Before deploying the NIOS-X server, ensure that you have fulfilled the prerequisites, as described in Microsoft Azure Deployment.

To deploy a NIOS-X server from the Infoblox Portal, you must first download the .vhd package, and then upload it to the Azure storage account. If you prefer deploying the NIOS-X server using the Azure CLI, ensure that you install the Azure CLI on Linux.

To deploy a NIOS-X server in Microsoft Azure, complete the following:

1. Set up a Microsoft Azure account and create a resource manager in Azure. For information, refer to the Microsoft Azure documentation.
2. Download the .vhd package from the Infoblox Infoblox Portal. 
3. Upload the .vhd package to your Azure storage account. 
4. Deploy the NIOS-X server in Azure. 

Supported Azure VM Flavors 

Downloading VHD Packages

To download the .vhd package, complete the following:

1. Log in to the Infoblox Portal.

2. Go to Configure > Administration -> Downloads.

3. On the Downloads page > NIOS-X (BloxOne) Servers section, select Download Package for Azure (60 GB Disk).

4. Click Download Package and save the .vhd file on your system.
   
   
   
   

Uploading VHD to Azure Storage Account

After you have downloaded the Azure .vhd package from the Infoblox Portal, you can upload the package to your Azure storage account using the Docker commands (if you have a Docker environment) or Azure commands.

Using Docker Commands

In your Docker environment, enter the following commands:

docker run --rm -v <abs-path-to-the-dir-of-vhd>:/vhd -v $HOME/.azure:$HOME/.azure infoblox/azurevhdutils upload --localvhdpath /vhd/<your-local-fixed-size-vhd-name>.vhd --stgaccountname <mystorageaccount> --stgaccountkey <get-it-from-storage-acc-access-keys> --containername <mycontainer> --blobname bloxone.vhd

Using Azure Commands

To use the Azure commands, you need to first build the Azure-vhd-utils binary from Git. The Azure-vhd-utils binary can be built from the public Git repo at https://github.com/microsoft/azure-vhd-utils.

To build the Azure-vhd-utils binary, complete the following: 

1. Run the mkdir ~/tmp command to make a temporary directory.
2. Run the cp -r ~/upload/src/github.com/Microsoft/azure-vhd-utils ~/tmp command to copy azure-vhd-utils to the temporary directory.
3. Run the cd ~/tmp/azure-vhd-utils command.
4. Run the make command to install azure-vhd-utils.
   If the command displays the if exec: "gcc": executable file not found in $PATH error message, run the export CGO_ENABLED="0" command and then run the make command again.
5. Run the sudo cp azure-vhd-utils /usr/bin/ command.

After you have built the Azure-vhd-utils binary, run the following command to upload the .vhd file to Azure using the following format:

azure-vhd-utils upload --localvhdpath <local_path> --stgaccountname <storage_account> --stgaccountkey <account_key>
--containername <container_name> --blobname <image_name>

Deploying NIOS-X Servers in Azure

After you have successfully uploaded the .vhd file to the Azure storage account, you can deploy the NIOS-X server in Azure using one of the following methods:

• Microsoft Azure CLI 
• Microsoft Azure Porta

Using the Azure CLI to Deploy the NIOS-X Server

To deploy the NIOS-X server using the Azure CLI, complete the following:

1. If you haven't already done so, install the Azure CLI. For information, see see How to install the Azure CLI.
2. Run the az login command in the Azure CLI to generate an authentication token. 
3. The CLI opens your default browser and loads the sign-in page. If the CLI does not open the browser for you, open a browser window and log in to https://microsoft.com/devicelogin using the authentication token you obtained from Azure. For more information, see Sign in with Azure CLI.
4. Sign in using your account credentials.
5. Create an image using the uploaded VHD from the storage account.
   For Gen 1;
   

   az image create -g “resource group name” -n  “Image name”  --os-type Linux --source  “VHD path”
   
   For Gen 2:
   az image create -g “resource group name”   -n “Image name”'  --os-type Linux --hyper-v-generation V2  –source “VHD path”
   

6. Deploy the VM from the image.
   

   az vm create --resource-group <> --name <> --location <>  --nics <> --image <>  --admin-username <> --public-ip-address "" --custom-data <> --size  <>

Using the Azure Portal to Deploy the NIOS-X Server

To deploy the NIOS-X server using the Azure Portal, complete the following:

1. Log in to your Azure Portal.
2. Go to Images, and click Create to create an image from the .vhd package in the storage account.
3. Enter all the relevant fields. Select either Gen 1 or Gen 2 VM generation. In the Storage blob field, ensure that you navigate to and locate the .vhd file you uploaded to the storage account.
4. Click Review + Create to review the image before you create it.
   
   
   
   
5. Create a virtual machine using the image you created. In the Size field, ensure that you select the supported flavor, which is Standard_F4S.
   
   
6. In the Custom data field, ensure that you add the parameters that are specific to your NIOS-X server. You can download a YML file and customize your user data file. You can then copy the information and paste it here. For information on how to use the userdata file, see YML and JSON Templates.
   Note that when you enter the following schema in the Custom data field, ensure that you add a space before the keys you want to include for host_setup. In this case, you must include a space before jointoken, and then enter the join token value you obtained from the Infoblox Portal. For information about how to obtain a join token, see Creating Join Tokens.  


   
7. Optionally, you can resize the disk size above 64 GB. In the Disk tab of the Azure Portal, select the desired disk size from the OS disk size drop-down list.
   
   
   
8. Click Review + Create to launch the NIOS-X server.

9. To check the current status of the NIOS-X server, you can go to Configure > Servers in the Infoblox Portal. For more information about the server status, see Viewing Host Status.