Best Practices for Managing Azure Subscriptions in Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets

23rd of February, 2014 / / 2 Comments

Windows Azure PowerShell cmdlets makes it nice and easy to get started managing your Windows Azure services. Using the Get-AzurePublishSettingsFile cmdlet you can login into your WAZ subscription and fetch the details you need to manage your cloud services. PowerShell even saves these details locally so you can reuse them again in the future. This is great for personal accounts and small teams getting to know the Windows Azure PowerShell cmdlets. However in larger organisations this can quickly lead to management issues and security risks.… [Keep reading] “Best Practices for Managing Azure Subscriptions in Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets”

Do It Yourself Fiddler Service

23rd of February, 2014 / / 2 Comments

I recently upgraded to Windows 8.1 which required a full install (upgraded from the 8.1 Preview which annoyingly didn’t support upgrades). A full install of my laptop is getting easier and easier as more of the things I use are delivered as services. The install list is getting smaller due to the combined effect of software as a service and a simpler working life.

I still had to install these:

  • Microsoft Office 2013
  • Microsoft Visio 2013
  • Microsoft Project (yes yes I know but there really is no good alternative yet)
  • LastPass
  • Visual Studio 2013
  • And…Fiddler!
… [Keep reading] “Do It Yourself Fiddler Service”

How to Link Existing Visual Studio Online with Windows Azure

6th of January, 2014 / / 4 Comments

I was trying to link my Visual Studio Online (formerly Team Foundation Service or TFS Online) tenant to my Windows Azure subscription and stumbled through some items that are not well documented. The main problem I ran into was that Visual Studio Online only used Microsoft Accounts and in my case my Windows Azure subscriptions are setup using Office 365 accounts and not Microsoft Accounts. The next problem I ran into was that account owner set on my Visual Studio Online wasn’t the account I thought it was so I need to find a way to update the account owner before I could proceed.… [Keep reading] “How to Link Existing Visual Studio Online with Windows Azure”

Windows Azure Active Directory Self Service Password Reset

10th of December, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Microsoft has recently released an enhancement to its Windows Azure Active Directory (WAAD) offering. This enhancement enables end users to perform self-service password resets in the case of a forgotten password. Previously this function was available to administrative accounts only.

WAAD self-service password reset (SSPR) is a premium offering, requiring Premium Features to be enabled for the WAAD.

Once WAAD Premium Features are enabled, the User Password Reset Policy can be edited and SSPR enabled. For the initial release, enabling SSPR does so for all WAAD user accounts.… [Keep reading] “Windows Azure Active Directory Self Service Password Reset”

Do It Yourself Web API Proxy

24th of November, 2013 / / 13 Comments

I had promised a couple of blogs on dealing with the challenges of distance that are unavoidable as we adopt a variety of dispersed Cloud deployed services. The first was using a WCF Custom Channel to cache SharePoint content which is now a bit old school. This is the second.

The rate of change at the moment is astonishing. I’ve been sitting on blog number two for quite some time, but when I go to build an example and type it up, something new has come along that is a slightly better way of doing it.… [Keep reading] “Do It Yourself Web API Proxy”

Use Mobile Services Scripting to invoke a BizTalk Service Bridge to insert into LOB SQL Azure Database.

13th of November, 2013 / / No Comments

Introduction

This blog demonstrates the key fundamentals in creating, invoking and deploying a Windows Azure BizTalk Services (WABS) Message Flow Itinerary to Azure, inserting data into a Windows Azure SQL Database.

It also uses the new Scripting feature of Azure Mobile Services to integrate with BizTalk Services.

Scenario

In the Managed Services Business Unit for the company I work for, a person every month was using MS Excel to generate monthly reports based on various Service Desk metrics.… [Keep reading] “Use Mobile Services Scripting to invoke a BizTalk Service Bridge to insert into LOB SQL Azure Database.”

Good Practices for Managing Microsoft Azure Subscriptions

30th of July, 2013 / / 30 Comments
We’ve published some updated guidance for Service Admin account management based on the new RBAC access control techniques now available in Azure. While the classic non-RBAC portal is required, the content in the post here is still very relevant though!

Overview

Over the years it has been drilled into me to use “Least Privilege” access whenever and however possible. Least Privilege is all about limiting users, systems, and services to only those privileges which are absolutely essential to get the job done.… [Keep reading] “Good Practices for Managing Microsoft Azure Subscriptions”

Windows Azure Active Directory Module and Online Services Sign-in Assistant

18th of July, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Back in 2012, we talked about Office 365 – PowerShell Setup.  This was back in the days prior to the Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant RTW, and before Windows 8 had gained a lot of traction.  Recent updates however have not made this such a straightforward process.

My first attempt at installing the Windows Azure Active Directory Module on Windows 8 failed with the error “must have microsoft online services sign-in assistant version 7.0 or greated installed”.  … [Keep reading] “Windows Azure Active Directory Module and Online Services Sign-in Assistant”

Connecting Cloud Services with Virtual Machines in Windows Azure

2nd of June, 2013 / / 7 Comments

As of Windows Azure SDK 1.7, Microsoft has enabled us to connect a cloud service with a virtual machine in Windows Azure. Now that the general availability of Windows Azure Infrastructure Services has been announced, Microsoft also supports it.

The common scenario for this is connecting from a public ASP.NET web application that is running in a cloud service to a private SQL Server database that is running in a virtual machine via a virtual network.… [Keep reading] “Connecting Cloud Services with Virtual Machines in Windows Azure”

Azure AD and the Progression of Microsoft Identity and Access Management

16th of April, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Defining Microsoft IDAM

The words ‘Identity and Access Management’ (IDAM) mean different things to different people – and a lot of confusion still reigns about what this area represents to an IT department. However, it’s generally agreed that a good corporate IDAM policy can drive down cost, increase security and provide significant user experience benefits to approved applications as they are introduced to an IT environment.

These improvements can broadly be categorised into the following areas:

• Single Sign On (usually abbreviated to ‘SSO’) – a user provides a single factor (99% of the time a password) and gets access to not just one application but a suite of applications after authenticating once without being prompted again for credentials.… [Keep reading] “Azure AD and the Progression of Microsoft Identity and Access Management”