Carpe Datum

Help Me Help You Fix That

BuckWoody — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:51:58 GMT

If you've been redirected here because you posted on a forum, or asked a question in an e-mail, the person wanted you to know how to get help quickly from a group of folks who are willing to do so - but whose time is valuable. You need to put a little effort into the question first to get others to assist. This is how to do that. It will only take you a moment to read...

1. State the problem succinctly in the title

When an e-mail thread starts, or a forum post is the "head" of the conversation, you'll attract more helpers by using a descriptive headline than a vague one.

This: "Driver for Epson Line Printer Not Installing on Operating System XYZ"

Not this: "Can't print - PLEASE HELP"

2. Explain the Error Completely

Make sure you include all pertinent information in the request. More information is better, there's almost no way to add too much data to the discussion. What you were doing, what happened, what you saw, the error message, visuals, screen shots, whatever you can include.

This: "I'm getting error '5203 - Driver not compatible with Operating System since about 25 years ago' in a message box on the screen when I tried to run the SETUP.COM file from my older computer. It was a 1995 Compaq Proliant and worked correctly there.."

Not this: "I get an error message in a box. It won't install."

3. Explain what you have done to research the problem

If the first thing you do is ask a question without doing any research, you're lazy, and no one wants to help you. Using one of the many fine search engines you can most always find the answer to your problem. Sometimes you can't. Do yourself a favor - open a notepad app, and paste the URL's as you look them up. If you get your answer, don't save the note. If you don't get an answer, send the list along with the problem. It will show that you've tried, and also keep people from sending you links that you've already checked.

This: "I read the fine manual, and it doesn't mention Operating System XYZ for some reason. Also, I checked the following links, but the instructions there didn't fix the problem: "

Not this: <NULL>

4. Say "Please" and "Thank You"

Remember, you're asking for help. No one owes you their valuable time. Ask politely, don't pester, endure the people who are rude to you, and when your question is answered, respond back to the thread or e-mail with a thank you to close it out. It helps others that have your same problem know that this is the correct answer.

This: "I could really use some help here - if you have any pointers or things to try, I'd appreciate it."

Not this: "I really need this done right now - why are there no responses?"

This: "Thanks for those responses - that last one did the trick. Turns out I needed a new printer anyway, didn't realize they were so inexpensive now."

Not this: <NULL>

There are a lot of motivated people that will help you. Help them do that.

Cloud Computing Architecture Patterns: Don’t Focus on the Client

BuckWoody — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:39:00 GMT

Normally I try to put topics in the positive in other words "Do this" not "Don't do that". Sometimes its clearer to focus on what *not* to do. Popular development processes often start with screen mockups, or user input descriptions. In a scale-out pattern like Cloud Computing on Windows Azure, that's the wrong place to start.

Start with the Data

Instead, I recommend that you start with the data that a process requires. That data might be temporary or persisted, but starting with the data and its requirements helps to define not only the storage engine you need but also drives everything from security to the integrity of the application. For instance, assume the requirements show that the user must enter their phone number, and that this datum is used in a contact management system further down the application chain. For that datum, you can determine what data type you need (U.S. only or International?) the security requirements, whether it needs ACID compliance, how it will be searched, indexed and so on. From one small data point you can extrapolate out your options for storing and processing the data. Here's the interesting part, which begins to break the patterns that we've used for decades: all of the data doesn't have the same requirements. The phone number might be best suited for a list, or an element, or a string, with either BASE or ACID requirements, based on how it is used. That means we don't have to dump everything into XML, an RDBMS, a NoSQL engine, or a flat file exclusively. In fact, one record might use all of those depending on the use-case requirements.

Next Is Data Management

With the data defined, we can move on to how to store the data. Again, the requirements now dictate whether we need a full relational calculus or set-based operations, or we can choose another method based on the requirements for the data. And breaking another pattern its OK to store in more than once, in more than one location. We do this all the time for reporting systems and Business Intelligence systems, so this is a pattern we need to think about even for OLTP data.

Move to Data Transport

How does the data get around? We can use a connection-based method, sending the data along a transport to the storage engine, but in some cases we may want to use a cache, a queue, the Service Bus, or Complex Event Processing.

Finally, Data Processing

Most RDBMS engines, NoSQL, and certainly Big Data engines not only store data, but can process and manipulate it as well. Its doubtful that you'll calculate that phone number right? Well, if you're the phone company, you most certainly will. And so we see that even once we've chosen the data type, storage and engine, the same element can have different computing requirements based on how it is used.

Sure, We Need A Front-End At Some Point

Not all data is entered by human hands in fact most data isn't. We don't really need a Graphical User Interface (GUI) we need some way for a GUI to get data into and out of the systems listed earlier.

