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Managing Windows Azure Virtual Machines

By using Server Explorer in Visual Studio, you can display information about your virtual machines hosted by Windows Azure. Virtual machines can be useful when you migrate on-premises applications to Windows Azure because you can configure those applications to match your local servers. Virtual machines can interoperate with your cloud services through endpoints that you define by using the Windows Azure Management Portal. For more information, see Building an Application by Using a VM Role in Windows Azure.

Creating a Virtual Machine Hosted by Windows Azure

You create a virtual machine by using the management portal, and you access virtual machines from Server Explorer. For more information, see Windows Azure Virtual Machines.

Accessing Virtual Machines in Server Explorer

If you have virtual machines hosted by Windows Azure, you can access them in Server Explorer. You must first import a subscription so that Server Explorer has information about them. The information that is required is a .publishsettings file, and you must sign in to your Windows Azure account to retrieve it.

Warning
Server Explorer doesn’t automatically update to reflect changes in virtual machines. Choose the Refresh toolbar icon to display the most up-to-date information.

To add a subscription

If Server Explorer isn’t showing, choose the Ctrl+Alt+S keys or, on the menu bar, choose View, Server Explorer.
In Server Explorer, open the shortcut menu for the Windows Azure Virtual Machines node, and then choose Import Subscriptions.
In the Import Subscription dialog box, choose the link to sign into Windows Azure. If asked, provide your credentials.

When Windows Azure has your credentials, a web page shows information about the .publishsettings file, and the download automatically starts.
If asked, choose to save the file.

By default, the file is saved to your Downloads folder.
Choose Import, and then browse to the location where you saved the .publishsettings file.
Choose the file, choose the Open button, and then choose the OK button.

Your virtual machines appear in Server Explorer.

To get information about your virtual machines

In Server Explorer, choose a virtual machine, and then choose the F4 key to show its properties window.

The following table shows what properties are available, but they are all read-only. To change them, use the management portal.

Property	Description
DNS Name	The URL with the Internet address of the virtual machine.
Environment	For a virtual machine, the value of this property is always Production.
Name	The name of the virtual machine.
Size	The size of the virtual machine, which reflects the amount of memory and disk space that’s available. For more information, see How To: Configure Virtual Machine Sizes.
Status	Values include Starting, Started, Stopping, Stopped, and Retrieving Status. If Retrieving Status appears, the current status is unknown. The values for this property differ from the values that are used on the management portal.
SubscriptionID	The subscription ID for your Windows Azure account. You can show this information on the management portal by viewing the properties for a subscription.

The endpoints for each virtual machine appear in Server Explorer as child nodes of the virtual machine node.

Choose an endpoint node, and then view the Properties window.

The following table describes the available properties of endpoints, but they are read-only. To add or edit the endpoints for a virtual machine, use the management portal.

Property	Description
Name	An identifier for the endpoint.
Private Port	The port for network access internal to your application.
Protocol	The protocol that the transport layer for this endpoint uses, either TCP or UDP.
Public Port	The port that’s used for public access to your application.

To edit or delete Subscriptions

Open the shortcut menu for the Windows Azure Compute node, and then choose Add Deployment Environment.
In the Add Deployment Environment dialog box, choose the subscription that you want to modify, and then choose the Manage button.
In the Windows Azure Cloud Service Project Management Settings dialog box, choose the subscription that you want to modify, and then choose the Edit button to change subscription details or the Delete button to delete the subscription.
For more information about subscription details, see Setting Up Named Authentication Credentials.

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