I was trying to link my Visual Studio Online (formerly Team Foundation Service or TFS Online) tenant to my Windows Azure subscription and stumbled through some items that are not well documented. The main problem I ran into was that Visual Studio Online only used Microsoft Accounts and in my case my Windows Azure subscriptions are setup using Office 365 accounts and not Microsoft Accounts. The next problem I ran into was that account owner set on my Visual Studio Online wasn’t the account I thought it was so I need to find a way to update the account owner before I could proceed.

Microsoft Requirements to Link Visual Studio Online with Windows Azure

• Windows Azure subscription can’t be linked to MSDN benefit. If this is your case you need to create a new Pay-As-You-Go subscription.
• Microsoft Account used for Visual Studio Online needs to be the subscription Service Administrator or a Co-Administrator on the subscription.

Part 1 – Add / Adjust Microsoft Account users in Visual Studio Online

1. Log into your Visual Studio Online tenant https://XXXXX.visualstudio.com/ using a Microsoft Account with admin access.
2. Click on gear icon to Administer Account

   

3. On the Administer your account screen, click on “Manage collection security and group membership”.

   

4. On the Security screen, confirm you are on “Project Collection Administrators” and click “Members”.

   

5. On the Members screen, confirm the Microsoft Account you want to set as owner is listed. If not click on “Add” to add the Microsoft Account.

   

Part 2 – Adjust Visual Studio Online owner (if current owner is incorrect)

1. Log into your Visual Studio Online tenant https://XXXXX.visualstudio.com/ using your Microsoft Account that is the owner. If you are not sure which account is the owner you can follow these same steps but you will not be able to update until you are logged in as the account owner.
2. Click on gear icon to Administer Account.

   

3. On the Administer your account screen, click on “Settings”.

   

4. On the Settings screen, click on the “Account owner” drop down and select the correct account. — Side note: Another problem I ran into is that I have several Microsoft Accounts that I use. The display name for a few of these turns out to be the same my name. This drop down only shows display name, so I had to try a few times to get the correct one. L

   

5. Click the save icon.

Part 3 – Add / Confirm Microsoft Account is a Co-Administrator on the Windows Azure subscription

1. Log into your Windows Azure subscription https://manage.windowsazure.com as the service administrator. In my case this is an Office 365 account.
2. On the left hand side navigation, click on “Settings”.

   

3. On the Settings screen, click on “Administrators”.

   

4. On the Administrators screen, if the Microsoft Account is already listed as an Account Administrator or Co-Administrator then you are done with this part. Skip to Part 4.
5. If you want to add a new Co-Administrator, click on “Add”.

   

6. On the Add a Co-Administrator screen, enter the valid email address that is the same as the Visual Studio Online tenant owner, select which subscriptions this account can co-administer, then click on check mark icon to save.

   

Part 4 – Link Visual Studio Online to Windows Azure subscription

1. Log into your Windows Azure subscription https://manage.windowsazure.com as the same Microsoft Account that is the owner of Visual Studio Online tenant.
2. On the left hand side navigation, click on “Visual Studio Online”.

   

3. On the Visual Studio Online screen, click on “Create or Link a Visual Studio Online Account”

   

4. This will open the “New” menu.

   

5. Click on “Link to Existing”
6. On the Link to Existing options, confirm the correct Visual Studio Online tenant is displayed, then pick which subscription you want to bill Visual Studio Online services to. You can later unlink your Visual Studio Online account and relink to a different subscription but any licensing purchased will not be refunded.

   

7. Click on “Link Account”

   

8. Windows Azure will show that it is linking the Visual Studio Online tenant.

   

Part 5 – Confirm and Manage the Visual Studio Online tenant account related settings.

1. Log into your Windows Azure subscription https://manage.windowsazure.com as any Service Account or Co-Administrator account that has access to the same subscription as setup with Visual Studio Online.
2. On the left hand side navigation, click on “Visual Studio Online”.

   

3. On the Visual Studio Online scree, you should see the linked Visual Studio Online tenant.

   

4. Click on the name of the Visual Studio Online tenant.
5. Main page looks like this.

   

6. Dashboard page looks like this.

   

7. Scale page looks like this.