Microsoft Azure Support

Roboconf has a target implementation for Microsoft Azure.
It only supports the creation of compute VMs.

To install it, open the DM’s interactive mode and type in…

# Here in version 0.5
bundle:install --start mvn:net.roboconf/roboconf-target-iaas-azure/0.5

Every new VM is associated with a public IP address.
This address will be used by other components which resolve their dependencies through Roboconf.

Sample target.properties.
Just copy / paste and edit.

# Configuration file for Azure
handler = iaas-azure
name = 
description = 

# Credentials to connect
azure.key.store.file =
azure.key.store.password =
azure.subscription.id =

# VM configuration
azure.create.cloud.service.template =
azure.create.deployment.template =
azure.location =
azure.vm.size =
azure.vm.template =

Here is a complete description of the parameters for Microsoft Azure.

Property Description Default Mandatory
handler Determines the target handler to use. none, must be “iaas-azure” yes
name A human-readable name for the target - no
description A description of the target. - no
azure.key.store.file Path to JKS Key store file (see below for help). none yes
azure.key.store.password Key store password. none yes
azure.subscription.id Subscription ID of an Azure account using value of “azure.key.store.file” parameter as credential. none yes
azure.create.cloud.service.template Path to a XML template file containing the “Body Request” used to submit to the Azure REST API for creating an Azure Cloud service (see below for help). none yes
azure.create.deployment.template Path to a XML template file containing the “Body Request” used to submit to the Azure REST API for creating a VM deployment on the Cloud service designated by value of azure.create.cloud.service.template parameter (see below for more details). none yes
azure.location The Azure region chosen for both Cloud service and VM deployment (e.g. West Europe). none yes
azure.vm.size The VM size (e.g. Small). none yes
azure.vm.template The ID of the VM image used as a template for the VM. none yes

Key Store

To create a key store, you can use a tool called Keytool.
Here is the command used to create a key store.

keytool -genkeypair -alias mydomain -keyalg RSA -keystore WindowsAzureKeyStore.jks -keysize 2048 -storepass "test123";

What we have done is creating a key store called WindowsAzureKeyStore.jks and set its access password to test123. You should see a file called WindowsAzureKeyStore.jks in your current Java bin folder (e.g. /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.7.0-openjdk-amd64/bin). Next, we need to export a certificate from this key store. To do so, we will once again use Keytool. Here is the command to use.

keytool -v -export -file ~/WindowsAzureSMAPI.cer -keystore WindowsAzureKeyStore.jks -alias mydomain

Once this operation completes, we will get a WindowsAzureSMAPI.cer file under ~/.
The next (final) step consists in uploading this certificate to the Windows Azure Portal. To do so, login into the Windows Azure Portal, click Settings > Management Certificates and upload the WindowsAzureSMAPI.cer file there.

XML Template for Cloud Service

Cloud service’s XML template file should be similar to the following…

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>  
<CreateHostedService xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure">  
  <ServiceName>service-fake-name</ServiceName>  
  <Label>VGVzdCBmcm9tIEFQSQ==</Label>  
  <Description/>  
  <Location>West Europe</Location>  
</CreateHostedService>

See full details about creating a Azure Cloud service here.

XML Template for VM deployment

VM Deployment’s XML template file should be similar to the following…

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<Deployment xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <Name>deployment-fake-name</Name>
  <DeploymentSlot>Production</DeploymentSlot>
  <Label>label-fake-name</Label>      
  <RoleList>
    <Role>
      <RoleName>vm-fake-name</RoleName>
      <RoleType>PersistentVMRole</RoleType>      
      <ConfigurationSets>
        <ConfigurationSet i:type="LinuxProvisioningConfigurationSet">
          <ConfigurationSetType>LinuxProvisioningConfiguration</ConfigurationSetType>
          <HostName>vm-fake-host-name</HostName>
          <UserName>username</UserName> 
          <UserPassword>password</UserPassword> 
          <DisableSshPasswordAuthentication>false</DisableSshPasswordAuthentication>           
          <CustomData>aXBNZXNzYWdpbmdTZXJ2ZXI9NTQuNzIuMjIwLjE2MgphcHBsaWNhdGlvbk5hbWU9aW90c3Rvcm0KY2hhbm5lbE5hbWU9dm1henVyZW1vc3F1aXR0bwo=</CustomData>
        </ConfigurationSet>        
        <ConfigurationSet> 
          <ConfigurationSetType>NetworkConfiguration</ConfigurationSetType>
          <InputEndpoints>
            <InputEndpoint>
              <LocalPort>22</LocalPort>
              <Name>SSH</Name>
              <Port>22</Port>
              <Protocol>tcp</Protocol>
            </InputEndpoint>
	        <InputEndpoint>          
              <LocalPort>8080</LocalPort>
              <Name>Tomcat</Name>
              <Port>8080</Port>
              <Protocol>tcp</Protocol>
            </InputEndpoint>
          </InputEndpoints>
        </ConfigurationSet>
      </ConfigurationSets>
      <OSVirtualHardDisk>
        <HostCaching>ReadWrite</HostCaching>    
        <SourceImageName>vm-template</SourceImageName>
      </OSVirtualHardDisk>      
      <RoleSize>Small</RoleSize>
      <ProvisionGuestAgent>true</ProvisionGuestAgent>
    </Role>
  </RoleList>
</Deployment>

See full details about creating a VM deployment on Azure here.