Does the Azure VM Role still exist?

Question

I've tried using csupload to get my sysprep'd .vhd file up to Azure Storage, but when I do I get "The subscription is not authorized for this feature." I do have Virtual Machines preview enabled on my account, but I never enabled the VM Role beta, and I can't find anywhere in the portal where it's still offered. I see new videos from Microsoft, including this one posted three days ago, referring to the VM Role, so I assume it's still an offering.

The MSDN documentation is a mess... some of it is old, some of it is contradictory, some of it has to do with Virtual Machines (IaaS) rather than VM Role (PaaS). I've been digging through every link I can find for a few days now.

I realize that this question is slightly more broad than a typical StackOverflow question, and I apologize for that, but... is there still a VM Role (PaaS) that's available to someone who didn't sign up for the original beta? And if there is, how do I get access? I can't find a single announcement from Microsoft about closing the beta period, or moving to General Availability. If the plan is to dump the VM Role (PaaS) in favor of persistent virtual machines (IaaS), I can't find information about that. Anyone know what the plan is?

Thanks!

Scott

Answer 1

As far as I know classic/stateless/non-persistent VM Role feature has been in beta for more than 2.5 years. Microsoft don’t recommend live production deployments that depend on Beta features.

It seems that starting this year, Microsoft has not been accepting any customer for Beta VM Role. Everyone is being advised to move to Windows Azure Virtual Machine (Iaas). There has not been any official announcement in this regard.

People who had VM Role Beta Access they can keep using till any further announcement but no new customer are being accepted. You can reach Windows Azure Support team and they should be able to answer in better fashion.

Also, If Windows Azure Virtual Machine feature is enable you can use Windows Azure PowerShell to upload sysprep'd .vhd .

Update : Update: "The Windows Azure VM Role is being completely retired".

Here is the updated documentation posted recently : http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/3dae01d2-2397-47ed-a134-f9ffe58a9b52.aspx