Instead of using RDP to connect to the VMs on Windows Azure, we can use the PowerShell Remoting to manage the systems.
about_Remote
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh847900.aspx
Enable and Use Remote Commands in Windows PowerShell
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff700227.aspx
Step 1: Install Windows Azure PowerShell
Please refer to the article below to install Windows Azure PowerShell.
How to install and configure Azure PowerShell
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/install-configure-powershell/
Open the Azure PowerShell console, type Add-AzureAccount, type the email address and password associated with your account.
Azure will authenticate and save the credential information.
Step 2: Enable Remote PowerShell
After creating the Virtual Machine (from the gallery), the Remote Desktop and Windows PowerShell Remoting Endpoints are created by default. Go to the Endpoint tab, we’ll see port numbers to the Remote PowerShell port. In this demo, it is port 5986. (Figure
1)
Figure 1
Step 3: Connect the Virtual Machine using Enter-PSSession command
Enter-PSSession -ComputerName v-cloud.cloudapp.net -Port 5986 -UseSSL –Credential (Get-Credential)
You need to type the User name and Password. (Figure 2)
Figure 2
When trying to connect, we will see the following error: (Figure 3)
Enter-PSSession: Connection to remote server v-cloud.cloudapp.net failed with the following error message: The server certificate on this destination computer (v-cloud.cloudapp.net:5986) has the following errors:
The SSL certificate is signed by an unknown certificate authority.
Figure 3
It is due to PowerShell Remoting using Https and the certificate used for the virtual Machine is a self-signed certificate. To solve this issue, we need to access the Virtual Machine and tis public endpoint for PowerShell Remoting. We should add the special
certificate to Trusted Root Certification Authorities.
Steps:
1) Connecting to the Virtual Machine via RDP and open MMC console.
2) File -> Add/Remove span-ins, choose certificates, click add.
3) In Certificates snap-in, choose computer account, click next.
4) We could find the certificate we need under the Personal folder. (Figure 4)
Figure 4
5) Export this certificate to the location you want to save, then copy it to the local computer.
6) Double click the certificate file -> Install it under "Current User" -> "Trusted Root Certification Authorities".
Step 4: Using Remote PowerShell
After step 1-3, re-execute the Enter-PSSession command and we should able to access the VMs via PowerShell Remoting. (Figure 5)
Figure 5
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