Steven Edouard's Blog https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/feed.xml Developer Advocate. Tech Enthusiast. Life Enthusiast. Wed, 17 Apr 2019 04:05:44 GMT en-US hourly 1 How to: Schedule Azure VMs to Resize https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/how-to-scheduling-azure-vms-to-resize Wed, 01 Mar 2017 22:59:53 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/?p=515 Azure VMs can be resized to use more CPU cores, memory or now even GPUs. As you may already know, Azure has auto-scale which helps with horizontally scaling virtual machines to adapt to changing computational demand by adding or subtracting VMs from a cluster. You can also achieve this with Azure VM Scalesets. However, to vertically scale a VM, you need to resize. This could be helpful for applications such as rendering tasks or continuous integration. It would be great if Azure VMs could be resized automatically during certain times of the week, allowing you to vertically scale VM resources during peak hours and descale them during off hours. You could do this with Azure run book automation however you'll need to understand your applicable VM sizes for your datacenter and current VM size type. Alternatively you can do this with a 3rd party service called VMPower. They have a credit card free trial you can try yourself. I found their blog post here which outlines the 6 step process of scheduling batches of Azure VMs to resize up or down. The service automatically calculates allowable VM sizes and the cost increase or savings of potential new VM sizes based on your datacenter. It will also show you the number of cores, memory and IOps of each possible size. It is actually very similar to my other post on how to use their service to power on or off Azure VMs. What do you think? Can automating VM resizing save your organization its Azure bill? Is this better than using runbooks?]]> How to: Schedule Azure VM Shutdown based on CPU, Disk, Network Usage https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/how-to-schedule-azure-vm-shutdown-based-on-cpu-disk-network-usage Wed, 25 Jan 2017 22:24:21 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/?p=445 Azure VMs to shutdown based on times of the day or week with a 3rd party service called VMPower. However you may also want to shutdown your VMs based on cpu, disk or network utilization. This is useful for things such as machines that users regularly remote desktop into or VMs that run tasks which vary in the time they take (such as CI/Build servers).

My Desktop Linux Machine

I have an internal 'jumpbox' Linux development machine which I use to directly access things on an internal subnet within an Azure Virtual Network. I use VNC (similar to RDP for Windows) to connect to it. Here's the network utilization of the VM when someone is connected to this machine, vs when someone is not: vmpower-ci-network-graph Just based on Network utilization alone, it is easy to tell when this VM is in use. It would be great if this VM can turn off after I stop using it - incase I forget to turn it off myself.

The Hard Way

You can do this using Azure automation by creating a Powershell script which reads from the Azure metrics API. At some point you would call the  Virtual Machines API at the right time (and optionally send a notification) . This way requires a bit of Powershell scripting prowess and can be a bit time consuming setting up the policies which control how your VMs shutdown.

The Easy Way

You can also do the same thing very quickly with VMPower. It allows you to set Azure VMs to shutdown based on cpu, disk, and network utilization average or maximum values. It also handles sending your team notifications via email and Slack. Step 1) Signup for an account at VMPower.io. It doesn’t require a credit card and they have a decent free tier as well as credit-card-free trials. Step 2) Connect your Azure subscription to VMPower like I mention in my last blog post. Step 3) Create a VM Group, again like I mention in my last blog post. Step 4) Go to the Auto-off section, select your VM Group from the drop-down and click Enabled auto-off-screenshot2 Step 5) Click Idle Settings where you can select when your VM should be considered Idle. You can enable or disable a variety of statistics based on network, cpu, or disk activity. auto-off-ss3 Step 6) Click Update Now the service will monitor the virtual machines in this VM Group. Whenever any VM is detected idle by the settings you defined in Step 5 the VM will be shutdown after a specified number of hours. The nice thing about this is that VMPower will send a handy email before a VM shuts down with a link to temporarily delay the VM from turning off. auto-off-ss4 After the VM is turned off another email notification is sent with a link to turn on the VM. These links can be shared with your team and can even be triggered from mobile devices.   auto-off-ss5

