Step 1: Create a Windows virtual machine in an availability zone with an Azure portal
based on the Microsoft article
Note: This process uses the Azure portal to create a virtual machine in an Azure availability zone. An availability zone is a physically separate zone in an Azure region. Use availability zones to protect your apps and data from an unlikely failure or loss of an entire data center.
To use an availability zone, create your virtual machine in a supported Azure region.
Log in to the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com. Click Create a resource in the upper left-hand corner of the Azure portal. Select Compute, and then select Windows Server 2016 Datacenter. Enter the virtual machine information. The user name and password entered here is used to log in to the virtual machine. The password must be at least 12 characters long and meet the defined complexity requirements. Choose a Location such as East US 2 that supports availability zones. When complete, click OK.
Choose a size for the VM. Select a recommended size or filter based on features. Confirm the size is available in the zone you want to use.
Under Settings >High availability, select one of the numbered zones from the Availability zone dropdown, keep the remaining defaults, and click OK.
On the summary page, click Create to start the virtual machine deployment. The VM will be pinned to the Azure portal dashboard. Once the deployment has been completed, the VM summary automatically opens. Confirm zone for managed disk and IP address When the VM is deployed in an availability zone, a managed disk for the VM is created in the same availability zone. By default, a public IP address is also created in that zone. You can confirm the zone settings for these resources in the portal. Click Resource groups and then the name of the resource group for the VM, such as myResourceGroup. Click the name of the Disk resource. The Overview page includes details about the location and availability zone of the resource.
Click the name of the Public IP address resource. The Overview page includes details about the location and availability zone of the resource.
Step 2: Install SQL Server
Install SQL Express (or better) and set it up as described in the Navori QL Server Installation Guide, pages 2 to 13.
Step 3: Create the Azure storage & container
based on Microsoft article
Note: This process includes the creation of BLOB storage, set up to be synchronized with QL Server local storage. It serves as a backup and provides direct downloads, to reduce IIS workload).
Every storage account must belong to an Azure resource group. A resource group is a logical container for grouping your Azure services. When you create a storage account, you have the option to either create a new resource group or use an existing resource group. This process shows how to create a new resource group.
A general-purpose v2 storage account provides access to all Azure Storage services: blobs, files, queues, tables, and disks. The process creates a general-purpose v2 storage account, but the steps to create any type of storage account are similar. To create a general-purpose v2 storage account in the Azure portal, follow these steps: In the Azure portal, select All services. In the list of resources, type Storage Accounts. As you begin typing, the list filters based on your input. Select Storage Accounts. On the Storage Accounts window that appears, choose Add. Select the subscription in which to create the storage account. Under the Resource group field, select Create new. Enter a name for your new resource group, as shown in the following image.
Next, enter a name for your storage account. The name you choose must be unique across Azure. The name also must be between 3 and 24 characters in length, and can include numbers and lowercase letters only. Select a location for your storage account, or use the default location. Leave these fields set to their default values:
Field | Value |
Deployment model | Resource Manager |
Performance | Standard |
Account kind | StorageV2 (general-purpose v2) |
Replication | Locally redundant storage (LRS) |
Access tier | Hot |
Select Review + Create to review your storage account settings and create the account. Select Create.
Next, create a container within your storage account
All access to Azure Storage takes place through a storage account.
To create a container in the Azure portal, follow these steps:
Navigate to your new storage account in the Azure portal.
In the left menu for the storage account, scroll to the Data storage section, then select Containers.
Select the “+ Container” button.
Give your new container the name “mediaupload”. For more information about container and blob names, see Naming and referencing containers, blobs, and metadata.
Set the level of public access to the container. The default level is Private (no anonymous access).
Select “Create” to create the container.
Screenshot showing how to create a container in the Azure portal
Step 4: Navori QL Installation
Now that the environment is ready, you can launch the Navori QL Server Installer, and proceed as described in the Navori QL Server Installation Guide. To activate the synchronization between the Content Media folder and the BLOB, you will need to retrieve the access key from the Azure portal and enter it in the Navori QL Manager interface.
Step 5: Connecting your QL Server to the storage
When you create a storage account, Azure generates two 512-bit storage account access keys. These keys can be used to authorize access to your storage account via a Shared Key. You can rotate and regenerate the keys without any interruption to your applications, and Microsoft recommends that you do so regularly.
Note: Your storage account key is similar to the root password for your storage account. Always be careful to protect your account key. Avoid distributing it to other users, hard-coding it, or saving it anywhere in plaintext that is accessible to others. Regenerate your account key using the Azure portal if you believe it may have been compromised.
Microsoft recommends using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication for your Blob and Queue storage applications (preview) when possible for enhanced security. For more information, see Authenticate access to Azure blobs and queues using Azure Active Directory (preview).
To view your storage account credentials:
1. Navigate to the Azure portal.
2. Locate your storage account.
3. In the Settings section of the storage account overview, select Access keys. Your account access keys appear, as well as the complete connection string for each key.
4. Find the Key value under key1, and click the Copy button to copy the account key.
5. Alternately, you can copy the entire connection string. Find the Connection string-value under key1 and click the Copy button to copy the connection string.
Microsoft recommends that you regenerate your access keys periodically to help keep your storage account secure. Two access keys are assigned so that you can rotate your keys. When you rotate your keys, you ensure that your application maintains access to Azure Storage throughout the process.
Note: Regenerating your access keys can affect any applications or Azure services that are dependent on the storage account key. Any clients that use the account key to access the storage account must be updated to use the new key, including media services, cloud, desktop and mobile applications, and graphical user interface applications for Azure Storage, such as Azure Storage Explorer.
Follow this process to rotate your storage account keys:
1. Update the connection strings in your application code to use the secondary key.
2. Regenerate the primary access key for your storage account. On the Access Keys blade in the Azure portal, click Regenerate Key1, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to generate a new key.
3. Update the connection strings in your code to reference the new primary access key.
4. Regenerate the secondary access key in the same manner.
Once the access key has been retrieved from the Azure portal, you need to log into your QL Manager interface, using your administrator access. In the System menu on the bottom left corner, click on Server > Properties, and navigate to the second tab Click on Enable in the content delivery network section, and enter the name of the storage account as it appears in the Azure Portal under User Account. Copy Key1 from the Azure portal and paste it into the Key field.
Click Test to validate the connection. Your Server should now be ready for use.
Microsoft Azure - Back up Procedure: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-vms-introduction