Connect Azure to App Controller

Ever wanted to try out the integration of your On-Premise Hyper-V virtual infrastructure and Azure? Here are the steps how to do this.
You need to have System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and App Controller with SP1 (Beta) in place. The installation of these will not be discussed.

Create an Azure subscription

The first step is to create a 90-day trial subscription on Windows Azure: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/

Activate VM Preview Feature

Log in to the Azure portal (https://account.windowsazure.com/PreviewFeatures) and activate the “Virtual Machines & Virtual Networks” Preview Feature:

Create certificate

On the App Controller server open the IIS Management Console and create a Self-Signed Certificate.

Export certificate

Export the certificate two times. Once in PFX format (with the private key) and once in CER format (without the private key).
The PFX is used for App Controller and de CER is used for Azure.

Import certificate

First import the certificate in Azure.
Go to the Azure management portal: https://manage.windowsazure.com/ and go to Settings:

Click on Upload:

Browse for the .CER certificate:

Now make sure that you can copy the whole Subscription ID. Expand the column:

And copy the whole ID into you clipboard:

Now import the certificate (PFX) in App Controller. Open the App Controller portal, go to Clouds and click on Connect, Windows Azure Subscription:

Fill in the necessary fields, paste the Subscription ID, browse for the .PFX certificate and fill in the password you used when exporting the certificate.

That’s it: from now on you will be able to manage and create you’re VM’s in your on-premise environment and you’re Azure subscription.

One problem I ran into when connecting Azure in App Controller, I got the error message:

This was because the “App Controller Windows Azure Provider” service was not running on the App Controller Server.

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