DISCLAIMER: This method isn’t currently supported by Microsoft and MUST be used for DEMO/TESTING/EXPERIMENTS only and NOT FOR PRODUCTION.
That means NOT FOR PRODUCTION. Really not.
What happens if you use this instructions on your own risk:
1. Azure Service Level Agreement doesn't apply to single VM instance. Your SharePoint site and SQL database reside in sinlge VM instance therefore SLA will not cover any downtime.
2. File system state of VM isn't guaranteed and maybe lost anytime. For example during OS maintanance or upgrade. That means all your SharePoint installation will be lost together with SQL database.
3. Single instance VM cant be load balanced so you will experience downtime when VM is offline for any reason including but not limited by those noted above.
4. This technique employs NO BACKUP and NO FAULT-TOLERANCE because SQL database installed inside single VM instance and therefore doesn't have any redundancy mechanisms. See p.2
Technically SharePoint Foundation 2010 can be installed on Windows Azure Web role single instance.
Before we proceed make sure you got Windows Azure service administrator account. If you read up here you most probably already got one. Also it’s expected you have some knowledge how to build and deploy apps on to Windows Azure. I will skip all basic steps like enabling RDP and uploading certificates.
Instructions:
1. Deploy 1 instance of Web role ASP.NET project to Windows Azure and enable Remote Desktop Connection. Easiest way to do this is from Visual Studio IDE.
2. Make sure OS image is Windows Server 2008 R2. You can change OS image by "Configure OS" menu command in Windows Azure Portal
3. Connect to running instance using RDP
4. From now on we work inside terminal session
5. Download SharePoint Foundation 2010 installer and run it
6. Choose Install Prerequisites. It will fail due to Identity Foundation - don't worry we will fix it in seconds. That's because Windows Update Service is disabled.
7. Install Identity Foundation manually
- Download Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.msu to some <folder>
- Cmd.exe
- change drive and cd <folder>
- md <folder2>
- expand -f:* Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.msu <folder2>
- cd <folder2>
- pkgmgr /ip /m:Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.cab /s:%temp% /norestart
8. Run SharePoint Foundation 2010 installer again
- Choose Install Prerequisites. This time it should be installed OK
- Reboot instance from Azure Portal or inside the VM
- If instance stuck and can’t reach Ready state - try to reboot again
- Run SharePoint Foundation 2010 installer again
- Choose Install SharePoint Foundation now
9. Proceed with installation and configuration wizard and choose standalone server
10. Use your RDP credentials to initially connect to SharePoint Server
11. Change HTTP bindings in IIS Manager for SharePoint site to use local IP address. Get local IP address from ipconfig /all or from your ASP.NET Web app bindings in IIS Manager.
12. Now your SharePoint Foundation Web portal is accessible from Internet using whatever DNS name you have in Azure.
13. Optionally you can enable Anonymous access to SharePoint. I will leave instructions for you to look up J
Enjoy!
This method isn’t currently supported by Microsoft and MUST be used for DEMO/TESTING/EXPERIMENTS only and NOT FOR PRODUCTION.
Hi! Is it possible to switch configuration database connection string to SQL azure one and use another Sql azure database for content service setup as default content database for site collections?
@Konstardiy
I didn't check it myself but don't think that SharePoint databases are currently compatibile with SQL Azure.
As experiment you could try SQL Azure Migration Assistant (sqlazuremw.codeplex.com) to move SharePoint database and look how it works.