But when we do need to allow users to enter or examine data, that should be left to the GUI that best fits the device the user has. Ever tried to use an application designed for a web browser on a phone? Or one designed for a tablet on a phone? Its usually quite painful. The siren song of "We'll just write one interface for all devices" is strong, and has beguiled many an unsuspecting architect. But they just don't work out.

Instead, focus on the data, its transport and processing. Create API calls or a message system that allows for resilient transport to the device or interface, and let it do what it does best.

References

Microsoft Architecture Journal: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/bb410935.aspx
Patterns and Practices: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff921345.aspx
Windows Azure iOS, Android, Windows 8 Mobile Devices SDK: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/tutorials/get-started-ios/
Windows Azure Facebook SDK: http://ntotten.com/2013/03/14/using-windows-azure-mobile-services-with-the-facebook-sdk-for-windows-phone/

Where are the Windows Azure customer case studies – and why aren’t there more?

BuckWoody — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:31:28 GMT

“Case Studies” are a great tool when you’re evaluating a platform. Having evidence that other companies have deployed Windows Azure, in addition to how they did it, is a good way to plan your own deployments or even just evaluate whether Windows Azure would be a good fit. And we have several case studies you can examine here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/case-studies/

But there aren’t a lot of them – and there isn’t much detail on some. Why not?

Well, as to the first question, we only keep a few of these on the web at any given time. They rotate based on date, industry, and other factors. If you want more, you can contact your local Microsoft team for something more specific to your situation or industry.

But even when you do, you may not get what you’re looking for – a full-scale architecture diagram with costs, names and dates, sizes and layouts and so on. That’s a tougher thing to put on the web, and here’s why: companies are reluctant (as they should be) to include that level of detail in a public place. There are legal and competitive reasons they just can’t do that. And of course at the very beginning of any project we have to get the company to agree to do a case study, and no, we don’t pay for that. The company is going to have to let us document things, work with them, and generally get involved in the project. Not a lot of companies are willing to do that. In the end, the case studies prove out that folks in your industry are using Windows Azure successfully, and that the detail is specific to your requirements and constraints. They are very useful to the business side of the company, but not as useful to the technical folks who want details.

So we’ve stepped into that gap with more of the “real details” on how to implement a Windows Azure solution. In most cases these are live, real apps – not just theoretical or best-practices kinds of documentation. We have a few places you can check for more detail, including the Windows Azure Training Kit, and much more.

Complete Applications

Contoso Cycles – a fully-functional, open sourced demo site on Azure: http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/contosocycles

Fabrikam – a fully-functional, open sourced demo site on Azure: http://www.fabrikamshipping.com/

Complete Samples

Simple picture display app with source code: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazure/MyPictures-on-Windows-91bb3057

Cloud Survey – walkthough of a complete survey site using multiple components: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Windows-Azure-Web-Sites-Modern-Application-Sample-Cloud-Survey

Bidnow - Auction site running on Azure source code: http://bidnow.codeplex.com/

Layered Architecture Example – Very in-depth pattern for working with hybrid and scale-out projects: http://cloudsample.codeplex.com/

Other Code Samples: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/samples/

Guidance and Patterns

General Guidance: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/guidance/

Architecture Patterns: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/architecture/

Patterns and Practices for Windows Azure: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff898430.aspx

The “Consumerization” of IT and the Dark Side of the Cloud

BuckWoody — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:33:00 GMT

Cloud computing is actually being largely driven by the “Consumerization of IT”. That phrase, as grammatically incorrect as it is, represents a fundamental change to the way businesses think about technology, and subsequently how the IT team provides it.

Years ago, technology was introduced by the office. No one owned a mainframe at home of course, and even in the early years of PC’s few people could afford to have them in their houses. Other than game consoles and hobbyists on small computers, most full-up “PC’s” were used for work.

That rapidly changed, with the lowering of costs and miniaturization of technology. PC’s and then laptops became ubiquitous in the home, and of course the “smart phone” ushered in an entire generation where the technology available to the consumer outpaced what is installed at the place of work. Many of us have laptops that are more powerful than some of the servers the company uses in some applications.

IT as a department grew up in the era of the “office-first” technology. Modern users, especially those controlling the budget, are now more “home-first” technology buyers. In extreme cases, I’ve seen IT departments relegated to maintenance of legacy systems, with new IT projects being scoped, designed and run by business teams – usually on a Cloud Computing platform. The business wants to create a technical solution as quickly as they can download an app to their phone. They want the same level of speed and ease that they have on home technology in their business work.

However, this can be problematic if not thought through. As with any new technology, Cloud Computing provides both benefits and concerns. It’s true that almost anyone can quickly stand up a server or deploy an application quickly with nothing more than an e-mail address and a credit card. But business teams are not always aware of areas such as security or similar concerns that the IT teams solved through many hours of careful planning. Unfortunately, it’s often a matter of “Ready, Fire, Aim.”

