Overview of Azure IaaS

Agenda
• Hybrid IaaS
• Virtual Machines
• IaaS v2 - What’s New
• Support
Hybrid IaaS
Microsoft Azure Compute (IaaS)
The focus of this section is on Microsoft’s IaaS capabilities, which in large part consist of
storage, networking, backup and recovery, large scale computing and traditional virtual
machine deployments
Virtual Machines
Virtual Machines
At a high level, Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) provide traditional virtualized
server infrastructure to deploy a given application or service.
Virtual Machines Sizes and Tiers
When deploying applications and solutions using Microsoft Azure Virtual
Machines, there are various sizing configurations that are available to
organizations. From a sizing perspective, each sizing series represents
various properties such as:

• Number of CPUs
• Memory allocated to each Virtual Machine
• Temporary Local Storage
• Allocated Bandwidth for the Virtual Machine
• Maximum Data Disks
Availability Sets

SQL Server SQL Server

Primary Secondary

Virtual Machine Virtual Machine

High Availability

Physical Machines

Power Unit
Rack Switch
VM Extensions
Extending the power of your VM.
Enable easier management. IaaS extended
Support partner ecosystem.
Full control remains with you!

Agent Curated
extensions

Azure
Virtual Machine Gallery Items
The Gallery is the library of images, both Microsoft and partner provided, which can
be used to create IaaS virtual machines.
Custom images that you upload to your Azure subscription are also available within
the gallery.
IaaS v2 – What’s New
What’s New About IaaS v2
v1: Service Management APIs
Not fully integrated: no RBAC, tagging, templates
Challenging network modelling
Not enabled for Cloud Service Provider (CSP) subscriptions

v2: ARM APIs

Fully integrated into Resource Manager
Tags and RBAC at granular levels
More asynchronous operations - massive and parallel deployment of VMs
Dependencies
Network resource types are separate from compute
3 Fault Domains in Availability Sets
Part of Azure-consistent private cloud. Deploy same JSON template in Azure or Azure Stack
Limited support for PaaS
Azure IaaS for CSP Subscriptions
Classic Model (v1) Resource Manager (V2)
Cloud Service
Load Resource Group
Balancer Backend Pool (NICs)
w/ IP
VM w/ IP Address Storage VNet
VM IP Load LB IP
Address Account VM NIC Subnet
Disk (blob)
Address Balancer Address

Reference
Reference Reference
Storage Account Virtual Network DependsOn Reference
Reference

Disk (blob) Subnet-1 Network

Security
Group

Legacy Subscriptions Cloud Service Provider

(CSP) Subscriptions
Single vs Multiple Resource Groups
Single Resource Group

Front End VMs

Storage Virtual
Account Network
Back End VMs

Multiple Resource Groups

RG3: Front End VMs

RG1: RG2:
Storage Virtual
Account Network
RG4: Back End VMs
Azure Virtual Machines (v2)
• Massive and parallel
deployment of Virtual
Machines
• 3 Fault Domains in
Availability Sets
• Custom URLs for Custom
Script VM Extensions for
VMs
• SSH-2 RSA Format Support
for SSH keys for Linux VMs
Resource Group Manager Services
Centralized auditing of operations
Simple tagging and grouping of resources
Consistent access control
IaaS Considerations
Virtual machine
• Size and number of Virtual Machines
•
Cost
Azure Virtual Machine Storage Requirements
• Azure Virtual Network and VPN services
• Network Traffic out of Azure

•
Network

Decide on Name resolution: Azure-based or own DNS solution

• Virtual Network overlay for enhanced security and isolation
• Extension of the on-premises network to the cloud
• Number of persistent private IP addresses required

• AutoScaling for increased or decreased load is different than PaaS

Limits

• VMs are not load balanced by default

• VM density per Vnet (currently 2048)
• Concurrent TCP connections for VMs roles (500K)
Virtual Machine - Sizes and Tiers
Different VM Sizes and Tiers target specific workload models:

Basic A0-Basic A4: 1-8 Cores, 768MB – 14GB RAM, 1023GB OS, 20 -240GB Temp Disks Sizes, 1-16 Max
Data Disks, 300 IOPS per disk.

Standard A0-Standard A11 (Includes Compute Intensive A8-11): 1-16 Cores, 768MB – 112GB RAM,
1023GB OS, 20-382GB Temp Disks Sizes, 1-16 Max Data Disks, 500 IOPS per disk.

Standard D1-D4 and D11-D14 (High Memory): 1-16 Cores, 3.5GB – 112GB RAM, 1023GB OS, 50-
800GB Temp Disks Sizes, 2-32 Max Data Disks, 500 IOPS per disk.

