To follow this topic, you must have a running Azure Stack infrastructure. You can follow this topic for further information.

Prepare the PortalVM

Before deploying MySQL resource provider, we need to prepare the PortalVM. First we, have to disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security. For that I use this PowerShell script (I have found it on the Internet, but I don’t remember where):

$AdminKey = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{A509B1A7-37EF-4b3f-8CFC-4F3A74704073}"
$UserKey = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{A509B1A8-37EF-4b3f-8CFC-4F3A74704073}"
Set-ItemProperty -Path $AdminKey -Name "IsInstalled" -Value 0 -Force
Set-ItemProperty -Path $UserKey -Name "IsInstalled" -Value 0 -Force
Stop-Process -Name Explorer -Force
Write-Host "IE Enhanced Security Configuration (ESC) has been disabled." -ForegroundColor Green

Then we have to enable Javascript and Cookie. For that, open Internet Explorer in Run As Administrator context and navigate to the option. To enable cookie, navigate in the option to Privacy and Advanced. Configure properties as below.

Then navigate to Security, select Internet zone and click on custom properties. Set properties as below:

To finish the Internet Explorer configuration, close Internet Explorer to apply settings.

Prepare the environment

Now that PortalVM is ready, you can download MySQL resource provider deployment pack here. Once it is downloaded, extract the content of the ZIP file into D:\MySQL in the PortalVM.

Then, write click on Bootstrap.cmd and run this script in Run As Administrator. Powershell ISE should be opened with the Bootstrap.ps1 script. Run this script in the ISE. When the script has run, you should have some tabs as below.

Navigate to Prepare MySQL prerequisites tab and run New-SSLCert.ps1. Specify a password for the PFX file.

Then run the Download-MySQLServer.ps1 script to download MySQL binaries.

Then run the Upload-Microsoft.MySQL-RP.ps1 script to upload binaries to the AzureStack repository. Specify your Azure AD that you use with AzureStack and the admin credential to connect to Azure.

To finish, run Publish-GalleryPackages.ps1 to publish items in the marketplace.

If you navigate to D:\MySQL\Prerequisites\BlobStorage\Container you should have something like this:

Deploy MySQL resource provider

Open a session on the AzureStack portal with admin priviledge. Click on New, Resource Providers and MySQL Resource Provider. In Parameters, specify AdminUserName, AdminPassword, BasicAuthUsername, BasicAuthPassword and the PFX file password.

Then create a new Resource Group called MySQL01. Next click on create.

Now you have to wait a while (in my lab, it took almost 1 hour) before having the below message. If you have this message, all is ok.

Register MySQL resource provider in Azure Stack

Go back to the PowerShell ISE and navigate to Deploy MySQL provider tab. Run the Register-Microsoft.MySQL-fqdn.ps1 script. Specify again your Azure AD and credential.

Then run the Register-Microsoft.MySQL-provider.ps1 script and specify BasicAuth credential that you have provided when configuring the MySQL resource provider deployment.

As you can see below, the MySQL-Local provider has been registered.

Configure a plan to deliver MySQL service

Select a plan that you have created (or create a new) and add a service as below. Select Microsoft.MySQL service. To create a plan or an offer, you can get information in this topic.

At this moment, I recommend you to close your browser to avoid issue saying that MySQL provider can’t be located.

Use MySQL service

Log on Azure Stack portal with your tenant and click on New, Data + Storage and MySQL server + database. Set settings as you want and click on create.

Once the deployment is finished, you should have the below message.

If you browse the MySQL Servers, you should have something as below.

Now that MySQL resource provider is deployed, we need to deploy Web Apps service to consume database service. It will be describe in a next topic J

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In Storage Spaces Direct, there is a cache mechanism. This cache mechanism takes all the available space on caching devices (as SATA SSD or NVMe SSD) except 32GB for metadata by default. This cache mechanism can be disabled when enabling Storage Spaces Direct in the Failover Cluster. Moreover, Microsoft indicates that this cache mechanism should be disabled when using only SATA SSD or only NVMe SSD.

So I mounted the MicrosoftAzureStackPoc.vhdx and I edited the CreateFailoverCluster.ps1 script located in AzureStackInstaller\PocFabricInstaller. If you navigate to line 123, you’ll find the command that enables Storage Spaces Direct. So I have changed this line by:

Enable-ClusterS2D -S2DCacheMode Disabled

Then I saved this file in the MicrosoftAzureStackPoc.vhdx. Next I have deployed again the AzureStack Technical Preview 1 from scratch by using the modified MicrosoftAzureStackPoc.vhdx. Once the deployment finished, I check again the storage and this time all is well configured:

The post Issue when deploy AzureStack Technical Preview 1 only on SSD appeared first on Tech-Coffee.

Create a plan

First of all, we have to create a plan. For that, click on New, select Tenant Offers
and Plans and Plan.

Then give a name to the new subscription and choose the offered services. For a standard IaaS service, just select Storage, Compute and Network providers.

Once you have selected providers, you can set quotas for each provider. On the below screenshot, I have set quotas on number of Virtual Networks, Subnets and maximum DNS Servers per virtual network.

