Active Roles 8.0 LTS - Quick Start Guide

Microsoft account with at least one valid, active Windows Azure subscription
At least one writable replica domain controller installed in your Windows Azure account
For instructions on how to install a replica domain controller, see Install a Replica Active Directory Domain Controller in Windows Azure Virtual Networks.

Perform the following tasks to deploy SQL Server:

Create a virtual machine based on a SQL Server 2012 image published in Windows Azure.
When creating the virtual machine, on the Virtual machine configuration page, select the Create a new cloud service option and choose the Virtual Network used by your replica domain controller in Windows Azure.

For instructions on how to deploy SQL Server 2012 in Windows Azure, see Provisioning a SQL Server Virtual Machine on Windows Azure.

Join the SQL Server 2012 virtual machine to your Active Directory domain.
Using SQL Server Management Studio, grant the sysadmin fixed server role to the domain user account that will be used as the service account for the Active Roles Administration Service.
Configure Windows Firewall to allow connections to TCP Port 1433 from computers in your Virtual Network.
Because SQL Server will be accessed from within the Virtual Network, you do not need to create public endpoints in Windows Azure.

Perform the following tasks to deploy the Active Roles Administration Service:

Create a virtual machine based on a Windows Server 2016 image published in Windows Azure.
When creating the virtual machine, on the Virtual machine configuration page, select the Cloud Service that you created for the SQL Server virtual machine in Step 2. Deploy Microsoft SQL Server 2012. This will automatically select the correct Virtual Network as this Cloud Service is already used to host the SQL Server virtual machine. For further information, see Add a Virtual Machine to a Virtual Network, section “Create Virtual Machine and Deploy to Virtual Network.”

Join the newly created virtual machine to your Active Directory domain.
Connect to the virtual machine using Remote Desktop, and run the Active Roles Setup wizard to install the Active Roles Administration Service (see Steps to deploy the Administration Service earlier in this document).
When prompted for the service account, specify the appropriate user account defined in your Active Directory domain. Ensure that this user account is a member of the Administrators local group on the virtual machine where you are installing the Administration Service. For example, this could be a domain user account that belongs to the Domain Admins group of your Active Directory domain.

When prompted for SQL Server, specify the name of SQL Server you deployed in Step 2. Deploy Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

Run the following Windows PowerShell command on the virtual machine where you have installed the Active Roles Administration Service, to configure Windows Firewall:
$allowedClientSubnets = @('10.0.0.0/8', '172.16.0.0/12', '192.168.0.0/16'); New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Active Roles" -Direction Inbound ` -Action Allow -Service 'aradminsvc' -RemoteAddress $allowedClientSubnets ` -Enabled True

Perform the following tasks to deploy the Active Roles Web Interface:

Create a virtual machine based on a Windows Server 2016 image published in Windows Azure.
When creating the virtual machine, on the Virtual machine configuration page, select the Cloud Service that you created for the SQL Server virtual machine in Step 2. Deploy Microsoft SQL Server 2012. This will automatically select the correct Virtual Network as this Cloud Service is already used to host the Active Roles Administration Service and SQL Server virtual machines. For further information, see Add a Virtual Machine to a Virtual Network, section “Create Virtual Machine and Deploy to Virtual Network.”

Join the newly created virtual machine to your Active Directory domain.
Connect to the virtual machine using Remote Desktop, and run the Active Roles Setup wizard to install the Active Roles Web Interface (see Steps to deploy the Web Interface earlier in this document).
When prompted, choose the option to connect to the Administration Service on the specified computer, and specify the fully qualified domain name of the virtual machine you deployed in Step 3. Deploy Active Roles Administration Service.