So what is the business (who wants the agility of a smart phone and a single-click solution) to do? What about the need for security, strategic design, integration and all of the other functions that IT needs to handle? This is where I think Windows Azure (not to be too sales-y) handles the situation well.

If you’re using another cloud provider, by the way, that’s fine. The concepts here are the same.

Microsoft sells an on-premises operating system, and has done for many years. We’ve architected Windows Azure Virtual Machines, Active Directory Services, Platform-as-a-Service, and even the Hadoop and other offerings to work together – and with the tools that you use to manage them today, like System Center and PowerShell.

To the business team, I say this:

Work with your IT staff on projects, even if you’re designing the project and paying for it – the IT professionals can keep you out of danger. Most of them have made the mistakes you're going to make, and know what to do to avoid them.
Plan for the future – “This is just a proof-of-concept” project becomes productions in a frighteningly quick period of time.
Understand the cost model – a good architect can solve one problem in multiple ways, and cost is always a vector. The IT team can help you with this - they have the relationships with the vendors to consolidate and help you understand those costs.

To the IT team, I have this advice:

Don’t stand in the way of the business – they’ll just go around you. Work with them. Enable the business to do what they need, when they need it, and they’ll work with you. I've seen both results when I witnessed the mainframe-to-the-PC transition, and I'm seeing it again in the PC-to-the-cloud transition. Change is inevitable - get on board or become irrelevant to the people who pay your salary.
Learn the cloud. Talk to your vendor, get training, read up, ask questions. If this bothers the vendor, get a different one.
Create a self-service portal. This point may be the most important one. Become your own “Cloud”, and your users won’t need to go elsewhere. I’ll talk more about how to do this in another post.

In the end, the relationship between IT teams and Business is eerily similar to a marriage – it’s an amazing thing, it takes a lot of work to get right, and the "Consumerization of IT" is that cute person at the end of the bar.Work together or one of you will soon be with somebody new.

Creating a Windows Azure Virtual Machine - the RIGHT Way

BuckWoody — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:08:00 GMT

Windows Azure has added Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), the ability to deploy, run and manage Virtual Machines, to its growing list of services. You can create Virtual Machines from a gallery, upload them from images you create locally on Hyper-V (that's right, you can do that, even from PowerShell) and of course you can just jump right in and just click the "Plus" sign at the bottom of the Windows Azure Management Portal, then hit Compute, then Virtual Machine and then Quick Create. Enter a few fields and you're off to the races.

Of course, that works just fine - but if you do it that way you're doing it wrong. There's a better way - there are a few steps you should take before you deploy a Virtual Machine, and a few steps after. In general, the process looks like this:

Create an Affinity Group
Create a Virtual Network
Create your Storage Account and Container
Create the Virtual Machine
Optionally, add an Availability Set

Note - some of these steps need to be done only once, others once per logical group of Virtual Machines, and so on. Hit the links below for more info on when to do what.

Step One: Create an Affinity Group

An Affinity Group is a logical grouping that dictates how Windows Azure will lay out the resources assigned to it. When you create services, you can assign them to the Affinity Group, and the Fabric will deploy those into the same Datacenter cluster. Create one these per grouping that you want.

More Detail: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/jj156085.aspx

Steps to do that: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/jj156209.aspx

Step Two: Create a Virtual Network

The TCP/IP address for Windows Azure Virtual Machines come from a predefined range. You can just let us pick that for you, or you can create your own Virtual Network that has a user-defined range of DHCP addresses, and even place a DNS Server or connect your local network to the Windows Azure network for your Virtual Machines. When you create the Virtual Network, you can assign it to the Affinity Group. It's a way of grouping machine networks together. Create one of these per group of Virtual Machines that you want to have the same DHCP and DNS Server.

More Detail: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/jj156007.aspx

Steps to do that: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/services/networking/create-a-virtual-network/

Step Three: Create a Storage Account and Container

Windows Azure Virtual Machine Disks are stored in Windows Azure Storage. That's a great benefit. If you don't define a Storage Account and a Container first, The Windows Azure Management Portal will do that for you as you create the machine. Defining that Storage Account and Container ahead of time allows more control, and a better naming convention than what we'll pick for you. Read more to find out the strategy you should use to group the disks. Also, some workloads such as SQL Server have a best-practice of creating a separate disk for data and backups.

