Creating a Base VM Image with SQL on Azure

Question

We would like to utilize Azure VM's to do some testing on one of our applications. The application runs on Windows Server and uses a SQL DB. We would like to get everything setup on a base VM image and then have the ability to use this base image to create multiple VM's that could be used for various testing.

The part that I'm struggling with is in regards to SQL. If I start up a Windows 2008R2 VM with SQL 2012 SP1 Web and get everything setup on that VM and then run sysprep, when I fire up a VM based on that base image I have issues with SQL (logging in with Window auth for example). Do I need to be using a SQL Server login instead of using Windows Auth?

Is there a step I'm missing when sysprepping the base image for getting SQL setup/configured to be a base image?

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

The issue is that When SQL is installed, Azure gives the user who is provisoning the VM admin access to SQL

When a VM is created from an Image, SQL is already installed with Image admin and still has the same.

As a workaround start the sql server in single user mode, login and then add the required logins to the sql server.