Creating a SQL 2016 CTP2 Virtual Machine in Azure

With the CTP2 of SQL Server 2016 now released you may be eager to try it out. One of the best ways to do this in my opinion is to set it up on a virtual machine. You could certainly do this with VMWare or Hyper-V but my new preference for creating VMs is Azure.

The great thing about it is you don’t even have to go download the software locally because they already have a template in the Azure Virtual Machine Gallery ready to go for you. Here’s the steps to create your own SQL Server 2016 CTP2 virtual machine.

• Go to www.windowsazure.com and click Portal. Then either sign in with your existing account or sign up for a free trial.
• Go to the Virtual Machines page and select New. If this is your first virtual machine you could also select Create a Virtual Machine in the middle…