• Multiple Service Configurations
• Profiling a WAZ application when it runs in Windows Azure
• Package Validation
• MVC 3 Web Role Support

MSDN Link: New in Version 1.4 (August 2011) Release of the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio 

File Download: Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio 1.4 Download

Link: https://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=8396

August 2011 Update

The August 2011 update of the training kit includes the following updates:

• [New Hands-On Lab] Introduction to Windows Azure Marketplace for Applications
• [Updated] Labs and Demos to leverage the August 2011 release of the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• [Updated] Windows Azure Deployment to use the latest version of the Azure Management Cmdlets
• [Updated] Exploring Windows Azure Storage to support deleting snapshots
• Applied several minor fixes in content

Link: https://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=8396

By: thalakan (14668)  on Friday May 06, @07:42PM

PowerShell. The only tool that knows how to talk to all the different frameworks in Windows is PowerShell. No other tool can talk to .NET, COM, WMI, native APIs (via P/Invoke), and external studio based tools. If you can't do the automation you want using something in one of the above frameworks, you've got bigger problems than finding a good automation tool.

Other tools:

System update readiness tool: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821/en-us [Microsoft.com]
WMI diagnostic utility: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=d7ba3cd6-18d1-4d05-b11e-4c64192ae97d&displaylang=en [Microsoft.com]
gplogview: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?familyId=BCFB1955-CA1D-4F00-9CFF-6F541BAD4563 [microsoft.com]
Windows SDK (including debugging tools for windows): https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=35AEDA01-421D-4BA5-B44B-543DC8C33A20 [microsoft.com]
ollydbg: https://www.ollydbg.de/ [ollydbg.de]
sysinternals suite: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062 [microsoft.com]
Windows Management Framework: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/968929 [microsoft.com]
WDK: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=36a2630f-5d56-43b5-b996-7633f2ec14ff [microsoft.com]
WAIK: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=696DD665-9F76-4177-A811-39C26D3B3B34&displaylang=en [microsoft.com]
Windows 7 SP1 WAIK supplement: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=0AEE2B4B-494B-4ADC-B174-33BC62F02C5D [microsoft.com]

Other comments:

By bertok (226922) writes: on Friday May 06, @08:11PM

Essentially, for newer versions of Exchange and SharePoint, PowerShell is the only scripting option, and is excellent. For older versions, you don't have a lot of options, but you can probably call COM APIs using PowerShell as well, but the effort is a lot higher. The APIs exposed by Exchange (e.g.: MAPI) are hideous. SharePoint can be managed via direct SQL database queries from anything, with some care.

For Windows servers in general, stick to PowerShell. It's by far the best shell/scripting language by a wide margin. There's a learning curve, but it's absolutely worth it. To get set up to an equivalent level to Bash+SSH:

- Install PS2 + WinRM2 on pre-2008 R2 servers. It's not installed by default, and 2008 comes with PS1. There's a hotfix that updates PowerShell and all associated components to v2 on XP, 2003, Vista, and 2008.
- Enable unsigned scripts to run. Preventing .ps1 script files from running by default is a *** workaround for not having an execute bit, and is totally useless. Just turn it off.
- Enable WinRM. This is the equivalent of SSH, but has to be enabled on both servers (which is obvious), and the clients (for no discernible reason).
- Enable CredSSP. This improves WinRM by allowing delegated credentials to be used remotely. Unlike SSH, WinRM is an RPC protocol, and due to limitations of Windows authentication, the remote server cannot use network resources with the client's credentials (one hop security). The workaround is credentials delegation. This requires a server-side setting, and two client-side settings.
- Install plugins. There are about a dozen that ship with Windows 2008 R2, a plugin for Exchange 2007 and 2010, and a plugin for SharePoint. To set up the AD plugin on pre-2008 R2 domains, there's a module that has to be deployed, it's basically a web service that the PS plugin uses. The SQL plugin is an optional download that is particularly handy for SharePoint.

That seems like a lot, but can be done in seconds from the command-line, and even better, can be done completely automatically using Group Policy. For new server deployments, I ask for my servers to be created under an AD container, and I just set those options up in a common policy configured on that container, and then everything just works.

The equivalent of a remote SSH session in: Enter-PSSession 'computername'

However, it gets better: You can create and store sessions in variables by creating them using New-PSSession. You can pipe objects into remote sessions and invoke commands on them, or arrays of them. In other words, a single line of code lets you invoke commands in bulk across farms of servers.

