The Background
Today I was reflecting on the pain install/OS testing. As we approach a new release of our windows software, we have to verify:
That it installs without issue
That it runs, given a reasonable fulfillment of dependencies
That our assumptions as to what is available on an "updated" machine are correct
On a range of architectures (32/64 bit, etc)
On a range of operating system versions (Windows XP, Windows Vista, 7, 8, etc.)
Our sad (but usual and cost effective) approach is to spin up some old boxes here on site. We either try to stuff an OS install into a VM system, or are forced to wipe the box and do a native install just to get to a "clean" install of the app. Depending on the functional approach, reverting snapshots may or may not be available.
The Idea
I realized that Windows Azure was making it very easy to spin up virtual machines these days and "pay for what you use". Mostly this appears to be focused on web hosting (Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 8 are the only windows variants available in the "VM OS Selection" dialog). See this page for an overview.
But what if I could spin up other kinds of Windows OS images purely for testing?
I have an MSDN subscription, and access to a set of OSes that we should support. Couldn't I push these up somehow and have snapshottable, on-demand test hosts?
The Questions
Is this feasible right now with Windows Azure? (I can do this for Server 2008 and Server 8 now, it would seem...can i do this with other OS images?)
If so, how? (Can i upload a .vhd to storage in some manner as to have it show in the "my images" section?)
If not, is there a good alternative? (I get the sense you could do this with Amazon EC2? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is this better to try and do onsite with VM software entirely?)
In the best case, I want "fresh" (recently patched) images for a set of supported Windows OSes that I can spin up on demand, pay for what I use, and then shut down again. Does this exist?
Thanks for your time and consideration...
P.S. Not entirely sure if this should be here or on serverfault...please advise.
1.Is this feasible right now with Windows Azure? (I can do this for Server 2008 and Server 8 now, it would seem...can i do this with other
OS images?)
The Windows Server is 2012, not 8. But anyway. So no. The currently supported Windows family OS'es are:
* Windows Server 2008 SP2 x64,
* Windows Server 2008 R2,
* Windows Server 2012
Note that all of them are just the 64bit versions! Frankly, I don't think Windows client OS'es will ever be supported (like XP, 7, 8)
2.If so, how? (Can i upload a .vhd to storage in some manner as to have it show in the "my images" section?)
No. so no way.
3.If not, is there a good alternative? (I get the sense you could do this with Amazon EC2? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is this better
to try and do onsite with VM software entirely?)
Can't answer this question completely, but a quick search says that currently in Amazon EC2 you can run:
Amazon EC2 running Microsoft Windows Server® (available in 2003 R2,
2008 or 2008 R2 editions)
So far with Windows OSes.
In summary: Only Server Windows OS can be run in an Azure and Amazon.
A hint: you can't install Hyper-V on Windows server in either Azure nor Amazon (you can't virtualize what is already virtualized).
Related
Is it possible to create a Windows XP instance on aws? Even if it means creating my own AMI, then I'm happy to do so.
I'm looking to offer training and there is a few reasons we require Windows XP, which cannot be avoided.
No, there is not. Only Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012. There is no support for consumer desktop Windows operating systems.
Yes, you can, but not directly. The usual scenario is to run XP virtualised, with it's own network adapter, under a hypervisor. It is being done.
I have got the Windows Azure Platform account.
Fot he development with Windows Azure, can I use computer with Windows XP Professional.
If not what environment should i set to start working with Windows Azure, and migrating existing web projects to Windows Azure.
Regards.
Pravin.
Since azure uses Windows Server 2008 SP2/R2 as it's core OS, you will need at least Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 to come close to mimicking the environment in Azure. If you are in a situation where you cannot upgrade your OS then you should look at utilizing a VM for development/testing purposes.
To answer your question, yes you can hack together a solution, is it pretty, no. Would I do it, no way. I also find that I like Windows 7 a lot better than XP or Vista, but I am also work for the man so I am jaded.
I am about to create a new developer PC image for developing WPF applications using VS2010, WCF, SQL2008 and SharePoint2010.
What OS should I opt for? Windows 7? Windows Server 2008 R2?
I'd have thought Windows 7 to make sure that I have a similar experience during development as an end user, however I can't install SharePoint on a client OS and so thought about Windows Server 2008 R2 to help with the SharePoint development process.
Thoughts?
I'd recommend Win 7, because your operating system is developed for interaction not serving. There is lots of things in a server OS that you don't need.
However if you are in a VM environment I would recommend that you add a VM for a server with the appropriate software for them to play with (Sharepoint, SQL etc.) so that their dev environment not slowed down by the server's they need to fire up for development.
I recently switched to a MacBook Pro for my development machine (for many reasons). I want to setup a Virtual Machine for ASP.NET, IIS, and Visual Studio 2010 development. I also have need to do some development work with SharePoint 2010.
