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A New Community Protocol and Token Format Supported by the Access Control Service

The November 2009 CTP release of the Access Control Service includes support for a new community protocol and token format. Their names are Web Resource Authorization Protocol (WRAP) and Simple Web Tokens (SWT). See here for specifications, community discussion, and more information.

 

 

 

Scheduled Maintenance Notification - .NET Services and Portal (Nov 5th, 2009) -- COMPLETE

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance


The .NET Services (ServiceBus and Access Control Service) planned maintenance is complete. Some service namespaces may be in the activating state and will automatically get activated shortly. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

 

The new portal URL is: https://netservices.azure.com/

Microsoft .NET Services November 2009 CTP Release Announcement

The .NET Services Team is excited to announce the release of .NET Services November 2009 CTP.  This release focuses on the portal user experience improvement, services performance, and execution on the Access Control Service and Service Bus roadmaps announced in September, 2009. 

Next Steps

1.       Download and install the .NET Services SDK

2.       Read the .NET Services November 2009 CTP release notes  carefully for any breaking changes and known issues

3.       Visit the .NET Services Developer Center to access .NET Services forum, videos, blogs, documentations and more

The .NET Services Team

Scheduled Maintenance Notification - .NET Services and Portal (Nov 5th, 2009) -- EXTENDED

Scheduled Maintenance Notification - .NET Services and Portal (Nov 5th, 2009) -- EXTENDED

Because of unforeseen deployment issues our scheduled maintenance has been extended. We expect our service to be available for use at 3PM PST. We apologize for the inconvenience.

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance


The .NET Services (ServiceBus and Access Control Service) will be undergoing planned maintenance on November 5th, 2009, starting at 9AM PST, and ending at 12PM PST due to a major software upgrade. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

 

When:

    START: November 5th, 2009, 9AM PST

    END:  November 5th, 2009, 12PM PST

 

Impact Alert:

.NET Services and the .NET Services Portal will be unavailable during this period.

 

Thank You,

The .NET Services Team

The .NET Services November 2009 CTP Breaking Changes Announcement and Scheduled Maintenance

The .NET Services Team is going to release the November 2009 CTP on 11/5/2009 (Thursday).  Users will have NO access to .NET Services Portal and .NET Services during the scheduled maintenance down time.

When:

    START: November 5th, 2009, 9AM PST

    END:  November 5th, 2009, 12PM PST

Impact Alert:

    Service Bus, Access Control Service and the .NET Services Portal will be unavailable during this period.

Please read the following detail to prepare your applications for this CTP release:

.NET Services Project

.NET Services Portal address

Description

.NET Services Portal URL is changed

Pre-Release Behavior

.NET Services Portal can be accessed at http://portal.ex.azure.microsoft.com

Post-Release Behavior

.NET Services Portal can be accessed at https://netservices.azure.com

Subscription migration

Description

Exiting Subscription name in the July 2009 CTP will be automatically migrated as Project name in the November 2009 CTP

Pre-Release Behavior

“Azure CTP Project” is the default value for the existing Subscription

Post-Release Behavior

“Azure CTP Project” is the default value for the existing Project.  Users can assign arbitrary names to newly created projects in the November 2009 CTP

Solution migration

Description

Solutions in the July 2009 CTP will be automatically migrated as Service Namespaces in the November 2009 CTP

Pre-Release Behavior

Solution is the basic entity of a Subscription

Post-Release Behavior

Service Namespace is the basic entity of a Project

Solution region migration

Description

Existing solutions might be migrated to different sub-regions within the United States

Pre-Release Behavior

Solutions are located in a sub-region within the United States

Post-Release Behavior

Existing Service Namespaces will be automatically migrated and reassigned to North Central or South sub-region within the United States. 

Service Bus

Queues changes

Description

The Service Bus Queues feature has been changed due to customer feedback and is renamed to “Message Buffer” in order to better reflect the associated capabilities.  Message Buffers will be introduced with temporary caching functionality in the November 2009 CTP and the long term goal of providing comparable functionality to queues.