More Detail: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/how-to-guides/blob-storage/#what-is

Steps to do that: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/how-to-guides/blob-storage/#header-3

Step Four: Create the Virtual Machine

You have a lot of choices here, from creating the Virtual Machine quickly, from a Gallery with pre-loaded software (like SQL Server), or even choosing from Windows or Linux. You can also create the Virtual Machines by uploading an image of your own, or create them through PowerShell. With the previous steps completed, you can select those pre-defined entries as you build the machine - just select them from the drop-down menus when prompted.

More Detail: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/jj156003.aspx

Steps to do that:

Step Five: Optionally, Add an Availability Set

When you build more than one Virtual Machine (always a good idea, and required for availability) you can load-balance the IP ports for them, and you can also specify that they are on separate "fault domains" for greater availability. This is called an Availability Set. Even if you think you're only going to build one VM, you can add the Availability Set it up now and use it when you grow the systems. Create one of these per group of Virtual Machines you want to add into your High Availability strategy.

More Detail: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/windows/common-tasks/manage-vm-availability/

Steps to do that: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/windows/common-tasks/manage-vm-availability/#createset

But what can I do with Windows Azure? Create (Free) Websites and Applications

BuckWoody — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:32:00 GMT

f you want to know more about Windows Azure, how it works, the components, or more about the entire platform, I’ve written about that here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2012/06/13/windows-azure-write-run-or-use-software.aspx

But….

Maybe you just want to cut to the chase. Windows Azure. What do I *do* with it? How about...create some websites. Or website applications. Or both. For free. OK, ten of them are free, then you have to pay for more.

This week I wanted to set up a DotNetNuke Content Management System (More here if you don't know what that is: http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Products/DotNetNuke-Platform.aspx) for a charity I work with. DotNetNuke (DNN) is an open-source project, all ready to go and easy to manage place for web parts, content, blogs, whatever. With Windows Azure, you have the ability to quickly and easily create websites based on ASP or PHP code, for free. You also have the ability to use packages from a gallery, and one of those packages is DotNetNuke - both the community and the professional (pay for) use. I set this one up in 9 minutes:

It's easy to set these up. A simple website where you can deploy ASPX or PHP code is just a few clicks, but while I was setting up my site I figured I'd grab the screenshots and show them to you here.

First, you need an account - you can get one of those for free: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/

After you sign up for the account, hit the http://windowsazure.com site and click the "Portal" button at the top right of the screen. Then click the second icon down, called "Web Sites":

Click the "Create a New Web Site" link on the screen and you're shown this menu:

If you want a quick web site, just click "Create Web Site". If you want another type, click "From Gallery" and make your choice:

I selected the Community Edition of DotNetNuke. That brings up a configuration panel that looks like this:

You'll have to pick a name that isn't already in use, and in my case I told the system to create and build a SQL Azure (Windows Azure SQL Database) to hold the data. You'll also need to pick a region. After you make those selections, you'll need to enter the information for the database server and database:

Write down the database name, database administrator name and password - you'll need those later.

After that, you'll see the system deploying the code, creating the database server and so on.

From there, you're all set.

Whenever you want to monitor the site's health, you can just click the name here in the Portal to get more information on it:

Write down the URL of the site so you can access it in a moment. But don't move off of this screen - Windows Azure is now all set up, but DotNetNuke needs a little info when you first log in.

Before you leave the Portal, click the "DB" icon, and click the name of the database server you created a moment ago (blanked out here on my graphic):

Write down the entire server name (looks like myserver.database.windows.net) and database name (looks like mydatabasename) from this panel.

Now open your new DotNetNuke URL in your browser, and DotNetNuke will take over. You'll be asked the name of the database server (type in the whole name with the .database.windows.net part) and database name, and the database admin name and password you wrote down earlier.

You'll be asked to name the first site, and create a DotNetNuke admin name and password. Write all that down too.

Now log in to your DotNetNuke site with the admin name and change the site to whatever you like! It defaults to "Awesome Cycles", but since you probably don't want that one, read up on what to do with DNN once you're here:

PS - Want to do more than just deploy a canned site? Write code! Do HTML5! BE the Web: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/tutorials/get-started/

But what can I do with Windows Azure? Backups

BuckWoody — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:27:29 GMT

If you want to know more about Windows Azure, how it works, the components, or more about the entire platform, I’ve written about that here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2012/06/13/windows-azure-write-run-or-use-software.aspx

But….

Maybe you just want to cut to the chase. Windows Azure. What do I *do* with it? Let’s talk about that. One of the quickest, easiest ways to use Azure is in the storage feature, as a backup target. Can Windows Azure backup data, servers, workstations or databases? Yes. Yes it can. Windows Azure storage is replicated three times in one datacenter (on different fault-domains) and then those three are replicated to another geographically separate (but still in the same country region) location, you get six copies of the data automatically. Your data stays in the datacenter you choose, and is replicated within a geo-politically same region. So it’s actually a great target for backups.