What I am wondering is if I should use Windows 7 (64 bit) or Windows Server 2008 (64 bit) as the OS for my development virtual machine. I don't really need most of the services running in Server 2008 so I felt that Windows 7 would probably run faster in the VM environment however I am fairly new to SharePoint 2010 so I am not sure if Windows 7 (64 bit) can be used as a development environment for it.
Thanks for any input.
much easier is to install SharePoint 2010 on Win Server than on Windows 7 - on Windows 7 you need to install SharePoint manually (extract installation files, install prerequisites, install additional patches etc). Here is a link how to do it: http://bit.ly/aDCzvS
Services will not make a difference. Look at all the stuff you need for Sharepoint - this is not a low capacity environment. So, 00mb will not make a difference. Between SQL Server, Sharepoint server and Visual Studio I would say you ASK for about 6-8gb anyway ;)
I do not think it makes a difference now. Sharepoint 2010 was explicitly optimized for being installable on Win 7 - and this is a fully supported development model (contrary to 2007 where you basically were at the end of a bad line as developer). Win 7 should be good. That said, you can tune Windows server to be as good as Win 7 UI wise (for development work and playing music in the background).
I would go with Windows 7 for the time being - and possibly install Sharepoint on a separate Win 2008 when needed. THe main problem here is that Sharepoint is heavy in mem useage, and I woud hate carrying it around all the other time.
A MacBook Pro may be a bad choice for that - make sure you have at least 8gb memory for real sharepoint development work.
I work with people that use SharePoint in a VM on a Mac and their life is much harder. Among other things copying and pasting code between the guest and host machine doesn't work, and they're forced to dedicate one monitor to the VM. You should really consider Boot Camp and Windows 7.
Boot Camp + Windows 7 should get you:
Ability to use multiple monitors (Visual Studio's multi-monitor support is really wonderful)
Ability to hibernate (which you wouldn't necessarily get in Boot Camp + Server 2008 R2)
Use of all of your memory (SharePoint 2010 is a memory hog, running in a VM won't help the situation)
Fewer inconveniences like copy and paste problems
If for whatever reason Boot Camp isn't an option I'd go with Windows 7 in a VM. One of the big pros over Server 2008 is it has all of the features that you need already enabled. It ends up being a lot of work to debug why something isn't working in Server 2008 R2 only to find some obscure feature or service wasn't installed or activated out of the box.
Here is a question not directly related to programming.
Being fed up with Microsoft Windows XP Professional, and the lots of eye-candy, I want to try Microsoft Windows Server 2003 as the main OS on my development PC. (The other reason is a better version of IIS than 5.1). And knowing that Win2K3 was originally designed as a Server OS, I think that I should make it somehow more "workstation friendly".
My question is: How do I transform Win2K3 (Standard Edition most probably) into a Workstation OS? Any articles or links are highly appreciated.
PS: My development PC must run mainly MS Visual Studio 2008, MS SQL Server 2008, MS Expression Studio 2, different Oracle software (10gR2, ExpressEdition, 11g) and other little utilities (a testing framework, a subversion tool - TFS, a web browser, a bittorrent client, etc). All of this are compatible with Win2K3, as I previously checked.
Tnks
I only server OS as my workstation, I had Server 2003 before I switched to Server 2008. There's a guide you can find here http://www.msfn.org/win2k3/.
You shouldn't run into any problems. Most of windows xp drivers will work on server 2003, however, some apps won't. Especially those that check for the OS version before installing. But you shouldn't have any problems with VS2008, Expression and anything you posted.
For me the only thing that was troublesome was running iTunes on server 2003, it doesn't look as good.
And if you like the eye candy you can turn it on by starting the Theme service and changing a few settings.
You shouldn't run into any issues running those applications on Server 2003.
The last time I personally ran 2003 on a workstation the only real big change was changing the security settings of internet explorer.
If you run one of the free anti-virus software packages you may find that they will not install on a Server OS.
edit: As another poster has suggested I would also go straight to server 2008 if it is an options. Server 2008 runs very well as a workstation OS and if you're hardware supports it the virtual server works very well.
Here's links for turning 2003 into workstation:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=windows+server+2003+workstation+converter
If you'd like use Windows Server 2008 as a workstation, runs much better (faster) than a regular Vista install:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=windows+server+2008+workstation+converter&aq=1&oq=windows+server+2008+work
or try getting your hands on Windows 7 RC1 which runs quite well.
None of the software types you've listed has any workstation-biased dependencies that I'm aware of. Expression Blend may suffer a bit depending on your hardware and drivers, as WPF is a little more demanding of visual goo than most other development tools for Windows forms.