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.
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.
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).
My company is planning on developing for Windows Phone 7. The build server we have, however runs Windows Server 2008. According to the Windows Phone SDK release notes I've read that only Windows Server is not supported for the SDK.
Does anyone have any experience on whether there's a possible workaround to have a Windows Server 2008 machine build Windows Phone 7 projects?
Update: I'm interested in building on a WS 2008 as we're talking about a project with a larger team where continous integration and centralized builds are essential. I'd be hoping we wouldn't have to set up an additional Windows 7 build server for this task.
Most the issues of this nature come into play meeting the emulator's requirements rather than the development tools.
With that said some are hacking around the walls put up to stop people going into the unsupported territory of WS2008.
Judging by your requirements I'd say dive in. If you have the option to test on device or in emulators in Win7, that will place you well.
This post likely of interest.
Aaron Stebner's WebLog : How to install the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP Refresh on Windows Server 2008
If someone is interested here is instruction how to modify ISO image of the WinPhone 7.1 SDK for installing it on Windows Server. Basically it's the same Aaron Stebner solution, the only difference is that you need to modify it in the ISO image.
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.
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.