The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

re: The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

achilles — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 13:48:34 GMT

According to Microsoft's plans, Windows Azure will be available later this year, another called VM Role of the computing services that will allow the user to the underlying computing platform with more control, through Remote Desktop Services (RDS) connected In the past. Its main purpose is to existing Windows applications can be relatively smooth migration to Windows Azure up.

re: The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

BuckWoody — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:21:57 GMT

Gavin - agreed. We do in fact offer that - in Hyper-V with System Center.

It's kind of like the fact we offer an editor in Outlook - but that's not a Microsoft Word competitor.

re: The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

Gavin Payne — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:15:40 GMT

Makes sense, I buy into the concept, I just think whenever you present someone with a Windows desktop in the cloud people are going to think they can deploy and install anything they want, how they want.

re: The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

Buck Woody — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:13:12 GMT

Gavin - it's the name. It was actually the object of some debate, and many people - lots of them - still confuse VM Role with IaaS for the name reason alone. Very unfortunate, in my humble opinion.

The key is this: Windows Azure == Opening Visual Studio (or Eclipse) and writing code. End of story. If you're not opening code, you're talking Hyper-V. Does that make sense?

re: The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

Buck Woody — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:11:07 GMT

Brent - you are correct, if not in the strictes sense. If you take any old VHD and deploy it, it won't work. There are very specific steps, versions, and processes for it. If, however, you follow all of the restrictions and steps, then you can.

And you're correct in that designation. If you were to recreate the Azure idea in Hyper-V, you could most certainly have the same or better control. But now you're also responsible for designing the scale and HA - which we did for you alread in - wiat for it - Windows Azure. :)

Thanks for the comments, my friend. See you soon.

re: The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

Gavin Payne — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:10:47 GMT

I think you're article shares Microsoft's intention which was to create a slightly more flexible PaaS platform for running non-Azure friendly apps by presenting a Windows environment in the cloud.

Sadly there is a perception from those who don't subscribe to that understanding that Azure's VM-role is just pure IaaS, driven by the fact you build your own VHD then upload it, which makes people compare it to other providers such as AWS who have products far more optimised for bespoke content VM hosting.

Maybe its the name of the product or there's VHD uploading which confuses people, I'm not sure yet.

re: The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

Brent Ozar — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:04:54 GMT

"...some have mistakenly thought that you can take a Virtual Machine running, say Linux, and deploy it to Windows Azure using this Role. But you can’t."

So are you saying you can take a Virtual Machine running Windows and deploy it to Windows Azure using this role? I'm saying no, and I just want to make sure we're on the same page.

"The VM Role is still used for running Stateless code, just like the Web and Worker Roles, with the exception that it allows you more control over the environment of where that code runs."

I agree, but only if you add in five crucial words. The sentence needs to read, "more control over the environment of where that code runs THAN AZURE WEB ROLES ALLOW." Otherwise, it implies that you get more control in Azure VM roles than you do in any other stateless code deployment tool, and that's simply not the case with Hyper-V or VMware. You get much more control over the environment's hardware, software, and patching with on-prem virtualization.