Step by step guidesGet on the Cloud with FREE Microsoft Azure via Microsoft Imagine & DreamSpark – and set up a new WordPress site

“The Cloud” is a term that we use to describe a way of hosting and running websites and applications. You ship off your files and databases to a cloud service provider, and they take care of managing the hardware, operating systems, networks and datacentres. This way, you can focus on developing and deploying your website or application, and the specialists at the cloud provider can focus on providing a high quality, scalable platform.

This guide, from Microsoft Technical Evangelist Lee Stott, shows just how easy it is to set up Microsoft Azure, DreamSpark plus a new WordPress site from scratch. If you already have an existing WordPress site, take a look at our separate How-To Guide that explains how to port it to Azure.

Microsoft AzureAzure is Microsoft’s cloud platform and runs on their datacentres all around the world.

What’s cool is that Microsoft Azure isn’t just restricted to Microsoft stuff. It supports all non-Microsoft technologies or frameworks including PHP, Node.js, Python and Java and more – so whatever operating system and language you prefer, Azure is the ideal cloud platform for you.

Cloud for Students Microsoft Azure is now available at no cost for students under Microsoft Imagine – you can activate it at Microsoft DreamSpark and you don’t even need to give any payment card details. With a few simple steps, you should be able to activate your subscription in under 10 minutes.

After that, you should be able to spin up a web app within seconds.

Let’s get started!

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Visit the Microsoft Azure for DreamSpark site: https://www.dreamspark.com/Product/Product.aspx?ProductId=99.

If you haven’t yet set up your free DreamSpark account, you will need to activate it before you get access to all the benefits of your Azure subscription. You’ll notice that the green “Register Now” option is disabled and that is why.DreamSpark https://www.dreamspark.com/ is a program that provides students with free Microsoft software, the ability to try Azure cloud services without entering a credit card, and a store account. Chances are your college or Uni is already signed up for DreamSpark and all you need to do is create your own account to start reaping the benefits. But even if your institution isn’t signed up, if you are a student you can still get it.

Here’s how!

Setting up DreamSpark You can skip to Step 3 now if you already have a DreamSpark account.

If you don’t have a Microsoft account you can create one here:https://signup.live.com/signup?wa=wsignin1.0&rpsnv=12&ct=1436288211&rver=6.2.6289.0&wp=MBI_SSL&wreply=https%3a%2f%2fwww.dreamspark.com%2faccount%2fcreateaccount.aspx&id=259848&bk=1436288212&uaid=935c919f1ea543cda6ee3e84f8fea997&cru=https%3a%2f%2flogin.live.com%2flogin.srf%3fwa%3dwsignin1.0%26rpsnv%3d12%26rver%3d6.2.6289.0%26wp%3dMBI_SSL%26wreply%3dhttps%3a%252F%252Fwww.dreamspark.com%252Faccount%252Fcreateaccount.aspx%26lc%3d1033%26id%3d259848&mkt=EN-US&lc=1033&sl=1&lic=1

To create your DreamSpark account visi: https://www.dreamspark.com/Student/Default.aspx and select Create Account.

You will now see a screen where you specify your name, date of birth and preferred email; most of this is pre-populated based on the settings in your Microsoft account. Consider selecting the checkbox so Microsoft can let you know about programs and offers in your area.

You will be prompted to sign in with a Microsoft account (hotmail.com, live.com, outlook.com).

After you have completed all the required fields select continue to verify.

You can use an existing email address for your Microsoft account.

Now, DreamSpark wants to verify that you are in fact a student. There are five different ways to do this, pick the one that works for you!

B. Get verified through my school account – If your school has a DreamSpark subscription, but validates DreamSpark through school accounts rather than email addresses, you can select this option.

All Colleges and Unis in the UK use this authentication method, so if you don’t see your school listed it doesn’t necessarily mean your school does not offer DreamSpark to its students! It just means they have chosen another method for authentication, so you may want to try the email address option instead. If you choose the school account you just need to search for your school in the list.

C. I have an International Student Identity Card – This is not your university or college student ID card, but the international student card (you can apply for one at https://www.isic.org/ . if you pick this option you can type in your ISIC serial number or the ISIC/CIP number or your ISIC/NUS card number to prove you are a student.

A. I have a school email account – If your school has a DreamSpark subscription, you can just provide your school email address to get verified.

E. I can supply documentation – if none of the above options works, choose this option. You can provide a scanned copy of your school ID card, a current report card, or acceptance letter to a university or college as proof that you are a student to get validated.

D. I have a verification code – this option requires you to enter a verification code. But where do you get a verification code? You need to reach out to a Microsoft representative or possibly a school administrator. Attending a Microsoft hackathon or workshop is a great place to meet someone and find out how you can get a verification code. Entering a code will give you access to DreamSpark resources for one year.

Note: If you are a teacher and your school does not have a DreamSpark subscription, you can also reach out to a Microsoft representative to get verification codes for your students. You may also want to check out some of the material that helps you teach coding at aka.ms/learn2code

Once you have created and verified your account, you can now download software, get a code that allows you to publish apps to the Windows store for free at:https://www.dreamspark.com/Student/Windows-Store-App-Development.aspx and get free cloud services on Azure including website hosting https://www.dreamspark.com/Product/Product.aspx?productid=99!

