Introduction

Creating Virtual Machines via Windows Azure Pack powered by interworks.cloud, will ensure the performance of a local server, with the flexibility of Cloud Computing, making it easier than ever to add resources and expand its databases scaling as load grows.

Key requirements: internet access, web browser.

There are two different ways in order to create a Standalone Virtual Machine. Both paths could end up with the same desired result.

Quick Create (best practice).
From Gallery .

Operating Systems Templates

The current supported Operating Systems are:

Linux

CentOS 6.9 (64bit) Generation 1
CentOS 7 (64bit) Generation 1
CentOS 7 (64bit) Generation 2
Ubuntu 19 (64bit) Generation 2
Ubuntu 20 (64bit) Generation 2
Debian 10 (64bit) Generation 2

Windows

Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition
Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition
Windows Server 2019 Standard Edition

Available Virtual Machine Templates

Quick Creation of a Virtual Machine

All the creations starts by pressing the green button NEW+ on the lower left corner.

The QUICK CREATE is a single step VM creation where the admin provides only the required details for the upcoming server :

Name: Name Of the Server

Template: OS Edition

Password: Password for the ADMINISTRATOR

Password Complexity

In order to proceed with the creation of the Virtual Machine the password complexity should follow the below rules:

8 characters
a lower case character
a upper case character
a number
a special character (!,@,# etc)

No gaps on name!

Using gaps on server name will end up with a fail provision!

Quick Create

Please note that Quick Create is the best way to create a virtual machine.

The created virtual machine will take the minimum available resources a virtual machine needs to be created.

After creation the administrator can change its resources to the preferred.

Configure a Virtual Machine

In order to gather information about a server or change its resources navigate to Virtual Machines → (select the targeted VM).

DASHBOARD

Via Dashboard menu the administrator is able to gather statistics about CPU, memory, IO and network usage.

Moreover, Dashboard provides the ability to connect, pause, restart, shutdown, stop or delete a server.

CONFIGURE (CPU-RAM)

Through the Configure tab having a server stopped, the administrator is able to change its resources CPU-RAM by selecting the desirable predefined template.

CONFIGURE (NETWORK)

Attach or detach a Network.

Warning

In order to change resources or attach-detach a Network the virtual machine must be stopped.

CONFIGURE (EXTEND HARD DISK)

Through Configure tab having a server stopped, the administrator is able to extend a hard disk.

In order to extend a hard disk the administrator have to select the specific hard disk and then navigate to expand.

Dragging the mouse over disk size the administrator is able to select the desirable size of the hard disk.

Expanding

Please note that after expanding the hard disk from the portal the administrator have to expand the hard disk also internal through the vm in order to be able the operating system to use it. Also note that shrink a hard disk is not yet supported.

CREATE SECOND HARD DISK

Through Configure tab having a server stopped, the administrator is able to attach a second hard disk.

In order to attach a second hard disk the administrator has to click on attach and then to choose disk.

The administrator has to provide a name for the disk eg. DATA and click to proceed.

The new disk will be created with 10 GB capacity so the administrator has to proceed with expanding the disk.

CHECKPOINTS

Checkpoints tab provide the ability to create\restore check points of a virtual machine.

Checkpoint storage quotas

In order to create a Checkpoint, the storage quotas available must be at least as the size of the Virtual Machine!

From Gallery Creation of a Virtual Machine

Navigating to New → STANDALONE VIRTUAL MACHINE → FROM GALLERY a three steps wizard will pop.

Select the operating system.
Provide Virtual Machine Settings.
Product Activation Key

Leave the PRODUCT KEY field black. The Operating Systems are pre-activated!
Assign the upcoming Virtual Machine to an existed Network Adapter (if any). Finally, hit the V (check) button, to launch the provision.