Page 1 of 89 Deploy SQL Server Business Intelligence in Windows Azure Virtual Machines Chuck Heinzelman Summary: This document describes and walks you through the creation of a multiserver deployment of SQL Server Business Intelligence features, in a Windows Azure Virtual Machines environment. The document focuses on the use of Windows PowerShell scripts for each step of the configuration and deployment process. Category: Step-by-Step Applies to: SQL Server 2012 SP1, Windows Azure E-book publication date: August 2013 Page 2 of 89 Page 3 of 89 Copyright © 2012 by Microsoft Corporation All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Microsoft and the trademarks listed at http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/en/us/IntellectualProperty/Trademarks/EN- US.aspx are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other marks are property of their respective owners. The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. This book expresses the author’s views and opinions. The information contained in this book is provided without any express, statutory, or implied warranties. Neither the authors, Microsoft Corporation, nor its resellers, or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by this book. Page 4 of 89 1. Contents 1. Contents 4 2. Introduction 9 3. What Is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)? 9 4. Why Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)? 9 5. Recommended Scenarios for BI on IaaS 10 6. Document Conventions 10 7. Getting Started with IaaS 11 7.1. Affinity Groups 11 7.2. Virtual Networks 11 7.2.1. Subnets 12 7.2.2. DNS 12 7.2.3. On-Premises Connectivity 12 7.3. Storage 13 7.3.1. Containers 13 7.3.2. Access Keys 14 7.4. Cloud Service 14 7.4.1. Deployments 14 7.4.2. Virtual IP Address 14 7.5. Endpoints 14 7.6. Virtual Machines 15 7.7. Availability Sets 15 7.8. Disks 15 7.9. Images 15 8. Prerequisites and Assumptions 17 9. Windows Azure PowerShell Commands 18 10. Non-Windows Azure PowerShell Commands 20 11. The Overall Environment 21 12. Overview of the Deployment Steps 23 13. Step 1: Configure the Windows Azure Environment 24 13.1. Create the Affinity Group 24 13.1.1. Validation 24 13.2. Network 25 Page 5 of 89 13.2.1. Create the Virtual Network 25 13.2.2. Validation 27 13.2.3. Point-to-Site VPN 28 13.3. Cloud Service 28 13.3.1. Create the Cloud Service 28 13.3.2. Validation 28 13.4. Storage Account 28 13.4.1. Create the Storage Account 28 13.4.2. Validation 29 14. Step2: Deploy Active Directory Domain Services 30 14.1. First Domain Controller 30 14.1.1. Provision VM 31 14.1.2. Validation 33 14.1.3. Format Disks 34 14.1.4. Create Domain 34 14.1.5. Create Sites and Subnets 35 14.1.6. Remove Forwarder 37 14.2. Second Domain Controller 37 14.2.1. Provision VM 37 14.2.2. Format Disks 41 14.2.3. Create Domain Controller 41 14.2.4. Create Share 42 14.3. Service User Accounts 42 14.3.1. Create Service User Accounts 43 15. Step 3: Configure SQL Server Database Servers (SharePoint Back End) 46 15.1. First SQL Server Instance 47 15.1.1. Provision VM 47 15.2. Format Disks 49 15.3. Enable Clustering 49 15.4. Install SQL Server 49 15.5. Second SQL Server Instance 51 16. Step 4: Configure SQL Server PowerPivot Servers 52 16.1. First PowerPivot Server 53 Page 6 of 89 16.1.1. Provision VM 53 16.1.2. Install SQL Server 55 16.2. Second PowerPivot Server 56 17. Step 5: Deploy the first SharePoint Application/Central Administration Server 57 17.1. SharePoint Image 57 17.1.1. Provision VM 57 17.1.2. Install SharePoint Prerequisites 59 17.1.3. Install SharePoint 60 17.1.4. Install Add-Ins 60 17.1.5. Install Updates 61 17.1.6. Sysprep 61 17.1.7. Capture Image 61 17.2. First SharePoint Server 62 17.2.1. Provision VM 62 17.2.2. Create New Farm 64 17.2.3. Add PowerPivot Solutions 64 17.2.4. Install PowerPivot Features 65 17.2.5. Configure Service Instance 65 17.2.6. Create PowerPivot Service Application 65 17.2.7. Create Default Web Application 65 17.2.8. Deploy Web Application Solution 66 17.2.9. Create Site Collection 66 17.2.10. Activate PowerPivot Feature 66 17.2.11. Start the Claims to Windows Token Service 66 17.2.12. Configure Secure Store Service 67 17.2.13. Configure Alternate Access Mappings 68 17.2.14. Install Reporting Services 69 17.2.15. Install Reporting Services Bits 69 17.2.16. Enable Reporting Services 70 17.2.17. Create Reporting Services Shared Service Application 71 17.2.18. Grant Reporting Services permissions 71 17.3. Section Validation 72 