Hanuk's Microsoft Platform Strategy Blog

Top Benefits of Running Node.js on Windows Azure

hanuk_MSFT — Sat, 05 May 2012 05:07:22 GMT

Introduction

This post is inspired by Tomasz’s Hosting Node Applications on IIS write up that focused on the benefits of running Node.js on Windows server through iisnode. In this post, I wanted to focus on giving it a Windows Azure color and list the benefits of running Node.js on Microsoft cloud platform. Some of the benefits are unique to Widows Azure while the others are applicable to both on-premise Windows as well as Windows Azure. This post is targeted towards Node.js developers who are not familiar with running node programs on Windows Azure. Fundamentals of Node.js development on Windows Azure can be learnt from http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/nodejs/.

Node.JS Deployment Architecture on Windows Azure and Kernel Mode HTTP Request Buffering

Iisnode is the enabling component that wires up http.sys (the kernel mode HTTP listener) on Windows with the collection of Node.exe processes through named pipes. At run time, Windows Azure Web Role gets translated to a Windows Server instance and hence it uses the same iisnode for enabling the automated running of Node applications on Windows Azure.

When a Node.js web site receives request for a web page, iisnode will spawn a Node.exe process if not already done and will forward the http request through a named pipe. Node.exe will process the corresponding JavaScript file and sends response back to the web browser through iisnode and http.sys. When the request arrives into the Azure service instance, http.sys pools them in a kernel mode request buffer before forwarding them to the node.exe instance.

Since node.js itself doesn’t do any buffering, http.sys request buffering architecture will help with fewer server errors on high traffic web sites. The following schematic shows the request processing architecture of Node.js with http.sys buffering.

The above diagram is an amalgamation of the static and dynamic architecture views that may confuse some; hopefully it conveys the essence of Node.js request processing flow.

Iisnode is very specific to Windows and Windows Azure which combines the benefits of cluster, supervisor, node-inspector, forever, and node-static [source: Tomasz Janczuk’s blog]. Iisnode helps setting up of scale-up and scale-out scenarios a lot easier on Windows compared to non-Windows platforms.

Node.JS Scalability on Windows Azure

Scale-Up: Iisnode on Windows Azure spawns multiple Node.exe processes on high traffic web sites automatically. This allows Node.JS to take advantage of the multiple cores in a web role which can range from 1 core (small instance) up to 8 cores (Extra Large instance) allowing scale up of the web application in a given service instance. The following diagram shows that Iisnode spawned 4 Node.exe instances on a 4-core Windows Azure service instance:

Without iisnode on Azure, one has to use a Node module like “cluster” and write code to fork child processes and manage the master/worker ecosystem. However “master” process can be a single point of failure; if master goes down, eventually a manual intervention will be necessary to bring up the master process and the worker processes back to the level that match the number of cores.

Iisnode on Azure manages the Node worker processes based on the instance count set in the Node configuration file. Iisnode itself is managed by IIS which in turn is looked after by Windows OS. Consequently there will be fewer opportunities for a systematic failure of Node.js processing. Essentially, with iisnode, you don’t need a mater process and you don’t need to write code to fork and manage child processes.

Scale-Out: Windows Azure allows Node.js web applications to scale out automatically to a web farm of 100s of Azure service instances as needed. This can be accomplished through mere service configuration edits as shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<ServiceConfiguration>
    <Role name="Node_JS_WebRole">

         <Instances count="4" />

        <Certificates />

        </Role>

</ServiceConfiguration>

Once the above configuration changes are saved on Azure.com portal for a Node application, Azure fabric controller automatically spawns service instances so that the final count matches the number specified in the configuration. Windows Azure also gives Service Management APIs for scripting autoscale aspects into the deployment.

Above diagram shows that each Large web role instance (4 cores) spans 4 instances of Node.exe and there are 4 such role instances which are automatically added to the load balancer by Windows Azure Fabric Controller. Within a given Azure role instance, Http traffic to Node.exe process collection is managed by iisnode through load balancing.

Development Agility with Managed Services

Develop NoSQL based Node.js solutions with ease

Windows Azure offers Azure Tables – NoSQL database as a service. Since Azure Table capability is a managed service, the developer doesn’t have to worry about physical set up of the NoSQL database with respective to availability, scalability, networking, backup and recovery. Developer can become productive right away with JavaScript bindings available as a part of the Azure NPM for persistence operations against Azure Tables. The following is the excerpt of an example of accessing Azure Tables in Node.JS from Programming Table Storage Service in Node.Js:

var tableService = azure.createTableService();

var tableName = 'tasktable';

http.createServer(function serverCreated(req, res) {

tableService.createTableIfNotExists(tableName, tableCreatedOrExists);

function tableCreatedOrExists(error)

{

res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });

if (error === null){

res.write('Using table ' + tableName + '\r\n');

res.end();

} else {

res.end('Could not use table: ' + error.Code);

}

}).listen(port);

Develop distributed Node.JS cloud solutions with ease on Windows Azure

Windows Azure NPM contains Node.js bindings for building message oriented applications using Service Bus queues. Since Service Bus is a managed service, the developers need not worry about the infrastructure setup, clustering, and any other networking related configurations. Developers simply need to create service bus name space and start using the service for integrating with other applications and services in a loosely coupled manner.

