The Rapid Access Cloud provides Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 and 2012 R2 images Server 2016 image to provision in the environment, however there is no licensing provided. Some manual steps are required in order to access a Windows instance after provisioning:
Launch a Windows Server 2016 instance by choosing boot from image as boot source and windows-server-2016 as image name. You must use a flavor of
m1.smallor larger.Once the instance is active, access the Console by clicking on the instance name link in the Instances panel, and click the Console tab at the top of the Instance Details panel.
You ought to be presented with the Windows install process but if not, click the grey status bar. The status bar will have
Connected (encrypted) to: QEMU (instance-<random_id>and a “Send CtlAltDel” button on the far right. Click within the console itself, just below the status bar to activate the console. If this is not working, click the “Click here to show only console” link.Follow the Windows install wizard, which at this point should request you create an Administrator password.
After the wizard is complete, it is possible to turn on services such as Remote Desktop (RDP) to access the instance remotely. Make sure to add port 3389 to the relevant Security Groups to access RDP.