Using gallery Items in Virtual Machine Clouds

Gallery items in Windows Azure Pack are virtual machine roles that enable a hosting provider to make offerings available to their tenants by using a standard and reusable artifact. This topic provides instructions on how to use gallery items in VM Clouds to provision virtual machines. Using gallery items in VM Clouds involves the following broad set of steps:

Note

You can also look at the walkthrough at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=327556 for more information on how to use gallery items in Windows Azure Pack.

 

Steps

Links

Create a resource definition

Resource Definition Package

Create a resource extension

Resource Extension Package

Create and configure the VHD

Create and Configure the VHD

Import resource extension into VMM

Install Resource Extension Package

Import resource definition into the management portal for administrators

To import resource definition into the management portal for administrators

Make gallery item public

To make a gallery item public

Add gallery item to plan

You can associate gallery items and plans in two ways:

·    From the Plans tab – To add gallery item to a plan (from the Plans tab)

·    From the VM Clouds tab – To add gallery item to a plan (from the VM Clouds tab)

Note

Once you have added a gallery item to a plan, it might take a few minutes for the new gallery items to reflect in the tenant subscriptions.

 

To import resource definition into the management portal for administrators

1.   In the management portal for administrators, click the VM Clouds tab, and then click the Gallery view.

2.   On the Gallery view, from the command bar, click Import.

3.   In the Import to Gallery dialog box, browse to the location of the gallery item (resource definition file) to import. A gallery item has the .resdefpkg extension.

Note

You cannot upload a gallery item with the same version number again. To do so, you must first delete the existing gallery item from the management portal for administrators and then upload the updated one. However, you can upload the same gallery item with different version numbers.

4.   Click the check mark to import the gallery item.

To make a gallery item public

1.   A new gallery item is by default imported as Private. To change the state, on the Gallery view, select a gallery item row, and from the command bar, click Make Public.

Note

The state of the gallery item governs whether users of the management portal for tenants can use that gallery item while provisioning virtual machines. Even though you can add both public and private gallery items to plans, for a tenant who is subscribed to a plan that has both public and private gallery items, only the public gallery items are available while creating virtual machines.

2.   In the pop-out message, click Yes.

To add gallery item to a plan (from the Plans tab)

1.   In the management portal for administrators, click the Plans tab, and then click a plan to open the plans dashboard.

2.   In the plans dashboard, under Plan Services, click Virtual Machine Clouds.

3.   In the Virtual Machine Clouds page, under the Gallery section, click Add Gallery Items.

4.   In the Select gallery items to add to this plan dialog box, select the gallery item that you want to add to the plan, and then click the check mark.

Note

Before you add a the gallery item to a plan, the resource extension page for the gallery item must already be imported in the underlying VMM server, as described at Install Resource Extension Package.

5.   From the command bar, click Save to save changes to the plan. A tenant who subscribes to this plan can use this gallery item to provision virtual machines.

6.   Alternatively, you can also add a gallery item to a plan from the Gallery view on the VM Clouds tab. Click the gallery item to open the gallery item dashboard, click the Plans view,

To add gallery item to a plan (from the VM Clouds tab)

1.   In the management portal for administrators, click the VM Clouds tab, and then click the Gallery view.

2.   From the Name column, click a gallery item name to open the dashboard for the gallery item.

3.   Click the Plans view to list the plans, if any, which are already associated with the gallery item.

4.   From the command bar, click Add and in the Add Gallery Item to Plans and Subscriptions screen, select the plan to which you want to add the gallery item. The plans that are available for selection meet the following criteria:

·      The plan must include the VM Clouds service. This is because gallery items will only be used by users that want to provision virtual machines using the VM Clouds service.

·      The plan does not already include the gallery item being added

·      If the gallery item being added includes a resource extension, the plan must be hosted on VM Clouds that has that resource extension available

5.   Click the check mark to save your changes.

See Also

Administer Virtual Machine Clouds