices-network-security