Azure VM Role- Is there a way to download a pre-made image?

Question

I am a Microsoft Bizspark member and as such have some free Azure compute hours/storarge/io . I would like to set up an Azure VM Role instance but don't have a Hyper-V server instance set up is there anywhere I can download a pre-made Azure VM role image?

I just want a standard Windows Install. I don't understand why they don't make it easier to just turn a machine on, reset the password and then use it.

Answer 1

You'd need to build your VM using Hyper-V locally, then upload it. This is the only way today.

One nice thing about Windows Azure Web and Worker Role: They, too, are Windows Server 2008 (the main difference being Web Roles have IIS enabled, where as Worker Roles do not). You can pretty much install anything you want in a Web or Worker role, without worrying about the OS maintenance, via OnStart() method or startup tasks where you need admin-level access (modifying registry, installing COM, whatever).

VM Role comes in handy when:

• An installation can't be automated
• An installation process is unreliable
• An installation process takes too long (maybe 5 minutes?)