First, you need a storage account, a container underneath that, and a Blob object to put the backups on. Here’s how you do that (for free):

Set up an account: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/
Create a Container: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/how-to-guides/blob-storage/#create-account (Steps 1-7 are all you need)
Get the Account String: Open the Portal (as above), click on Storage, select the account you want, and click Manage Keys at the bottom of the screen. Copy that string to a secure place.

OK, now that you have all that, you’re all set. In fact, you’re all set for things like Web Sites, VM’s, Code Deployment and lots of other things, but let’s focus on backups first. What are your options?

Mount a Drive, Use as Backup Target

The easiest way to send files to Windows Azure is to mount the storage as if it is a local drive. You can use that as regular storage (I’ll talk more about this in my next post) but you can also use that as a drive letter where you can send backups. While that’s simple to implement, it isn’t always the most efficient – you’re going through a layer of storage abstraction. Still and all, it’s a good choice and quick and easy to implement. Here are some options:

Gladinet: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/avkashchauhan/archive/2012/01/10/accessing-windows-azure-blob-storage-as-network-drive.aspx, and http://www.gladinet.com/
Cloudberry: http://www.cloudberrylab.com/virtual-drive-amazon-s3-azure.aspx
CloudDrive: http://www.clouddrive.com.au/default.html
Open Source: http://coderead.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/mount-azure-blob-storage-as-a-windows-drive/ which uses: http://dokan-dev.net/en/

Backup Servers and Workstations using Third-Party Software

In addition to (and including) the providers mentioned above, some also skip the step of having to mount a drive to use as a backup target, and simply allow you to mount an agent or tool that just backs up straight to Azure.

Cloudberry: http://techinch.com/blog/backup-your-files-to-windows-azure-with-cloudberry
Veeam is an interesting product which focuses on backing up Virtual Machines: http://blogs.technet.com/b/haroldwong/archive/2013/02/14/modern-data-protection-for-virtual-environments-using-veeam-and-windows-azure.aspx
Commvault (Simpana) Lots of options here: http://news.commvault.com/articles/011089_Microsoft_CommVault_Offer_Simpana_Data_Management_With_Windows_Azure_.asp
Evault is a backup service that use Windows Azure: http://www.evault.com/products/cloud-storage-services/laptop-backup/endpoint-protection.html

Backup Servers and Workstations using Hardware

StorSimple – a hardware appliance that can act as storage or backups, with encryption, de-duplication, compression and a Hierarchical Storage Management concept: http://www.storsimple.com/total-storage/
Riverbed Whitewater – hardware, provides de-duplication and encryption onsite prior to backup to Windows Azure: http://filipv.net/2012/08/11/using-windows-azure-cloud-storage-with-riverbed-whitewater/
Nasuni: http://www.nasuni.com/

Backup Servers and Workstations using Data Protection Manager

Data Protection Manager is a feature that is part of the System Center suite. We’ve updated that in the latest versions that will allow you to incrementally back up Servers and even Workstations and Laptops straight to Windows Azure. The beauty of this feature is that if the user is in a remote office or traveling the data will flow up to Windows Azure from wherever they are.

More on Windows Azure Backup Services here: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/features/online-backup/
And more on how to use DPM with Azure here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj728752.aspx

Backup SQL Server Databases

SQL Server can use the mounted-drive approach described above, and you can back up your databases

Mount Drive (first option described above)
SQL Server 2012 backup to Windows Azure: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj919148.aspx
And, as part of HADR, this: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2013/01/08/microsoft-windows-azure-disaster-recovery-options-for-on-premises-sql-server.aspx

DevOps for Windows Azure

BuckWoody — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:29:00 GMT

"DevOps" (Short for Developer Operations) is one of a group of new terms such as "Cloud", "Big Data" and "Data Scientist" - words that are somewhere between marketing and tasks we've actually had around in other forms for years.However, working in a Distributed Environment (Both on and off premises) like Windows Azure does bring a new set of tasks to the operations we currently perform in Information Technology.

Before I offer some guidance here, I need to carefully define the term "DevOps" as I use it.There are other definitions that involve Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and standard operations policies, and you're free to use those as well, but this is the definition I'll use for this post: By DevOps I mean those tasks involved with deploying, managing and monitoring a Windows Azure (or hybrid) project.

Another caveat: This is a non-authoritative, non-comprehensive post. I'll include only an outline of the major tasks, not a complete manual on the topic. There's enough knowledge needed on this topic for at least a whitepaper or two, and perhaps even a book, but for the moment I wanted to get some information out to ensure you have something to work from until those come along.This is primarily a list of resources for a DevOps team.

