• Deploy a Windows Server 2016 RDS Farm in Microsoft Azure
• Create Microsoft Azure networks, storage and Windows image
• Deploy the Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines
  
• Configure Domain Controllers
• Deploy the RDS farm
• Configure File Servers for User Profile Disk (UPD)
• RDS final configuration

Github

The template for this series are located in my Github. I have created a folder called RDSFarm that containers JSON template. For this topic, I have used RDS-VMs.json.

JSON template explanation

In this template, I create an availability set for each kind of service. So, I have 5 availability sets (Domain Controllers, File Servers, RD Host, RD Broker and RD Gateway). So, I have the following block code for each availability set:

{
      "type": "Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets",
      "sku": {
        "name": "Aligned"
      },
      "name": "[parameters('ASDomainControllersName')]",
      "apiVersion": "[variables('computeResouresApiVersion')]",
      "location": "[variables('ResourcesLocation')]",
      "tags": {
        "displayName": "AS_DomainControllers"
      },
      "properties": {
        "platformUpdateDomainCount": 5,
        "platformFaultDomainCount": 2
      }
    }

Then I create the virtual network adapters. Each VM has one network adapters excepted the File Servers which have two (cluster and management). Each vNIC is connected to the right subnet. You can see also that I have created a loop (copy section): because each kind of service has at least two VMs, the loop avoids me to duplicate several times same block code.

{
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
      "name": "[concat(parameters('PrefixNameDC'), copyindex())]",
      "apiVersion": "[variables('NetworkResouresApiVersion')]",
      "location": "[variables('ResourcesLocation')]",
      "tags": {
        "displayName": "vNIC_DomainControllers"
      },
      "copy": {
        "name": "DCnicLoop",
        "count": "[parameters('numberOfDC')]"
      },
      "properties": {
        "ipConfigurations": [
          {
            "name": "ipconfig1",
            "properties": {
              "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
              "subnet": {
                "id": "[Variables('vNetSubIntRef')]"
              }
            }
          }
        ],
        "dnsSettings": {
          "dnsServers": []
        },
        "enableIPForwarding": false
      }
    }

Next I create data disks. File Servers have four data disks each (for Storage Spaces Direct). Each Domain Controller has one data disk to host the AD database and RD Hosts have a data disk for application. All these disks are managed disks. I have also made a loop for each kind of data disk:

{
      "type": "Microsoft.Compute/disks",
      "name": "[concat(parameters('PrefixNameDC'), copyindex(),'-Data01')]",
      "apiVersion": "[variables('computeResouresApiVersion')]",
      "location": "[variables('ResourcesLocation')]",
      "tags": {
        "displayName": "Disks_DomainControllers"
      },
      "copy": {
        "name": "DCDskLoop",
        "count": "[parameters('numberOfDC')]"
      },
      "properties": {
        "creationData": {
          "createOption": "Empty"
        },
        "accountType": "Standard_LRS",
        "diskSizeGB": 10
      }
    }

I have also created a public IP for the RD Access load balancer:

{
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses",
      "name": "[parameters('PublicIPName')]",
      "apiVersion": "[variables('NetworkResouresApiVersion')]",
      "location": "[variables('ResourcesLocation')]",
      "tags": {
        "displayName": "Public IP Address"
      },
      "properties": {
        "publicIPAllocationMethod": "Static",
        "idleTimeoutInMinutes": 4
      },
      "dependsOn": []
    }

To finish, the following JSON block code creates VMs. I have a block code for each kind of VM. Then I use a loop to deploy several times the same VM with a different name. I use the Windows image to deploy the VM. Credentials are provided from parameters. Boot diagnostics are enabled and logs are stored in the storage account. Each vNIC is also bound to the right VM. VMs are added to availability set and connected to the right data disks.