3Creating Your Azure Account via DreamSparkHead back to the Microsoft Azure for DreamSpark site at https://www.dreamspark.com/Product/Product.aspx?ProductId=99.

The register option should now be available and you should click on it. Make sure you are signed into your DreamSpark enabled Microsoft account before you do this – you can sign in on the top right. A verification by phone is required. This is an important security measure that ensures that only you have access to your account in the event of a password reset, by tying your account to your mobile or landline phone number.

You’ll receive a text or a call at your number, depending on the option you chose. Enter the code to finish the sign-up.

Congratulations! All you have to do now is wait for the Azure servers to provision your account, which shouldn’t

take more than a couple of minutes.

You now have access to your very own Azure account! You will be see the new Preview Portal or Standard

Portal. To use a new service, go to “New” and search for whichever service you want to use.

This is the new Preview portal

This is the standard azure portal

New Portal

Standard Portal

If a service is greyed out, its because it’s not yet available for students. Stay tuned on our blog to hear about new service additions. Here are some specific resources you can check out for help with some of the currently available Azure DreamSpark offerings:

Web Apps Overview https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/app-service-web-overview/

Application Insights Overview http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/services/application-insights/

Visual Studio Online Overviewhttps://www.visualstudio.com/get-started/setup/sign-up-for-visual-studio-online

4Create a free web site and portfolio today using CMS such as WordPressGetting a WordPress website (build in PHP and usually run on Apache with MySQL) up and running on Windows Azure is easy.

Sign into your Azure Portal at: https://manage.windowsazure.com/

From here, click on the “Sign in to the Management Portal” link

Select the “Manage” option in the navigation at the top of the screen and you’ll be taken to the Azure

management page shown below.

The first time you access it you’ll get a little tour, but eventually you’ll get to your Azure dashboard, which

will be empty.

Choose the “Cloud Services” option on the left and click “create a cloud services”.

Choose “Compute”, then “Web App”, then the “from gallery” option in the third column, and finally select

the WordPress option in the list of apps available.

Just a side note: When I registered there was a short wait of a couple of hours before the “web sites” option (which we will be using below) was available to me.

Click the “Next” arrow and choose your website’s URL; leave the database setting as “Create a new MySQL

database”, and choose the region closest to you (or your audience).

Click the “Next” arrow again and confirm your new MySQL database settings, then click the final “Next” icon to complete the process. Azure will now begin

deploying your new site.

After a few moments later it will inform you that the deployment is complete, and the site is up and running.

That’s it! Your WordPress site is now live and can be accessed at the URL you configured in the setup earlier;

you can get there nice and quickly by clicking the “Browse” icon in the toolbar at the bottom of the Azure portal.

Click the “Install WordPress” button at the bottom to complete the setup and WordPress will show you a

“Success!” message with a “Log In” button that will take you to your new WordPress admin login area. Enter your chosen WordPress username and password and log in to

see your blog Dashboard.

You’ll want to visit the Settings section using the menu bar on the left to tweak any final settings, but

you’re all ready to go!

5Configure WordPressThe first time you access WordPress, you will need to make a few configuration choices to complete the installation.

Click on the name of your new site in the Web Sites list and you’ll see a one-off startup page welcoming you

and giving you some options for how to proceed.

Click on “Set up deployment credentials” under the “Publish your app” heading (if you’ve dismissed

the welcome screen you can access this through the “Reset deployment credentials” option under the

“quick glance” heading on the dashboard).

Choose your username and password, click the tick to confirm and you’ll be sent back to the welcome

screen with a success message.

Configure AzureWith any hosted service you’re likely to want to be able to view usage statistics, configure FTP and publishing access, etc. So let’s switch back to Azure.

Set up FTP access

First off, let’s set up FTP access so that you can begin customising WordPress further with custom themes and plugins.

Click the “Dashboard” option at the top of the Welcome screen and you’ll see your Azure website

dashboard (you can get back to the welcome screen by clicking the cloud with a lightning bolt

icon on the left of the dashboard option).

Here you can see a wealth of usage information, as well as plenty of further configuration options. If you scroll down a little, you’ll find your FTP address on the right, under the “FTP hostname” heading. Use this along with the credentials you just set up and you can begin uploading to your WordPress installation and editing it to suit your requirements.

Publishing alternatives Git or Visual Studio Online

If you use Git as your source control you can configure Azure to have its own Git repository for your website, which you can push updates to and it’ll build and deploy your changes automatically. Click the “Set up Git publishing” option to be guided through that.

You also have the option of linking your site to Visual Studio Online for publishing via that code-base, or you can download a publishing profile to load into Visual Studio to allow direct publishing from there.

Other CMS on Azure

Azure also has off-the-shelf installations of Drupal, Joomla and Umbraco in its gallery – so why not explore all the possibilities that are now open to you?

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