Node.JS developers often struggle with libraries like ZeroMQ for the types of integration shown above. Service Bus and Azure Queue storage can free developers from client side development complexity as well as server side infrastructure management.

Following is the code sample: [source: Service Bus support in azure npm 0.5.2 ]

var serviceBusService = azure.createServiceBusService();

serviceBusService.createQueueIfNotExists('taskqueue', function(error, created){

if(!created){

// Queue exists

}

});

Here is how you send a message with a specific topic [source: http://codebetter.com/glennblock/2012/02/14/servicebus-support-in-azure-npm-0-5-2/ ]

var serviceBusService = azure.createServiceBusService();

serviceBusService.sendTopicMessage('taskdiscussion', 'Hello world!', function(error){

if(!error){

// Message sent

}

});

And finally this is how you poll the queue for a message.

var serviceBusService = azure.createServiceBusService(),

topic = 'taskdiscussion',

subscription = 'client1';

serviceBusService.createSubscription(topic, subscription, function(error1){

if(!error1){

// Subscription created

serviceBusService.receiveSubscriptionMessage(topic, subscription,

function(error2, serverMessage){

if(!error2){

// Process message

}

});

}

});

Supports Heterogeneous Application Environments

Node.JS on Windows Azure can run side-by-side along with ASP.NET, PHP, RAILS and any other app server environments the programmer wishes to use for delivering a complete applciation. Iisnode will be in the execution path for only preconfigured .js files. The rest of the content will bypass iisnode and hence can peacefully coexist on the same virtual server. Let us illustrate this through a simple example… in a given virtual directory, I have webform.aspx, clientutil.js and productservice.js.

The following simple web.config will make sure productservice.js will be processed by Node.exe while webform.aspx is processed through asp.net engine on the server. ClientUtil.js will be treated by IIS as a client-side Javascript and hence passes it through as a script file.

//web.config file that maps .js files to node.exe

</handlers>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

Management & Operations

Multiple Node.JS Environments

Windows Azure automatically supports a pair of environments for each Azure service instance that hosts Node.js application – Staging and Production. After deploying and testing the Node application on a Staging environment, a mere VIP (virtual IP) address swap will make it available in production environment. Of course, one has to make sure that any dependencies like databases also switch to production environments before such VIP swap.

Many real world applications require more than two environments; Azure enables one to create multiple Azure service instances and move deployment from one environment to the other as necessary. Here is the schematic that gives an idea of a typical Node.js deployment environment on Azure:

Windows Azure allows the creation of multiple services instances that represent a typical ALM environment. In the above diagram, there are 3 service instances defined in Azure. Each service instance will have a staging and a production environment between which one can switch the deployments by the flick of a switch. Among many cloud platforms this is unique to Windows Azure; this set up allows unrolling a build that has regression errors through mere IP address swap. Multiple service instances allow the developer to sandbox the application dependencies so that it allows streamlined configuration management.

Auto Update

Iisnode on Azure automatically manages Node.exe process lifecycle during the code updates. If a JavaScript module is changed, iisnode allows the current requests to be served from the existing Node.exe instances while it redirects new requests to a newly spawned Node.exe process. The old processes will eventually be killed when there are no more in-flight requests.

Without iisnode, one has to use Node module like supervisor that monitors a list of .js files. If a jsavascript file were to change, supervisor kills the current process and restarts it for executing the changed code. To get the same behavior as Windows Azure’s automatic process management with iisnode, a combination of “cluster” and “supervisor” are needed. Cluster and supervisor create two extra processes for traffic management and file change monitoring, which adds additional points of failure.

Supportability

Remote server debugging often involves console.log writing to the stdout and/or stderr. Iisnode on azure redirects these logs to a file which can be accessed as regular text files. This can be enabled through mere configuration; iisnode creates a special directory for each .js file and can obfuscate files to hide them from prying eyes. Securing log files through traditional internet security is a key for preventing unauthorized access of these log files. No additional NPM modules are needed for log access over http.

Node.js log file access on other operating systems, will require additional NPM modules like log.io to facilitate easy log file access when you don’t have access to the server through remote desktop or SSH.

Zero Setup Debugging through node-inspector

Debugging JavaScript applications requires manual startup of the node-inspector process before debugging the application logic on non-Windows OS. On Windows Azure and Windows OS, installation of iisnode automatically installs node-inspector. Accessing the debug moniker (e.g. http://<dnsname>/server.js/debug) for a given .js file will automatically start node-inspector debug listener which allows setting up breakpoints inside the WebKit enabled web browser.

Once debug session is prepared this way, subsequent application debugging can start by accessing the respective .js file in a different browser window. As mentioned above, Windows Azure debugging through node-inspector can be done in any webkit enabled web browser including Google Chrome and FireFox. Step-by-step guide to debugging Node.js applications on Windows, which is similar to Windows Azure, can be found at: http://tomasz.janczuk.org/2011/11/debug-nodejs-applications-on-windows.html.

I hope this helps.