With all of those caveats in mind, we'll start the discussion after the project is conceived and architected. In most cases the DevOps team (whether that is a dedicated team or simply part of what the current IT Ops team does) is also involved in the design, at least from an information point of view. There's a great overview of the entire process available in poster form here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36837 And you should also read this complete manual in preparation here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh871440.aspx

Deployment

The first task after the design of the project is deployment. The deployment method depends on the type of solution; Windows Azure has the ability to run VM's, software code, or provide services that are already created (such as Active Directory).

IaaS

Monitoring

Monitoring the system after deployment involves watching the availability and uptime of the system, along with security intrusions and tracking access through code.

Health

Using MetricsHub: http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Cloud+Cover/Episode-102-Using-MetricsHub-to-Monitor-Your-Windows-Azure-Applications

Uptime and Availability through the Portal: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/service-dashboard/

Uptime and Availability through Third Party Vendors: http://www.paraleap.com/AzureWatch, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2012/07/03/management-and-monitoring-tools-for-windows-azure.aspx

Automatic Notification: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/375892/Adding-SMS-notifications-to-your-Windows-Azure-pro

Performance

Performance Counters: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh411520.aspx

Logging Diagnostics PaaS: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg433048.aspx

Internal Instrumentation for PaaS: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh674491%28v=vs.103%29.aspx

Third Party Performance Testing: http://www.neustar.biz/enterprise/web-performance, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2012/07/03/management-and-monitoring-tools-for-windows-azure.aspx

Costs

Understanding Costs: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff803372.aspx, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg213848.aspx

Subscription Management: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg465713.aspx

System Center: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh221354.aspx

Third-Party Tools: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2012/07/03/management-and-monitoring-tools-for-windows-azure.aspx

Example of listing your deployments: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg651127.aspx

Management

Managing the deployment involves Security, Upgrades, Troubleshooting, and High-Availability/Disaster Recovery.

Windows Azure Management Portal: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/

Management API's: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/downloads/?fb=en-us and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee460812.aspx, http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/2220-chapter-7-managing-hosted-services-with-the-service-management-api.pdf?utm_source=packtpub&utm_medium=free&utm_campaign=pdf

Security

Security Trust Center: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/trust-center/

Working with Windows Azure Active Directory: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2012/11/28/windows-azure-now-supports-federation-with-windows-server-active-directory.aspx

Windows Azure Authentication: http://www.asp.net/vnext/overview/fall-2012-update/windows-azure-authentication

Deploying a secure ASP.NET MVC application with OAuth: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2013/03/12/deploy-a-secure-asp-net-mvc-application-with-oauth-membership-and-sql-database.aspx

Upgrades

ALM Process for PaaS: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/buck_woody/archive/2011/01/25/windows-azure-use-case-agility.aspx

Troubleshooting

Windows Azure Support: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/contact/

Upgrade and Fault Domains: http://blog.toddysm.com/2010/04/upgrade-domains-and-fault-domains-in-windows-azure.html

HADR

Load-Balancing Endpoints for IaaS: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/windows/common-tasks/how-to-load-balance-virtual-machines/

Extending SQL Server HADR to Windows Azure: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2013/01/08/microsoft-windows-azure-disaster-recovery-options-for-on-premises-sql-server.aspx

HADR for IaaS: http://www.visionsolutions.com/, http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2012/03/28/microsoft-online-backup-service.aspx

Multiple Instances for PaaS: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ee871996.aspx

Business Continuity for Windows Azure: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh873027.aspx, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/avkashchauhan/archive/2011/10/14/windows-azure-vm-downtime-due-to-host-and-guest-os-update-and-how-to-manage-it-in-multi-instance-windows-azure-application.aspx

Disposition

When the project is complete, you'll need to remove the VM's in IaaS, or data and code from PaaS and shut down the deployment. Prior to doing that, you should:

Copy all data from the deployment to a local repository
Document the process
Notify Microsoft of your intent to stop the project to work with your representative on billing matters

The primary tool for disposal is the Windows Azure Portal.

Link List: Becoming a Data Professional

BuckWoody — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:02:57 GMT

Whenever I present at a conference, I try and make sure to include references to the topics I discuss in the session. That means you either need a lot of handouts, or I need to wait for you to take lots of notes. While note-taking is essential, writing out web links (especially long ones) is not a good use of your time. So I post the references here on my blog, with the tag “Link Lists” and you can simply write down one small URL to get to them all.

This topic deals with the skills needed to become a data professional. I’ll include references here on the role of a data professional, and also some places where you can drill in further for the skills that you need to fill those roles. I’ll try and keep this list updated, and if you have some information on any of these topics, feel free to leave that as a comment below. This list isn’t meant to be an exhaustive web search of all the technologies and concepts I mentioned, but it does cover the references I cited in the talk.

