Deploy within Microsoft Azure

Introduction

The Synergy SKY Platform is a Linux based VM image that can be hosted within most virtualized environments. This article describes deployment within Microsoft Azure environments including how to:

• Download the required virtual machine image
• Create a Resource Group
• Create a Storage Account
• Create a Managed Disk
• Create the Virtual Machine
• Add the data disk to the Virtual Machine
• Access the Virtual Machine

Requirements

Step by Step Guide

Download the Virtual Machine Image

1. Download the virtual machine image from this link: https://download.synergysky.com/image/synergyskysuite_azure.vhd

Log in to Azure Portal

1. Go to https://portal.azure.com and log in with your Microsoft credentials
   

Create a Resource Group

In Azure, a Resource Group is a logical folder for all the resources you create, including Disks, Storage Accounts, VMs, and Network Security Groups. If your organization limits the ability to manage Resource Groups, reach out to your Azure Administration Team for assistance.

To create a Resource Group, follow these steps:

1. Select Resource Groups in the menu on the left.
   
2. Select the +New button on the top left of the Resource Groups panel.
   
   
   
3. Enter a Name, select your Subscription, and select a region for your Resource Group Location, then select "Review + create"
   
4. On the next page, select "Create" to create your Resource Group.
   
   
   

Create a Storage Account

1. Select Storage Accounts from the menu in the top left
   
   
   
   
2. Select the "+ New" button on the top left of the Storage Accounts panel
   
   
   
   
3. On the Create Storage Account panel, provide a name in lowercase characters and numbers
4. For Resource Group, select "Use Existing" and then pick your resource
5. Select a Location.
   Note: This location can be different from the Resource Group location
6. Select Performance level for storage, based on your organization's requirements. Default setting is 'Standard'
7. Select Account kind for storage, based on your organization's requirements. Default setting is 'StorageV2 (general purpose v2)'
8. Select Replication based on your organization's requirements. Default setting is 'Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)'
   
   
   
   
   
9. Select "Review + create", and on the following page select "Create". This will create and deploy the Storage Account
   
   
   
10. After the Storage Account is deployed, click "Go to resource" as shown in the above picture.
    Note: You may need to click the "Refresh" button on the Storage Accounts page
11. Select"Storage Account Overview"
12. Select "Blobs"
13. Under the "Blob service" section, click "Containers"
    
    
    
14. Select "+ Container" to create a Storage Container in the Storage Account
15. Enter a name and select "Create"
    
    
    
16. Select the newly created Container and an empty blob list will appear
17. Select "Upload", then select the Synergy SKY .vhd image, then "Upload"
    e.g. synergysuite_20_azure.vhd
    
    
    
    Note: The upload process can take one hour or more, based on your upload speed
    
    
    Once you have uploaded the file, if you receive the error 'The specified cookie value in VHD foot indicates that disk 'synergysuite_20_azure.vhd' with blob https://synergy... is not a supported VHD' you may have to reupload the file as this indicates there was a problem during the upload process
    
    

Create a Managed Disk

The next step is to create a disk in Azure. To create a disk, follow these steps:

1. Return to the Azure Portal home page(https://portal.azure.com/#home) and select "Disks" from Azure Services. Alternately, type "disks" in the search field at the top of the page and select the service from there
   
   
   
   
2. On the Disks page, select the "+ Add" button to add a new disk
3. Under "Resource Group", select your previously created Resource Group
4. Provide a name for the disk
   e.g. synergyskysuite20
5. Pick a Location/Region
   Note: The Disk MUST be created in the same location as the Storage Account the VHD resides in
6. Availability zone should be set to 1
7. Source Type should be set to "Storage Blob"
8. The source subscription should already be populated from previous steps; if not, select the same as what was used previously
9. For "Source blob" click 'Browse' and pick the VHD uploaded previously
   Note: Storage Account > Container > VHD > Select
10. Under OS, select "Linux"
11. Under VM Generation, select "Gen 2"
    
    
    
    
12. Under Size, select "Change size" and the "Select a disk size" window will appear
13. Under Disk SKU, select at least "Standard SSD" & 16GiB
    Note: The VHD is 11GiB
14. Click OK
    
    
    
    
15. Select "Review + create", and on the following page select "Create". This will create and deploy the Disk
    
    

Create the Virtual Machine

To create a Synergy SKY platform Virtual Machine in Azure, follow these steps:

1. On the Disks page, select your newly created Disk
2. Select "+ Create VM"
   
   
   
   
3. The "Create a virtual machine" page should open to the "Basics" tab
4. Under "Resource Group", select your previously created Resource Group
5. Give your Virtual machine a name
   e.g. SynergySKYSuite20
6. Region will be disabled as it is determined by the Disks Storage Account location
7. Select Availability options for redundancy, based on your organization's requirements.
   Note: Default setting is "Availability Zone" if the disk has been configured in this manner
8. Select "Availability zone" to match what was set for the Disk
9. The "Image" section should display the name of the previously created Disk
10. The "Azure Spot instance" box should remain unchecked
11. For "Size" select "See all sizes"
    
    
    
    
12. Select the D4s_V3 compute VM Size at a minimum.
    Note: See requirements for more
    
    
    
13. For "Public inbound ports" select "Allow selected ports"
14. For "Select inbound ports" choose "HTTP (80), HTTPS (443), SSH(22)" at a minimum
    
    
    
    
15. At the bottom of the page, select "Next: Disks >" to proceed
16. The settings under the "Disk options" heading can be left as default, based on your organization's requirements.
17. Under the "Data disks" heading, select "Create and attach a new disk"
    
    
    
    
18. Select "Standard SSD" from the "Disk SKU" dropdown, based on your organization's requirements
    Note: SSD is mandatory
19. Select a "512 GiB" disk at minimum, followed by OK and OK again.
    Note: The size requirement is due to this disk housing the Synergy SKY Software's database.
    
    
    
    
20. The new disk should appear under the "Data disks" heading. Select "Next: Networking >" to continue
    
    
    
    
21. The platform utilizes one network card to communicate with your organization's network. This should be set with connectivity according to the network requirements laid out in the General Requirements (see top of article)
    
    
    
    
22. Select "Review + create" to proceed, then "Create" to deploy the Synergy SKY Platform VM
    
    
    
    

Access the Virtual Machine

1. Once the VM deployment is complete, select Virtual Machines on the left menu.
   
   
   
2. Select the VM you created. The Public IP Address is listed in the right column of the Overview tab.
   
   
   
   
3. Use this IP to access the Synergy SKY Platform over SSH using the default username and password.
   Username: admin
   Password: SynergySkyWord01
   e.g. ssh admin@<public ip address>
   
   
   

Next Step

Your instance should now be running, and once you menu screen appears, you can proceed with the configuration explained in this article.