-Hanu

Technorati Tags: node.js,node.exe,Node.js on Windows Azure,Azure NPM for Node.js,Microsoft Cloud,Node.js and Table Storage,Node.js and Service Bus

3rd Party ISV Tools for Windows Azure Application Monitoring and Load Testing

hanuk_MSFT — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:49:36 GMT

Here are a list of products, in no particular order, which will help improve the quality of end user experience for Azure hosted applications. This list is an organic aggregation of tribal knowledge and is not a definitive one.

If you have any suggestions, please feel free to send it to me through comments.

Application Availability Management

Azure Watch by Paraleap Technologies
Azure Check from from Apica Systems
Azureops from Opstera
Spotlight from Quest Software

Application Performance Management (APM)

Gomez from Compuware
Dynatrace APM for Windows Azure from Dynatrace

Application Load testing

Gomez Web Load Testing from Compuware
Loadstorm from Loadstorm.com
CloudTest from Soasta
Visual Studio Ultimate Stress Testing from Microsoft
HP LoadRunner from Hewlett Packard.

-Hanu

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,Application Performance Management,Web Load Testing,Azure Load Testing,SaaS Performance,SaaS Load Testing,PaaS Load Testing,PaaS APM,SaaS APM,SaaS Applicaiton Monitoring,PaaS Application Monitoring

Service Bus demo from Brian Loesgen

hanuk_MSFT — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:26:54 GMT

A colleague of mine Brian had put together this nice Azure Service Bus demo: http://www.brianloesgen.com/blog/2012/1/23/new-azure-servicebus-demo-available.html

-Hanu

Getting Started with SQL Azure

hanuk_MSFT — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:41:56 GMT

My colleague Peter put together the following list of useful SQL Azure resources: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/peterlau/archive/2012/02/28/get-started-with-sql-azure-resources.aspx

Technorati Tags: Cloud Computing,SQL Azure,Windows Azure

$3,700 worth of Windows Azure Compute and Database Resources for MSDN Subscribers

hanuk_MSFT — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:21:10 GMT

MSDN subscribers get to try Windows Azure through this free offer: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/member-offers/msdn-benefits/.

-Hanu

ECM / CMS Systems on Windows Azure

hanuk_MSFT — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:14:00 GMT

Here is a list of CMS systems that are available on Windows Azure from various ISVs:

Ektron CMS for .NET on Windows Azure: http://www.ektron.com/Solutions/Technology-and-features/Features-and-Tools/Ektron-Azure-Edition/
Telerik Sitefinity: http://www.sitefinity.com/asp-net-cms-features-for-it-managers/windows-azure.aspx
Sitecore CMS on Azure: http://www.sitecore.net/Azure
Kentico CMS on Azure: http://www.kentico.com/Product/All-Features/Website/Windows-Azure
Drupal on Azure: http://azurephp.interoperabilitybridges.com/articles/how-to-deploy-drupal-to-windows-azure-using-the-drupal-scaffold
Ubraco on Azure: http://umbraco.com/follow-us/blog-archive/2010/10/30/umbraco-on-windows-azure

Hope this helps.

-Hanu

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,Azure,CMS Azure,ECM Azure

Windows Azure Social Gaming resources

hanuk_MSFT — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:23:35 GMT

Just come across the following resources and thought these might be useful for others as well:

Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games: http://watgames.codeplex.com

Windows Azure Social Gaming: http://windowsazure.com/social-games

A Reference Game Implementation on Azure: http://tankster.net

Nathan Totten’s Blog that describes tankster.net architecture : http://ntotten.com

-Hanu

Technorati Tags: Social Games on Azure,Windows Azure Games,Tankster.net,Cloud Gaming Architecture,Facebook Games with Azure

Microsoft Cloud/Azure Security Resources

hanuk_MSFT — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:57:03 GMT

Technical Overview of the Security Features in the Windows Azure Platform: http://www.microsoft.com/online/legal/?langid=en-us&docid=11.

Windows Azure Security Overview: http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/security/documents/WindowsAzureSecurityOverview1_0Aug2010.pdf

Windows Azure Privacy: http://www.microsoft.com/online/legal/?langid=en-us&docid=11

Securing Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure: http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/security/documents/SecuringtheMSCloudMay09.pdf.

Security Best Practices For Developing Windows Azure Applications: http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/security/documents/SecurityBestPracticesWindowsAzureApps.pdf

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,Cloud Security,Windows Azure Security,Azure Security,Cloud Computing,Azure SAS 70,Cloud Security Best Practices,Azure Security Best Practices

7 Career Mistakes IT Professionals Make

hanuk_MSFT — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:46:49 GMT

This is a nice reminder to me as well and thought it might be useful to you as well: http://www.globalknowledge.com/articles/generic.asp?pageid=3010&country=United+States

Microsoft System Sweeper

hanuk_MSFT — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:37:16 GMT

When network administrators shutdown your internet access due to a bot or rootkit infection and suggest you some internet based tools, you are in a paradoxical situation. I am sure you already experienced this if you have kids in college

Here is a nice standalone tool, currently in beta, to remove malware and rootkits in such circumstances: http://connect.microsoft.com/systemsweeper.