You can also set quotas on compute by configuring the limit of the number of virtual machines, the total amount of memory and CPU cores in the plan.

Then I configure the quotas regarding the storage by limiting the maximum capacity and the amount of maximum storage accounts.

Create the offer

Once the plan is created, you can create an offer. Specify an offer name and choose a Base plan.

Once the offer is created, the offer is private. That means that a tenant can’t subscribe by himself to an offer because he can’t see it. If you click on browse and you select the offer, you will see the below message.

To set the offer to public, just select Change State. Now you can select Public.

Create a tenant

To create a tenant for your customer, open the Azure Active Directory located in Microsoft Azure that you have specified when you have deployed Azure Stack. Create a new user in your organization. I call my tenant bronze.

Create this user as a User.

Now, with your new Azure AD user, log on Microsoft Azure to set the password. Once the password is set, you can open again Azure Stack portal by using the new Azure AD user (called bronze in this example).

Get a subscription with the tenant

Once you are connected to Microsoft Azure Stack portal, you can click on Get a Subscription.

Select the offer that you have created and click ok.

Now you can create a storage account or virtual machines as below.

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The Azure Stack Technical Preview 1 provides an Azure Stack Proof of Concept (POC) that has to be deployed on a single node. The node must meet the following hardware requirements:

The Operating System of this node must be Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4 with the latest updates installed, including KB 3124262. Just one NIC must be enabled on this host otherwise you will have an error when you will run the Azure Stack POC deployment.

To finish, you need a valid Microsoft Azure subscription with an Azure Active Directory.

Azure Stack POC architecture overview

The script provided in the Azure Stack Technical Preview 1 setup, deploy and configure some VMs. Below you can find the usage of each VM. The schema and the description are copied from this Microsoft topic.

• ADVM Virtual machine that hosts Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP services for Microsoft Azure Stack. These infrastructure foundational services are required to bring up the Azure Stack as well as the ongoing maintenance.
• ACSVM Virtual machine that hosts the Azure Consistent Storage services. These services run on the Service Fabric on a dedicated virtual machine.
• MuxVM Virtual machine that hosts the Microsoft software load balancer component and network multiplexing services.
• NCVM Virtual machine that hosts the Microsoft network controller component, which is a key component of the Microsoft software-defined networking technology. These services run on the Service Fabric on this dedicated virtual machine.
• NATVM Virtual machine that hosts the Microsoft network address translation component. This enables outbound network connectivity from Microsoft Azure Stack.
• xRPVM Virtual machine that hosts the core resource providers of Microsoft Azure Stack, including the Compute, Network, and Storage resource providers.
• SQLVM Virtual machine that hosts SQL Servers which is used by various fabric services (ACS and xRP services).
• PortalVM Virtual machine that hosts the Control Plane (Azure Resource Manager) and Azure portal services and various experiences (including services supporting admin experiences and tenant experiences).
• ClientVM Virtual machine that is available to developers for installing PowerShell, Visuall Studio, and other tools.

Storage services in the operating system on the physical host include:

• CS Blob Service Azure Consistent Storage Blob service, which provides blob and table storage services. SoFS Scale-out File Server. ReFS CSV Resilient File System Cluster Shared Volume.Virtual Disk, Storage Space, and Storage Spaces Direct are the respective underlying storage technology in Windows Server to enable the Microsoft Azure Stack core storage resource provider.

Deploy Azure Stack POC in your Datacenter

To try Azure Stack, I have the following computer:

• 2x Intel Xeon E6-2620v2
• 128GB of DDR3 ECC Registered
• 1x SSD Intel 128GB for Operating System
• 1x SSD Samsung 840 EVO 512GB to store VMs
• 4x SSD Crucial MX100 512GB for Azure Stack General Data

I have a fresh install of Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4 with the last update. Below you have the details about the compute resources of my server:

I have only enabled one NIC with Internet access. I have a direct Internet access without Proxy.

Then I have 6 SSD. One stores the Operating System, another will host VM and the others are just online without partition (in RAW).

Once your hardware is ready, you can download the Azure Stack Technical Preview 1 from this link. When you have run the setup, you should have the following files:

Now open a PowerShell in RunAs administrator and execute the script called DeployAzureStack.ps1. This script checks prerequisites. If something is wrong with your configuration, you will have an error. Then a password will be asked for the built-in administrator.

Then you have to enter the credential of your Microsoft Azure subscription to connect to your Azure Active Directory.

If you have several directories, you can choose one of them.

Then the deployment is starting. It can take about four hours, depending of your configuration, to finish the deployment. Moreover, I have had several reboots of my server. Each time I’m logged on with local administrator and the script has started where it was stopped.

Then several VMs are deployed and configured.

Once the deployment is finished, you can connect to the client VM by using the RDP files copied on your desktop.

Then you can run the HTML link called Microsoft Azure Stack POC Portal. To logon to your Azure Stack, specify the Microsoft Azure credential.

And tadaa, you have Azure Stack in your datacenter. In next topic, I will speak about some configuration of Azure Stack J.

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