How to create an Azure Function App to Simultaneously Start|Stop all Virtual Machines in a Resource Group

6th of January, 2017 / / 6 Comments

Just on a year ago I wrote this blog post that detailed a method to “Simultaneously Start|Stop all Azure Resource Manager Virtual Machines in a Resource Group”. It’s a simple script that I use quite a lot and I’ve received a lot of positive feedback on it.
One year on though and there are a few enhancements I’ve been wanting to make to it. Namely;

  • host the script in an environment that is a known state.
… [Keep reading] “How to create an Azure Function App to Simultaneously Start|Stop all Virtual Machines in a Resource Group”

Is Azure Functions over Web API Beneficial?

1st of January, 2017 / / 22 Comments

Whenever I meet clients and give a talk about Azure Functions, they are immediately interested in replacing their existing Web API features with Azure Functions. In this post, I’d like to discuss:

  • Can Azure Functions replace Web API?
  • Is it worth doing?

It would be a good idea to have a read through this article, Serverless Architectures, before starting.

HTTP Trigger Function == Web API Action

One of characteristics of Serverless Architecture is “event-driven”.… [Keep reading] “Is Azure Functions over Web API Beneficial?”

Debugging Azure Functions in Our Local Box

2nd of December, 2016 / / No Comments

Because of the nature of Azure Functions – Serverless Architecture, it’s a bit tricky to run it on my local machine for debugging purpose.
There is an approach related to the issue in this post, Testing Azure Functions in Emulated Environment with ScriptCs. According to the article, we can use ScriptCs for local unit testing. However, the question on debugging still remains because testing and debugging is a different story. Fortunately, Microsoft has recently released Visual Studio Tools for Azure Functions.… [Keep reading] “Debugging Azure Functions in Our Local Box”

How to use a Powershell Azure Function to Tweet IoT environment data

29th of November, 2016 / / No Comments

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76015/BlogImages/FunctionIOTWeather/Azure%20Function%20Twitter.png

Overview

This blog post details how to use a Powershell Azure Function App to get information from a RestAPI and send a social media update.
The data can come from anywhere, and in the case of this example I’m getting the data from WioLink IoT Sensors. This builds upon my previous post here that details using Powershell to get environmental information and put it in Power BI.  Essentially the difference in this post is outputting the manipulated data to social media (Twitter) whilst still using a TimerTrigger Powershell Azure Function App to perform the work and leverage the “serverless” Azure Functions model.… [Keep reading] “How to use a Powershell Azure Function to Tweet IoT environment data”

Managing Dependencies in Azure Functions

21st of November, 2016 / / No Comments

Just before the Connect(); event, Azure Functions has become GA. Now more and more developers and IT pros are interested in it. One of the main attractions of using Azure Functions is, as a developer using C# codes, we can directly import existing private assemblies into Functions. In other words, we can easily migrate our existing applications to Azure Functions with minimal changes!
However, as we all know, migration is not that easy, especially if a huge architectural change is required.… [Keep reading] “Managing Dependencies in Azure Functions”

Using an Azure Function to search the FIM/MIM Metaverse, create a Set and update the Set membership in the the FIM/MIM Service

18th of November, 2016 / / No Comments

Introduction

This is the third and last post in this series of integrating Microsoft Identity Manager with Azure Functions.
The first detailed how to use an Azure Function to retrieve data from the MIM Service Server. The second detailed how to use an Azure Function to retrieve data from the MIM Sync (Metaverse) Server.
This third post combines the two and then performs an action in the MIM Service. The practical purpose of this could be functions like “find all users in location y” and “enable them for entitlement x” or “add an attribute value on each of their objects”.… [Keep reading] “Using an Azure Function to search the FIM/MIM Metaverse, create a Set and update the Set membership in the the FIM/MIM Service”

Get Users/Groups/Objects from Microsoft/Forefront Identity Manager with Azure Functions and the Lithnet Resource Management Powershell Module

14th of November, 2016 / / No Comments

Introduction

As an Identity Management consultant if I had a $1 for every time I’ve been asked “what is user x’s current status in IDAM”, “is user x active?”, “does user x have an account in y?”, “what is user x’s primary email address?”, particularly after Go Live of an IDAM solution my holidays would be a lot more exotic.
From a Service Desk perspective IDAM implementations are often a black box in the middle of the network that for the most part do what they were designed and implemented to do.… [Keep reading] “Get Users/Groups/Objects from Microsoft/Forefront Identity Manager with Azure Functions and the Lithnet Resource Management Powershell Module”

Azure Functions or WebJobs? Where to run my background processes on Azure?

14th of September, 2016 / / 14 Comments

functionsvswebjobs-icon

Introduction

Azure WebJobs have been a quite popular way of running background processes on Azure. They have been around since early 2014. When they were released, they were a true PaaS alternative to Cloud Services Worker Roles bringing many benefits like the WebJobs SDK, easy configuration of scalability and availability, a dashboard, and more recently all the advantages of Azure Resource Manager and a very flexible continuous delivery model. My colleague Namit previously compared WebJobs to Worker Roles.… [Keep reading] “Azure Functions or WebJobs? Where to run my background processes on Azure?”