The Data Professional Roles

http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=sqlserver&seqNum=299 – The Data Professional

http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=sqlserver&seqNum=247 - Becoming a DBA

http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=sqlserver&seqNum=132 – DBA Levels

http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=sqlserver&seqNum=131 – Certification

http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=sqlserver&seqNum=356 – SQL Server Development Plan

http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/learn-where-you-are/ - Learn where you are

Groups and Associations:

http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-value-of-professional-associations/ - The value of professional associations

http://www.sqlpass.org/ - The Professional Organization for SQL Server

http://www.sigkdd.org/ - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIG for Knowledge Discovery from data

http://www.sigmod.org/ - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIG for Data Management

Data Technology Futures

http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/big-data-is-just-a-fad/ - “Big Data” is just a fad

http://www.faithpopcorn.com/ - Demographic trends and predictions (Click “Tredbank” when you open the link)

http://blogs.the451group.com/information_management/2013/02/04/updated-database-lanscape-map-february-2013/ - Database Landscape Map

http://pragprog.com/book/rwdata/seven-databases-in-seven-weeks - Seven Databases in Seven Weeks

Data Science

http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/06/what-is-data-science.html - What is Data Science?

http://www.ocdqblog.com/home/demystifying-data-science.html - Demystifying Data Science

http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/setting-up-a-data-science-laboratory/ - Setting up a data science laboratory system

http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/mission-critical-database-design/ - Data Design Checklist

Reading Lists

http://www.goodreads.com/group/bookshelf/81991-data-science - Goodreads Data Science list

Special Interest Groups

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Data-Science-Central-4298680 - LinkedIn Data Science Group

http://amstat.org/ - American Statistical Society

http://www.rss.org.uk/site/cms/contentChapterView.asp?chapter=1 – The Royal Statistical Society

How Does the Cloud Change a Developer's Job?

BuckWoody — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:26:51 GMT

I've recently posted a blog on how cloud computing would change the Systems Architect’s role in an organization, another on how the cloud changes a Database Administrator's job, and the last post dealt with the Systems Administrator. In this post I'll cover the changes facing the Software Developer when using the cloud.

The software developer role was the earliest adopter of cloud computing. This makes perfect sense, because the software developer has always used computing "as a service" - they (most often) don't buy and configure servers, platforms and the like, they write code that runs on those platforms. And there's probably not a simpler definition of a software developer to be found, but as with all simple statements, you lose fidelity and detail. I'll offer a more complete list in a moment.

Because the software developer's process involves designing, testing and writing code locally and then migrating it to a production environment, all of the paradigms in cloud computing - from IaaS to PaaS to SaaS - come naturally.

The Software Developer's Role

The software developer has evolved since the earliest days of programming.The software developer not only "writes code" - there are far more tasks involved in modern systems development:

Assisting the Business Role(s) in developing software specifications
Planning software system components and modules
Designing system components
Working in teams writing classes, modules, interfaces and software endpoints
Designing data layouts, architectures, access and other data controls
Designing and implementing security, either programmatic, declarative, or referential
Mixing and matching various languages, scripting and other constructs within the system
Designing and implementing user and account security rights and restrictions
Designing various software code tests - unit, functional, fuzz, integration, regression, performance and others
Deploying systems
Managing and maintaining code updates and changes

Like most of the previous roles, those tasks also unpacks into a larger set of tasks, and no single developer has exactly that same list. And like the DBA, the role is often more, or less of that list based on where the developer works. Smaller companies may include the development platform in the duties so that a developer is also a systems administrator. In larger organizations I've seen developers that specialized on User Interfaces, Engine Components, Data Controls or other specific areas.

How the Cloud Changes Things

The software developer role obviously has the same concerns and impacts of "the cloud" as the Systems Architect. They need to educate themselves on the options within this new option (Knowledge), try a few test solutions out (Experience) and of course work with others on various parts of the implementation (Coordination).

The big changes for a developer include three major areas: Hybrid Software Design, Security, and Distributed Computing.

Hybrid Software Design

After the PC revolution, software developers designed systems that ran primarily on a single computer. From there the industry moved to "client/server", where most of the code still lived on the user's workstation, and various levels of state (such as the data layer) moved to a server over fast connected lines. After than followed the Internet phase, which had less to do with HTML coding than it did with state-less architectures. While no architecture is truly stateless, there are ways of allowing the client to be in a different state than the server of the application at any one time - this is the way the Web works.

Even so, the developer often simply moved one the primary layers (such as Model, View or Controller) to the server, using the User Interface merely as the View or Presentation layer. While technically stateless, this doesn't require a great deal of architecture change - there are various software modules that run on a server, and perhaps that connects to a remote data server. In the end, it's still a single paradigm.

