Migrate web role to Windows Azure virtual machines

Question

I have a web role running in Windows Azure and I included two instances to my web role.

I decided to use Windows Azure virtual machine to run my Windows Azure web role. I can not find any migration document to migrate my web role to Windows Azure virtual machine. On portal I see git, TFS and FTP based migration for Windows Azure websites but not for Windows Azure virtual machine.

What is the best way to migrate my web role to Windows Azure virtual machine.

Answer 1

There are 3 modes of Windows Azure, and all 3 are capable of running a web site.

1. Windows Azure Web Sites (WAWS)
2. Cloud Services (Platform-as-a-Service)
3. Virtual Machines (Infrastructure-as-a-Service)

Your exsting Web Role solution is using Cloud Service (PaaS). To migrate over to WAWS or Virtual Machines, you need to do the following (I'm assuming use of Visual Studio here):

1. Make a copy of your existing solution and remove the Windows Azure project from it, leaving just the web project.
2. Using the new Windows Azure portal, provision either a WAWS web site or a Virtual Machine.
3. Record your access credentiaols. If using WAWS, specify and remember your deployment credentials. If using VMs, set up and remember your remote desktop credentials.
4. Deploy your web project files to the cloud. If using WAWS, choose a deployment method (Web Deploy, FTP, Git, TFS) and deploy from Visual Studio. If using VMs, invoke remote desktop, configure local disk sharing, connect to the VM, configure IIS, and transfer files.

Since all 3 modes can be used to host a web site, you might consider the following before making a decision:

• WAWS - for 2-tier web sites w/standard IIS configuration only; managed for you; preserves portability between cloud and on-premise. You are sharing VMs with others unless you promote from shared mode to reserved mode. VM intsances have shared persistence. Windows Server and IIS only; Can use SQL Database or MySQL.

• Cloud Services - managed for you, can support versatile architectures, powerful services available for storage, database, identity, communication, caching, virtual networking. Your VMs are exclusively yours. VMs have no persistence. Windows Server only.

• Virtual Machines - you manage, can support versatile architectures; preserves portability. Your VMs are exclusively yours. You can capture a VM and add it to an image gallery for easy creation of new instances. VMs have individual persistence. Windows Server or Linux.