18. Step 6: Configure AlwaysOn Availability Groups 73 Page 7 of 89 18.1. Create Cluster 73 18.1.1. Validation 74 18.2. Enable AlwaysOn Availability Groups 74 18.2.1. Validation 75 18.3. Create Availability Group 75 18.3.1. Validation 76 18.4. Enable High Availability in SharePoint 77 18.4.1. Validation 77 19. Step 7: Deploy SharePoint Web Front End Servers 78 19.1. Provision VM 78 19.1.1. Validation 80 19.2. Join SharePoint Farm 80 19.2.1. Validation 80 19.3. Import Certificate 81 19.3.1. Validation 81 19.4. Deploy PowerPivot Solutions 81 19.4.1. Validation 82 19.5. Configure Second SharePoint Web Front End 82 20. Step 8: Deploy Additional SharePoint Application/Central Administration Servers 83 20.1. Provision VM 83 20.1.1. Validation 84 20.2. Join SharePoint Farm 85 20.2.1. Validation 85 20.3. Configure Local Service Instances 85 20.3.1. Validation 85 20.4. Start the SharePoint Services 86 20.4.1. Validation 86 20.5. Deploy PowerPivot Solutions 86 20.5.1. Validation 86 20.6. Install Reporting Services Bits 87 20.6.1. Validation 87 20.7. Enable Reporting Services 87 20.7.1. Validation 88 Page 8 of 89 21. Conclusion 89 21.1. For more information: 89 21.2. Feedback 89 Page 9 of 89 2. Introduction We’ve been getting more and more requests for guidance on running Business Intelligence (BI) workloads in Windows Azure Virtual Machines. This paper is a joint effort between the Microsoft SQL Server BI portion of the Windows Azure Customer Advisory Team and Microsoft's Israel Development Center. The deployment guidance in this document is based on customer experiences, customer feedback, and user research. The environment outlined in this document works as a stand-alone environment that does not need to connect to an on-premises Active Directory domain. It emphasizes BI deployment techniques for Windows Azure Virtual Machines without going too deeply into individual BI technologies. The paper assumes that you already understand how to build BI environments in general and you now want to deploy a Microsoft SharePoint based BI environment in Windows Azure Virtual Machines. This document should serve as a starting point to build such a Windows Azure-based BI environment. Although this paper describes the use of Windows PowerShell to build the environment, most of these tasks can also be accomplished through other tools, including the Windows Azure Management Portal, SQL Server Management Studio, and SharePoint Central Administration. The Windows PowerShell approach does not require the use of multiple tools and can easily be automated and repeated as needed. 3. What Is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)? IaaS is any environment that enables you to host virtual machines (VMs) without having to build and maintain the hosting infrastructure yourself. Many corporate IT departments take advantage of virtualization environments to run their workloads. IaaS eliminates the need to install or maintain host servers, enabling you to focus on your VMs rather than the infrastructure. In Windows Azure, IaaS is provided through the Windows Azure Virtual Machines service. 4. Why Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)? There are several reasons to run BI workloads on IaaS. Some reasons are related to the general benefits of an IaaS environment. Other reasons are derived from the combination of IaaS advantages with the characteristics of BI solutions: Seamless migration to the cloud. IaaS is the most accessible alternative for migrating BI workloads to the cloud, because IaaS is very similar to existing on-premises architectures. No physical infrastructure maintenance. Windows Azure takes care of physical infrastructure deployment and maintenance for you. IaaS solutions are flexible. Additional VMs can be created from predefined Windows Azure gallery images or from custom images. You can deploy additional servers to increase capacity dynamically. Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO). By accruing costs only for consumed resources, required software SKUs, and actual resource usage time, IaaS can help to lower TCO. This is especially significant for short-lived projects, such as demos or proof-of-concept (POC) deployments. [...]