-Hanu

Windows 8 to be showcased at the BUILD event–Sept 13th to 16th (Anaheim, CA)

hanuk_MSFT — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 12:58:26 GMT

Microsoft press release is located here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2011/jun11/06-01corporatenews.aspx

Technorati Tags: Windows 8,BUILD,PDC 2011,PDC2011

Azure Throughput Analyzer from Microsoft Research

hanuk_MSFT — Tue, 24 May 2011 17:20:19 GMT

Just come across this tool from Microsoft research: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/5c8189b9-53aa-4d6a-a086-013d927e15a7/default.aspx.

This desktop utility measures your upload and download throughput from your computer and Windows Azure cloud.

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,Cloud Computing,Azure Throughput,Microsoft Cloud,Azure Testing

Few interesting TechEd 2011 Sessions for On-Demand Viewing

hanuk_MSFT — Fri, 20 May 2011 17:49:21 GMT

Keynote

Tech·Ed North America 2011 Keynote Address

Don't miss the opportunity to hear from two senior Microsoft leaders -- Corporate Vice President,Server and Tools Marketing,Robert Wahbe and Corporate Vice President,Visual Studio,Jason Zander -- as they showcase a broad array of technology in the 2011 Tech·Ed Keynote.

Cloud Computing

Introducing the Windows Azure Platform by David Chappell

Cloud computing looks like the biggest change to hit our industry in many years. But taking advantage of the shift requires understanding this new approach and how to exploit it. In this presentation, David Chappell looks at the Windows Azure platform and what it means for organizations that…

Moving Applications to the Cloud by Scott Densmore

You have been building applications on the Microsoft platform for years. You master ASP.NET,SQL Server,Active Directory,and the .NET framework. What does the Windows Azure Platform represent? What are the important considerations for moving your apps,your skills and practices to the cloud? This…

Using Windows Azure Virtual Machine Role by Vijay Rajagopalan

Learn how to use the Virtual Machine Role on Windows Azure. We’ll demonstrate best practices for building and uploading customized OS images and deploying and managing services using those images.

Microsoft SQL Azure Overview: Tools, Demos and Walkthroughs of Key Features

This session is jam-packed with hands-on demonstrations lighting up SQL Azure with new and existing applications. We start with the steps to creating a SQL Azure account and database, then walk through the tools to connect to it. Then we open Microsoft Visual Studio to connect to Microsoft .NET…

Building Scalable Database Solutions Using Microsoft SQL Azure Database Federations by Cihan Biyikoglu

SQL Azure provides an information platform that you can easily provision, configure and use to power your cloud applications. In this session we explore the patterns and practices that help you develop and deploy applications that can exploit the full power of the elastic, highly available, and…

All the Cloud Computing sessions can be found at: All TechEd 2011 Sessions on Cloud Computing.

Database and BI

Microsoft SQL Server: The Data and BI Platform for Today and Tomorrow by Quentin Clark

Foundational Sessions bridge the general topics outlined in the keynote address and the in-depth coverage in breakout sessions by sharing the company’s vision, strategy and roadmap for particular products and technologies, and are delivered by Microsoft senior executives. Attend this session for a…

A Lap around Microsoft Business Intelligence by Pej Javaheri

Familiar with the database functionality of Microsoft SQL Server or the collaboration functionality of Microsoft SharePoint,but have not had the chance to explore the broad and integrated Business Intelligence capabilities offered by across these products and Microsoft Excel? This session provides…

Performance Tuning and Optimization in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server Code-Named "Denali" by Adam Machanic

Understanding when to search for performance problems and how to tune your queries to correct them is one of the most persistent questions that face DBAs. Join Adam and Mike to explore a methodology for discovering and improving performance problems. Along the way you'll see examples that take…

Creating Self-Service Analytic BI Applications with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 by Peter Myers

SharePoint 2010 is the premier BI portal solution. In this session learn how business users can be empowered to create self-service analytic applications by harnessing the power of SharePoint. Topics cover an introduction to the Chart and Status List Web Parts and the three SharePoint service…

Abundantly "Crescent": Demos Galore by Sean Boon

What is Microsoft project code-named "Crescent" really capable of? How can it address the needs of your business? This session covers a variety of demonstrations against REAL DATA,across various industry verticals,to enable you to see what's possible when deploying this new technology. If you like…

Microsoft SQL Server Code-Named "Denali" AlwaysOn Series,Part 1: Introducing the Next Generation High Availability Solution by Santosh Balasubramanian

In this session we talk about the new high availability solution that is being introduced in SQL Server code-named "Denali". The session provides an overview of AlwaysOn and introduces the key new features and capabilities that will help businesses achieve the high availability SLA for mission…

Microsoft SQL Server Code-Named "Denali" AlwaysOn Series,Part 2: Building a Mission-Critical High Availability Solution Using AlwaysOn by Justin Erickson

In this session we walk you through the steps to deploy a high availability solution using AlwaysOn. This is a demo-heavy presentation and the experts from the product development team walk you through a high availability solution architecture and deployment,explain key architectural concepts and…

All the Database and BI sessions can be found at: All TechEd 2011 Sessions on Database and BI

