Is an Azure VM really the answer for this problem?

[thecomputerguy]

Client contacted me saying they want a backup in the event that one of their production computers goes down they can remote into a Azure VM to continue working in the event of an emergency. Availability would need to be for 3 users and primary applications would be Office Apps, Visual Studio, and some small utilities. Not sure where the data would come from...

I'm not sure yet if they want to keep these running 24/7 in the event that they NEED them or they will only be spun online after months of being offline in the event of an emergency.

Azure pricing is hard to understand but I'm wondering if this is just over complicating something that could be as simple as having a backup laptop. Especially considering these Azure VM's are going to be heavily lacking in RAM. The Baseline VM starts out at under 1GB of RAM.

This is totally foreign to me so I thought I would ask.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Meet Windows 365 Cloud PC | Windows 365

Deploy and manage Cloud PCs with Windows 365, a Microsoft virtualization solution designed for hybrid work. Find the right Windows 365 plan for your employees.

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Edit: This apparently doesn't support multi-user sessions or pooling.

 

[britechguy]

Client contacted me saying they want a backup in the event that one of their production computers goes down they can remote into a Azure VM to continue working in the event of an emergency.

Not saying anything against you, but the client. What client calls telling you exactly what they want with no clear explanation of what the underlying need is? This is a solution in search of a problem. Until they tell you what the problem/need is, it's impossible for you to advise them correctly, including referring out to someone with expertise you don't have, if necessary.

The "I want a backup" is as far as a client should be going. That's when you start asking whatever needs to be asked in order to learn what the actual need is.

A client like this needs to be reined in and slowed down.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Eh...could be done. But I'm just thinking of the logistics in...setting it up...constant monitoring...
First thing.."What" is this application? I'm going to guess it...gets data updates throughout the business day...constant changes in the data.
So there would need to be some form of "sync"...to constantly update the "offsite backup standins"...from the on prem server. A bit complex to think about. But to start with...really need to know what this software is. What is on that server(s). Office Apps...typical Microsoft Office files..that's easy...just plop them in Sharepoint/Teams...easy to store and available from anywhere. I'm not familiar with Visual Studio nor have clients on it, but I see Azure has DevOps...for storage and versioning for VS.

This already has been done, what you ask.....is already a service. It's called "Business Continuity"....and we've talked about it here on the forums quite a bit. My prior favorite for this was Datto. But...K-Mart bought them up....err...Kaseya..so we left them and went to Axcient. StorageCraft also does this. Cove. Axcient is what we moved to from Datto. Veeam. StorageCraft. Many others.

They constantly back up the servers to an on prem device. That on prem device is basically a hyper-visor/NAS...stores the backups...and it can "virtually spin up a server" within a few minutes...from the most recent backup (likely within the past hour).

It can also sync the backups offsite to redundant data centers...and you can "spin up" the servers virtually from the offsite data centers...and provide RDP and/or VPN connections to them. We have done that for clients a few times if their site was "down for long periods of time".

To spin things up yourself within Azure...IMO would be cost prohibitive. But...seek a good resource that can help with that, Nerdio.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Meet Windows 365 Cloud PC | Windows 365

Deploy and manage Cloud PCs with Windows 365, a Microsoft virtualization solution designed for hybrid work. Find the right Windows 365 plan for your employees.

www.microsoft.com

??

Edit: This apparently doesn't support multi-user sessions or pooling.

No it doesn't the product you want that does that is called Azure Virtual Desktop. And it's... nontrivial to configure. The network components and storage will generate monthly costs... but the compute being the most expensive bits won't until the VMs are powered.

But therein lies the problem... you're going to be working with the 3D accelerated Azure VMs, and not only are these things MONSTROUSLY expensive, but they are seriously core constrained. If you don't keep them online, you'll have no guarantee they'll be there when you need them.

Seriously, get the backup laptop.

 

[trevm999]

I think you're going to need a definition for "production computer" and find out what they are doing, and what they need connected to. Are they asking for backup workstations, or something else?

 

[britechguy]

There does seem to be a strong consensus that this client needs to be told, in a business-like manner, to slow their roll, and that a lot more information gathering is needed.

The KISS principle always applies. And I'm very strongly inclined to agree with @Sky-Knight's assessment given what is known and reasonably surmised based upon that.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Alrighty ... I talked to them and told them they were coming up with a complicated solution to what should just be a simple problem.

The scenario was to setup these VM's so that she could remote into them with a Chromebook or on a Public computer so that should could be as lightweight mentally, and physically as possible. I explained this completely goes against any and all security concerns she just had a couple months ago ... right?

I explained ... in the rare scenario where you are in truly in an emergency and need a computer ... go buy a $600 computer and struggle through it. If you truly cannot come to terms with that then you really need to reality check yourself and come to the conclusion that the days of "traveling lightweight" mentally and/or physically are over for people that work in my, or her field (programming). It's just the reality of life at this point.

That or buy a few mid-range surfaces with Pro on them and preconfigure them with the apps you need and take it out and turn it on before you leave on a trip to make sure it still works.

The idea that a VM could be deployed then shutdown for months and months at a time, then expect to work perfectly each time you go to use it is not realistic.

 

[trevm999]

Alrighty ... I talked to them and told them they were coming up with a complicated solution to what should just be a simple problem.

The scenario was to setup these VM's so that she could remote into them with a Chromebook or on a Public computer so that should could be as lightweight mentally, and physically as possible. I explained this completely goes against any and all security concerns she just had a couple months ago ... right?

I explained ... in the rare scenario where you are in truly in an emergency and need a computer ... go buy a $600 computer and struggle through it. If you truly cannot come to terms with that then you really need to reality check yourself and come to the conclusion that the days of "traveling lightweight" mentally and/or physically are over for people that work in my, or her field (programming). It's just the reality of life at this point.

That or buy a few mid-range surfaces with Pro on them and preconfigure them with the apps you need and take it out and turn it on before you leave on a trip to make sure it still works.

The idea that a VM could be deployed then shutdown for months and months at a time, then expect to work perfectly each time you go to use it is not realistic.

Dev Containers are a thing, with the idea you are always using that for your development, so then a new workstation should spin up your dev environment without and custom configuration. There are hosting providers for them too. (GitHub Codespaces beint one)

However, it they are basically vscode based. For dotnet development, Visual Studio still beats vscode for loading all your types and showing compiler errors in linting.

So, if they're willing to give up on Visual Studio, and aren't doing development for Windows, there is a natural way to do what they want.