... publication The Windows Azure environment is a live service that receives updates and improvements For the most up-to-date information about Windows Azure, see the following: Windows Azure – http://www.windowsazure.com Virtual Machines – http://www.windowsazure.com/enus/documentation/services /virtual- machines/ ?fb=en-us 7.1 Affinity Groups In Windows Azure, an affinity group is a logical grouping of resources... vhd files used by Windows Azure Virtual Machines are stored in Windows Azure Blob Storage as page blobs This is an important distinction because there are two types of blobs in blob storage: page blobs and block blobs For vhd files, you use page blobs If you have existing machines that you want to host and run in Windows Azure Virtual Machines, you can upload the vhd files to Windows Azure Blob Storage... underneath your virtual machines need to be updated When these updates happen, any virtual machine running on that host is taken offline To get the promised service-level agreement (SLA) for Windows Azure Virtual Machines, you need to have at least two machines running in a given role (two domain controllers, for example) Placing those machines in the same availability set tells Windows Azure that it... Let Windows Azure provide the network settings for all of the machines that you deploy For more information, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn133803.aspx Page 11 of 89 7.2.1 Subnets A virtual network in Windows Azure supports address space divided into multiple subnets Routing between the subnets is automatically handled through Windows Azure, so VMs in one subnet on your virtual. .. SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise edition SharePoint Server 2013 March 2013 CU SharePoint Server 2013 April 2013 CU Licensing – Through the use of the Windows Server 2012 gallery images, the Windows licensing is covered on a pay-by-the-hour basis Any licensing for the SQL Server and SharePoint components are the responsibility of the person doing the installation For more information about Windows Azure. .. more information about how to download Windows Azure PowerShell, see Downloads (http://www.windowsazure.com/enus/downloads/#cmd-line-tools) Windows PowerShell Scripting – It is our assumption that people using this document will have a basic working knowledge of Windows PowerShell, including the definition and use of variables and scripts For more information about using Windows PowerShell, see Getting... charges while the virtual machine is unused, shut down the virtual machine(s) in the Windows Azure Management Portal For more information about the cost of Windows Azure compute charges, see http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/ Management Certificate – To use the scripts included in this paper, you need to create a management certificate and upload it into the Windows Azure Management... without load balancing, and 2) port 3389 is a well-known port and using it as your public RDP port can open your infrastructure up for potential attacks 7.6 Virtual Machines Virtual machines are at the core of what we are doing in this paper In many ways, the machines that you host in Windows Azure are no different than the machines that you host in Hyper-V onpremises There are a few things, such as snapshots,... see VMs in other subnets within the same virtual network You can add more subnets to a virtual network after machines are deployed, but you cannot change the settings of existing subnets without removing all of the deployed resources Windows Azure uses some of the addresses in each subnet defined for its own internal purposes Currently Windows Azure consumes three addresses from every subnet defined (which... http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/options/ Important: After you are finished developing and testing the scripts, verify that the Windows Azure resources are in the desired state so you are not charged for resources you do not need For example, if you leave Windows Azure Virtual Machines running, you are charged compute hours If you do not want to delete virtual machines and you do not want to incur . up-to-date information about Windows Azure, see the following: Windows Azure – http://www.windowsazure.com Virtual Machines – http://www.windowsazure.com/en- us/documentation/services /virtual- machines/ ?fb=en-us. the creation of a multiserver deployment of SQL Server Business Intelligence features, in a Windows Azure Virtual Machines environment. The document focuses on the use of Windows PowerShell scripts. attacks. 7.6. Virtual Machines Virtual machines are at the core of what we are doing in this paper. In many ways, the machines that you host in Windows Azure are no different than the machines that