Installing Python and the SDK

Python is pretty easy to setup on Windows and comes pre-installed on Mac and Linux. This guide walks you through installation and getting your machine ready for use with Azure. This guide will help you with the following:

• What's in the Python Azure SDK?
• Which Python and which version to use
• Installation on Windows
• Installation on Mac and Linux

What's in the Python Azure SDK?

The Windows Azure SDK for Python includes components that allow you to develop, deploy, and mangage Python applications for Windows Azure. Specifically, the Windows Azure SDK for Python includes the following:

• The Python Client Libraries for Windows Azure. These class libraries provide an interface for accessing Windows Azure features, such as Cloud Storage and Cloud Services.
• The Windows Azure Command-Line Tools for Mac and Linux. This is a set of command-line tools for deploying and managing Windows Azure services, such as Windows Azure Websites and Windows Azure Virtual Machines. These tools work on any platform, including Mac, Linux, and Windows.
• PowerShell for Windows Azure (Windows Only). This is a set of PowerShell cmdlets for deploying and managing Windows Azure Services, such as Cloud Services and Virtual Machines.
• The Windows Azure Emulators (Windows Only). The compute and storage emulators are local emulators of Cloud Services and Cloud Storage that allow you to test an application locally. The Windows Azure Emulators run on Windows only.

The core scenarios for this release are:

• Windows: Cloud Service -- for example a Django site using Webroles
• Mac/Linux: IaaS -- Run what you like in a VM; Consume Azure Services through Python

Which Python and which version to use

There are several flavors of Python interpreters available - examples include:

• CPython - the standard and most commonly used Python interpreter
• IronPython - Python interpreter that runs on .Net/CLR
• Jython - Python interpreter that runs on the JVM

For the purposes of this release, only CPython is tested and supported. We also recommend at least version 2.7. IronPython support will be added in the near future as well.

Where to get Python?

There are several ways to get CPython:

• Directly from www.python.org
• From a reputable distro such as www.enthought.com or www.ActiveState.com
• Build from source!

Unless you have a specific need, we recommend the first two options, as described below.

Installation on Windows

For Windows you can use the provided WebPI installer from the main Python Developer Center to streamline the installation (it will grab CPython from www.python.org).
Note: On Windows Server, in order to download the WebPI installer you may have to configure IE ESC settings (Start/Adminstrative Tools/Server Manager, then click Configure IE ESC, set to Off)

The WebPI installer provides everything you need to Python Azure apps as well specific support for Django apps:

Once finished, you should see this screen confirming your install choices:

After installation is complete, type python at the prompt to make sure things went smoothly. Depending on how you installed, you may need to set your "path" variable to find (the right version of) Python:

While this release is focused primarily on Web Apps with Django, feel free to browse the Python Package Index (PyPI) for a rich selection of other software. If you chose to install a Distro, you'll already have most of the interesting bits for a variety of scenarios from web development to Technical Computing.
To see what Python packages are installed in site-packages enter the following to find its location:

This will give a list what's been installed on your system.
After the installation you should have Python, Django, the Client Libraries available at the default location:

C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\windowsazure
    C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\django

Python Tools for Visual Studio

Python Tools for Visual Studio is a free/OSS plugin from Microsoft which turns VS into a full-fledged Python IDE:

Using Python Tools for Visual Studio is optional, but is recommended as it gives you Python and Django Project/Solution support, debugging, profiling, Template editing and Intellisense, deployment to cloud, etc. This add-in works with your existing VS2010 install. If you don't have VS2010, WebPI will install the free Integrated Shell + PTVS which essentially give you a completely free "VS Python Express" IDE. For more information, see Python Tools for Visual Studio on CodePlex.
Note: While the PTVS plug-in is small, the Integrated Shell will increases your download times. The Integrated Shell version also currently doesn't support the "Add Windows Azure Deployment Project" feature.

Windows Uninstall

The “Windows Azure SDK for Python – June 2012” WebPI product is not an application in the typical sense. It’s actually a collection of distinct products such as 32-bit Python 2.7, Windows Azure client APIs for Python, Django, etc. which are bundled together. A consequence of this is it has no conventional uninstaller of its own, and you’ll need to remove programs it installs individually from the Windows Control Panel.
If you ever wish to reinstall “Windows Azure SDK for Python”, you’ll simply need to open a PowerShell command prompt as an administrator and run the following command:

rm -force "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Azure SDK for Python - June 2012"

and then rerun WebPI.

Installation on Linux and MacOS

Python is most likely already installed on your Dev machine. You can check by entering:

Here we see that this Azure Suse VM has CPython 2.7.2 installed which is fine for running the Windows Azure tutorials and Django samples. If you need to upgrade, follow your OS's recommended package upgrade instructions. Note however, that in general it's better to leave the system Python alone (others may depend on that version) and install the newer version via Virtualenv.
To install the Python Azure Client Libraries, use pip to grab it from PyPI:

curl https://raw.github.com/pypa/pip/master/contrib/get-pip.py | sudo python

The command above will silently prompt for the root password. Type it and press Enter. Next:

sudo /usr/local/bin/pip-2.7 install azure

You should now see the client libraries installed under site-packages. On MacOS:

When developing from mac/linux, there are two main scenarios supported for this release:

1. Consuming Windows Azure Services by using the client libraries for Python
   
2. Running your app in a Linux VM
   

The first scenario enables you to author rich web apps that take advantage of the Windows Azure PaaS capabilities such as blob storage, queues, etc. via Pythonic wrappers for the Windows Azure REST API's. These work identically on Windows, Mac and Linux. See the Tutorials and How To Guides for examples. You can also use these client libraries from within a Linux VM.
For the VM scenario, you simply start a Linux VM of your choice (Ubuntu, CentOS, Suse) and run/manage what you like. As an example, you can run IPython REPL/notebook on your Windows/Mac/Linux machine and point your browser to a Linux or Windows multi-proc VM running the IPython Engine on Azure. For more information on IPython installation please see its tutorial.
For information on how to setup a Linux VM, please see the Linux Management section.