DavidAiken
Windows Azure Development
Windows Azure Platform Training Kit – June Update
Jun 7th
I’m pleased to announce the June update for the Windows Azure Platform training kit.
You can download it from here.
The training kit has everything you need to get started and then dig deep on the Windows Azure platform, including Windows Azure, SQL Azure, “Dallas”, Identity and the Windows Azure Platform AppFabric.
We have some minor updates to the training presentations and some new & updated hands on labs since the December release.
If you have used this content as a base for your own PLEASE take a look at the updated decks. I still see content from POST-PDC 09 that is now technically wrong.
Here is what is new in the kit:
- Introduction to Windows Azure – VS2010 version
- Intro To SQL Azure – VS2010 version
- Intro Service Bus – VS2010 version
- Intro To Dallas – VS2010 version
- Intro Access Control Service – VS2010 version
- Web Services and Identity in the Cloud
- Exploring Windows Azure Storage
- VS2010 version
- + new Exercise: “Working with Drives”
- Windows Azure Deployment
- VS2010 version
- + new Exercise: “Securing Windows Azure with SSL”
- Minor fixes to presentations – mainly timelines, pricing, new features etc.
We are currently working on updating the presentations and demos in the training kit. These will form the basis of a new 3 day course which digs much deeper into the platform – watch out for this update during July.
If you have any ideas on how we should improve the kit, please drop me an email. My email address is my firstname.lastname at microsoft.com.
Thanks
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Security Best Practices for Developing Windows Azure Applications
Jun 2nd
Update (June 4th): There are a few errors in the guide which are being fixed by the authors. I’ll update this post again once they are fixed.
This is worth a read <link removed>
This paper focuses on the security challenges and recommended approaches to design and develop more secure applications for Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform. Microsoft Security Engineering Center (MSEC) and Microsoft’s Online Services Security & Compliance (OSSC) team have partnered with the Windows Azure team to build on the same security principles and processes that Microsoft has developed through years of experience managing security risks in traditional development and operating environments.
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Remember to update your DiagnosticsConnectionString before deploying
May 28th
In the ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file, you have a DiagnosticsConnectionString which as a default is linked to local storage.
<Setting name="DiagnosticsConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" />
When you deploy your package it will never start correctly (stuck in Busy/Initializing), because you could will be trying to log to the local storage, which doesn’t exist in the cloud.
Fixing this is easy:
- Create a storage account if you don’t already have one.
- In Visual Studio, bring up the properties of your project, then click settings.
- Click on the … next to the DiagnosticsConnectionString.
- Enter your storage details in the dialog.
- Save then deploy.
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address is not the same as Address
May 4th
When using Windows Azure table storage – keep in mind the property names are case sensitive!
Yesterday one of our developers was working on refactoring some code. As is standard practice, they changed the class properties on the table storage entity classes from a lower case address to an upper case Address. This worked fine in the developer fabric, but when we pushed to the cloud the app broke. Upon investigation it turned out each entity now had an address property as well as the new Address property.
Easy fix, we changed everything back to lower case.
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Windows Azure Firestarter on Channel 9
Apr 22nd
A few weeks back there was a Windows Azure Firestarter event in Redmond, which I had the pleasure of speaking at. If you are after a short look at the platform, then this is a great place to start, with speakers such as Brad Calder and David Robinson. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the lap around Steve Marx did is actually available yet, but I’ll update this post when it is.
The videos are now available for consumption on Channel 9. You can watch or click to the videos below.
Windows Azure FireStarter- Windows Azure Storage with Brad Calder
Windows Azure FireStarter- SQL Azure with David Robinson
Windows Azure FireStarter- Bui…for the Cloud with David Aiken
Windows Azure FireStarter- Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Mark Kottke
Windows Azure FireStarter- Panel Q&A
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