Pre-Release Behavior

Queues provide persistent message storage.   Microsoft.ServicesBus.dll provides APIs such as QueueClient, QueueManagementClient, QueuePolicy for interaction with Queues

Post-Release Behavior

Message Buffers provide message caching.  Queues related APIs will be removed from Microsoft.ServicesBus.dll.  MessageBufferClient APIs will be provided in Microsoft.ServicesBus.dll for interaction with the new Message Buffers

Recommended Post-Release Action

References to Queues should be removed from applications.  For some applications, Message Buffers may be substituted for Queues.  Where durability requirements exist, solutions employing Azure storage features may be preferred.

Routers removal

Description

Service Bus Routers feature will be removed.  A November 2009 CTP sample will be provided to demonstrate how to implement an ‘anycast’ message distribution model similar to the Router’s respective capability

Pre-Release Behavior

Routers push messages to a subscription list.    Microsoft.ServicesBus.dll provides APIs such as RouterClient, RouterManagementClient, RouterPolicy etc… for interaction with Routers

Post-Release Behavior

Routers functionality as well as related Microsoft.ServiceBus.Router APIs are removed

Recommended Post-Release Action

Router API calls should be removed from applications.  For some applications, the approach suggested in the LoadBalance sample may provide sufficient message routing functionality.  Other approaches are possible but are likely to require more client code.

RelayBinding Security Default

Description

All RelayBindings are secured by default in the November 2009 CTP

Pre-Release Behavior

Some RelayBindings have RelaySecurity.Mode set to EndToEndSecurityMode.None

Post-Release Behavior

All RelayBindings have RelaySecurity.Mode set to EndToEndSecurityMode.Transport which is secured by default

Recommended Post-Release Action

User code using any RelayBinding should be updated to use HTTPS transport in service and endpoint addresses.  As an alternative, the RelayBinding RelaySeucirty.Mode can be set to EndToEndSecurityMode.None.  Note that setting EndToEndSecurityMode.None allows message contents to travel in clear text, considered a security risk for many applications

Service Namespace replaces Solution name

Description

Solution name is replaced as Service Namespace in the November 2009 CTP

Pre-Release Behavior

Solution is the basic naming for a .NET Services solution i.e.  http://<solution>.servicebus.windows.net

Post-Release Behavior

Service Namespace is the basic naming for a .NET Services application i.e.

http://<service_namespace>.servicebus.

windows.net

TransportClientCredentialType update

Description

TransportClientCredentialType such as AutomaticRenewal, CardSpace, ClientCertificate, FederationViaCardSpace and UserName will be removed in the November 2009 CTP release.  They will be replaced by credential types that are supported by the new Access Control Service

Pre-Release Behavior

Service Bus authentication type includes CardSpace, X509Certificate, FederationViaCardSpace and UserNamePassword and are reflected in TransportClientCredentialType

Post-Release Behavior

Service Bus authenticated type includes SharedSecret, Simple Web Tokens and Saml which are reflected in TransportClientCredentialType

Recommended  Post-Release Action

User code using TransportClientCredentialType in the July 2009 CTP should be updated to use the authentication types employed in the November 2009 CTP..  Sample code will be provided in the November 2009 CTP SDK to illustrate how to use the new authentication type

EndToEndWebHttpSecurityMode.

TransportCredentialOnly is removed

Description

EndToEndWebHttpSecurityMode.

TransportCredentialOnly is removed

Pre-Release Behavior

EndToEndWebHttpSecurityMode.

TransportCredentialOnly option exists

Post-Release Behavior

EndToEndWebHttpSecurityMode.

TransportCredentialOnly option is removed as it is not supported

Recommended  Post-Release Action

User code using EndToEndWebHttpSecurityMode.

