Mocking ADAL for Unit Tests

18th of June, 2016 / / 5 Comments

Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL) provides developers with great experiences to easily integrate Azure Active Directory (AAD) with their application for authentication and authorisation. With minimum efforts, we can implement OAuth authentication against AAD, using ADAL. However, in the unit testing world, it’s not that easy to test application when the application uses ADAL because ADAL is not unit-testable. We don’t test ADAL itself, but we do need mock it to test applications using ADAL. In this post, we are going to implement how to implement wrapper classes for ADAL’s AuthenticationContext, AuthenticationResult and DeviceCodeResult.… [Keep reading] “Mocking ADAL for Unit Tests”

Azure VM troubleshooting – part 1

9th of June, 2016 / / 4 Comments

It’s very easy to spin up new servers in Azure but what if one of those machines starts playing up? Gone are the days of F8’s, booting into safe mode or console access. Over the last couple of weeks I lost the ability to RDP into several virtual machines. Some of these machines were still pingable but no RDP, others didn’t respond at all. From within the portal the VM would still show a status of “Running”.… [Keep reading] “Azure VM troubleshooting – part 1”

Break down your templates with Linked Templates (Part 2)

30th of April, 2016 / / 2 Comments

Continued from part 1

The 2nd part of the series will describe how we construct Azure Resource Manager linked templates.

Quick Recap

In the first part, we set up the first template which deploys the storage, virtual network, and subnets. This will be our “master” template where we will link all our related templates.

 

Linked templates.png

  • 1st template: master template – we will modify this template slightly to capture parameters and the linked templates
  • 2nd template: two web servers (IIS) – this is a new template
  • 3rd template: DB server (MySQL) – a new template

We will use the Azure quickstart templates on GitHub as the basis for the second and third templates.… [Keep reading] “Break down your templates with Linked Templates (Part 2)”

Implementing Microsoft (Office365) Peering for ExpressRoute

21st of April, 2016 / / 13 Comments

Notes from the Field

I have recently been involved with an implementation of Microsoft Peering for Expressroute with a large Australian customer and thought I would share the experience with you.

Firstly, and secondly, make sure that you read the specific guidance from Microsoft regarding prerequisites for Microsoft Peering. (See below)

Configure Microsoft peering for the circuit

Make sure that you have the following information before you proceed.

  • A /30 subnet for the primary link. This must be a valid public IPv4 prefix owned by you and registered in an RIR / IRR.
… [Keep reading] “Implementing Microsoft (Office365) Peering for ExpressRoute”

Break down your templates with Linked Templates (Part 1)

16th of April, 2016 / / 3 Comments

Templated deployment is one of the key value propositions of moving from the Azure classic to Resource Manager (ARM) deployment model.  This is probably one key feature that made a big stride towards Infrastructure as a Code (IAC).  Personally, I have been looking forward to this feature since it’s a prominent feature on the other competing platform.

Now that this feature is live for a while, one aspect which I found interesting is the ability to link templates in Azure Resource Manager. … [Keep reading] “Break down your templates with Linked Templates (Part 1)”

Creating Accounts on Azure SQL Database through PowerShell Automation

12th of April, 2016 / / 6 Comments

In the previous post, Azure SQL Pro Tip – Creating Login Account and User, we have briefly walked through how to create login accounts on Azure SQL Database through SSMS. Using SSMS is of course the very convenient way. However, as a DevOps engineer, I want to automate this process through PowerShell. In this post, we’re going to walk through how to achieve this goal.

Step #1: Create Azure SQL Database

First of all, we need an Azure SQL Database.… [Keep reading] “Creating Accounts on Azure SQL Database through PowerShell Automation”

Azure Backup for Azure Resource Manager VMs

11th of April, 2016 / / 1 Comment

One of the really promising announcements to come from the recent Microsoft Build 2016 conference is the release of Azure Backups for Resource Manager Virtual Machines into Public Preview. This has been an area of concern for many when weighing up whether or not to deploy their Azure infrastructure into ARM or Classic. There haven’t been any announcements on the heavy hitters, like Azure Site Recovery for ARM, but it’s a great first step. In this blog I’m going to walk through how to set up a Recovery Services vault and then setup a backup job.… [Keep reading] “Azure Backup for Azure Resource Manager VMs”

Azure Classic vs Azure Resource Manager

5th of April, 2016 / / 2 Comments

On a recent customer engagement, one of the questions that came up was “Should we use Classic mode or should we use the new Resource Manager?”. The guidance from Microsoft is to deploy all new workloads into Azure ARM, however after scratching the surface, it’s not quite so cut and dry.

Some Background

Azure is a platform that is currently undergoing a significant transformation and as a result, confusingly, there are two deployment models supported by Azure public cloud: Classic and Azure Resource Manager (ARM).… [Keep reading] “Azure Classic vs Azure Resource Manager”

Azure AD Connect manual sync cycle with powershell, Start-ADSyncSyncCycle

8th of March, 2016 / / 4 Comments

This morning at Kloud NSW HQ (otherwise known as the Kloud office, or the office, or anything else that does not sound cool or interesting at all) James Lewis (@Jimmy_Lewis on Twitter) asked the question:

What is the powershell cmdlet to kick off a manual sync in AADConnect?

Back in the olden days, as they say, in DirSync there was a powershell cmdlet called:

Start-OnlineCoexistenceSync

As Microsoft do often times, this cmdlet has changed. However, the reason this has changed is because of the way the sync process is now handled in AADConnect. The AADConnect Sync Scheduler has come about to replace the pre-existing process of an external sync engine tied to a Windows service and Windows task scheduler.

The new scheduler is responsible to complete two key tasks: run and manage the synchronisation cycle where import, sync and export processes are looked after; and to complete regular maintenance tasks, like for example renew certificates and keys for password reset and device registration (DRS), to name a few.

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