Using Azure VM as a Distribution Tool for In-House Software

Kegan Huntley 66

Essentially the company I work for wants to utilize Azure Virtual Machines to host our suite of software. Our clients would then pay to have access to these Virtual Machines with a subscription paid to use our developed software (while we ourselves pay for server maintenance and upkeep). We would then have the ability to block access to the virtual machine if the user cancels their subscription or refuses to pay.

Essentially we would have a 'main' virtual machine we would update with the latest software and then clone that one virtual machine for each client who uses our subscription.

Does this seem feasible with Azure VM? Our in-house software is lightweight so this would just be an efficient distribution of this software in a cloud-like fashion.

Thank you

srbhatta-MSFT 8,551 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-04-07T06:23:03.03+00:00

Hi @Kegan Huntley ,
Any update on whether the below answer helped you to resolve your query?
Please don't forget to Accept as Answer if you think the information provided was useful so that it can help others in the community looking for help on similar issues. If you have any queries, feel free to revert back.
Kegan Huntley 66 Reputation points

2022-04-08T21:04:52.667+00:00

Is there any useful guides or step by step instructions on how to set this up. I currently am setting up a VM based in Australia but I'm having trouble figuring out how to clone it and make additional copies that can be assigned to guest users.

EDIT: I think I found something. Virtual Machine Scale Set. At a glance this seems like what I want. It should allow me distribute access to a Virtual Machine that contains our software that I can grant and revoke access to correct? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/overview Do you think this is a good place to start or do you suggest I look at something else first?
srbhatta-MSFT 8,551 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-04-11T06:50:41.95+00:00

Hi @Kegan Huntley , any updates on the above? Please let me know incase of any queries. Thank you.

Accepted answer

srbhatta-MSFT 8,551 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-04-05T06:27:07.58+00:00

Hello @Kegan Huntley ,
Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft QnA.
I understand you want to use Azure VM as a distribution tool for in-house software.
This is actually very much possible using Azure VMs.

You can implement this by configuring the 'main' VM with the necessary software and applications, and either create an image out of that VM and use that image to deploy the rest of the VMs and deliver to clients, OR create snapshot and then create managed disks out of each snapshot and attach them to the required VMs that you deliver to clients. So all these VMs will be clone of the main VM.

Let me know if this helps in answering your query. Feel free to reach back if you have any questions.

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1 person found this answer helpful.
srbhatta-MSFT 8,551 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-04-10T09:10:31.96+00:00

Hi @Kegan Huntley ,
Thanks for reaching back. Actually there are multiple ways to implement this, it will depend on your requirement.
You are correct, a good way to implement this would be a virtual machine scale set. As per your requirement, if you want to bring in new changes to the application/software frequently then you might want to use custom script extension to deploy the updated version of your application to the VMSS instances.
Here is the exact tutorial for your scenario : tutorial-install-apps-cli

Also, you can clone the main VM to create additional VMs. But, if you would want to update the software/applications in your main VM frequently and reflect those changes in the cloned VM, then you would have to continuously create new clone/snapshot of the main VM whenever you update the application.
How can you create a clone of the main VM - Navigate to the VM's OS disk, click on create snapshot. Once the snapshot of the OS disk is created, you will create another OS disk (clone disk) using the same snapshot - snapshot-copy-managed-disk .

Let me know if this helps and if you have questions, please drop in a reply and tag me.

srbhatta-MSFT 8,551 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-04-10T09:15:32.863+00:00

@Kegan Huntley , You can also use Azure Virtual Desktop to cater to your requirements by providing your end customers Personal or Pooled Virtualized Desktop Hosts.
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Using Azure VM as a Distribution Tool for In-House Software

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