TransportCredentialOnly should use EndToEndWebHttpSecurityMode.Transport instead

HttpBufferClient is not public

Description

Microsoft.ServiceBus.HttpBufferClient is removed from public APIs

Pre-Release Behavior

Microsoft.ServiceBus.HttpBufferClient is public

Post-Release Behavior

Microsoft.ServiceBus.HttpBufferClient is no longer public

Recommended  Post-Release Action

User code using HttpBufferClient may be replaced by MessageBufferClient

TcpRelayConnectionMode.Direct is removed

Description

Microsoft.ServiceBus.

TcpRelayConnectionMode.Direct is removed

Pre-Release Behavior

Microsoft.ServiceBus.

TcpRelayConnectionMode.Direct exists

Post-Release Behavior

Microsoft.ServiceBus.

TcpRelayConnectionMode.Direct is not supported; Direct Connection is supported in Hybrid mode only.

Recommended  Post-Release Action

User code using TcpRelayConnectionMode.Direct may be replaced by TcpRelayConnectionMode.Relayed or TcpRelayConnectionMode.Hybrid

Service publishing feed address aligns with service transport

Description

Service publishing feed address aligns with service transport

Pre-Release Behavior

Service publishing feed address used HTTP transport i.e. http://<mysolution>.servicebus.windows.net/

<mycalculatorservice> regardless of the transport being used in the service i.e. service is accessed at “sb://<mysolution>.servicebus.windows.net/

<mycalculatorservice>” when NetTcpRelayBinding is used

Post-Release Behavior

Service publishing feed address is now aligned with the service transport i.e. the feed will be accessed at “sb://<mysolution>.servicebus.windows.net/

<mycalculatorservice>” when service is accessed at “sb://<mysolution>.servicebus.windows.net/

<mycalculatorservice>”

Recommended  Post-Release Action

User code referencing service publishing feed address may be updated with matching service transport

WSHttpRelayBinding is removed

Description

WSHttpRelayBinding is no longer supported

Pre-Release Behavior

WSHttpRelayBinding is supported

Post-Release Behavior

WSHttpRelayBinding is no longer supported

Recommended  Post-Release Action

User code using WSHttpRelayBinding should be changed to use another supported binding such as WS2007HttpRelayBinding or user-constructed custom binding

WS2007FederationHttpRelayBinding is removed

Description

WS2007FederationHttpRelayBinding is no longer supported

Pre-Release Behavior

WS2007FederationHttpRelayBinding is supported

Post-Release Behavior

WS2007FederationHttpRelayBinding is no longer supported

Recommended  Post-Release Action

User code using WS2007FederationHttpRelayBinding should be changed to use another supported binding such as WS2007HttpRelayBinding  or user-constructed custom binding

Access Control Service

Solution credentials replaced with Issuer credentials

Description

Windows Cardspace, Certificates, Username/Password credentials are replaced with Issuer credentials (Issuer Name and Issuer Key) to request tokens from the Access Control Service STS

Pre-Release Behavior

Windows Cardspace, Certificates, Username/Password are supported credentials for requesting tokens from the Access Control Service STS, including tokens to authorize access to Service Bus endpoints

Post-Release Behavior

Requesting a token from the Access Control Service STS requires an Issuer credential which is consisted of an Issuer Name and an Issuer Key.  A 32 byte random base-64 encoded string should also be provided in the token request.  For Shared Secret and Simple Web Token requests, the Issuer must be configured in Access Control Service.  In addition, X509 certificate for SAML requests must be uploaded to Access Control Service

Recommended  Post-Release Action

Applications that previously used solution credentials should be ported to use Issuer credentials.

WS-Trust STS replaced with Web Resource Authorization Protocol (WRAP) STS

Description

The WS-Trust and WS-Federation STS endpoints have been replaced with a REST-based STS that accepts REST token requests

Pre-Release Behavior

Access Control Service STS accepted SWS-* security token requests

Post-Release Behavior

Access Control Service STS is now REST-based

Recommended  Post-Release Action

Application using the WS-Trust or WS-Federation capability of Access Control Service should be ported to use the new REST-based protocol and format

Access Control Service data will not be migrated

Description

All Access Control Service data such as scope, rules, certificate, Username and password, Windows Cardspace will not be migrated to the new release

Pre-Release Behavior

Access Control Service data can be accessed through public APIs or .NET Service Portal

Post-Release Behavior

Access Control Service data will not be migrated and will not be available for access through public APIs or .NET Services Portal.  Note that the Service Bus scope and rules will not be migrated either.