Standard DS1-DS4 and DS11-DS14 (Premium Storage): 1-16 Cores, 3.5GB – 112GB RAM, 1023GB OS,
7-112GB Temp Disks Sizes, 2-32 Max Data Disks, 3200-50000 IOPS per disk.

Standard G1 – G5 (High Performance): 2-32 Cores, 28GB – 448GB RAM, 1023GB OS, 384-6144GB Temp
Disks Sizes, 4-64 Max Data Disks, 500 IOPS per disk.
Virtual Machine - Storage Models

IaaS solutions store images and

disks used by VMs within VHDs,
which attach to the computer
instance as persistent or temporary
storage. VMs are required a storage
account. Currently Azure support
only supports the fixed VHD Format.
Virtual Machine - Placement Models
There exist two placement models for VMs, Affinity Groups and
Resource Groups.

Affinity Groups (v1) Resource Groups (v2)

• Not enabled for CSP • Unit of management for

subscriptions
• Places compute and storage of a
given VM, always together close
to one another.
• By ensuring the VM’s resources
reside in the same cluster,
latency is reduced and
performance is increased.
operations like deployments,
updates, and standard lifecycle
operations across a number of
different services, such as VMs.
• Enables the creation of a
reusable deployment templates
to handle infrastructure
configuration as code.

Cloud Service Provider (CSP) Subscriptions can only use Resource Group placement
Virtual Machine - Availability Models
Availability Sets ensures that all instances of each tier have
hardware redundancy by distributing them across fault domains,
and are not taken down during an update.
Virtual Machine – Gallery and Image Models
Images make it easier to deploy an application into the Azure
environment. The following are the four models of Azure Images:

• VHDs managed and supported by Microsoft. Some

Image Families
may include pre-installed software and configuration.

• VHDs uploaded by partners for application

consumption by the Azure customer. VMs deployed
Partner Images
using partner images are not deployed on the same
cluster or clusters as other VM workloads.

• Images are kept as versions in Azure. Typically, you

Latest Images
would want to choose the latest image.

• Customer uploaded VHDs to leverage their own

Customized
images. This is due to internal security, standard costs,
Images
and licensing scenarios.
Cost
One of the primary considerations when constructing
solutions
• Cost factors
The high level cost model and measurement (e.g. Cost
per hour for virtual machines)
• Cost drivers
The unit level costs and design decisions which impact
costs (e.g. The number of active virtual machines
required, or the type of storage utilized.
Cost Considerations
• Budgeting consumption vs. traditional IT investment
• The shift to consumption budget planning is challenging
• Current IT spend does not consider this model

• Azure IaaS migration is not always 1:1

• Current model is to “over-purchase” for on-premises solutions
• Simplistic review of the existing infrastructure does not accurately reflect the
expected Azure footprint  “right-size”
• Consumption budgeting requires a shift in thinking
• Shift thinking towards understanding utilization and scaling
• Focus on initial deployment followed by incremental growth
• Take advantage of the elasticity of Azure services as part of transition
IaaS Network Considerations
There are two models for network configurations for Azure VMs: cloud-only and
cloud-premises Vnet configurations.

Cloud-Only
• This implementation does not leverage Vnet gateways to connect back to the
on-premises network or to other Azure Vnets. Connection to VMs is obtained
through the public endpoints, rather than through a VPN connection.

Cross-Premises
• This implementation offers grater flexibility as multi-site, Vnet to Vnet, and
ExpressRoute configurations offer the needed flexibility to extend the on-
premises network to the cloud and extend to multiple networks in Azure. Most
cross premises connectivity involve a VPN device for a secure connection with
the Vnet, however, a direct connection using ExpressRoute can be obtained to
Azure and bypass the internet altogether.
Resources
Quick Start Templates
https://github.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates

Azure Resource Manager (ARM)

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/resource-group-over
view/

Deploying Azure Templates

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/resource-group-tem
plate-deploy/
Resources (continued)
Getting Started with Azure IaaS

Azure IaaS – proper sizing and cost

Deciding between different VM sizes

Architecting Enterprise grade linux solutions on Azure IaaS

Hybrid Networking options on Azure IaaS

Running enterprise applications on Azure

First Line Support for CSP and the APIs
• For CSP – Yammer Group
https://www.yammer.com/cloudpartnercommunity/
• For CREST and Graph APIs – Partner Center
API forum:
https://
social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?category
=microsoftpartnercenter
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