Set-up certificates

You will need two certificates, one for the server (a .cer file) and one for the client (a .pem file).

Using the Azure .PublishSettings certificate

You can download your Azure publish settings file and use the certificate that is embedded in that file to create the client certificate. The server certificate already exists, so you won’t need to upload one.

To do this, download your publish settings then use this code to create the .pem file.

from azure.servicemanagement import get_certificate_from_publish_settings

subscription_id = get_certificate_from_publish_settings(
    publish_settings_path='MyAccount.PublishSettings',
    path_to_write_certificate='mycert.pem',
    subscription_id='00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000',
)

The subscription id parameter is optional. If there are more than one subscription in the publish settings, the first one will be used.

Creating and uploading new certificate with OpenSSL

To create the .pem file using OpenSSL, execute this:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout mycert.pem -out mycert.pem

To create the .cer certificate, execute this:

openssl x509 -inform pem -in mycert.pem -outform der -out mycert.cer

After you have created the certificate, you will need to upload the .cer file to Microsoft Azure via the “Upload” action of the “Settings” tab of the management portal.

Initialization

To initialize the management service, pass in your subscription id and the path to the .pem file.

from azure.servicemanagement import ServiceManagementService
subscription_id = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000'
cert_file = 'mycert.pem'
sms = ServiceManagementService(subscription_id, cert_file)

List Available Locations

locations = sms.list_locations()
for location in locations:
    print(location.name)

Create a Storage Service

To create a storage service, you need a name for the service (between 3 and 24 lowercase characters and unique within Microsoft Azure), a label (up to 100 characters, automatically encoded to base-64), and either a location or an affinity group.

name = "mystorageservice"
desc = name
label = name
location = 'West US'

result = sms.create_storage_account(name, desc, label, location=location)
sms.wait_for_operation_status(result.request_id, timeout=30)

Create a Cloud Service

A cloud service is also known as a hosted service (from earlier versions of Microsoft Azure). The create_hosted_service method allows you to create a new hosted service by providing a hosted service name (which must be unique in Microsoft Azure), a label (automatically encoded to base-64), and the location or the affinity group for your service.

name = "myhostedservice"
desc = name
label = name
location = 'West US'

result = sms.create_hosted_service(name, label, desc, location=location)
sms.wait_for_operation_status(result.request_id, timeout=30)

Create a Virtual Machine

To create a virtual machine, you first need to create a cloud service. Then create the virtual machine deployment using the create_virtual_machine_deployment method.

from azure.servicemanagement import LinuxConfigurationSet, OSVirtualHardDisk

name = "myhostedservice"

# Name of an os image as returned by list_os_images
image_name = 'OpenLogic__OpenLogic-CentOS-62-20120531-en-us-30GB.vhd'

# Destination storage account container/blob where the VM disk
# will be created
media_link = 'url_to_target_storage_blob_for_vm_hd'

# Linux VM configuration, you can use WindowsConfigurationSet
# for a Windows VM instead
linux_config = LinuxConfigurationSet(
    'myhostname',
    'myuser',
    'mypassword',
    disable_ssh_password_authentication=True,
)

os_hd = OSVirtualHardDisk(image_name, media_link)

result = sms.create_virtual_machine_deployment(
    service_name=name,
    deployment_name=name,
    deployment_slot='production',
    label=name,
    role_name=name,
    system_config=linux_config,
    os_virtual_hard_disk=os_hd,
    role_size='Small',
)
sms.wait_for_operation_status(result.request_id, timeout=600)