Recommended  Pre-Release Action

To facilitate post release configuration, you may choose to save a copy of existing data through Access Control management interface.  To learn more on how to obtain Access Control data through management interface, see the ACS Management AtomClient sample from the .NET Service July 2009 CTP SDK

Recommended  Post-Release Action

You will need to recreate Access Control Service data i.e. scope, rules etc… in order to restore your application using Service Bus or Access Control Service. 

Access Control Management Portal replaced with a SDK Command-line Tool (acm.exe)

Description

The Access Control Management Portal will be removed from the November 2009 CTP .NET Services Portal

Pre-Release Behavior

Users can manage Access Control Service objects (scopes, token policies, issuers and rules) through web user interface at the .NET Services Portal

Post-Release Behavior

A command line tool (acm.exe) will be available in the November 2009 CTP SDK for users to manage Access Control Service objects.  The .NET Services Portal will contain the Management Key which will be used to authenticate calls from the tool

 

 

 

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance (October 29th, 2009) - COMPLETE

Update: The scheduled maintenance is complete. The management portal and account provisioning are currently functional. Apologies for the inconvenience.

 

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance (October 29th, 2009)


When:

Start:  10:00hrs PDT, October 29th, 2009
End:  18:00hrs PDT, October 29th, 2009

 

What:

Maintenance on the storage layer of the Provisioning Service.

 

Impact Alert:

Customers will be unable to login to the .NET Services Portal to provision new accounts or perform Access Control management operations.

 

 

Thank You,

The .NET Services Team

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance (September 8th, 2009) - COMPLETE

 

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance (September 8th, 2009) - COMPLETE


When:

Start:  08:00hrs PDT, September 8th, 2009
End:  14:00hrs PDT, September 8th, 2009

 

What:

Routine maintenance on the storage layer of the Access Control Service.

 

Impact Alert:

Customers can expect intermittent timeouts on Access Control operations during this maintenance window. This will also impact ServiceBus and Portal.

 

 

Thank You,

The .NET Services Team

 

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance (7/7) -- COMPLETE

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance -- COMPLETE


The .NET Services and .NET Services Portal (including account provisioning) planned maintenance due to a major software upgrade is now complete and all services are back online.

We apologize again for the inconvenience.

Thank You,
.NET Services Team

 

Microsoft .NET Services July 2009 CTP Release Announcement

The .NET Services Team is excited to announce the release of the .NET Services July 2009 CTP.  This release focuses on improving platform support, the get started developer experience as well as services reliability. 

 

The .NET Services July 2009 CTP New Features

1.      The .NET Services now support Windows 7 RC in addition to Windows 2008, Windows 2008 R2 and Windows Vista.  The .NET Services SDK can be installed on machines running Windows 7 RC.

2.      There are multiple improvements with the get started developer experience:  A one click integrated installer for both the .NET Services SDK and Client Redistributable.  The .NET Services SDK installer now also supports incremental upgrades.

 

Next Steps

1.      Download and Install the .NET Services SDK

2.      Read the .NET Services July 2009 CTP release notes carefully for any breaking changes and known issues

3.      Visit the .NET Services Developer Center to access .NET Services forums, videos, blogs, documentations and more

 

The .NET Services Team

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance 7/7 -- STARTING

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance -- STARTING


The .NET Services and .NET Services Portal (including account provisioning) planned maintenance due to a major software upgrade is starting now.

 

When:

    START: July 7th, 2009, 9AM PST

    END:  July 7th, 2009, 3PM PST

 

Impact Alert:

.NET Services and the .NET Services Portal will be unavailable during this period.

