Anyone tried Vault on Azure?

[~master]

Just wondering.

Currently I have Vault 2010 running on Windows Server2008, but the hardware is getting old and it looks like it will not be replaced at any point in the near future.

[Redmond.D]

Yes, Vault has been tried on Azure.  Here is an article on it.

[~master]

Thanks for the reply.

I will give that a try.

Let me guess: "this is not supported"

But any reason why this wouldn't work with Vault 2010?

[~master]

Doug,

I was thinking about the hassle of uploading 2GB of data.

There could be a autodesk file store on Azure somwhere and your clients could simply move the necessary file to their own affinity group.

That would slick!

[Redmond.D]

Correct, I don't think there is official support for Vault on Azure.  However, I would expect things to work without much hassle.

Some things to keep in mind:

• You definately want to configure Vault to use SSL.
• The latency is significantly slower when communicating with a server in the cloud.  You will probably see a noticable drop in performance.

[~master]

I have followed the instructions from the link you sent me. Got a virtual network and virtual machine. Moved my data over ,as well as the install files.

During the system readiness check there were a number of failure, which I have been able to resolve except for one.

Checking ASP status: ASPX file failed to run at URL: http://localhost/TestASP/TestASPNetStatic.txt

I can type that address in IE and in can browse that address and it shows Static File.

Is there a way to by-pass that check?

[~master]

Turns out this error message came as a result of an incorrect setting in IIS where the DefaultAppPool's Managed Pipeline Mode was set to Integrated.

Once that was changed to Classic the installation passed the system checks.

Now I have Vault 2010 running on a virtual machine on Azure.

Again, it would be really sweet if I could access the Azure store for Autodesk and retrieve the image that I need for my installation without ever having to upload it to Azure.

Next step is to actually access the vault from a client.

[~master]

No luck in actually connecting to the Vault on the Virtual Machine.

I have tried :

myservername.cloudapp.net

myservername.cloudapp.net:80

ipaddress

ipdaddress:80

I have opened the Firewall to Vault Server.

[cvaught]

Were you able to solve your connectivity issue? I am having the same issue.

[johannes.bauer]

Hi cvaught,

have you created a services which is available from external?

And as Doug stated, this is currently not supported.

[cvaught]

No I haven't. Is there documentation on how to do this?

[johannes.bauer]

Hi Cvaught,

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/cloud-services-how-to-create-deploy/

this is all azure stuff and has nothing to with Vault / Autodesk configuration

[cvaught]

So when I created the VM there is a corresponding cloud service created for it. It has a DNS name and a public ip address such that I assumed if I entered this as the server then the Vault client should connect. When I run the client on the server it connects and works as it should. When I connect from my computer I get this error: Vault Professional 2015 could not find the Data Management Services on.... So it seems I need to make the vault service available somehow.

[cvaught]

Figured it out. You have to create a public endpoint for port 80 and then it works. For anyone else that might be interested, go to the azure portal, then virtual machines, select your VM, then select endpoints. Add a new DNS endpoint with TCP protocol, and set both the public and private port to 80.

[minkd]

If you are going to try running on Azure, you should heed Doug's advice and run with SSL.  In that case, the port would be 443, not 80.

If you have any problems, since this is an unsupported environment you will need to reproduce the problem in a supported Vault environment in order to get help from Product Support.

-Dave

[cvaught]

So I have run into a new problem with using an Azure VM. Licensing. The license server works great on the VM but the problem is that everytime you turn off the VM and turn it back on the ethernet port is different and thus the license file no longer works. Thus, you must register the product again and get a new license file. After a few times of doing this you exceed the number of registrations. So why do I restart the VM? I am a developer (part of ADN) that is just using Vault to develop with the API and test code. Thus, I turn it off so that I am not being charged for the running VM when I am not using it for development. I realize this is a unique situation. Ideally I would just instal Vault on a local client computer that I have for development but when I tried to do that the installation failed and when I contacted support I was told that Vault must now be installed on Window Server. Thus, the reason I turned to Azure. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this scenario? When the license is correct using Azure has worked out quite well. I have contacted Autodesk support but their responsiveness is frustrately slow.

[cvaught]

Could I install the license manager on just a regular Windows 8 machine that I have and then point the Vault server to use that as the license server instead of itself? Basically seperate the license server from the vault server. The vault server would still be on Azure and only running when I need it but the license server would be available with a static ethernet address on my computer that is connected to the internet. Is this possible and does anyone have any information on how to set this up?

[~master]

It has been a few years since I started this discussion so here is an update.

I am really enjoying my premise server less life.  Gone are the days of endless updates, error messages, and technical support calls.

My usage scenario is intermittent, and the VM (and Cloud Service) on Azure is turned off most of the time. When I need to use Vault, I simply switch both on and within minutes Vault Server is up and running and accessible no matter where I am.

Yes there is a performance penalty but the benefits far outweigh this one disadvantage. 

My operating / maintenance cost is a fraction of what it was.