Other

An Overview of the Microsoft Web Stack by Scott Hanselman

Oh yes. Building web applications on the Microsoft stack continues to evolve. There are lots of great tools to leverage,but it can be difficult to keep up with all the options. In this technical and fast-paced session,learn from Scott Hanselman how the pieces fit together. We look at Microsoft…

A Lap around Microsoft Silverlight 5 by Pete Brown

Come see what’s new and exciting with the Silverlight 5 beta. Learn about features for business application development, visualization and casual gaming. In this demo- and code-focused developer session,we hit the major new features in Silverlight 5,and get you well on your way to being productive…

Four Ways to Leverage the Microsoft Lync 2010 Client APIs in Your Applications by Albert Kooiman

This session walks you through the capabilities of the Lync 2010 client SDK. We demonstrate how easy it is to embed Lync 2010 functionality in your Windows or Microsoft Silverlight application,as well as what possibilities you have to extend and customize the Lync client with your own business…

Moving Your App and Skills from Windows Forms to Microsoft Silverlight (and WPF) by Pete Brown

Let's tackle moving a Windows Forms application to Silverlight. We cover the differences between the platforms and overall approaches,look at what is successful,and then run through an application migration using a data-oriented Windows Forms application. At the end of this session,you'll have seen…

Browse all the sessions from TechEd 2011 at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011

Technorati Tags: Cloud Computing,Windows Azure,SQL Azure,Silverlight

10 Reasons Why Architects and Developers Should Care about Cloud Computing

hanuk_MSFT — Thu, 12 May 2011 05:43:42 GMT

Benefits of cloud computing are often outlined at a great detail as understood by business leaders and IT leaders. However, very little coverage can be found on the benefits that can be related to developers and architects.

Here is an article I wrote on Enterprise Systems Journal on the above subject: http://esj.com/articles/2011/05/10/10-reasons-to-care-about-cloud-computing.aspx.

-Hanu

Technorati Tags: cloud computing,benfits,architects,developers,Windows Azure,Azure

Windows Phone 7 vNext “Mango” Announcements at MIX 11

hanuk_MSFT — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:55:47 GMT

Joe Belfiore announced the Mango features including the following at MIX 11 :

IE9 support leverages HTML5 rendering engine similar to the one on desktop. That means hardware accelerated HTML5 Audio and Video (H264) playback is supported without the need for plug-ins
Application specific Background Agents scheduled by OS in a battery friendly manner. Applications can write their own agents which can be scheduled by OS.
16 additional new languages
Multiple live tiles for each application; you will be able to take a specific aspect of the application and pin it as a tile.
Applications can be submitted from 38 counties during Mango time frame.
User experience enhancements through “search” enabling of installed applications. Useful when you install a lot of applications.
Raw camera feed access to applications
In-memory local SQL database for ease of data intensive applications.

All in all Mango is set to transform Microsoft Windows Phone 7 to be a top player in the smartphone market!

- Hanu

Technorati Tags: Mango,Windows Phone,Windows Phone7,Windows Phone 7,MIX11,MIX 11

Windows Azure Traffic Manager (WATM) CTP announced at MIX 11

hanuk_MSFT — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:49:21 GMT

Microsoft just announced Windows Azure Traffic Manager CTP (Community Technology Preview) during the keynote at MIX 11. The Traffic Manager allows the deployment of the same application to topologically dispersed data centers enabling the distribution of workload between these data centers through round robin, failover and performance based load balancing schemes.

End user traffic will go to the nearest data center based on the network proximity. The Traffic Manager will improve the systemic qualities of the deployment by enhancing application performance, availability, reliability and scalability.

WATM is independent of the Windows Azure CDN infrastructure and is meant for cloud application service delivery while CDN infrastructure is meant for delivering content through edge nodes.

While WATM enables distributed load balanced traffic management, the application is still responsible for reconciling the transactional state data collected at multiple data centers and replication of reference data from the single master source. Replication of the reference data and aggregation of the transactional state can be accomplished through SQL Azure Data Sync service.

-Hanu

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,Cloud Computing,Windows Azure Traffic Manager,hanuk,Windows Azure Platform,distributed web traffic management

Windows Azure CDN for IIS Smooth Streaming

hanuk_MSFT — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:48:52 GMT

At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference today, Microsoft announced IIS Smooth Streaming through Windows Azure CDN (Content Delivery Network) infrastructure. Previously Windows Azure CDN only supported structured and unstructured file content like images, javascript files, static HTML, XML, etc.

IIS Smooth Streaming-encoded video can be uploaded to a Azure Storage account that is CDN-enabled, deliver to variety of players including Silverlight and those on iOS and Android Honeycomb devices without any software development.

Microsoft will release the CTP for the Windows Azure CDN in April 2011.

- Hanu

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure Platform,Windows Azure,Cloud Computing,Windows Azure PaaS,Windows Azure CDN,Windows Azure Content Delivery Network,Smooth Streaming,Cloud Smooth Streaming,Akamai,Limelight

Cloud Deployment Experience from Microsoft IT

hanuk_MSFT — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:55:46 GMT

My colleague Bart Robertson has posted a nice blog about his deployment experiences on Window Azure platform: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bartr/archive/2011/04/05/sxp-one-year-later.aspx.

