14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Azure is expected to gain an appealing new feature in the near future, namely support for a new persistent virtual machine that will enable support for Linux.
Through this new feature, the Redmond-based company will provide customers with the possibility to run Windows or Linux in VM on its Azure platform without losing state.
According to ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley, the persistent VM capability is set to be released as a Community Technology Preview (CTP) test-build in the spring of 2012, though nothing was officially confirmed on this so far.
However, it appears that the persistent VM feature will also come with support for SQL Server or SharePoint Server, while being expected to offer easier migration of existing applications from to the Azure platform.
The support that for a VM role that Microsoft packed inside its Windows Azure platform is not working properly at the moment, it seems. Customers are not happy with the feature and hope for better.
“The current VM role when rebooted or randomly recycled by the Azure platform loses any data stored — any persistence,” one Microsoft partner reportedly stated.
“So for applications that rely on the machine name or files/config that constitute “state” not stored in SQL Azure (or externally), this is a problem. This is also one of the technical reasons why you wouldn’t try running SharePoint on the current Azure VM role.
Customers have been asking for quite some time for Microsoft to add persistent VMs to Azure. Many businesses reportedly chose not to adopt Windows Azure due to the lack of support for SharePoint and other third-party business applications with persistence. Others saw the lack of support for Linux on Azure as a deal breaker.
However, all these might change in March, when the aforementioned VM CTP is expected to become available. Except for Linux support, it seems, as customers will have to come up with their own Linux images