Quickly stop and start your Windows Azure lab

Introduction I needed  way to easily stop and start my different lab setups in Windows Azure. I don’t want to keep running, and pay for, a set of VMs I use maybe once a month. So here is a PowerShell script to stop and start a set of Azure VMs. One important dimension here is …

Bug in Windows Azure PowerShell module v 0.7.0

The latest version of the Windows Azure PowerShell module v 0.7.0 (released 21-10-2013), which features such great improvements as Windows Azure Active Directory logon support, unfortunately has a bug relating to endpoint ACLs. Any Set-AzureEndpoint or Add-AzureEndpoint command which includes the ACL parameter will seem to succeed, but no ACL changes will be applied to …

Troubleshooting ISO file sharing in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1

So I was trying to use sharing of ISO files instead of copying when mounting on virtual machines. The really helpful dialog box in System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012 SP1 politely informs you that OK, so what configuration? I found these steps for VMM 2008: How to Enable Shared ISO Images for Hyper-V …

Listing Windows Azure availability sets

Windows Azure guarantees a 99.95 % uptime SLA, but this is only for multiple instance roles. So, for example, one web server by itself will not be guaranteed 99.95 % uptime, but will rather have “best effort”. Whereas two, or more, in a multi instance role will. So how do you make something multi-instance? You …

A network by any other name…

OK, funny story. A Windows Azure virtual network with the name MDS-vNET1; no problem. A Windows Azure cloud service with a production deployment slot associated with a virtual network with the name MDS-vNet1; no problem. Try to combine those two; problem. So let me give you a few more details. Everything in this setup was …

App Controller and Azure HighMemory SKUs

We are all aware of the lag between the evolution of the Windows Server platform and the System Center suite. It always takes some time from when a new feature in Windows Server is released, before it is supported in the System Center products. Now, it seems, this applies to Windows Azure as well. Consider …

How to manage multiple Windows Azure subscriptions with PowerShell

You can have several Windows Azure subscriptions defined in Windows Azure PowerShell. This lets you easily manage several subscriptions from the same PowerShell console. These are the steps required to add a new Windows Azure Subscription to your Windows Azure PowerShell profile: Generate a management certificate: makecert.exe -pe -n “CN=<certificate subject>” -ss My –r <certificate …

New PowerShell module for Windows Azure Active Directory

A new version of the PowerShell module for Windows Azure Active Directory is available. This module was previously know as the Microsoft Online PowerShell module. The cmdlets all have the word MSOL in them, and the modules are called MSOnline and MSOnlineExtended. The version is still 1.0.0 as were the previous module. New in this …

Norwegian content: How to integrate your on-premise Active Directory with Windows Azure Active Directory

I have published a 5 part blog series on the Norwegian Microsoft TechNet Blog, with step by step instructions for setting up integration between your on-premise Window Server Active Directory Directory Service and Windows Azure Active Directory. It covers concepts, single-sign on with ADFS, Directory Synchronization with the DirSync Tool and troubleshooting. So if you …

Windows Azure compute cores and you

By default, every Windows Azure subscription has a limit of 20 compute cores. This applies to both VMs (IaaS) and worker roles (PaaS). Fortunately this is a soft limit and you can increase it by submitting a support ticket to the Windows Azure team through the management portal here. The following table lists the number …