I'm trying to set up a test lab in Windows Azure for a SQL Server 2012 Standard Failover Cluster. When deploying a SQL Server 2012 VM through the gallery, the instance that's created is pre-installed as a standalone instance. From what I understand, there's no way to migrate that into a FCI so I would have to install it that way from scratch.
Is it possible to deploy a SQL Server VM as a Failover Cluster Instance, or even deploying a plain Server 2012 and installing SQL Server from scratch after the fact? All while staying within the licenseing provided to me through Azure?
When images are instantiated on Azure, the full setup package for SQL Server is made available on the C drive of the VM. I have not tried this out, but it should be possible to launch that setup to install the first instance of the SQL Server with a Failover mode enabled.