Agility, Elasticity, Performance, Availability, and cost advantage are a few essential characteristics Bart outlines as the significant benefits of his Azure experiences.

Nice read for decision makers!

-Hanu

Technorati Tags: Cloud,PaaS,Windows Azure,Azure,Benefits of Cloud Computing

Microsoft Product Training Courses all at one Location

hanuk_MSFT — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:32:00 GMT

Finally we have a landing page on MSDN from which you can access all self-paced Microsoft training courses: http://msdn.microsoft.com/trainingcourses.aspx.

Following are the courses listed on the above page:

- Hanu

IE9 Global Release

hanuk_MSFT — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:10:40 GMT

IE9 was available for download globally at www.BeautyOfTheWeb.com at 9PM PST today.

The following are a few aspects of IE9 that will surprise you:

1. IE9 is the fastest adopted beta in IE browser history. With over 40M downloads and a usage share on Windows 7 well over 2% globally, IE9 adoption has more than surpassed expectations.

2. IE9 is enterprise ready. IE9 has the highest LOB compatibility pass rate of any product in MSIT dogfood history – 99% – coupled with one of the lowest IE helpdesk contact rates (number of helpdesk calls/number of installs) to date. And for our customers, IE9 is ready to go with their Windows 7 deployments.

3. IE9 has the fastest JavaScript engine in the industry. Script is one of many factors in performance. On a commonly used micro-benchmark, IE9’s improved JavaScript performance now holds the top spot in the industry, an improvement of almost 18 times from IE8.

4. IE9 is the only fully hardware-accelerated browser. All graphics, video and text in IE9 are hardware-accelerated. We re-architected IE9 to take full advantage of the Windows PC. IE9 was the first to introduce this concept and other browsers have been scrambling to catch-up. See the difference for yourself.

5. IE9 treats your favorite sites like apps. The site is the center of attention in IE9’s new frame. When you pin a site to the taskbar, your experience is even better. Over 250 of the world’s top sites have already taken advantage of Jump Lists, notifications, and thumbnail previews to make their sites more app-like. Web site publishers are seeing close to a 50% increase in engagement from their IE9 customers through pinned sites.

6. IE9 protects against 99% of socially-engineered malware. Malware is the #1 threat on the internet

BuzzNet Tags: IE,IE9,Internet Explorer 9,web browser

today. With Microsoft SmartScreen and the new SmartScreen application reputation feature in IE9, no other browser comes close in protecting consumers from these real-world threats. IE9 is 33 times better than Chrome and over 5 times better than Firefox.

7. IE9 is the only browser with integrated online tracking protection for consumers. Microsoft changed the browser and industry landscape with the introduction of IE9’s Tracking Protection, providing the only built-in browser solution protecting consumers today.

8. IE9 is leading with site-ready HTML5 support. IE9 is all in when it comes to delivering developers new standards-based capabilities with HTML5. Microsoft co-chairs the W3C HTML5 working group and during the IE9 release has contributed almost 6000 test cases to the W3C and international standards bodies. Currently, IE9 has the best conformance with W3C HTML5.

9. IE9 has had the strongest press in IE history: Here is a small sample of what reviewers are saying:

Enjoy your IE9!

-Hanu

Windows Azure Migration Assessment Tool (MAT)

hanuk_MSFT — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:42:49 GMT

I was impressed with the MAT tool that encapsulates all the information one has to be aware of, before attempting the application migration to Windows Azure platform. The tool addresses migration considerations including app server, database, integration, security and instrumentation for .NET as well as non .NET platforms like Java and PHP. After answering a series of simple binary questions, the tool will generate a nice report which hints at the amount of work involved for the current application migration or the architecture considerations for a new application.

The MAT tool runs only on Windows as it is rich client application updated through ClickOnce technology. Initial tool download can be done from: http://matclickonce.blob.core.windows.net/app/publish.htm .

-Hanu

BuzzNet Tags: uscloud,windows azure Platform,migration assessment tool,Azure,Azure Migration Assessment Tool,Cloud Migration,Cloud Application Migration

Designing for Cloud-Optimized Architecture by David Chou

hanuk_MSFT — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:33:58 GMT

A colleague of mine David Chou, who I have great respect for, has written an excellent blog post on cloud-optimized architecture subject:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dachou/archive/2011/01/23/designing-for-cloud-optimized-architecture.aspx.

Good read for architects and decision makers building cloud solutions.

-Hanu

Windows Azure Capacity Assessment

hanuk_MSFT — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:30:00 GMT

Windows Azure being a Platform as a Service (PaaS), abstracts away the OS, storage, networking and shares these massive pools of physical resources across virtual instances of applications running on Azure infrastructure. Windows Azure platform defines and enforces policies so that applications running on virtualized infrastructure will play nicely with each other. Awareness of these resource policies is important for assessing the capacity for successful operations and also for predicting the operational expenses for planning purposes.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is one of the important resources governed tightly so that each service instance will get its fair share of network bandwidth. Each Azure role type gets its share of network bandwidth per the following table:

Azure Role	Bandwidth
XSmall	5 Mbps
Small	100 Mbps
Medium	200 Mbps
Large	400 Mbps
XLarge	800 Mbps

Table 1

Awareness of the above numbers is important for capacity assessment if your application is bandwidth prone. For example, if you need a throughput of 10K requests/sec, with each request with an ingress of 5Kbyte and an egress of 10Kbyte, the bandwidth required is : ((10000 * (5 + 10) * 1024 * 8)/1000000) = 1228 Mbps (Mega bit per second). This can be serviced by 12 Small, 6 Medium, 3 Large or 2 XLarge instances just based on arithmetic.