We now have the ability to run IaaS (hardware abstraction), PaaS (hardware, operating system and runtime abstraction) and SaaS (everything abstracted, API calls only) in a single environment such as Windows Azure. A single application might have a Web-based Interface Server with federated processes (using a PaaS set of roles), a database service (using a SaaS provider such as Windows Azure SQL Database), a specialized process in Linux (using an IaaS role in Windows Azure) and a translator API (from the Windows Azure Marketplace). This example involves only one vendor - Microsoft. I've seen applications that use multiple vendors in this same way.

Thinking this way opens up a great deal of flexibility - and complexity. Complexity isn't evil; it's how complicated things get done many times. The modern developer needs to understand how to build hybrid software architectures.

Resources: Hybrid Architectures with step-by-step instructions and examples: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh871440.aspx and Windows Azure Hybrid Systems: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh871440.aspx?AnnouncementFeed

Security

Having a single security boundary, such as "everyone who works in my company", is a relatively simple problem to solve. Normally the System Administrators configure and control a security provider, such as Active Directory, and developers can access that security layer programmatically. That allows for good separation of duties and role-based control.

In modern applications, clients, managers, and users both internal and external need various levels of access to the same objects, code and data. A client should be able to enter an order, a store should be able to accept the order, the credit-card company should be able to check the order and authorize payment, and the managers should be able to report on the order or change it if needed. Using role-based security across multiple domains would be impossible to maintain.

Enter "claims-based" authentication. In this paradigm, the user logs in with whatever security they use - corporate or other Active Directory, Facebook, Google, whatever. The application (using Windows Identity Foundation or WIF) can accept a "claim" from that provider, and the developer can match whatever parts of that claim they wish to the objects, code and data. And example might be useful.

Buck logs in to his corporate Active Directory (AD), and attempts to use a program based in Windows Azure. Windows Azure rejects the login silently, and is configured to check with Buck's AD. Buck's AD says "yes, I know Buck, and he has been granted the following claims: "partner", "manager", "approver". The developer does not need to know about Buck's AD, Buck, his login, or anything else. She simply codes the proper data access to allow "approver" to approve a sale.

This allows a lot of control, at a very fine level, without having to get into the details of each security provider. .

Resources: Overview of using claims-based Azure Security: http://adnanboz.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/claims-based-access-and-windows-azure/

Distributed Computing

Is there a difference between stateless computing, or even the hybrid programming I mentioned earlier, and "Distributed Computing"? Yes - the primary difference is latency. Even stateless code can have too small a tolerance for latency.

Dealing with slow connectivity, or breaks in connections has many impacts. One method of dealing with this is to locate data and computing of that data as closely as possible, even if this means relaxing consistency or duplicating data. Another method is to go back to a great paradigm from the past that is possible underused today is a Service Oriented Architecture. The Windows Azure Service Bus is possibly one of the fastest and easiest way to adopt cloud computing without completely rearchitecting your application.

References: Great breakdown of the thought process around a distributed architecture: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/jj553517.aspx and using a Windows Azure Relay Service: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/how-to-guides/service-bus-relay/

Carpe Datum

Help Me Help You Fix That

1. State the problem succinctly in the title

2. Explain the Error Completely

3. Explain what you have done to research the problem

4. Say "Please" and "Thank You"

Cloud Computing Architecture Patterns: Don’t Focus on the Client

Start with the Data

Next Is Data Management

Move to Data Transport

Finally, Data Processing

Sure, We Need A Front-End At Some Point

References

Where are the Windows Azure customer case studies – and why aren’t there more?

Complete Applications

Complete Samples

Guidance and Patterns

The “Consumerization” of IT and the Dark Side of the Cloud

Creating a Windows Azure Virtual Machine - the RIGHT Way

Step One: Create an Affinity Group

Step Two: Create a Virtual Network

Step Three: Create a Storage Account and Container

Step Four: Create the Virtual Machine

Step Five: Optionally, Add an Availability Set

But what can I *do* with Windows Azure? Create (Free) Websites and Applications

But what can I *do* with Windows Azure? Backups

Mount a Drive, Use as Backup Target

Backup Servers and Workstations using Third-Party Software

Backup Servers and Workstations using Hardware

Backup Servers and Workstations using Data Protection Manager

Backup SQL Server Databases

DevOps for Windows Azure

Deployment

IaaS

Deploying Virtual Machines:

PaaS

SaaS

Monitoring

Health

Performance

Costs

Management

Security

Upgrades

Troubleshooting

HADR

Disposition

Link List: Becoming a Data Professional

How Does the Cloud Change a Developer's Job?

The Software Developer's Role

How the Cloud Changes Things

Hybrid Software Design

Security

Distributed Computing

But what can I do with Windows Azure? Create (Free) Websites and Applications

But what can I do with Windows Azure? Backups