The problem

The actual deployment way for navify Monitoring make use of an ISO to be installed, in the public cloud providers like (Azure, AWS) we cannot create a VM directly from ISO as this is not a supported way to make a VM resource.

The option considering this constraint is to create the VM locally in a virtual environment for example Hyper-V, VMware, export the disks in the required format (VHD for Azure, VMDK for AWS), and upload it to the desired cloud platform.

But we need to consider some details of this deployment option:

• The VM doesn´t have the public cloud provider Agent (Azure VM Agent, or Amazon Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent)). These agents provide management capabilities to the underlying resource manager over the VM. Known Azure problems for machines without Agent here.

• If the local VM was created with Hyper-V this one just can be created as a Generation 1 VM, the Generation 2 VM supports only the installation of certain Linux images to be installed from ISO, and our image is not supported. So when this disk is uploaded to Azure (VHD) just VM sizes compatible with Generation 1 are available as the disk was created for a Gen 1 VM, and as the hardware recommendations point to a Xeon Gold Family CPU, this type of hardware is just available for Gen 2 VMs.

• This previous scenario considering the VMware VM uploaded to AWS has not been tested as the customer cloud is Azure, maybe this particular problem doesn´t exist.

Technical Need

The clear need is to have options for cloud deployment that guarantee support of the product:

Short-term option:

• Create a VHD image with Azure VM Agent installed or a VMDK image with AWS SSM Agent.

  • Consideration: The affiliate must upload the image on their preferred cloud and create the VM using this disk. At least on the Azure side, this option limits the VM to resources available for Generation 1 VMs.

Long-term option:

• Offer the VM directly in the AWS/Azure Marketplace.

  • Consideration: This process may require recreating our actual image natively in these clouds, and controlling which Azure/AWS accounts (customers) can see the image to deploy it. The access to who can see, and deploy this resource can be controlled by the Marketplace Governance options on both cloud providers.

AWS Marketplace Governance info

Publishing a VM in Azure Marketplace info

Customers interested

Lab San José - CR, Lab Referencia - DO, Salud Digna - MX, Christus Muguerza - MX

Hosp. Vicente Corral Moscoso, National HPV Plan from Ministry of Public Health., Hosp. Oncologico Solca Quito