If the request is network IO bound, with less emphasis on CPU cycles/request, distribution of the workload across multiple small instances will give the benefits of the isolation. If one of the roles gets recycled, it will only take down the fewer requests that are inflight with that role.

CPU

The CPU resource policies are implemented implicitly through the Azure Role types; each role comes with a specific number of CPU cores as shown in the table below:

Azure Role	Guaranteed CPU
XSmall	Shared Core
Small	1 Core
Medium	2 Cores
Large	4 Cores
XLarge	8 Cores

Table 2

Each core is equivalent to a 64bit 1.6 Ghz processor with a single core on the chip. If you have an existing application that maxes 2-proc (2 cores each) you probably need to look at 4 small instances or use other role types base on simple arithmetic.

CPU intensive workloads like fast Fourier transform (FFT), finite element analysis (FEA), and numerous other algorithms that aid simulations may get benefited my the large number of cores. For a typical data intensive application, one could start with a Small role and progressively change the role type to arrive at an optimal Azure role type through testing.

Memory

Each Azure role instance is provisioned with a pre-configured amount of memory as shown in the Table 3. Role instances get their memory allocations based on the role type, from the remaining memory on the physical server, after the Root OS takes its share. If your application is memory bound due to the way application is architected (e.g. extensive use of in-memory cache or huge object graphs due to the nature of the application object model), either the application needs to be rearchitected to leverage Azure capabilities like AppFabric Cache or select the appropriate role type to fit the application’s memory requirements.

Azure Role	Guaranteed Memory
XSmall	0.768 GB
Small	1.750 GB
Medium	3.50 GB
Large	7.00 GB
XLarge	14.0 GB

Table 3

Storage

Table 4 shows the volatile disk storage that will be allocated to each Azure role type. Typical stateless web application may not pay much attention to the local disk but certain stateful applications like full text search engines may store indexes on the local disk for performance reasons. In order for these indexes to survive the role restarts (VM reboot), cleanOnRoleRecycle="false" setting in the service definition will preserve the contents between reboots. If the VM running the role, is relocated to a different physical server due to run time conditions like hardware failure, one has to plan for the reconstruction of the disk contents from a durable storage. Based on the local disk storage needs you may select the appropriate role.

Azure Role	Disk Storage
XSmall	20 GB
Small	220 GB
Medium	490 GB
Large	1000 GB
XLarge	2040 GB

Table 4

Concurrency and Capacity Assessment

Statelessness on the compute tier and minimizing the surface area of the shared resources (e.g. Azure Storage and/or SQL Azure) between requests is the key for building applications that will have near linear scalability on the compute tier. Windows Azure Storage architecture already accommodates for such near linear scalability if the application is architected to leverage this durable storage appropriately. See the article How to get most out of Windows Azure Tables for best practices on scalable usage of Azure Tables.

If the application leverages SQL Azure, and if it is multi-tenant and the tenants are a few enterprise customers, shared databases for reference data and a database instance per each tenant may not be a bad idea from the perspective of minimizing the surface area between tenants. This architecture will help both from the isolation perspective as well as from the scalability perspective. On the other hand if your solution addresses large number of tenants a shared database approach may be needed. This requires careful design of the database. An old article, coauthored by one of my colleagues Gianpaolo Carraro, Multi-Tenant Data Architecture is still valid in this context. Of course, you need to combine the guidance from this article with the Window Azure size limitations to arrive at the architecture that supports the multi-tenancy needs.

Once the shared resources usage is properly architected for high concurrency, Window Azure capability assessment becomes lot easier.

Capacity Assessment

In a traditional setting where hardware needs to be procured before deployment, one has to assess the capacity and also put together plans for acquiring the resources much early in the project lifecycle. Considering the latencies incurred by the typical enterprise procurement process, one has to be extremely diligent in assessing the capacity needs even before the application architecture is completely baked in.

This has to be complimented by the plan to acquire hardware and software which will base its decisions on less than accurate assessment as input. Due to

this, often, the resource requirements will be overestimated to account for the possible errors in the assessment process. Temporal unpredictability of the workloads also adds to the burden of capacity assessment process.

In case of cloud computing, and specifically for Azure, one has to have an eye on the architecture implications of the consumed Azure capacity and the ensuing cost of operations, but doesn’t have to know the accurate picture as in traditional deployments.

Once the system is architected for a scale out model, capacity assessment merely becomes an exercise of doing a baseline analysis of the throughput/per role instance and extrapolate the infrastructure for the target peak throughput. Application throughput needs expressed in terms of bandwidth, CPU, memory and to some lesser extent, local storage will play a big role in the selection of the Azure role type. Even though one could architect for near-linear scalability, the implementation will often result in less than perfect solutions. So, baseline assess the throughput (either requests/sec or concurrent users) across various role types and pick one that is optimal for the application. Also, load test more than one role instance to make sure that near linear scalability can be attained by adding more role instances.

