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Provisioning an Azure instance

Use the Edge Services portal to provision Microsoft® Azure CentOs or Ubuntu instances. Before you provision an Azure instance, you must create an Azure cloud that you then assign to the Azure instance during the provisioning process. If you have a power schedule created, apply it to the instance during provisioning to automate the weekly power up and down scheduling. After an Azure instance has been provisioned, you can stop, start, or restart and lock a server, edit the instance details, and access the console for the instance. You can create security groups and add or remove security groups for instances with custom rules. If you no longer need an Azure instance, you can delete it.

To provision an Azure instance:

  1. Click Provisioning, then click Instances.

    The Edge Services portal shows the instances created for your organization.
Edge Service Manager instances view
  1. Click + ADD, then select Cloud Provider Instance.

    The Edge Services portal shows the Create Instance window.
Edge Service Manager create instance choice view
  1. In the Create Instance window, select the operating system, then click NEXT.

    The Edge Services portal shows the Instance Summary section.
Edge Service Manager create instance summary window
  1. In the Instance Summary section, complete the following fields:
Field Description
GROUP Select the group associated with the Azure instance.
CLOUD Select the Azure cloud.
NAME Type a unique name for the Azure instance.
ENVIRONMENT Select the environment for the Azure instance. The environment provides a way to segment your instances by labels. Instance environments can be changed by editing the instance.
LABELS Type a label for Azure instance task organization. You can edit labels of provisioned instances.
  1. Click NEXT.

    The Edge Services portal shows the Configuration Options section.
Create Azure instance - Configure tab
  1. In the Configuration Options section, complete the following fields:
Field Description
VERSION Select the version of the operating system (OS) used in this instance.
LAYOUT
 This field shows the preconfigured options available for the instance type and cloud selected for provisioning.
PLAN Select the plan option. The cost of the plan varies based on the amount of storage and computing power selected.
RESOURCE POOL Select the resource group to apply to the Azure instance being provisioned. A resource group is the logical container created to manage a specified set of resources in Azure.
VOLUMES Type the name of the volume, select the storage size, and select the type of volume. To add additional volumes, click the  icon. 
NETWORKS Select the network for the instance. To add additional networks, click the  icon.
REGION Select the region where the resource pool is located. To use the region assigned in the resource pool, leave the default option of Inherit from Resource pool.
SECURITY GROUP Select a security group to enable connectivity and access to your Azure instance. To enable egress access on any port and ingress access for other instances with the same security group, select default.
AVAILABILITY OPTIONS Select one of the following options: (based on your selection, additional fields appear).
  • No infrastructure redundancy required—Creates no replicated copies on separate hardware.
  • Availability Zone—Creates a replicated copy on separate hardware and in a separate availability zone within an Azure Region.
  • Availability Set—Creates a replicated copy on separate hardware within an single availability set.
ASSIGN PUBLIC IP
Select this option to assign a public IP address to this instance.
BOOT DIAGNOSTICS Select this option to enable Azure to log virtual machine boot up diagnostics.
OS GUEST DIAGNOSTICS Select this option to enable memory utilization metrics of your guest resources.
DIAGNOSTICS STORAGE ACCOUNT Select the account where the diagnostic metics are stored. Managed storage in Azure is an account created and managed by the Azure Resource manager.
  1. In the User Config section, complete the following fields:
Field Description
CREATE YOUR USER Select this option to create a new user after provisioning the instance. 
USER GROUP Select a group to assign the new user to. 
  1. In the Advanced Options section, complete the following fields:

 

Field Description
SCALE FACTOR Type the number of nodes to be created with the instance.
HOSTNAME Type the hostname for the instance.
DOMAIN Select the domain for the instance.
TIME ZONE Select the time zone for the instance.
PORTS Type the port name and port number and then select the protocol for ports to be used by the instances. To add additional ports, click the icon. To remove ports, click the icon.
SKIP AGENT INSTALL Select this option to skip installing the agent on the Azure instance. Install the agent to capture and track valuable information such as memory usage and storage availability. You can view the information collected for the instance on the viewing details page. Without the agent installed, this information is not collected or available.
TAGS Enter a unique tag name and value to each instance for tracking purposes. Tags are name value pairs. For example, type Location for the name, and New Brunswick for the value. To add additional tags, click the icon. To remove tags, click the icon.
ENVIRONTMENT PREFIX  Type the environment variable prefix. To use an automatically generated prefix, leave this field blank.
ENVIRONTMENT VARIABLES
 Type the environment variable values used by applications on the instance. Environment variables are a set of dynamically named values stored within the system used by applications. To add additional variables, click the icon. To remove variables, click the icon.
  1. Click NEXT.

    The Edge Services portal shows the Automation section.
Edge Service Manager automation window view
  1. In the Automation, Scale, and Lifecycle sections, complete the following fields:
Field Description
WORKFLOW Select the provisioning workflow for the instance.
SCALE TYPE Select the scale type for the instance. The scale type determines how nodes are added and removed on instances.
THRESHOLD Select the threshold configuration for the instance. The threshold configuration determines the minimum and maximum amount of memory, disk space, and CPU as well as automatic upscaling and downscaling.
POWER SCHEDULE Select the power schedule for the instance.
SHUTDOWN DAYS Select the number of days an instance runs before it is shut down.  
EXPIRATION DAYS Select the number of days to extend the expiration date for the instance.
  1. Click NEXT.

    The Edge Services portal shows the Summary review window. This is the final screen to check selections from previous steps.
Edge Service Manager instance summary detail view
  1. To make copies of an instance being provisioned, click Options, then select the number of copies in the COPIES field.

    Copied instances are given the same name as the original with a hyphen followed by a sequentially-generated number appended to the name. For example, if you name an instance ABC Instance A, the Edge Services portal names the copy ABC Instance A-1. You can edit the name of the copies after they have been provisioned.
  1. To provision the Azure instance and any copies, click COMPLETE.

    The Edge Services portal begins provisioning the Azure instance.