The Cloud Pilot

Windows Azure Virtual Networks now supports Software VPN devices

Guillermo Morales — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:01:58 GMT

The Windows Azure team announced last friday new capabilities for cross-premises connectivity between Windows Azure and your on-premises, including the support of software VPN devices to create Site-to-Site VPN connections. With this new capabilitiy now you can use a plain Windows Server 2012 with RRAS (Routing and Remote Access) enabled to create the VPN connection with your Windows Azure Virtual Network instead of use a hardware VPN device (you can also use a hardware VPN device is you prefer it).

Image: Simple Cross-premises connectivity using software VPN device.

Please refer to the Windows Azure documentation site to learn more about Windows Azure Virtual Networks and to the Windows Azure Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with Windows Azure. Follow our Twitter account @TheCloudPilot to be update.

Guillermo.

Windows Azure Infrastructure Services General Availability

Guillermo Morales — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:13:45 GMT

Source: cloudswave.com via Victor on Pinterest

Everyone here at Microsoft are proud and excited with the announce of the Windows Azure Infrastructure Services General Availability, and maybe you are asking yourself ¿what is it Windows Azure Infrastructure Services?, well Infrastructure Services is the name of the Windows Azure services set of Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks services, the same Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks that you have tested previously with the Preview phase, but adding a new set of high memory VM instances to run memory intensive workloads, the SLAs and price reductions on Virtual Machines and Cloud Services.

Now, this open an entire new set of options and opportunities to you, now you can extend you datacenter to the cloud using Azure Virtual Networks and deploy new services in minutes with Azure Virtual Machines creating hybrid scenarios (ex. to use Azure Infrastructure Services to deploy your ADFS infrastructure to enable federation services for your cloud applications, O365 and more); you can deploy Virtual Machines to extend your apps deployed on Platform as a Service (Web Roles and Worker Roles), you can manage your Virtual Machines with System Center App Controller, you can monitor your Virtual Machines with System Center Operations Manager; the possibilities are huge and the flexibility for your organization is amazing.

Maybe now, if you are planning a new infrastructure deployment, you are thinking if it is a good idea try to deploy that infrastructure or part of that infrastructure on Azure Infrastructure Services, and I recommend you that take a minute to think about it, analyze it, consult it with you team, partner, Microsoft Consulting Services contact, Microsoft contact or with your Technical advisor to compare pros and cons and try it.

New Azure Virtual Machines Intensive Memory Instances

Guillermo Morales — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:35:30 GMT

The new Windows Azure Virtual Machines Intensive Memory Instances are available now at windowsazure.com and in four flavors (plain Windows, plain Linux, with Microsoft SQL Server or with Microsoft BizTalk server), to do with them wichever you need…. This new intensive memory instances are a key piece in your infrastructure on Azure to enable you to run complex and memory intensive workloads (Sharepoints, DBs, etc…).

MMS 2013 Sessions on demand

Guillermo Morales — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:47:15 GMT

The Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2013 is the place where you meet the most skilled IT professionals around Microsoft Infrastructures. There are great sessions lead by experts in desktop, device management, datacenter and cloud technologies, but what happend if you are not in La Vegas for this event?. Well, no problem you can follow the sessions at the offical Channel 9 channel for MMS2013, so won’t miss any session and enjoy it.

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 Beta is available

Guillermo Morales — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:49:32 GMT

The System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 Beta is available for download, this SP1 add compatibility with Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, enhancements to support Windows Azure Virtual Machine and capabilities for Hosted Service Providers. the list of updates and enhancements is:

Virtual Machine Manager
- Improved Support for Network Virtualization
- Extend the VMM console with Add-ins
- Support for Windows Standards-Based Storage Management Service, thin provisioning of logical units and discovery of SAS storage
- Ability to convert VHD to VHDX, use VHDX as base Operating System image
Configuration Manager
- Deployment and management of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
- Distribution point for Windows Azure to help reduce infrastructure costs
- Automation of administrative tasks through PowerShell support
- Management of Mac OS X clients and Linux and UNIX servers
- Real-time administrative actions for Endpoint Protection related tasks
Data Protection Manager
- Improved backup performance of Hyper-V over CSV 2.0
- Protection for Hyper-V over remote SMB share
- Protection for Windows Server 2012 de-duplicated volumes
- Uninterrupted protection for VM live migration
App Controller
- Service Provider Foundation API to create and operate Virtual Machines
- Support for Azure VM; migrate VHDs from VMM to Windows Azure, manage from on-premise System Center
Operations Manager
- Support for IIS 8
- Monitoring of WCF, MVC and .NET NT services
- Azure SDK support
Orchestrator
- Support for Integration Packs, including 3rd party
- Manage VMM self-service User Roles
- Manage multiple VMM ‘stamps’ (scale units), aggregate results from multiple stamps
- Integration with App Controller to consume Hosted clouds
Service Manager
- Apply price sheets to VMM clouds
- Create chargeback reports
- Pivot by cost center, VMM clouds, Pricesheets
Server App-V
- Support for applications that create scheduled tasks during packaging
- Create virtual application packages from applications installed remotely on native server

