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André Dammeyer
Dipl. Informatiker, Developer & Software Architect

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BlogOfADam (rss)

Contains various stuff from André Dammeyer.


BizTalk integration with SharePoint and the Cloud Presentation from Kent Weare, Sonntag, 27. Juni 2010 20:29:28

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Interesting stuff about Windows Azure from Steve Marx – Windows Azure Drive, Montag, 17. Mai 2010 20:41:30

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SQL Azure Quick Links in SQL Azure Team Blog, Samstag, 15. Mai 2010 12:37:12

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Whitepaper Comparing SQL Azure vs. SQL Server, Donnerstag, 13. Mai 2010 12:55:03

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Microsoft SQL Azure FAQ is available as Word document, Sonntag, 9. Mai 2010 14:52:03

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Videos about Windows Azure, Donnerstag, 21. Januar 2010 22:26:16

  1. Whiteboard Video 1 of 4: What is the Windows Azure Platform?
  2. Whiteboard Video 2 of 4: What is Windows Azure?
  3. Whiteboard Video 3 of 4: What is SQL Azure?
  4. Whiteboard Video 4 of 4: What is the Access Control Service and the Service Bus?

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SQL Azure North Europe Data Center is Online, Mittwoch, 13. Januar 2010 21:26:06

since 8th of january the data center in Dublin is online.

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Azure Integration with BizTalk ESB by Brian Loesgen, Dienstag, 5. Januar 2010 21:36:14

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Windows Azure - Event Videos, Montag, 14. Dezember 2009 19:37:48

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Windows Azure PDC09-Session Videos, Samstag, 21. November 2009 17:39:18

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BizTalk, SOA and Cloud, Samstag, 14. November 2009 13:56:06

That is the stuff that is currently interesting for me. Richard Seroter did a talk about these topics. Have a look at…

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Presentation “Storage in the Windows Azure Platform”, Donnerstag, 8. Oktober 2009 22:06:31

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SQL Azure Manager from Hanssens.org, Freitag, 2. Oktober 2009 20:39:50

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Connecting to SQL Azure with SQL Management Studio, Sonntag, 27. September 2009 18:55:08

a blog post from Zach Skyles Owens:

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New Web Platform Installer 2.0 RTW - Windows Azure Tools, Samstag, 26. September 2009 12:58:27

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Fix for “Add Reference…” issue with WCF and Windows Azure Services, Samstag, 26. September 2009 12:56:09

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Windows Azure Service Management API introduced, Mittwoch, 23. September 2009 20:23:11

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SQL Azure Database CTP available, Mittwoch, 19. August 2009 23:46:56

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SQL Azure – MSDN Documentation, Samstag, 15. August 2009 18:05:02

…can be found at SQL Azure

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Azure-Forum.NET, ein deutsches Azure Forum, Montag, 10. August 2009 08:51:14

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BizTalk Azure Adapters SDK, Sonntag, 26. Juli 2009 14:49:50

This seems to be a must have for everyone who is dealing with on-premise and cloud application integration!

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“Sending Messages From Azure Service Bus to BizTalk Server 2009” from Richard Seroter, Sonntag, 26. Juli 2009 14:46:05

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Windows Azure Tools and SDK July 2009 CTP, Samstag, 25. Juli 2009 14:40:28

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How to integrate on-premise BizTalk apps with Azure (here Service Bus)?, Samstag, 18. Juli 2009 15:03:50

Nice walk-through from Richard Seroter: Securely Calling Azure Service Bus From BizTalk Server 2009 « Richard Seroter’s Architecture Musings

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My Contribution to International newcloudapp() contest, Donnerstag, 9. Juli 2009 00:51:35

is called NewsCollector and can be found at http://newscollection.cloudapp.net .

image

NewsCollector is a newcloudapp(), that enables you to collect transient news from the web. It is based on Windows Azure (web role, worker role and table storage), Silverlight 2.0, WCF technology and Windows Live ID authentication.

My goal was not to build a complete application, but to show some of the many advantages that Microsoft cloud technologies offer. NewsCollector shows the advantage of heavy processing and large scale storage in the cloud. These are features that can be very valuable for many enterprises. Feel free to contact me for further discussions.

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Cool hand-drawn video ‘bout what is azure from Steve Marx, Freitag, 26. Juni 2009 18:08:10

… for more or less technical people.