 

Thank You,

The .NET Services Team

.NET Services July 2009 CTP Breaking Changes Announcement and Scheduled Maintenance

The .NET Services Team is going to release the July 2009 CTP on 7/7/2009 (Tuesday).  Users will have NO access to .NET Services Portal and .NET Services during the scheduled maintenance down time.

 

Scheduled Maintenance Down Time:

START: July 7, 2009, 9am PST

END: July 7, 2009, 3pm PST

 

Action Required:

Queues and Routers data will NOT be persisted and restored after the maintenance.  Users will need to back up their data if they wish to restore them after the July 2009 CTP release. Please see below for detail.

 

As previously announced, the existing Workflow Service will be removed from .NET Services in the July 2009 CTP release.  Any solutions that currently rely on the Workflow Services will have to be modified on or before 7/7/2009 9am PST in order to continue functioning smoothly.   Existing solution Workflow Service metadata such as Workflow Type will also be deleted and cannot be retrieved after the July 2009 CTP release. 

 

Impact Alert:

.NET Services and the .NET Services Portal will be unavailable during this period.

 

 

Please read the following detail to prepare your applications for this scheduled maintenance:

 

.NET Service Bus

Queues

 

Description

Queues and Routers data will NOT be persisted and restored after the scheduled maintenance.  

Pre-Release Behavior

n/a

Post-Release Behavior

n/a

Recommended Pre-Release Action

Queues and Routers will NOT be persisted and restored after the scheduled maintenance.  It is highly recommended for users to back up data locally from running Queues prior to 7/7/2009 9am PST. Please see our .NET Services SDK samples such as SimpleMessagesQueueSample consumer on how to retrieve messages from Queues.

Recommended Post-Release Action

Users will need to restart their applications after the scheduled maintenance. Queues and Routers will need to be re-created.

 

If users have back up pre-release Queue data, users can load back-up data to new Queues based on the SimpleMessagesQueueSample sender in the .NET Services SDK.

 

.NET Workflow Service

Workflow Service

 

Description

.NET Workflow Service will be removed after the scheduled maintenance. 

Pre-Release Behavior

n/a

Post-Release Behavior

n/a

Recommended Pre-Release Action

Users will need to modify any solutions that rely on Workflow Service on or before 7/7/2009 9am PST. 

 

Users may choose to save any Workflow Service metadata locally on or before 7/7/2009 9am PST.  Workflow Service metadata in the cloud will not be available after the scheduled maintenance.

Recommended Post-Release Action

n/a

 

 

The .NET Services Team

 

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance - COMPLETE

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance  -  COMPLETE


When:

Start:  12:00hrs PST, June 18th, 2009

End:    17:00hrs PST, June 18th, 2009

 

Impact Alert:

The QFE for Service Bus has been successfully applied. The service is now fully functional. A re-creation of Queues and Routers will not be required.

  

 

Thank You,

The .NET Services Team

 

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance - STARTING

.NET Services Scheduled Maintenance  -  STARTING


When:

Start:  12:00hrs PST, June 18th, 2009

End:    17:00hrs PST, June 18th, 2009

 

Impact Alert:

You may experience intermittent failures when using the Service Bus.

 

 

Thank You,

The .NET Services Team

.NET Services June 18th 2009 QFE Pre-Announcement and Scheduled Maintenance

[This is a preliminary announcement; final announcement content is subject to change]

 

.NET Services Team is going to release June 2009 QFE on 6/18/2009 (Thursday).  Users will have NO access to .NET Services Portal and .NET Services during the scheduled maintenance down time from 6/18/2009 noon to 6/18/2009 5pm. 

 

Scheduled Maintenance Down Time:

START: June 18, 2009, Noon PST

END: June 18, 2009, 5pm PST

 

Action Required:
Queues and Routers data will NOT be persisted and restored after the maintenance.  Users will need to back up their data if they wish to restore them after the QFE release.  Please see below for detail.