For example, as a Citrix XenApp admin, I often have to update machine policy across a farm. This is just two lines with PowerShell:

$xaservers = Get-XAServer | Select -ExpandProperty ServerName
Invoke-Command -CN $xaservers { gpupdate }

That will query the list of XenApp servers, extract the server names into an array, and invoke "gpupdate" in parallel across all of them using a temporary secure shell session.

There might be equivalent capabilities on Linux, but nothing on the Windows platform comes close to what you can do with PowerShell.

Quoting the Windows Azure Blog Post: “…For billing periods that begin on or after July 1, 2011, all inbound data transfers for both peak and off-peak times will be free.”

Link: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2011/06/22/announcing-free-ingress-for-all-windows-azure-customers-starting-july-1st-2011.aspx

For detailed information on the pricing go to: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/offers/popup/popup.aspx?lang=en&locale=en-us&offer=MS-AZR-0003P  (look at the Data Transfer section at the bottom of the page).

Enjoy!

Working with the Azure Management API Cmdlets

1. Follow the instructions to install the Cmdlets

2. Installing a certificate is needed for executing the Cmdlets:

For creating the certificate follow this instructions: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/avkashchauhan/archive/2010/12/30/handling-issue-csmanage-cannot-establish-secure-connection-to-management-core-windows-net.aspx

Viewing Certificates: https://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/View-or-manage-your-certificates

Lessons Learned

Install the certificate your are going to be using as the Azure Management API certificate in the computer you are using for Execution/development. If this is not done you will get errors like this one: Windows Azure PowerShell CMDLET returns "The HTTP request was forbidden with client authentication scheme 'Anonymous'" error message. Link: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/avkashchauhan/archive/2011/06/13/what-to-do-when-windows-azure-powershell-cmdlet-returns-quot-the-http-request-was-forbidden-with-client-authentication-scheme-anonymous-quot-error-message.aspx

Developing and Debugging Recommendations

1. Closing the PowerShell Windows for Compiling

The PowerShell shell windows will lock the build and rebuild of the project because it using the Azure Management Cmdlets compiled libraries. You need to close any PowerShell window you may have open before Building the Azure Cmdlets project and for un-installation of the Cmdlets.

2. Streamline Testing

Create a text file with the variables and values, open a PowerShell window and copy and paste the variables. The variables will be available for the entire life of the window.  Example:

$RolName = "WebRole1_IN_0"
$RolName2= "WebRole1_IN_1"
$Slot = "Production"
$ServiceName = "Mydemo"
$SubId = "6cad9315-45a8-3e4r4e-8bdc-3e3rfdeerrrf"
$Cert = "C:\certs\AzureManagementAPICertificate.cer"

Reboot-RoleInstance -RoleInstanceName $RolName -Slot $Slot -SubscriptionId $SubId -Certificate $Cert -ServiceName $ServiceName

ReImage-RoleInstance -RoleInstanceName $RolName2 -Slot $Slot -SubscriptionId $SubId -Certificate $Cert -ServiceName $ServiceName

Visual studio Azure Management Cmdlets debugging Steps: 

1. Open the Azure Management Cmdlets Solution in Visual Studio
2. Close all open PowerShell windows
3. Open a CMD Windows and Run the Cmdlets Uninstall script:
   1. Find location “C:\AzureServiceManagementCmdlets\setup\dependency_checker\scripts\tasks”
   2. Run the script “uninstallPSSnapIn.bat”
4. Recompile the project in Visual studio
5. (as needed) Put your breakpoints
6. On the CMD Window Run the Cmdlets installation script: installPSSnapIn.cmd
   1. Find location “C:\AzureServiceManagementCmdlets\setup\dependency_checker\scripts\tasks”
   2. Run the script “installPSSnapIn.cmd”
7. Open a PowerShell Window. Run the following commands in the PowerShell window
   1. Add-PSSnapin AzureManagementToolsSnapIn
   2. Get-Command -PSSnapin AzureManagementToolsSnapIn
8. Go back to Visual studio and  Attach the Debugger to the PowerShell
   1. Tools Tab –> Attach to Process… –> Attach to the PowerShelll process.
9. Go back to the the PowerShell Window
   1. Setup the variables you may need:
      $RolName = "WebRole1_IN_0"
      $RolName2= "WebRole1_IN_1"
      $Slot = "Production"
      $ServiceName = "Mydemo"
      $SubId = "6cad9315-45a8-3e4r4e-8bdc-3e3rfdeerrrf"
      $Cert = "C:\certs\AzureManagementAPICertificate.cer
   2. Run the CmdLet you want to debug >> The execution will stop on the BreakPoint in Visual Studio
      1. For Example: Reboot-RoleInstance -RoleInstanceName $RolName -Slot $Slot -SubscriptionId $SubId -Certificate $Cert -ServiceName $ServiceName

Running the Commands:

Happy Development and Debugging! Thanks to David Aiken for the PowerShell tips and tricks.

