Last Update: Sep 24, 2024 | Published: Dec 31, 2013
In the second part of this series on how to install a domain controller in a Windows Azure virtual machine (VM), I’ll show you how to provision a VM with a persistent IP address and how to correctly install the AD DS role and promote the server to a domain controller. If you need to catch up, check out part one, in which we took a look at how IP addressing works in Windows Azure and how to create a virtual network for your domain computers.
At the time of writing this article, the only way to ensure that a VM receives a persistent IP address every time it is started from a virtual network is to create the VM using PowerShell. Before you can use PowerShell to remotely manage Windows Azure, you will need to set up remote management on a computer on your local network. For more details on how to set up remote management, see my Ask the Admin article here.
Let’s start by setting the current Azure subscription in PowerShell. Open a PowerShell prompt with elevated privileges:
$myDNS = New-AzureDNS -Name 'myDNS' -IPAddress '127.0.0.1' $MyDC = New-AzureVMConfig -Name "CONTOSODC1" -InstanceSize Small -ImageName a699494373c04fc0bc8f2bb1389d6106__Windows-Server-2012-R2-201311.01-en.us-127GB.vhd | Add-AzureProvisioningConfig -AdminUsername contosodc1admin -Password ******** –Windows | Set-AzureSubnet -SubnetNames Subnet-1 New-AzureVM -ServiceName CONTOSODC1SERV1 -VMs $MyDC -AffinityGroup Contoso –VnetName CONTOSONET1 –DnsSettings $myDNS
If you now look in the Azure management portal window under virtual machines, you will see an entry for the new VM. It can take up to five minutes for the provisioning process to complete.
Windows Azure provides two different types of disks for VMs: Operating System and Data disks. The default disk attached to the VM is an Operating System disk, which uses read/write caching, but to ensure the durability of write operations for our AD forest, the AD database and logs must be placed on a data-disk that uses write-through caching.
Wait for the disk to provision. When it’s ready, it should appear under disks on the dashboard for the VM, with the TYPE set to Data disk. Now click Start in the bar at the bottom of the management portal and click Yes to confirm the operation in the pop-up dialog.
Once the VM’s status has changed to Running on the dashboard, click Connect in the task bar, click OK to confirm the operating in the pop-up dialog, and then open the RDP file downloaded by the browser. Enter the username and password specified when you provisioned the VM to make a remote connection.
From this point onwards, the process for installing AD and promoting the server to a domain controller is the same as it would be on a physical server. The only difference is that you must set the AD database and logs paths to the data disk created in the previous step.
Follow the instructions in my article “How Do I Install Active Directory on Windows Server 2012 Using Server Manager?” When you get to performing the post-deployment tasks and checking the directory paths, make sure that the AD database, log files and SYSVOL folders are located on your VMs data disk and not the default operating system disk. My data disk is labelled E:, so the paths were set as shown in the figure below:
You can then continue to promote the server to a domain controller as in the instructions of the article.