Azure Deployment Models And How To Migrate From ASM to ARM

This is a post about the two deployment models currently available in Azure, Service Management (ASM) and Resource Manager (ARM). And how to migrate from one to the other if necessary.

About the Azure Service Management deployment model

The ASM model, also known as version 1 and Classic mode, started out as a web interface and a backend API for the PaaS services Azure opened with at launch.

Features

  1. ASM deployments are based on an XML schema.
[Keep reading] “Azure Deployment Models And How To Migrate From ASM to ARM”

Azure reference architecture

tl;dr

  • What is a reference architecture
    • My definition of a reference architecture
  • I stop using the word architecture after the first 3 paragraphs – word overkill
  • What are some important topics to cover in said document
  • Is it easy to write? NO
  • Final words – don’t jump into Azure without a reference architecture

I’m not going to lie to you. This is not a quick topic to write about. When it comes to Azure, you absolutely, 100% cannot dive straight in and consume services if you’re planning on doing that for pretty much any size organisation. The only way this could be averted is in a development environment, or a home lab. Period.

Without order nothing exists.

-someone awesome

This is where an Azure reference architecture comes in. Let’s define a reference architecture, or most commonly a reference architecture document (or series of documents);

Within IT: A reference architecture is a set of standards, best practices and guidelines for a given architecture that architects, consultants, administrators or managers refer to when making decisions on future implementations in that environment.

Since I think I’ve reached the word quota limit for “architect” or “architecture”, I will attempt to limit the use of those from this point forward. If necessary, I’ll refer to either of those as just the “a-word“.

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Enterprise Application platform with Microservices – A Service Fabric perspective

An enterprise application platform can be defined as a suite of products and services that enables development and management of enterprise applications. This platform should be responsible of abstracting complexities related to application development such as diversity of hosting environments, network connectivity, deployment workflows, etc. In a traditional world, applications are monolithic by nature. A monolithic application is composed of many components grouped into multiple tiers bundled together into a single deployable unit. Each tier here can be developed using a specific technology and will have the ability to scale independently.… [Keep reading] “Enterprise Application platform with Microservices – A Service Fabric perspective”

Using Microsoft Azure Table Service REST API to collect data samples

Sometimes we need a simple solution that requires collecting data from multiple sources. The sources of data can be IoT devices or systems working on different platforms and in different places. Traditionally, integrators start thinking about implementation of a custom centralised REST API with some database repository. This solution can take days to implement and test, it is very expensive and requires hosting, maintenance, and support. However, in many cases, it is not needed at all.… [Keep reading] “Using Microsoft Azure Table Service REST API to collect data samples”

Azure multi-factor authentication (MFA) cheat sheet.

Last year I had the pleasure of possibly being one of the first in Australia to tinker with Azure multi-factor authentication tied into Office 365 and Office when ADAL was in private preview. That was a great proof of concept project at the time.

I’m currently working on a solution for a client that’s selecting from one of the Azure MFA options: either Azure MFA Cloud, Azure MFA Server or enabling certificate or token MFA strictly on AD FS 3.0 (the latter is what I had used last year in that private preview proof of concept project at Staples Australia).

Today I want to share two tables that outline information that I brought together from various Azure documentation pages and Office 365 documentation pages to review for the client that I’m working on an Azure MFA solution at the moment. In working out what the imperatives / inputs / requirements for the solution, I found it easier to put everything into a table to visually see what options I could look to for this solution.

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Access Azure linked templates from a private repository

I recently was tasked to propose a way to use linked templates, especially how to refer to templates stored in a private repository.  The Azure Resource Manager (ARM) engine accepts a URI to access and deploy linked templates, hence the URI must be accessible by ARM.  If you store your templates in a public repository, ARM can access them fine, but what if you use a private repository?  This post will show you how.

In this example, I use Bitbucket – a Git-based source control product by Atlassian.  … [Keep reading] “Access Azure linked templates from a private repository”

Inside Azure – Deployment workflow with Fabric Controller and Red Dog Front End

Abstracting complexities around developing, deploying and maintaining software applications have diminished the importance of understanding underlying architecture. While this may work well for today’s aggressive delivery cycles, at the same time, it impacts the ability of engineers to build an efficient, optimal solution which aligns with the internal architecture of the hosting platform. Architects and engineers should be cognizant of the architecture of the hosting environment to better design a system. The same holds good for Microsoft Azure as a hosting provider.… [Keep reading] “Inside Azure – Deployment workflow with Fabric Controller and Red Dog Front End”

WORKAROUND / FIX: Login to Azure with certificate as Service Principal

This blog post describes my recent experience with an Azure AD service principal authentication with a certificate. The process is well documented and seemed quite straightforward, however this was not my experience.

The issue

I was able to successfully follow the process to setup Azure AD service principal until the step where I granted the service principal with a role (using PS cmdlets). When I tried to login as the service principal, I encountered the issue below.… [Keep reading] “WORKAROUND / FIX: Login to Azure with certificate as Service Principal”

Break down your templates with Linked Templates (Part 2)

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)”

WebHook your WebJob – With Visual Studio Team Services integration example

WebHooks, also known as ‘HTTP(S) call backs’ are becoming very popular for reporting asynchronous events to trigger business workflows. The latest release of Microsoft Azure WebJobs can now be triggered using WebHooks. In this post I will cover the configuration of a WebJob to use a WebHook as a trigger using a sample scenario of integrating a WebJob with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) to explain the workflow.

Support for WebHooks is packaged as an extension to WebJobs and is currently in a pre-release state.… [Keep reading] “WebHook your WebJob – With Visual Studio Team Services integration example”