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Nice blog series about Azure and co. from Paul Chapman, Donnerstag, 11. Juni 2009 13:45:02

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Interesting Azure Sites / Cloud Apps, Donnerstag, 11. Juni 2009 13:16:40

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The New Face of Microsoft SQL Data Services, Donnerstag, 11. Juni 2009 11:47:48

An interesting Q&A-session about the next SDS (DaaS – Database as a Service):

The public ctp of the next SDS comes in a couple of months. Till end of 2009 the platform will be released.

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new CloudApp(): The Azure™ Services Platform Developer Challenge, Sonntag, 7. Juni 2009 15:31:53

Maybe i will submit something…

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Hosting Azure Web Roles Under .NET Full Trust, Freitag, 5. Juni 2009 13:39:52

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Windows Azure MMC, Sonntag, 17. Mai 2009 18:33:37

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Message Archiving Pipeline Component and Windows Azure, Donnerstag, 2. April 2009 17:59:48

Interesting approach. Me and some colleagues created a WCF facade in front of Azure Storage and used the WCF adapter to archive messages/documents. In my opinion using an adapter for this task is the better solution architecture. But nevertheless the archiving pipeline component using Azure Storage is cool!

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Open Cloud Manifesto.org, Montag, 30. März 2009 19:32:08

It will not be supported by today greatest cloud providers like Microsoft, Google or Amazon.

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Nice Overview of .NET Services, Sonntag, 29. März 2009 17:21:42

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Interesting MSDN Article: Building Distributed Applications With .NET Services, Freitag, 27. März 2009 08:57:56

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Favorite Azure Storage Tools, Mittwoch, 25. März 2009 22:05:25

I just did some Azure Storage development and used some available tools that are really worthful.

Tip: When deploying a Windows Azure Application to the cloud, often things work different than in the development environment. Therefor I do heavy tracing through the RoleManager. On the Configuration page within the azure portal you can copy those traces/logs to blob storage. After the copy is done, you can use one of the above mentioned tools to view the traces/logs.

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Azure Storage Explorer - Release: 0.3 Preview, Mittwoch, 25. März 2009 20:14:19

This tool is really helpful when developing and/or deploying something that uses Windows Azure Storage.

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MIX09: What's New in Microsoft SQL Data Services?, Montag, 23. März 2009 18:15:16

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SLTwitterMap – Silverlight, Virtual Earth & Twitter in combination –> Cool!, Freitag, 20. März 2009 17:29:48

look at: SLTwitterMap

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Windows Azure now supports native code execution, Freitag, 20. März 2009 17:25:52

look at {My::Blog, RandomThoughts.cpp, Internet}@1 : Using a 32bit Native DLL in Windows Azure

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Windows Azure : Windows Azure Delivers New CTP Capabilities, Freitag, 20. März 2009 17:19:55

For me the greatest new feature is having full trust in Azure!

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SQL Data Services Team Blog : First round of Questions and Answers, Donnerstag, 12. März 2009 22:15:28

Interesting Q&As of SQL Data Services team for their DaaS version of SDS: SQL Data Services Team Blog : First round of Questions and Answers

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Interesting Thoughts of Steven Martin about Cloud Stuff, Mittwoch, 11. März 2009 22:15:54

Development Unfiltered: From code, to cloud to comedy. - Steven Martin, Developer Platform Product Management : Web Computing - Premsises, Hosting and Cloud

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Monsoon – MS Cloud Computing Futures: Vernetzung von Rechenzentren, Mittwoch, 25. Februar 2009 22:06:47

…

Ebenfalls Teil von Cloud Computing Futures ist das Projekt Monsoon, ein Entwurf zur Vernetzung von Rechenzentren mit einfachem Netzwerkequipment. Mehr als 100.000 Server will Microsoft auf Layer-2-Ebene (Ethernet) miteinander verbinden, so dass jeder Server mit jedem mit einer Geschwindigkeit von 1 GBit/s Daten austauschen kann. Eine Layer-3-Schnittstelle (IP) steht nur am Übergang zum Internet zur Verfügung. Monsoon zeigt Wege auf, die vorhandenen Begrenzungen der Technik zu umgehen.