-Hanu

Technorati Tags: uscloud,Azure,cloud computing,PaaS,cloud capacity planning,cloud capacity assessment,Windows Azure,Windows Azure Platform

Windows Azure Storage Pricing

hanuk_MSFT — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:28:43 GMT

When I wrote Windows Azure Platform for Enterprises in MSDN magazine in February 2010, the Azure Storage monthly cost under the header Cost Oriented Architecture for the Cloud was erroneous. This was partly due to the lack of detailed understanding of the Storage pricing at that time. The following paragraph requires correction:

“Windows Azure platform pricing is straightforward with the one exception of storage used by Blobs and Tables. An account’s Windows Azure Storage usage is measured each day during a billing cycle and a daily average is computed. The charge will be computed by multiplying this daily average by $0.15/GB. For example if you store 20GB on day one, add 10GB on day two, add 5GB on day three, and delete 5GB on day four, with no activity during the rest of the billing cycle, the price will be computed as shown below:

((20 +10 + 5 – 5)/30) * 0.15 = $0.15”

Correction 1: For the usage scenario described above during the first month, the table below shows the incremental storage used and the daily averages:

Day #	Incremental Daily Usage	Avg Daily Storage
1	+ 20 GB	20 GB
2	+ 10 GB	30 GB
3	+ 5 GB	35 GB
4	- 5 GB	30 GB
5 - 30	+ 0 GB	30 GB
Total		895 GB

Daily average over the current month (assuming 30 day month) = 895/30 = 29.83 GB.

Storage bill at the end of the month = 29.83 * $0.15 = $4.47/month

Correction 2: The above paragraph hints that Azure Queue pricing strategy is somehow different from Blobs and Tables which is not true. The pricing scheme described in Correction 1 is equally be applicable for Azure Queues.

For more information on Azure Storage pricing at a detailed level can be obtained from this fantastic post from Brad Calder: Understanding Windows Azure Storage Billing – Bandwidth, Transactions, and Capacity

-Hanu

Learn About Cloud Computing Online and Off

hanuk_MSFT — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:01:44 GMT

Our audience team is spinning up our next round of Windows Azure Boot Camps. If you aren't familiar with the Windows Azure Boot Camp format, it has traditionally been a two-day hands-on lab-oriented experience. You bring your laptop, join a Microsoft evangelists or two for a couple of days. We cover everything you need to know about Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and everything in between. But this go-around we're also running a series of webcasts, running weekly from November 29 (yup, I'm late getting another blog post out) through February 14. We're only taking the US holidays off.

Interested in the hands-on experience as well? Not to worry! We're visiting 20 or more cities around the Central US as well. (For those on the East and West Coasts, our colleagues are planning their own Windows Azure events, firestarters, and what not as well; keep an eye on MSDNEvents.com for their upcoming schedules.)

First, Online
Here is the list of our Windows Azure webcasts, past and present.

Introduction to Cloud Computing and Windows Azure – originally aired November 29, 2010
Windows Azure and Web Roles – scheduled for December 6, 2010 at 11am PDT
Worker Roles – scheduled for December 13, 2010 at 11am PDT
Working with Messaging and Queues – scheduled for January 3, 2011 at 11am PDT
Using Windows Azure Tables – scheduled for January 10, 2011 at 11am PDT
Diving into BLOB Storage – scheduled for January 17, 2011 at 11am PDT
Diagnostics and Service Management – scheduled for January 24, 2011 at 11am PDT
SQL Azure – scheduled for January 31, 2011 at 11am PDT
Connecting with AppFabric – scheduled for February 7, 2011 at 11am PDT
Cloud Computing Scenarios – scheduled for February 14, 2011 at 11am PDT

I will also maintain and update the list of these webcasts as they convert from live to on demand on my webcast archive page.

Now, Offline
Finally, here are our planned Windows Azure 2-day Boot Camp events, happening in cities all around Central US.

Cleveland, OH – January 19, 2011 at 8:30am EDT
Austin, TX – January 19, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Waukesha, WI – January 25, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Cincinnati, OH – January 25, 2011 at 8:30am EDT
Chattanooga, TN – February 1, 2011 at 8:30am EDT
Tulsa, OK – February 8, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Columbus, OH – February 8, 2011 at 8:30am EDT
Grand Rapids, MI – February 15, 2011 at 8:30am EDT
Dallas, TX – February 16, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Little Rock, AR – February 23, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Chicago, IL – February 23, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Minneapolis, MN – March 9, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Indianapolis, IN – March 9, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Houston, TX – March 16, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Memphis, TN – March 23, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Overland Park, KS – March 30, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Nashville, TN – April 6, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Southfield, MI – April 13, 2011 at 8:30am EDT
Downers Grove, IL – April 20, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Des Moines, IA – April 26, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
St. Louis, MO – May 4, 2011 at 8:30am CDT
Bloomington, MN – May 9, 2011 at 8:30am CDT

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure

-Hanu