Microsoft Azure Overview

Azure is a public cloud service provided by Microsoft that enables users to utilize hardware, networks, disks and storage. The service can be used on Windows and Linux operating systems, web servers, RDBMS, and other middleware, groupware, server applications, and application runtime environments such as .Net framework on demand over a network. With Azure, users can easily create, deploy, and manage server applications over the Internet in Microsoft-managed data centers around the world. You can use only the required amount of computing resources, such as memory and disk without having your own servers or infrastructure. Pricing is grouped by resource and usage is based on hourly pay-as-you-go

Azure provides a web browser-based management portal that allows users to operate intuitively.

This document describes how LifeKeeper for Windows is deployed on virtual machines and introduces methods for increasing availability.

Configuration

The configuration described below uses LifeKeeper for Windows to build an active/standby cluster.

VM Configuration (Cluster Nodes)

• Ensure that your instance size and virtual machine disks meet the installation requirements for applications (Oracle, PostgreSQL, etc.) you want to protect.

VM Configuration (Client)

Network Configuration

Azure is used to create a virtual network (VNET) to enable communication between virtual machines (VMs). VNET enables communication between VMs within this subnet by specifying a subnet.

When configuring a network for VMs in Azure, it is common to create a VNET beforehand and specify this VNET for the VM. With VNET you can provide a virtual private network (VPN) to your VMs. Optionally, you can connect your VPN to your on-premises environment to implement hybrid and cross-premises solutions. VNETs can be used to control network topologies, including DNS and IP address range configurations, through the management portal site and Azure PowerShell.