I recently set up a SharePoint 2013 Trial development farm on MS Azure. I just wanted to not down a few things to remember while setting this up. My Farm consisted of 3 virtual machines:
2
Provide a Name and an IP of the DNS Server here (Note: This can be changes at a later point of time)
Once done, you can proceed to create a Virtual Network through Networks > New and selecting the Quick Create option. Provide a name of the Virtual network For Example: SPNET01
Here select the DNS server created during the previous step from the Connect to Existing DNS dropdown.
Once the Virtual Network is setup, all the other Virtual Machines you create in the farm should use this created Virtual Network. This can be achieved, by selecting the created VN, i.e. SPNET01 from the Region/Affinity Group/Virtual Network drop down as shown below. This allows all the created VM's in the farm to be part of the same Virtual Network.
Once SharePoint 2013 is installed and you run the configuration wizard, please ensure that the TCP/IP protocol is enable on the SQL Server.
This can be done through the SQL Server Configuration Manager. The steps are details here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh231672(v=sql.110).aspx
The instruction to achieve this are given below:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749323(WS.10).aspx
- DNS Server running ADDS
- Database Server with SQL Server 2012 Express
- Web Server with SharePoint 2013 Trail edition
I found a few steps which might be useful to share:
Before proceeding to creating the VM's, we would need to create a Virtual Network and register a DNS network. This can be done from the Azure management console by clicking on Networks > New and selecting the Register DNS Server Option as shown below:
Setting up a Virtual Network and Register DNS Server:
Before proceeding to creating the VM's, we would need to create a Virtual Network and register a DNS network. This can be done from the Azure management console by clicking on Networks > New and selecting the Register DNS Server Option as shown below:
Provide a Name and an IP of the DNS Server here (Note: This can be changes at a later point of time)
Once done, you can proceed to create a Virtual Network through Networks > New and selecting the Quick Create option. Provide a name of the Virtual network For Example: SPNET01
Here select the DNS server created during the previous step from the Connect to Existing DNS dropdown.
Once the Virtual Network is setup, all the other Virtual Machines you create in the farm should use this created Virtual Network. This can be achieved, by selecting the created VN, i.e. SPNET01 from the Region/Affinity Group/Virtual Network drop down as shown below. This allows all the created VM's in the farm to be part of the same Virtual Network.
Restart VM's before adding them to the Domain
The next steps would be to create a Windows Server 2012 VM, enabling the Active Directory Domain Services Role on the VM and promoting the VM as a Domain Controller.
One this is done, please ensure that you restart all the VM's in the Virtual network before attempting to join them to the Domain. This is done to ensure they recognize the promoted domain controller.
The servers would prompt for a restart after they are added to the domain as well.
Enable the TCP/IP protocol on the SQL Server
Once SharePoint 2013 is installed and you run the configuration wizard, please ensure that the TCP/IP protocol is enable on the SQL Server.
This can be done through the SQL Server Configuration Manager. The steps are details here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh231672(v=sql.110).aspx
Add rules to allow SQL Server Connection through the Firewall
To ensure connection from the Web Server i.e. SharePoint to the SQL Server, add an Incoming Rule on the SQL Server to allow connection on port 1433 or 1434.
The detailed instruction on how to go about this are described here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc646023.aspx
Enable ping between the virtual machines on the Virtual Network
The windows firewall does not allow ping between the virtual machines on the network. This can be achieved by adding an incoming rule to allow ICMPv4 and ICMPv6 protocols through the firewall on the virtual machines.
The instruction to achieve this are given below:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749323(WS.10).aspx
