Hello I’m Ariel with Dell Technologies and in this video I will show the steps to deploy an Azure Local 23H2 instance using the Azure Portal. These steps are from the official guide for a single-node cluster deployment which you can access in our infohub site with this link. Here I’m connected to the iDRAC of the AX server that will become this one-node cluster and I will fast forward through the steps of actually installing the Azure Local 23H2 operating system. I’m using the Life Cycle Controller OS deployment assistant to do a manual installation using the 23H2 ISO I previously downloaded from the Azure Portal.
As you can see, the process does not vary at all from those for installing any other Windows operating system. With the installation complete, lets do some initial network and Operating System configuration with these commands. This first section configures the IP Address, DNS server and sets the Computer name. Then these others enable the HyperV role and Remote Desktop. And finally, these configure the iDRAC USB NIC, time server and a firewall rule. I will use the iDRAC virtual clipboard functionality to pass on these configuration commands onto the newly installed server.
These commands are also available in the deployment guide I mentioned in the beginning. I will just copy these commands from a text file to, first disable DHCP in the management adapter and setup the static IP address, then set the DNS server and rename the computer. Renaming the computer reboots the server, of course. After this, with the next commands we are enabling the HyperV role and Remote Desktop. After this, I can connect to this server over Remote Desktop and continue running the rest of the configuration commands. This time, to exclude the iDRAC USB NIC from validation which is a prerequisite of the deployment, setup a time server and configuring the firewall. At this point, we are ready to register the servers that will be part of this cluster in Azure Arc.
Before I can do that, though, I need to install several Azure modules. These are the commands to install these modules and these are also included in the official deployment guide mentioned in the beginning. I will just copy and paste these commands and fast forward through the installation. With the modules installed, I will declare variables for the Azure Subscription and Tenant ID, the Resource Group and the Region. Then connect to the Azure subscription. Declare variables for the Access Token and the Account ID. And finally invoke the Azure Arc registration script with all these variables as parameters.
Again I am going to copy and paste all these commands. When connecting to the subscription I will be prompted to enter a code in the device login webpage, and to confirm my email address. With the connection successfully established, I will retrieve the Access Token and the Account ID into variables and finally run the registration script. This takes several minutes and it returns an update on status every few seconds. Once complete, in the Azure portal, in the resource group I specified in a variable, I can now see the server showing the Azure Arc agent installed. This is also visible in Azure Arc itself.
We are almost ready to begin deploying the Azure Local instance but before I can do that, I need to grant the necessary permissions within the Azure Subscription to the user that will be doing the deployment. These necessary role assignments are also detailed in the deployment guide. First I will install the Azure powershell module, then connect to the subscription once again then use Get-AzureADuser to retrieve the object ID of the target user and assign it to a variable.
Then use this variable in the commands to grant the role assignments. Again I will just copy and paste the commands and fast forward through these steps. Use the device login webpage again to enter the code and permit the connection, confirm the email address and then obtain the object ID of the user that will be doing the Azure local deployment. Finally, just run the role assignment commands. With that complete we are finally ready to deploy this cluster using the Azure Portal. In Azure, I will search for and click Azure Local, then Create instance. In the basics menu, enter the resource group, region and cluster name.
Click add machines to select the server which now is registered in Azure Arc, then click to validate it. Select or create a key vault to store the secrets required during the deployment. Click Next, Select new configuration in the settings menu, then next again. In the networking page, select the appropriate pattern depending on the configuration. In this case, a single node deployment requires the option to Group management and compute (no storage). Select the interface for this intent. And provide a block of IP addresses to be used for the cluster and its services, Along with subnet mask, gateway and the DNS servers.
Click on validate subnet when done and then click Next. In the management menu, provide details such as the location name, the domain to which this node and cluster will be joined, the Organizational Unit which has been delegated the required permissions detailed in our deployment guide, and the domain user account that will be used for the deployment. The local administrator password is also required. Click Next. In the security Page, lets leave the recommended security settings and click Next. In the Advanced tab, leave selected the option to Create workload volumes and required infrastructure volumes.
Click next and then next again in the tags menu. In the validation menu, wait for the resource components to be created in Azure. When this is finished, the Start validation button is enabled. Click it and this will start validation. As we can see in the progress description, this can take around 15 minutes per node and it will post its progress. If any problem is detected, that will prevent the deployment of the cluster, it will report on it as well. When this validation is complete, click on the “Review and Create” button where a summary of all of the selections is presented and finally click create.
The deployment has officially started and all of the steps, along with their status can be monitored by hitting the refresh button in the Azure portal. Eventually, when all is completed, in the Azure Portal, when clicking Azure Local, Machines, I can see the newly deployed instance. Its Arc Agent showing “Connected”. Connecting locally to the server using the iDRAC virtual console, I can see that the machine has been added to the domain and also some signs that the deployment is finished.
Ok, so This has been how to deploy a single node Azure Local 23H2 cluster. This video was created with help from Vincent also with Dell Technologies and I’d like to thank you for watching.
