Windows workloads

This document provides links to information about creating and managing Windows VMs, licensing and pricing, and deploying Microsoft workloads related to Active Directory, .NET applications, IIS, and SQL Server.

Getting started, licensing, pricing

Quickly create Windows VMs, learn about Microsoft licensing options, and review prices for Windows images.

• Quickstart using a Windows Server VM

• Best practices for Windows Server VMs

• Create a domain

• Join a Windows VM automatically to a domain

• Licensing options

• FAQ about licensing

• Bringing your own licenses

• Pricing

OS images

Learn about the available Windows images and create and manage custom Windows images.

• Windows Server

• Windows client BYOL

• SQL Server

• Create a Windows OS image from an ISO file

• Create a custom Windows Server image

• Install or update the guest environment

• Choose an import method

Create VMs and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) nodes

Create and manage Windows Server VMs, deploy SQL Server, and create a GKE cluster of Windows Server containers.

• Create and manage Windows Server VMs

• Create SQL Server VMs

• Create a cluster using Windows Server node pools

Manage VMs

Connect to your Windows VMs, customize the VMs, manage storage, and configure passwords.

• Connect to VMs

• Join Windows VMs automatically to a domain

• Transfer files

• VM Manager

• Use startup scripts on Windows VMs

• Run shutdown scripts

• Enable virtual displays

• Install GPU drivers

• Add local SSDs

• Create a Windows persistent disk snapshot

• Add or resize zonal persistent disks

• Create passwords for Windows instances

• Automate Windows password generation

Active Directory, .NET, IIS, Windows, and SQL Server

The following is a sample of the tutorials for deploying Microsoft Windows Server, IIS, SQL Server, and Active Directory workloads, and .NET applications.

Active Directory and SharePoint

• Best practices for running Active Directory on Google Cloud

• Deploying Microsoft SharePoint Server on Compute Engine

• Deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 on Compute Engine

.NET

• Set up a .NET development environment

• Get started with .NET

IIS

• Run a basic IIS web server

SQL Server

• Create a SQL Server instance

• Create a high-performance SQL Server instance

• Disaster recovery for Microsoft SQL Server

• Deploying Microsoft SQL Server for multi-regional disaster recovery

Solutions

Get architectural guidance to deploy and manage Microsoft and Windows workloads on Google Cloud.

• Get started with migrating to Google Cloud

• Lift-and-Shift a line-of-business application to Google Cloud

• Deploy a fault-tolerant Microsoft Active Directory environment

• Create a virtual Windows workstation

• Set up cross-region load balancing for Microsoft IIS web servers

• Browse other Windows architecture solutions

Get help

Diagnose and troubleshoot issues with provisioning and managing Windows workloads.

• Known issues

• Use the serial console

• Collect diagnostic information

• Capture VM screenshots

• Troubleshoot Windows VMs

• Troubleshoot RDP

• Windows end of support

• Google Cloud support

• Public discussion forums

  • Google Cloud Community

  • Stack Overflow

  • Server Fault