Wait no more, download it immediately: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a171bcea-2dbb-4fc5-8dd1-4ec22f2eb4ef

Useful Office 365 + ADFS resources

Tomasz Janczak — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:22:00 GMT

A list of useful resources which help to understand how ADFS works with Office 365, explain how to configure single sign-on for Office 365 with ADFS, explain how to customize ADFS UI, configure client access policy and claim rules

How Does ADFS Work With Office 365

Plan for and deploy ADFS for use with single sign-on in Office 365

Complete setup details for federated identity access from on-premise AD to Office 365

The Office 365 Client Access Policy Builder for ADFS

Useful Customizations to ADFS when Deploying SSO with Office 365

Good walk through of using ADFS Claim rules with Office 365

Moving my on-premises servers to the Cloud with Windows Azure Virtual Machines

Guillermo Morales — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:06:00 GMT

One of the big new features of the Windows Azure Spring Release is the Windows Azure Virtual Machines feature, and as you has saw in the previous posts Hello World! Windows Azure Spring Release is Here! (IaaS, Media Services, Web Sites…) Part I and Part II deploy a new VM is pretty easy and fast, really, really fast. But one the great new features included with Windows Azure Virtual Machines is the ability to move your VHDs to and from Windows Azure (yes, imagine the incredible set of new options that enable us that feature).

And maybe (as me) the first scenario that you are imaging is move your applications to the cloud without any change, yes, yes, yes!. Another scenario for example for a small or medium company is move their servers infrastructure to the cloud to reduce fix costs. So, we can start with a mix of both, imagine a company with an application based in Sharepoint that want move to Windows Azure Virtual Machines, for our “demo” propouse the infrastructure will be simple: 1 Domain Controller, 1 Standalone Sharepoint Server 2010, the servers are in the 10.0.0.0/20 subnet in the on-premise datacenter and I want keep the same IP assigment.


myDC (DC Server)	mySP (Sharepoint Server)

To move te application I follow the following steps:

Prepare the VHDs:

You don’t need any speciall preparation for your VHDs, but if you need apply any update is recommended do it before move the VHDs to Windows Azure. Check that the Remote Desktop is enable and the Windows Firewall is configured to allow Remote Desktop connections to the VM. Also the VHD need be fix sized (with Virtual Machines the OS disk is limited to 128 GB regardless of VM size).

Prepare the Virtual Network:

As I want keep the same IP address assigment, I need configure a new Virtual Network:

1.- From the Windows Azure Manager portal go to Networks. Then select Virtual Networks –> Create a Virtual Network.
2.- Assing a name to the Virtual Network, select the region where you want keep your Virtual Network and Create a new affinity Group (any Virtual Network need be assigned to a affinity group). For this example the Virtual Network wont be connected to our on-premise network (one option is connect the Window Azure VMs to our on-premise network,, but in this case I’m cutting fixed cost so I don’t want a VPN server in my on-premise datacenter :)…).
3.- Add the address range 10.0.0.0/20.
4.- Don’t choose a DNS server (the DC VM had the DNS service enabled for internal name resolution).
5.- Accept and create the new Virtual Network.

Configure the Storage:

Create a storage account and choose the Region/Affinity Group that have created before (MyBackEndServers).

Upload the VHDs to your Windows Azure Storage:

With your VHD prepared, your next step is to upload the VHDs to the Windows Azure Storage account created before, you can use any tool to upload the VHD, I use CloudXplorer (tip: remember upload the VHD as Page Blob, and group the VHDs in containers).

Create the Virtual Machines:

1.- In the Windows Azure Portal select Virtual Machines –> Disks –> Create Disk.
2.- In Create disk from VHD window, introduce the disk name, of the Domain Controller VHD, select the VHD, mark the option “This VHD contains an operating system” and the Operating System Family “Windows”. Accept and create the disk. Repeat the same process to create the disk for the Sharepoint server.
3.- Click on Create –> Virtual Machine –> From Gallery.
4.- Select “My disks” and then select the disk created for the Domain Controller.
5.- Specify the VM name and size.
6.- Introduce a DNS name for the VM, select the storage account where are the VHDs and associated with the Affinity Group and select the Virtual Network created before. Go to the next windows and create the Virtual Machine.
7.- Wait a few minutes for the VM provisioning. Now repeat the same steps to create the second VM (the Sharepoint server).
8.- Once the Sharepoint VM is up and running, we have all our environment hosted in Windows Azure, you can connect to the VMs and check if all it’s OK.

myDC (on Windows Azure)	mySP (on Windows Azure)

Ok, now we have our servers running over Windows Azure, without do anything else than upload our VHDs and configure the Virtual Network, Storage and VMs, and as you can see the more longest process is upload the VHDs (depends of your Internet connection bandwith). But, maybe you are asking yourself: how can my users access the application?. If you remember I didn’t create a cross-premises connection with my virtual network (not for this case), because I’m trying to cut as much costs as I can … so, I pretend give access to the users to the application directly from Internet, and for that you need go to the Endpoint menu in the mySP VM dashboard and add a new Endpoint to the port 80 (see image).