…

Siehe auch Microsoft baut Atom-Server - Golem.de

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Download details: Azure Services Training Kit, Sonntag, 22. Februar 2009 11:30:15

Download details: Azure Services Training Kit

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Azure Services Platform Videos, Montag, 16. Februar 2009 22:13:56

a very good starting point for developing with azure services is Azure Services Platform Videos

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Vista Sidebar Gadget to Monitor your Queues, Freitag, 6. Februar 2009 23:28:19

Soul Solutions Blog - World’s first Azure Vista / Windows7 Gadget?

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clouddotnet - explore azure cloud apps, Mittwoch, 28. Januar 2009 21:08:32

a directory of Microsoft Azure based applications: clouddotnet - explore azure cloud apps

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Paging in SQL Data Services, Sonntag, 18. Januar 2009 20:11:24

SQL Data Services (SDS) returns max. 500 entities as a result of a query. So paging could be implemented with sequenced queries like “from e in entities where e.Id > "LastEntityId" select e;” (see also Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : Paging in SSDS & Parallel Queries).

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Windows Azure Dev Links, Dienstag, 23. Dezember 2008 23:56:43

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Eine nette Zusammenfassung von Begriffen und Definitionen rund um Microsoft’s Cloud, Dienstag, 23. Dezember 2008 23:45:45

Holger Sirtl's WebLog : Begriffe und Definitionen rund um Microsoft Azure, Azure Services und Software-plus-Services

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Large Message transfer through WCF in Windows Azure, Dienstag, 23. Dezember 2008 21:54:30

I had heavy problems to implement my streaming WCF service that will be hosted in Windows Azure. I had to deal with the following issues and/or its consequences:

  1. Windows Azure gives only partial trust to its applications.
  2. WCF does not support any feature in partial trust.
    1. i.e. it is not possible to configure a binding configuration for the BasicHttpBinding that changes the transferMode and maxReceivedMessageSize to enable streaming.
  3. Streaming through WCF seems not to work within cassini (see also InfoWorker Solutions: WCF Streaming: Upload files over HTTP).

 

My solutions (or better workarounds)

I created my own ServiceHostFactory to change the BasicHttpBinding configuration programmatically (see also Pimp Your WCF Runtime - Episode One).

MyServiceHostFactory.cs:

public class MyServiceHostFactory : ServiceHostFactory
{
    protected override System.ServiceModel.ServiceHost CreateServiceHost(Type serviceType, Uri[] baseAddresses)
    {
        ServiceHost host = base.CreateServiceHost(serviceType, baseAddresses);
 
        BasicHttpBinding binding = (BasicHttpBinding) host.Description.Endpoints[0].Binding;
        binding.TransferMode = TransferMode.Streamed;
        int limit = 1024*1024*100;
        binding.MaxReceivedMessageSize = limit;
        binding.MaxBufferSize = limit;
        binding.MaxBufferPoolSize = limit;
 
        //RoleManager.WriteToLog("Information", "ServiceHost created!");
 
        return host;
    }        
}

MyService.svc:

<%@ ServiceHost Language="C#" Debug="true" Service="MyWcfCloudService_WebRole.MyService" CodeBehind="MyService.svc.cs" Factory="MyWcfCloudService_WebRole.MyServiceHostFactory" %>

Set the max to a higher value, in my example 32768 Bytes (see also httpRuntime Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema)).

Web.Config:

<system.web>
  <httpRuntime maxRequestLength="32768"/>
</system.web>

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WCF Partial Trust Restrictions, Dienstag, 23. Dezember 2008 11:10:36

If I am right, in the Windows Azure CTP the applications and services in the cloud run under partial trust. This has some consequences. In my use case I have to implement a WCF service that supports streaming. For that purpose I have to override the MaxReceivedMessageSize and TransferMode (see also BlogOfADam – Streaming WCF Sample) settings of the basicHttpBinding. This seems to be possible only with full trust.

Some links of interest about trust settings:

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WCF and the Cloud, Montag, 22. Dezember 2008 17:02:46

I just made a Web Cloud Service and added a simple WCF service to it. When I tried to consume the simple WCF service I ran into a problem. Due to an issue with the WSDL page within the development fabric, it seems to be not possible to generate the client proxy class for consuming the WCF service. Therefore I had to create the proxy class and the App.Config by right clicking on my simple WCF service and select View in Browser. Then I used the URL from the browser to generate the proxy class and the App.Config. To use the proxy class and the App.Config to access the simple WCF service in my Web Cloud Service I had to change the endpoint address within the App.Config.