Conclusion

Although using 3rd party services aren't ideal, this is a nice end-to-end solution compared to the work of developing and maintaining an automation script which monitors disk/cpu/network utilization.  ]]> How to: Schedule Azure VM Startup and Shutdown https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/automate-azure-vm-startup-and-shutdown Fri, 13 Jan 2017 22:21:09 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/?p=345 Azure Automation service in about 28 easy steps by writing a script. Or you could simply use VMPower, a service that I stumbled upon which makes the process much more straight forward and has a few other useful features. Step 1) Signup for an account at VMPower.io. It doesn't require a credit card and they have a decent free usage tier. Step 2) Select 'Microsoft Azure' and Link your Azure Subscription: captura-de-pantalla-2017-01-13-a-las-1-42-15-pm The only tricky part is knowing your Azure Active Directory domain name. If you use a regular (non-work/school) domain your domain could be something like: youremail+domain.onmicrosoft.com Sometimes it is listed on the top right of the Azure portal: step0 Step 3) You will be sent to the Azure login page. After you sign in, you'll be re-directed back to your cloud subscriptions page on VMPower: It will automatically add all of your Azure subscriptions. cloud-subscriptions Step 4) Now go to the virtual machines section and click on the VMs you want to create what VMPower calls a 'VM Group'. Basically this is a logical grouping of VMs to apply rules to in batches: captura-de-pantalla-2017-01-13-a-las-1-49-26-pm Step 5) Click 'Add to VM Group'. Give the group a name and click Create captura-de-pantalla-2017-01-13-a-las-1-53-25-pm Step 6) In the VMGroups section click on the 'Edit or Create Schedule' button captura-de-pantalla-2017-01-13-a-las-1-56-18-pm Step 7) You'll get a dialog that looks almost like a weekly meeting planner. Here you can create times you want your VM to be on or off on the calendar. Select 'Turn these VMs on' for your VMs to be on during the blue zones and off during the gray zones. Selecting turn these VMs off  will reverse it and make the gray zone times with your VMs on and the blue zones with your VMs off. Note:  Be sure to check your appropriate timezone. Check the 'Enabled' flag to 'on' otherwise your VMs will never stop/start. scheduledemo You'll get email notifications from the service (they support slack messages, too) whenever something is about to happen to your VMs. You can turn this off since after a while it might fill up your mailbox, or just forward it to a distribution list. Bonus Goodies
  • Instead of strictly shutting off your VM by time, you can shut it down once cpu/disk/network utilization falls below certain thresholds.
  • You can get alerts about low utilization VMs.
  • VMPower recommends 'better' sizes for your VMs based on load (and tells you the cost savings, to boot!)
  So to be honest not a bad service considering the other options of using Azure automation service. You could also possibly use Azure dev/test labs to schedule VMs but the scheduling feature doesn't seem as intricate as VMPower and you won't get utilization-based shutdowns either. Looks like you'll have to pay a small fee to use VMs over $200/month but depending on your VMs/savings it may make sense. I also emailed VMPower (support@vmpower.io) and got a free two week upgrade for my larger VMs.]]> Share Your Github Activity with GitTrack.io https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/share-your-github-activity-with-gittrack-io Fri, 01 Jan 2016 18:26:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/2016/01/01/share-your-github-activity-with-gittrack-io/ If you've ever wanted to let people know, say your followers or maybe even your boss about what you've been working on Github in a super easy to read format, you should checkout my latest project GitTrack.io. GitTrack analyzes your Github activity such as commits, conversations and pull requests and aggregates it into an easy-to-read dashboard with graphs and data about what you've been working on.

GitTrack is built using Ember-CLI and Materializecss and leverages various backend micro-services such as Redis for caching the Github API as well as MongoDB for tracking users.



Of course GitTrack is open source and you can checkout the repo, suggest features and open issues here.]]> Command Line Wizardry with Azure Command Line https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/command-line-wizardry-with-azure-command-line Wed, 26 Aug 2015 09:24:28 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/2015/08/26/command-line-wizardry-with-azure-command-line/ The azure cross-platform command line tool is a pretty sweet tool to manage your azure resources and can easily be installable via npm. Did you know you can easily manipulate the output on the command line using the --json flag?

Continue reading here.

https://blog.stevenedouard.com/command-line-wizardry-with-azure-command-line/]]> Connecting AWS VPC to Azure VNet via Resource Manager https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/connecting-aws-vpc-to-azure-vnet-via-resource-manager Mon, 17 Aug 2015 10:41:06 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/2015/08/17/connecting-aws-vpc-to-azure-vnet-via-resource-manager/ Often times companies with sizeable deployments opt to run their infrastructure on multiple platforms or environments. This can be their own on-premises datacenter, or multiple cloud platforms. Azure Virtual Gateways allow for any service deployment on-premises as well deployments running on other clouds such as AWS to interact, providing redundancy and failover necessary for very high reliability.

Continue reading here.

]]> High Availability Apps via Fleet & CoreOS – Start to Finish: Provisioning on Azure https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/high-availability-apps-via-fleet-coreos-start-to-finish-provisioning-on-azure Fri, 05 Jun 2015 17:16:51 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/2015/06/05/high-availability-apps-via-fleet-coreos-start-to-finish-provisioning-on-azure/ Provisioning CoreOS using Azure Resource Manager

This post is part of the 4-part series High Availability Apps via Fleet & CoreOS from Start to Finish. The series takes you through creating all infrastructure required to run your own scalable apps on using Fleet and CoreOS.

Be sure to clone https://github.com/sedouard/fleet-bootstrapper.git to your local machine before getting started.

Provisioning CoreOS

CoreOS, an operating system for distributed clusters will be required. Fleet and etcd services will be included automatically by our contrib/azure/cloud-config.yaml.

Continue Reading here

]]> Mocking Ember Services for Unit Testing https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/mocking-ember-services-for-unit-testing Thu, 23 Apr 2015 10:19:04 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/2015/04/23/mocking-ember-services-for-unit-testing/ Let’s be honest. Testing is not sexy. To be honest I think this is about as sexy testing is going to get. So let’s just get it over with :-)

We’re working slowly but surely on a cross-platform azure storage explorer in order to manipulate azure blobs and soon tables and queues.

Continue reading here.

]]> Running Ember Test Automation in Node Webkit (Nwjs) https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/running-ember-test-automation-in-node-webkit-nwjs Thu, 23 Apr 2015 10:18:06 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/2015/04/23/running-ember-test-automation-in-node-webkit-nwjs/ Recently last month my buddy Felix and I decided to start working on a project to bring functionality of the windows-only azure storage explorer to a cross platform implementation that will work on any operating system.

Continue reading here.

]]> Get SSL on Your Deis Cluster for FREE with Cloudflare https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/stevenedouard/get-ssl-on-your-deis-cluster-for-free-with-cloudflare Thu, 23 Apr 2015 10:16:59 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevenedouard/2015/04/23/get-ssl-on-your-deis-cluster-for-free-with-cloudflare/ SimpleTranscription.com is actually running on a deis cluster within Azure. If you notice our dashboard application in Deis actually supports SSL and this was really easy to do. All you really need to do is provide it with a wildcard ssl certificate (so that all your apps running on deis get https).

Continue reading here.

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