Post: https://blogs.technet.com/b/windowshpc/archive/2011/06/29/hpc-pack-2008-r2-service-pack-2-sp2-is-now-available.aspx 

The second service pack to the HPC Pack 2008 R2 software is now available!

This update includes a number of great new features, including

• Enhanced Azure capabilities, such as adding Azure VM nodes to your cluster, creating Azure node configuration scripts, and supporting Remote Desktop connections
• Ability to run MPI-based applications in Azure
• Job scheduling support through a REST interface and an IIS-hosted web portal
• A new job scheduling policy that uses 'resource pools' to ensure compute access to different user groups
• SOA improvements, such as in-process broker support for increased speed, and a new common data staging feature
• and all the 'normal' service pack stability improvements

For more information on those, and other, new features available in Service Pack 2 please see our documentation on TechNet.

The single SP2 installer applies to both Express and Enterprise installations, as well as the standalone 'Client Utilities' and 'MS-MPI' packages. You can download it from the Microsoft Download Center.

An important note is that this service pack can not be uninstalled by itself. Uninstalling the service pack will also uninstall the HPC Pack itself, so you'll need to take a full backup (including the SQL databases) before installation if you want to be able to 'roll back.'

If you do not have an HPC Pack 2008 R2 cluster, you can download a free Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 evaluation version. Before you install, you can try out the new Installation Preparation Wizard which can help analyze your environment for common issues and provide some best practice guidance to help ensure an easy HPC cluster setup.

Let us know your thoughts over on our Windows HPC discussion forums.

Link to announcement: https://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/05/09/microsoft-announces-windows-azure-toolkits-for-ios-android-and-windows-phone.aspx

Screencasts are available for developers seeking additional information:

• Getting Started with the iOS Toolkit
• Deploying the Cloud Ready Package for Devices.

Links to access the free toolkits are below:

iOS:

• https://github.com/microsoft-dpe/watoolkitios-lib
• https://github.com/microsoft-dpe/watoolkitios-samples
• https://github.com/microsoft-dpe/watoolkitios-doc

Windows Phone 7:

• https://watoolkitwp7.codeplex.com

Link: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/offers/popup/popup.aspx?lang=en&locale=en-US&offer=COMPARE_PUBLIC

Windows® HPC Server 2008 R2 SP1 enables administrators to increase the power of the on-premises cluster by adding computational resources in Windows Azure. With the Windows Azure “burst” scenario, various types of HPC applications can be deployed to Windows Azure nodes and run on these nodes in the same way they run in on-premises nodes.

Link: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=ACDE41C6-153A-4181-912E-78024FCC86DA&displaylang=en

Link: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=413E88F8-5966-4A83-B309-53B7B77EDF78&displaylang=en 

The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform, including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and the Windows Azure AppFabric.
The April 2011 update of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit has been updated for Windows Azure SDK 1.4, Visual Studio 2010 SP1, includes three new HOLs, and updated HOLs and demos for the new Windows Azure AppFabric portal.
Some of the specific changes with the April update of the training kit includes:

• [New] Authenticating Users in a Windows Phone 7 App via ACS, OData Services and Windows Azure lab
• [New] Windows Azure Traffic Manager lab
• [New] Introduction to SQL Azure Reporting Services lab
• [Updated] Connecting Apps with Windows Azure Connect lab updated for Connect refresh
• [Updated] Windows Azure CDN lab updated for CDN refresh
• [Updated] Introduction to the AppFabric ACS 2.0 lab updated to the production release of ACS 2.0
• [Updated] Use ACS to Federate with Multiple Business Identity Providers lab updated to the production release of ACS 2.0
• [Updated] Introduction to Service Bus lab updated to latest AppFabric portal experience
• [Updated] Eventing on the Service Bus lab updated to latest AppFabric portal experience
• [Updated] Service Remoting lab updated to latest AppFabric portal experience
• [Updated] Rafiki demo updated to latest AppFabric portal experience
• [Updated] Service Bus demos updated to latest AppFabric portal

Release: April Update
Version: 2.9

Link: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=413E88F8-5966-4A83-B309-53B7B77EDF78&displaylang=en