{
      "name": "[concat(parameters('PrefixNameDC'), copyindex())]",
      "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
      "apiVersion": "[variables('computeResouresApiVersion')]",
      "location": "[variables('ResourcesLocation')]",
      "tags": {
        "displayName": "VM_DomainControllers"
      },
      "copy": {
        "name": "DCVMLoop",
        "count": "[parameters('NumberOfDC')]"
      },
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets', parameters('ASDomainControllersName'))]",
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', concat(parameters('PrefixNameDC'), copyindex()))]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "osProfile": {
          "computerName": "[concat(parameters('PrefixNameDC'), copyindex())]",
          "adminUsername": "[parameters('adminUser')]",
          "adminPassword": "[parameters('adminPassword')]",
          "windowsConfiguration": {
            "provisionVmAgent": "true"
          }
        },
        "hardwareProfile": {
          "vmSize": "Standard_DS1_v2"
        },
        "storageProfile": {
          "imageReference": {
            "id": "[parameters('OSDiskMasterPath')]"
          },
          "osDisk": {
            "name": "[concat(parameters('PrefixNameDC'), copyindex(),'-OS')]",
            "createOption": "FromImage",
            "managedDisk": {
              "storageAccountType": "Standard_LRS"
            }
          },
          "dataDisks": [
            {
              "lun": 2,
              "name": "[concat(parameters('PrefixNameDC'), copyindex(),'-Data01')]",
              "createOption": "Attach",
              "managedDisk": {
                "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Compute/disks', concat(parameters('PrefixNameDC'), copyindex(),'-Data01'))]"
              }
            }
          ]
        },
        "networkProfile": {
          "networkInterfaces": [
            {
              "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', concat(parameters('PrefixNameDC'), copyindex()))]"
            }
          ]
        },
        "diagnosticsProfile": {
          "bootDiagnostics": {
            "enabled": true,
            "storageUri": "[reference(resourceId('rdsfarm', 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts', parameters('Sto_LogsAccount')), '2015-06-15').primaryEndpoints['blob']]"
          }
        },
        "availabilitySet": {
          "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets', parameters('ASDomainControllersName'))]"
        }
      }
    }

Template deployment

To run the deployment with the JSON template, go to the marketplace and search for Template Deployment.

Then, copy past the template. You should have something like this:

Next change parameters as you wish and click on purchase.

After the deployment, I have stopped all VMs to not spend money immediately for VMs not used.

Result

Once the deployment is finished, you should have several Azure VM depending on the loop settings. On my side, I have 10 Azure VMs.

If I select a VM such as a file server, you can see that managed disks are well bound to Azure VM.

Network interfaces are also connected to the server and well associated with the right subnet.

Azure VM are also inside Availability Sets.

To finish, boot diagnostics are enabled and stored in the storage account.

Next topic

In the next topic, I will configure the domain controller. I’ll set the AD site and I’ll promote the Azure domain controllers.

The post RDS 2016 Farm: Deploy the Microsoft Azure VM appeared first on Tech-Coffee.

What is a generalized image

A generalized image is a capture of an already installed Operating System without the machine specific settings and without user’s settings. For example the machine name, its SID, the administrator password and so on are not retained when capturing the image. That enables to customize your own image before deploying it in large scale. You can for example, install IIS role in the image before capturing it. In this way, each server deployed by using this image will have IIS pre-installed. And each server deployed with this generalized image will have its own server name, SID and so on.

To create a generalized image of a Windows Server, you have to use Sysprep. For a Linux machine you can use WAAgent (Windows Azure Agent).

When you use Sysprep, you have to specify the above settings to create your generalized image. For more information to create a generalized image, you can read this topic.

Upload you own generalized image to Azure

N.B: To follow this guide, the Azure PowerShell module must be installed and the settings profile must be imported. For further information, please read this topic.

Once you have created your generalized image in your Datacenter, you can upload it to Azure. Be careful because currently Azure supports only VHD files. If you have created a VHDX, you can convert the VHDX to VHD by using the Hyper-V GUI or convert-VHD PowerShell cmdlet. To convert a VHDX to VHD, the disk must not be used by a running Virtual Machine.

Once you have your Generalized Image in VHD format, open PowerShell. The cmdlet Add-AzureVHD enables you to upload a local VHD to a Page Blob storage. For further information about blob storage, you can read this topic.

I have uploaded a VHD file to Azure by using my home internet provider with an awesome 70KB/s… And 5 days after, my VHD was stored in Azure J.

So the next step is the creation of the VM image from the VHD previously uploaded in Azure. I open again PowerShell to run the Add-AzureVMImage cmdlet.

Once the VMImage is created I can deploy a Virtual Machine from this image. So I open the Azure Portal and I select new virtual machine. Then I select My Image as below.

I select W2012R2-Datacenter-1.4 VM Image and I click on next. Then I configure my VM as usually.

When you have finished to create the virtual machine, the provisioning should start by using your generalized image J.

Create a generalized image from Azure

To create a generalized image from Azure, first you have to create an Azure VM. When the VM is deployed you can make any customization. On my side I have installed the IIS role. Next run the Sysprep utility as below:

Once the Azure VM is shutdown, you can click on Capture as below.

Next give a name and a description to your image, and don’t forget to check the box I have run Sysprep on the Virtual Machine. When the capture process will be finished, the source Azure VM will be deleted.

Next you can check in Images tab that your new VM image is available as below.

Now you can create an Azure VM from My Image repository and you can select your new imageJ.

Conclusion

In this topic we have seen how to upload an existing generalized image to Azure and how to capture a generalized image from an Azure VM. Thanks to these images, it is possible to deploy a large amount of Azure VM with consistent base installation.

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