New SharePoint Server 2013 3-tier farm test lab in Azure

Hey TLG, SharePoint, and Azure fans,

I just published the new Test Lab Guide: SharePoint Server 2013 Three-Tier Farm in Azure!

With this new TLG, you can use a free trial subscription, your MSDN subscription, or your paid Azure subscription to build out a SharePoint Server 2013 farm test lab in a cloud-only virtual network in Azure. You start with the Base Configuration in Azure TLG and then build a SQL server, an application server, and a front-end web server.

Here are some very cool differences between this TLG and the Test Lab Guide: Configure SharePoint Server 2013 in a Three-Tier Farm (the isolated subnets version of the SharePoint 2013 3-tier farm TLG):

  • You don't have to acquire the physical or virtual machines and create an isolated subnet. You can create the virtual machines for the test lab in Azure within minutes.
  • You can use the SQL Server 2012 and SharePoint Server 2013 Trial images in Azure to quickly create virtual machines that already have these components installed (saves a ton of time collecting and installing the trial software for SQL Server and SharePoint).
  • You can create the virtual machines for the lab in various sizes (including very large ones), and you have the ability to change their size after they are created.
  • You can enable Internet access to this farm and its sites by opening endpoints on the WFE1 web server (a future TLG mini-module).

Here is the resulting configuration:

Here is a short video that steps through the lab build-out:

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnJu6n0knLs:0:0]

You can also use some of the existing SharePoint 2013 TLGs in the resulting test lab to explore SharePoint authentication, social networking features, and permissions. For more information, see SharePoint Server 2013 Test Lab in Azure portal page in the TechNet Wiki.

As always, enjoy (now in the cloud)!

 

Joe Davies

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