Introduction

This tip explains how to spin up a BizTalk server 2013 VM in Azure in under 15 minutes.

How to

To do this, first you need to create an account in Windows Azure. If you don't have one, you need to sign up at www.windowsazure.com, once you have an account on Azure, navigate to https://manage.windowsazure.com/.

Click on Virtual machines and select from Gallery:

Pick the stock Image.

Configure your VM, Pick what size you need

Options are

Extra Small (Shared core, 768 MB memory)
Small (1 core, 1.75 GB)
Medium (2 cores, 3.5 GB)
Large (4 cores, 7 GB)
Extra Large (8 cores 14 GB) .

I picked a large and made it a standalone VM.

Create an availability set (you can skip this).

We will put them in an availability set. The main thing to understand is your VMs in a set will be physically on separate racks in the data center and when tech's upgrade host OS beneath your VMs, they will never upgrade all of the VMs in the set at the same time, so only part of your app is taken down for maintenance.