Supported Virtual Machine Operating Systems in the Microsoft Cloud

Today we cover which operating systems are supported in Windows Azure, Microsoft’s Public Cloud built for running virtual machines.  At present Microsoft Azure currently supports multiple operating systems, and not only Microsoft  solutions are in the list.  Let’s take a look at the list and versions available for deployment.  If you are logged into your Microsoft Azure account(if not go ahead and sign up for a free trial here) proceed to the VM creation screen:

You have two choices, “Quick Create” and “From Gallery”, first let’s look at the “Quick Create” option:

Notice that Microsoft BiztalkServer 2013 Beta and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Evaluation Edition are listed, then below that are fresh installations of Windows 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2012.  Currently in my subscription I list both December and October 2012 builds of each however the October builds should drop off soon.  Next on the list is OpenLogic’s CentOS version 6.3 followed by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2.  Then Ubuntu rounds out the bottom of the list with versions 12.04.1 LTS and 12.10.

That is currently all that is supported under the Quick Create option.  Now let’s focus on the “From Gallery” menu:

Here we can see the same list available as before, however we also see Virtual Machines available at the bottom of the list that were previously deployed.  So I can make virtual machines images in the cloud through the “Quick Create” option then shut them down and redeploy them at a later time.  On the left hand menu we can also upload disk images, and create virtual machines from these as well(you still need to stick to the supported list of OSes though please).  As Windows Azure for Virtual Machines moves toward G.A. we will have further articles discussing deployment and management of operating systems from the System Center 2012 SP1 suite.  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post of the 31 Days of Servers in the Cloud! If you missed any of the 31 Days Series check out the list of articles here.

So the current list of supported OSes is as follows:

• Microsoft BiztalkServer 2013 Beta
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Eval Edition
• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Windows Server 2012
• OpenLogic CentOS 6.3
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
• Ubuntu Server 12.04.1 LTS
• Ubuntu Server 12.10

Want to hear more about Azure virtual machines, watch/listen to our recent 5 part series with Don Noonan and Blain Barton on I.T. Time Radio!:

Part 1:  In today’s episode they discuss a scenario which details how you would migrate and manage a classic 3 tier application to Windows Azure.

TechNet Radio- IT Time – (Part 1) Real World Azure – Migrating a Classic 3-Tier Application to W

Part 2:  Tune in as Don demos a custom SharePoint application that was created for Price Waterhouse Coopers and how they took it from on-premise and deployed it in Azure.

TechNet Radio- IT Time – (Part 2) Real World Azure – Deploying a Custom SharePoint Application t

Part 3:  Tune in as they discuss how you would handle source disk sizes as it relates to Windows Azure Virtual Machines, what tools are available to help you get an OS disk or data disk into Azure as well as how you can deploy your new server image in Azure using availability sets.

TechNet Radio- IT Time – (Part 3) Real World Azure – Moving an All-In-One Server from Co-locatio

Part 4:  Tune in as Don demos how you can easily connect to your VM in the cloud via the Internet as he offers some tips and tricks along the way.

TechNet Radio- IT Time – (Part 4) Server Applications on Windows Azure

Part 5:  Tune in as Don demos for us how he took SQL workload and moved that to a Windows Azure Virtual Machine, while discussing with us some key points to consider such as workload size vs. performance, separate storage accounts and the disk management console.

TechNet Radio: IT Time – (Part 5) Real World Azure – Provisioning Storage for I/O Intensive Applications on Windows Azure