If you attended the Black Marble Architecture Event yesterday you would have seen a number of talks around Azure and the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit was mentioned a number of times.
The latest update to the training kit is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=8396
This update includes the changes for the Azure 1.6 SDK plus updates and new demos.
The training kit is a free resource that provides a good introduction to Azure and covers a large amount including Windows Azure, SQL Azure, AppFabric (Service Bus, Caching, Access Control) plus a load of other stuff.
AppFabric
Microsoft have announced two new Azure AppFabric CTPs.
May 2011 CTP will include Service bus enhancements including
- A more comprehensive pub/sub messaging
- Integration with the Access Control Service V2
- Queues based upon a new messaging infrastructure backed by a replicated, durable store.
See here for more details.
June 2011 CTP will include tooling to help with building, deploying and managing Windows Azure Applications including:
- AppFabric Developer Tools
- AppFabric Application Manager
- Composition Model
See here for more details
SQL Azure
The SQL May 2011 update contains the following:
- SQL Azure Management REST API – a web API for managing SQL Azure servers.
- Multiple servers per subscription – create multiple SQL Azure servers per subscription.
- JDBC Driver – updated database driver for Java applications to access SQL Server and SQL Azure.
- DAC Framework 1.1 – making it easier to deploy databases and in-place upgrades on SQL Azure.
See here for more details
When deploying an Access Control Service enabled web application from my development environment to Windows Azure I got the following error:
“Unable to find assembly ‘Microsoft.IdentityModel, Version=3.5.0.0. . .”
This had worked well when running in the development fabric on my machine so it was strange that it failed when deployed to Windows Azure. The reason why this file cannot be found is because on my machine it is installed in the GAC and it is not in the GAC when deployed in Azure. There is a simple way to fix this and it is by configuring a Start-up task in your ServiceDefinition.csdef file to install the Microsoft.IdentityModel assembly in the GAC. When a new instance is created within Windows Azure the start up task will be run to allow things to be installed into the virtual machine prior to running your application.
Steve Marx has written an introduction to Start-up tasks as well as a Tips, Tricks and Gotchas list.
This post explains how to create a Start-up task to add an assembly to the GAC.
I’ve been developing a web application that adds rules to the access control service when a user registers with my website. This was working well using the ACS in AppFabricLabs. When I ported across to ACS V2 in the live environment I kept getting an exception thrown whenever I tried to retrieve information via the management service api.
The exception details are
The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request.
Status = protocol error
After investigation by looking at the latest ACS code samples on MSDN I noticed that the protocol has actually changed in the Common assembly ManagementServiceHelper.cs class. Comparing the code and copying the changes across to mine fixed the problems.
I also noticed that today that AppfabricLabs was updated last night and now uses the same protocol as V2 Live so you will need to make these changes anyway.
If you are an MSDN subscriber (Ultimate or Premium) you now get more Windows Azure resources. Professional subscribers are now also included in the promotion.
See here for more details. If you have already taken up this offer and you are an MSDN Premium subscriber then you will automatically be upgraded to the MSDN Ultimate offer.
In order to activate your benefits
Sign-in to your MSDN benefits page Click on the Windows Azure Platform link from My Account and follow the steps to activate Windows Azure (for limited free access). You'll need your credit card or follow the Steps to set up invoicing for Windows Azure to sign up. If you use more than the amount of services included with your MSDN subscription, you will be billed to your card for these overages. You can visit the Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal to look up your usage at any time. Go to the Windows Azure Developer Portal to access your Windows Azure subscription
Thanks for attending the Azure Jumpstart and Accelerator events in Dublin and Belfast (also the Galway Live Meeting).
Here are the list of links from my presentations:
Azure HOL (August labs = VS2008, November Labs = VS2010)
http://bit.ly/d16e3M (Update: 7 Jan 2011 : Looks like this link does not give the 2008 option any more)
Also include the December update for Azure SDK 1.3 for VS2010 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=413E88F8-5966-4A83-B309-53B7B77EDF78&displaylang=en#RelatedResources)
Shared Access signatures
http://blog.smarx.com/posts/shared-access-signatures-are-easy-these-days
CNAME mappings to CDN URLs
http://blog.smarx.com/posts/using-the-new-windows-azure-cdn-with-a-custom-domain
Adaptive Streaming can be made to work with the CDN too
http://blog.smarx.com/posts/smooth-streaming-with-windows-azure-blobs-and-cdn
Ticket Direct Case study
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000005890
MSDN offers
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/offers/default.aspx
Patterns Azure Guidance
http://wag.codeplex.com/
Windows Azure AppFabric Labs (to see the latest changes to App Fabric)
https://portal.appfabriclabs.com/