Image: Endpoint configuration to allow http connection directly from Internet.

Now you can give to your users the new URL http://[yourdnsname].cloudapp.net (or configure a custom DNS name), to connect to your application, the security is the same than in your on-premises network (ok, if you doesn't create the cross-premises connection you loose the SSO for your AD users).

Now you have your application in the Cloud!!!! Use it, Love it!

Information Rights Management in Office 365 Documents

Tomasz Janczak — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 09:43:00 GMT

Microsoft has two methods to enable IRM within the Office 365 productivity suite (Word, Excel and PowerPoint). The first is to install the IRM services on a Windows 2003 or 2008 server, which enables integration within a corporate Windows domain. This integration allows a content author to select which users and groups from Active Directory have access to their content. The second method is to use a Windows Live ID. This enables companies without an Active Directory environment to restrict user access based on a user's email address.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2012/05/09/information-rights-management-office-365-documents/?mtag=soc_tw#ixzz1yVu1GCMH

Windows 8 integration with the cloud

Joaquín Tienda — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:20:59 GMT

Hello,

We are always talking about the cloud, but what happens with the new Windows Operating System (Windows 8) and the Cloud? This article talks about Windows 8 and the integration with Cloud Services:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/02/cloud-services-for-windows-8-and-windows-phone-windows-live-reimagined.aspx

Hello World! Windows Azure Spring Release is Here! (IaaS, Media Services, Web Sites…) – Part 3 Web Sites

Guillermo Morales — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 23:21:38 GMT

In the first two parts of this series we have learned about the new Virtual Machines feature (Windows VMs and Linux VMs). But, there are not the only new features included in the Spring Release; a new and very interesting feature is Web Sites.

Web Sites is a feature that allow you to quickly and easily deploy sites to a highly scalable cloud environment that allows you to start small and scale as traffic grows. You can use any tool or OS to build a web site with ASP.NET, PHP or Node.js and with database support (SQL Azure or MySQL).

OK, less talk and more do; Do you remember how we created a VM (Windows or Linux) in Part 1/Part 2 and deploy a Wordpress server in the VM?. Let us try the same with the Web Sites feature:

Go to your Windows Azure Management Portal and sign in. Click on Manage and enter in your new Windows Azure control panel. Go to Web Sites and there you can create new Web Site instance. Click on Create a Web Site.
click From Gallery
Browse the Gallery and select Wordpress, click next.
Configure your App. Click next.
Specify the MySQL database configuration. Click OK.
Wait a few minutes until your web site become ready.
… And that’s it.

So, if your objetive is deploy a web site (as our Wordpress web site), or any other of the applications available in the gallery (Acquia Drupal 7, DasBlog, DotNetNuke Community Edition/Professional Edition, Drupal Commerce Kickstart, Joomla! 2.5, mojoPortal, Orchard CMS, Umbraco CMS 5, Wordpress) or even a blank Web Site with or without database and you are ok having less customization of your server, Is more easy use the Web Site feature. Let us review the full funcionality of the Web Site feature:

Go to your Windows Azure Management Portal and sign in. Click on Manage and enter in your new Windows Azure control panel. Go to Web Sites and there you can create new Web Site instance. Click on Create a Web Site. Then Create With Database.
Specify the URL for your web site, choose create a new SQL database and the region where you prefer. Click Next.
Speficy your database setting. Take care of the DB Edition thta you choose (Web edition only allow you 1GB or 5GB DB; Business Edition allow you more capacity). Click Next.
You can choose from the existing SQL Database server the where you want create the web site database. Click OK.
… And after a few minutes you have your first Azure Web Sites deployed.
From de Management Portal, if you select the Web Site generated you can identify in the Web Site dashboard the quick glance section where you have the options to connect the web site with your Git account, set up TFS publishing or download your publish profile .
If you select Monitor, you will find a basic performance KPIs dashboard If you select Configure you will able to configure settings as Framework/PHP availability, hostnames, diagnostics, etc.
If you select Scale you will find interesting options as choose the web site mode (shared or reserved). Also, you can specify the shared or reserved capapcity assigned to your web site.
Finally, if you select Linked Resources you can manage linked resources as a database or a blob storage to the web site.
To deploy a web site you can use any tool (ex. WebMatrix): - Install WebMatrix from the management portal.
Once installed try creating a new web site using the Photo Gallery template.
Try it locally and configure your settings To upload the web site: Go to the web site Dashboard, click Download publish profile, clic Save it in your PC Now, from WebMatrix click Publish Click Import publish settings, click select your settings file, click Click save and upload de web site
… And here is your web site.

Another way to deploy web sites is using Git, to use it just go to the web site dashboard and click Set up Git publishing, configigure your account credentials, and now you are connected with your Git repository.

Web Sites is an excellent alternative to deploy Web Sites .NET, PHP or node.js in a managed infrastructure (shared or reserved). Enjoy it.