How to setup MarkLogic Clusters on Azure Cloud

MarkLogic Data Hub Services (DHS)  offers multi-model,  serverless, cloud integrated  and automated data Integration and management systems which provide users the ability to run transactional, operational and analytical applications with relative ease. 

The hub service  provide users the ability to store and query data and build relational views for SQL analytics. Some of its key features include  security certifications that ensures data loss prevention and client managed access control,  built-in  search engine for data integration,  data analytics and business intelligence systems,  embedded machine learning to automate data curation processes and an elastic scalability architecture to integrate big data. 

Fig. 1 Data Hub Services 

The integration of the Data Hub Service into Microsoft Azure offer users more capabilities, ease and speed in deploying the service and integrating it with other data processes.  This service enable users to deploy MarkLogic clusters (instances of MarkLogic servers) on the Microsoft Azure platform  with the provision of a MarkLogic Azure image, or to  create customized clusters and resources by configuring various parameters of the Azure image using solution templates to deploy customized clusters . Both providing easy techniques to deploy  Virtual machines and networks to which users can add the storage, networking and security features as required. 

Solution templates are pre-built templates that are used to quickly deploy the services on Azure.Asides the the pre-built templates, customizable templates are also available for user specific needs. 

Fig. 2 Typical architecture of a cluster deployed on Microsoft Azure  

The minimum Requirements to set up and utilize MarkLogic clusters on Azure for production environments include a Microsoft Azure  account with an active subscription to which the cluster usage will be billed, a resource group for the clusters and a  standard storage disk in Azure. 

Setting up MarkLogic Clusters for Deployment on Azure 

To set up MarkLogic clusters on Azure: 

1. Go to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace portal at https://portal.azure.com/ and search for MarkLogic. 

Fig 3. Locating MarkLogic Portal on Microsoft Azure 

2. Click on any of the cluster deployment  editions and get redirected to the MarkLogic Multi Model Database homepage. 

You can also check out the useful information about MarkLogic services on the page. 

Fig. 4. Choosing a cluster deployment edition. 

3. Click create to be directed to the portal for creating the clusters. 

Fig. 5. Creating  a MarkLogic Cluster 

4. Configure the settings on the portal to create clusters and click OK.  

Only valid field entries are accepted  as the field entries are validated for each configuration step, validation is required to move to the next step. Validated entries are highlighted in green. 

Fig. 6. Configuring the Cluster settings 

5. Review the summary of the configuration settings and edit the choices if necessary.  The settings can  be edited by clicking on the tabs at the left which reverts back to the specified configuration step. 

Click OK if you are satisfied with the configuration settings. 

Fig. 7. Reviewing the configuration settings. 

6. Read and agree to the terms of use and click create to start up the virtual machine.  

This process might take a while. 

Fig. 5.Initializing the virtual machine. 

You have successfully set up  MarkLogic clusters on Azure and can therefore utilize it for different data integration, management and processing operations as required.  

You can access the virtual machine by navigating to the virtual machines tab on the Azure portal and clicking on the created virtual machine. 

Summary  

The MarkLogic Data Hub Services are useful tools in integrating and managing data from different applications. The integration of the services into Microsoft Azure provides more efficient and easy ways of managing data on cloud. This post focused on the steps needed to set up the Mark Logic clusters  on Microsoft Azure. The steps include locating the MarkLogic portal on Azure, choosing a deployment edition,      configuring the the cluster parameters and initializing the virtual machine. The virtual machine can then be utilized for all the data operations and features that are offered by the MarkLogic cluster.