Azure Marketplace User Guide
This guide provides an overview of Azure Marketplace and describes the basic procedures and important information required to use Azure products.
1. Introduction to Azure Marketplace
Azure Marketplace, which is operated by 21Vianet, is a unified portal for displaying Microsoft partner products and services. Azure Marketplace is an image warehouse, one of the core engines for Azure cloud services, and a connection platform through which Azure partners can provide customers with the best solutions and services. Azure Marketplace operates within China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan).
Azure Marketplace provides IT specialists and developers with a variety of apps built on the Azure platform, covering every aspect of apps and systems from the operating systems, security apps, network devices, storage, and databases required to build IT infrastructure, to web apps, data analytics, project management tools, monitoring/control software, and management software. These apps also include a large number of first-party apps from Microsoft.You can use the huge range of products on Azure Marketplace to quickly build Azure-based infrastructure, app systems, or development systems. Azure Marketplace is a key component of the Microsoft Azure platform ecosystem.
2. Purchase Azure Marketplace products
The three forms of product available on Azure Marketplace are images, ARM templates, and custom services. If you select an image or ARM template product, you can deploy the product to the Azure platform using the Azure portal.Custom services cannot be deployed directly to the Azure platform, but you can use “Contact Service Provider” to contact the service provider or integrator and obtain solutions or help for the custom service.
Azure Marketplace currently supports the free and bring-your-own-license (BYOL) models. The pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model is not currently supported.Please note that while Azure Marketplace does not charge customers separate licensing fees under the BYOL model, customers need to contact service providers directly to pay licensing fees, and also need to pay for any Azure resources used by subscriptions if they deploy VM images or ARM templates.
The table below explains the business models currently supported by Azure Marketplace. A single product/service can include SKUs that use different pricing models.
| Pricing models | Explanation | Intended users |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free SKUs.Customers are not charged any Azure Marketplace fees for the use of the offer, and they are also not charged any product fees. | VM images and Resource Manager templates |
| Free trial | A promotional version of the SKU, with a time limit.Customers are not charged any Azure Marketplace fees for the use of the product or service during the trial period. After the trial period expires, customers are charged at the standard rate for using the product. Azure Marketplace cannot currently prevent customers from creating multiple subscriptions for free trial products, but service providers who want to provide free trial product subscriptions can provide appropriate restrictions. | VM images and Resource Manager templates |
| BYOL | Bring-your-own-license (BYOL) SKUs. License fees are determined by negotiation between the customer and service provider, and customers are not charged Azure Marketplace fees for using the product/service within Azure Marketplace. | VM images and Resource Manager templates |
Please note that you can deploy a product to the China North or China East data center.If you delete a product that you deployed, the deleted product cannot be recovered. If you delete your subscription, all products and services deployed in the subscription will also become invalid. Please therefore take care when managing deployments. Many products also depend on other products or services, such as Azure websites, but the Azure platform will not warn you before you delete a product or service that other products depend on. For this reason, it is important to read the instructions carefully or obtain help from the service provider when you purchase a product or service, so that you can determine whether any such dependencies are involved.
3. Find and deploy images
3.1 Prerequisites for product deployment
Firstly, you need an Azure China account. Please refer to the Azure Marketplace Publisher Guide to learn how to register an Azure China account.
3.2 Find product images
There are two ways to find product images on Azure Marketplace: one is through the Azure Marketplace home page, and the other is through the Azure portal.
The Azure Marketplace homepage includes “All products” and “Service provider” menus, as well as sections such as “What's hot”, “Popular app categories” and “Free.” Some of the main sections are explained below.
All products.This page allows you to browse all products and services in Azure Marketplace, including VM images, Azure Resource Manager templates, and customized services. The functions include filter, query, and the ability to display by category. As an Azure user, you can easily find products and services that suit your requirements.
Service providers.This page links to the Azure Marketplace service provider product management portal, which allows service providers to perform maintenance management operations for products, including publishing, updates, and upgrades.
Free.Contains all free apps, including a large number of open-source apps.Please note that the “free” element here refers only to licensing fees.
Log on to the Azure portal, select “Create Resource” at the top left and then “View All.” As you can see below, this includes all image and ARM templates, but excludes custom services.
3.3. View product details
Select a product logo or heading in the product category to open the detailed product information page.You can find more detailed instructions for the product here. For example:
Please read the user instructions for each product carefully to see whether the license is free and view pricing details. If the license is not free, contact the service provider for further information.Please also be sure to pay attention to the “Legal Terms” and “Privacy Policy” sections.
3.4 Deploy a VM image
Press the “Deploy Now” button at the top of the image details page, sign in to the Azure portal, and then press the “Create” button to go into the VM creation page. Then you can deploy refer to the sections Use the Azure Portal to Create Linux VMs and Use the Azure Portal to Create Windows VMs.
4. Deploy an ARM template
The process for deploying a Resource Manager template is similar to the process for deploying a VM. However, because the parameters for Resource Manager templates are defined by the developer, the parameters vary between Resource Manager templates. The meanings of the parameters for the configuration of the LNMP cluster of Servinet shown in the following image are prompted by the prompt on the right of the parameter name.
Feedback
- If you have any questions about this documentation, please submit user feedback in the Azure Marketplace.
- You can also look for solutions in the FAQs.