UPDATE: see also WCF Service in Web Role : Windows Azure : Azure : MSDN Forums.

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SDS Stuff on Codeplex, Mittwoch, 10. Dezember 2008 23:57:47

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SQL Data Services Stuff, Dienstag, 9. Dezember 2008 17:23:49

  • SDS Explorer
    • SDS Explorer is a general purpose data manipulation tool for use with Microsoft® SQL Data Services (SDS).
  • SDS Command Line Tool
    • SDS tool (st.exe) is a general purpose data manipulation tool for use with Microsoft® SQL Data Services (SDS). The command line tool allows you to explore SDS without having to write code.

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Blob Storage Explorer, Samstag, 6. Dezember 2008 23:49:37

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Microsoft SQL Data Services Developer Resources, Montag, 1. Dezember 2008 22:28:26

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Azure Developer Resources, Montag, 1. Dezember 2008 20:10:30

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First Steps with Windows Azure: Hello, Cloud! on Channel 9, Dienstag, 18. November 2008 22:14:21

Windows Azure: Hello, Cloud! | smarx | Channel 9

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Examining Windows Azure, Sonntag, 2. November 2008 19:00:03

Preparation Steps

  • Downloading and installing…
    • Download details: Windows Azure SDK
      • Before installing the SDK i had to prepare my Vista installation as described in the Release Notes:
        • Windows Vista
          1. From the Start menu, choose Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features.
          2. Click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
          3. Under Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, select Windows Communication Foundation HTTP Activation.
          4. Under Internet Information Services, expand World Wide Web Services.
          5. Under Application Development Features, select ASP.NET.
          6. Under Common HTTP Features, choose Static Content.
          7. Install the selected features.
    • Download details: Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
  • Prepare your Dev Machine (desribed in the Release Notes)
    • [INSTALLDIR]\rundevstore.cmd
    • [INSTALLDIR]\HelloWorld\runme.cmd (for testing the preparation!)
  • Downloading and installing…

My Own MyTestCloudService-App

  1. Create a VS.NET “Web Cloud Service” project.
  2. Customize the Default.aspx-page of the project “MyTestCloudService_WebRole”
  3. Hit F5 to see the cloud service running on the devbox.
  4. run the Development Fabric (right click on the icon image, and select “Show Development Fabric UI” )
  5. right-click on “MyTestCloudService”, select “Publish” to package (CSPack command line tool) and publish the service to the Azure Services Developer Portal.
    • two files will be created
      • MyTestCloudService.cspkg – a Service Package File
      • ServiceConfiguration.cscfg – a Cloud Service Configuration File
    • for publishing these files to the Azure Services Developer Portal you need an account that is allowed to do that!

Definitions (unsorted)

word

description
roles “…A role is a scalable component built with managed code. …”
There are two types of roles, web roles and worker roles.
web role “…web application accessible via an HTTP and/or an HTTPS endpoint…”
worker role “…background processing application…”
services “…A service may consist of a single web role, a single worker role, or one of each…”
development fabric “simulates the Windows Azure fabric, so that you may run and test your service locally and ensure that your service writes adequate information to the log…”
”…it's not possible to attach a debugger to a service running in the windows azure fabric…”
Development storage “…simulates the storage services, so that you can debug code that calls into the storage services…”
Azure Services Developer Portal https://lx.azure.microsoft.com/Cloud/Provisioning/Default.aspx
CSPack “…command-line tool (CSPack.exe) prepares a service for deployment…”

Best Practice Staging

  • Stage 1: Local development and testing
    • Using the Development Fabric + Development Storage Services
  • Stage 2: Test in mixed mode, against hosted data
    • Using the Development Fabric + Windows Azure Storage Services
  • Stage 3: Publish service to fabric
    • Using the Windows Azure Fabric + Windows Azure Storage Services

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Short Thought ‘bout Windows Azure, Sonntag, 2. November 2008 16:07:54

For me Windows Azure seems to be quite interesting, but pricing will be a significant success factor. The pricing model must fit to private persons up to huge enterprises. Otherwise there are too less arguments for them to migrate to Windows Azure.

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Copyright © 2009 by André Dammeyer.