 

Impact Alert:

.NET Services and the .NET Services Portal will be unavailable during this period.

 

 

Please read the following detail to prepare your applications for this scheduled maintenance:

 

.NET Service Bus

Queues

 

Description

Service Bus Queues do not honor "X-HTTP-METHOD-OVERRIDE" header which can be used to signal RetrieveMessage operation in REST client It is not possible to retrieve message (read and delete) from a Service Bus Queue or Router through a REST client such as Silverlight

Pre-QFE Release Behavior

It is not possible to retrieve message (read and delete) from a Service Bus Queue through REST client such as Silverlight

Post-QFE Release Behavior

Service Bus Queues now honor "X-HTTP-METHOD-OVERRIDE" header with value "DELETE" such that retrieving message through REST client is possible.  The following code snippet demonstrates how RetrieveMessage operation can be done through REST client.

 

HttpWebRequest dequeueRequest =                     

  HttpWebRequest.Create(queueHeadUri.

    AbsoluteUri+

    "?encoding=asreply&maxmessages=1&

    timeout=60")

    as HttpWebRequest;

 

dequeueRequest.ConnectionGroupName =

  "dequeue";

 

dequeueRequest.Method = "POST";

dequeueRequest.ContentLength = 0;

 

dequeueRequest.Headers.Add("X-MS- 

  Identity-Token", token);

 

dequeueRequest.Headers.Add("X-HTTP-

  METHOD-OVERRIDE", "DELETE");

Recommended Pre-Release Action

Queues and Routers will NOT be persisted and restored after the scheduled maintenance.  It is highly recommended for users to back up data locally from running Queues prior to 6/18/2009 noon.  Please see our .NET Services SDK samples such as SimpleMessagesQueueSample consumer on how to retrieve messages from Queues.

Recommended Post-Release Action

Users will need to restart their applications after the scheduled maintenance.  Queues and Routers will need to be re-created.

 

If users have back up pre-release Queue data, users can load back-up data to new Queues based on the SimpleMessagesQueueSample sender in the .NET Services SDK.

 

 

 

.NET Services Team

 

Upcoming Important Changes to Microsoft .NET Workflow Service

The team is excitedly preparing the next milestone of the Microsoft .NET Services Community Technology Preview (CTP). Once the .NET Services CTP becomes available, we’ll post the details via this blog, including a download link.

 

The next release of the .NET Services CTP will be the sixth version released since the initial CTP became public last year. The rapid iterative development cycle required for cloud offerings is driving an equally interesting and rapidly iterating feedback loop with customers and partners. Keep sending us your feedback!

 

Incorporating community feedback is the cornerstone of each and every development milestone. Talking to current and potential CTP users, listening to the community’s needs, and responding accordingly is essential to delivering .NET Services in a way that “just works” to address your business and development needs.

 

An area of consistent discussion is the Microsoft .NET Workflow Service delivered via .NET Services, and how it relates to the Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) in the .NET Framework. One of the comments that we’ve consistently heard about the .NET Workflow Service is that you want the Workflow Service to be built on .NET Framework 4‘s workflow engine. This is currently not the case, since we are prior to the release date of .NET Framework 4.

 

As the direct result of user feedback, we will hold off further releases of the Workflow Service until after .NET Framework 4 ships. Since there will be important changes to the Workflow Service before it goes to full production, we are planning to take down the existing Workflow Service as part of service improvements in the month of July. This means any solutions that currently rely on the Workflow Service will have to be modified on or before July 1 in order to continue functioning smoothly.

 

We understand this decision will cause disruption, yet we’ve consistently heard from customers “it is the right move” to ultimately deliver a better product and a better experience. The sixth iteration of Microsoft’s .NET Services will still include the Microsoft .NET Access Control Service and the Microsoft .NET Service Bus. The team will continue to deliver a number of requested improvements that make .NET Services more reliable, secure, and robust. Details will follow in due course.

 

Please be sure to check back frequently for updates and visit our forum if you have any questions.

 

.NET Services Team

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