Krystian Lezucha
This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to set up Dataedo Portal with a preconfigured Microsoft SQL Server repository on Azure. For more details on the Dataedo Portal, check this link.
If you want to upgrade an existing Azure Dataedo Portal instance, follow this article instead.
Launching virtual machine
To begin, follow this link to the Dataedo Portal application page on Azure Marketplace.
Then, login to Azure Marketplace with your account. In the Plan field, select the Dataedo Portal + MSSQL and click the Create button to continue.
Please note that the charge applies only to virtual machine, as the Dataedo Portal license is based on the BYOL (Bring Your Own License) model.
On the Create a virtual machine page you will see a few tabs with configuration options. Let's go through them one by one.
In the Basics tab, under the Project details, select your desired Subscription and Resource group. You can either use an existing resource group or create a new one dedicated to the Dataedo Portal by clicking on the Create new button.
Proceed to the Instance details section.
Set the virtual machine name and region for your Dataedo Portal application. You can adjust settings for availability and security according to your needs or keep them as defaults. Please ensure that Dataedo Portal is set in the Image field.
Then, select the Size - it's the hardware of the server you are about to run. We recommend using at least 2 vCPUs and 8 GB of RAM to ensure optimal performance. For increased needs, use 4 vCPUs and 16 GB of RAM.
Navigate to the Administrator account section.
Keep the Authentication type as SSH public key. Enter the desired username, then in the SSH public key source field, select Use existing key stored in Azure and choose the SSH key from the Stored Keys field. These credentials are required to establish a connection with your virtual machine. If this is your personal account, you can create a new key pair and use it.
Click on the Next: Disks button at the bottom of the page to open the Disks tab.
In the Disks tab, you can configure properties of the operating system and data disks. We recommend using SSD for OS disks for optimal performance.
Select the Next: Networking button at the bottom of the page to proceed to the Networking tab.
You need to define the Virtual Network, Subnet, and Public IP in the next three options.
A public IP is necessary to connect to Azure from outside its private network if you are not using a VPN or ExpressRoute.
You can create a new public IP by clicking the Create new button or assign one later.
Navigate to the Configure network security group option. Network security groups are a network-level security feature in Azure. They allow you to define which ports are open to specific IPs on your instance. This differs from the Operating System Firewall, as it operates at the Azure security level.
If you haven't created any security groups yet, you can click on the Create new button. This will make a new security group based on predefined settings.
Ports that should be open:
- 80 - to allow HTTP access to the Dataedo Portal.
- 443 - to allow HTTPS access to the Dataedo Portal.
- 1433 - to allow SQL connection to the SQL repository from the Dataedo Portal and direct connection to preconfigured Microsoft SQL Server instance.
- 22 - to allow SSH connection to the Virtual Machine.
If you want the Portal to be globally accessible, leave the source set to “Any” and the source port ranges set to “*”. Otherwise, consult your network team or IT administrator for the correct IP range.
The configuration options on the other tabs of the Create a virtual machine page are optional. You can adjust them according to your needs or keep the default values.
Click the Review + create button at the bottom.
Wait until the validation process finishes.
Please review and read the Terms, then verify your settings.
All set! You may click Create!
If you choose to create a new SSH key pair during the configuration process the Generate new key pair window will open. Select the Download private key and create resource button. Your private key file will be downloaded as <your_key_pair_name>.pem. It's important to remember where you save the .pem key file, as you will need it to connect with the virtual machine.
Wait until the virtual machine deployment is successfully finished.
You can now click on the Go to resource button to access the virtual machine page.
Connecting via SSH
To continue setup or change configuration later, you will need to connect to the virtual machine via SSH.
On the overview page for your virtual machine select the Connect option.
You can find here a public IP address of the virtual machine and admin username required to establish an SSH connection.
Then, open a terminal application (Windows Terminal, PowerShell, Bash).
Locate your private key file based on Key pair name settings.
If you are on a Mac or Linux machine, make sure to first set read-only permissions on your private key file using:
chmod 400 <private_key_file>.pem
For Windows PowerShell, this step is not required.
Finally, update the SSH command below with your own virtual machine's IP address, private key file name, and admin username. Then run it to establish connection:
ssh -i <private_key_file>.pem <admin_username>@<virtual_machine_ip_address>
When connecting to a new host for the first time, you'll encounter a prompt: “Are you sure you want to continue connecting?” Respond with “yes”.
Configuring env
Docker configuration files can be found in the “/opt/dataedo/” folder.
You can config environment variables with the nano text editor using the following command:
nano /opt/dataedo/.env
After making changes, remember to restart your containers for the updates to take effect. You can do this by executing commands below:
cd /opt/dataedo/
docker-compose restart
More information about configuration of the .env file is available here.
Accessing the app
Let's start by connecting to the Dataedo Portal through a web browser.
Firstly, you need to obtain the IP address of your virtual machine. To do this, please return to the Connect option page of your virtual machine in Azure and copy the public IP address.
Paste the IP address into the web browser, making sure to use the “http://” protocol instead of “https://”. The Dataedo Portal does not come with an SSL certificate pre-installed during the setup process, but we strongly recommend installing it as soon as you finish the configuration process. You can find more information here.
You are now ready to proceed and create your first admin account. Please provide a username and password, then submit by clicking the Create Account button.
You should see the Dataedo Portal login page:
