This document contains information about Windows Azure, including:
- An overview of the building blocks for distributed services on Windows Azure such as access control, networking, caching, and connecting cloud and on-premise applications.
- Details on compute instance sizes available on Windows Azure ranging from extra small to extra large and A-series instances.
- A diagram showing how web and worker roles are deployed across update domains for high availability on Windows Azure.
10. Building blocks for distributed services
Access control
Network connectivity
Connect on-premise and Cloud applications
Caching
Windows Azure Services
Windows Azure management
Portal
On-premise development
Blobs, tables, q
ueues
APIs
On-premise management
Visual Studio, Azure SDK etc
Windows Admin
Server Tools
14. Develop & Test on cloud VMs at no additional cost!
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18. Web Role 1
instance #3
Request
Browser
Response
L
B
Worker Role 1
instance #2
instance #3
instance #1
instance #1
instance #0
instance #0
Database
Scale up
and down
Communications via
Queues and Tables
23. Simple and fast on-ramp to Azure
Active data instantly available locally
Archives less used data to Windows Azure
Recover data from any internet connection
Reduce enterprise storage TCO by 60-80%
24. Backup and restore database
to the cloud
SQL Server Management Studio
Benefits
Reliable off-site data backup
for SQL images
Easily restore databases
using VMs
25. Backup datacenter data to Windows using
System Center Data Protection Manager
Backup and recover files/folders from
Windows Server 2012 SP1
Your On-Premises Datacenter
Benefits
Reliable offsite data protection
Simple, familiar, integrated
Efficient backup and recovery
Easy set up
33. Web Role 1
instance #3
Request
Browser
Response
L
B
Worker Role 1
instance #2
instance #3
instance #1
instance #1
instance #0
instance #0
Database
Scale up
and down
Communications via
Queues and Tables
34. The binaries and definition
(csdef) file are zipped into
service package file
35. Web Role Inst #0
Web Role Inst #1
Worker Role Inst
#0
Worker Role Inst
#1
Update Domain 0
Update Domain 1
Worker Role Inst
#2
Update Domain 2
38. Scale prior to
demand
IT Demand
On-demand compute capacity
and software lisencing
Compute Capacity
Ticket sales open
Ticket sales open
Concert ticket website
Time
45. - Manage image libraries and deploy
- for cloud / on-premise connectivity
New ways of
supporting your
enterprise and new
opportunities
46.
47. The Windows Azure Storage Level 666 session by
Yves Goeleven
10 tools of the trade for your
#windowsazure environment
System Center Advisor
Notas do Editor
Before I get started, how many are actually using WA today?How many seen any talks WA virtual machines so far? I guess you’ve been following the Azure track all day so far?Getting started: just to make sure everybody is up to speed on how to create VMs, what they’re used for, etc.Then we’ll talk about app migr strategiesImaging virtual machinesDeploying ent apps -> where we’ll dive into AD integration and how you domain-join VMsAnd finally we’ll talk about connecting cloud services – bridging between PaaS and IaaS
Slide Objectives:Understand the challenges of irregular load in applicationsUnderstand the challenges of both too much capacity and not enough capacity and the sort of groups they impact within a customerUnderstand that traditionally IT capacity is purchased in a stepwise fashion involving capital expenditure at each pointSpeaking Points:To understand the value and opportunity for cloud computing, I believe it’s important to think about how IT capacity is typically used by applications today in most environments.Today most organizations significantly over estimate or underestimate the amount of resources they need to run their applications.This leads to a higher cost for the infrastructure and the delivery of the overall applications. Build Steps:Forecast load is to grow steadilyPlanned capacity grows in a stepwise fashion. Need to plan in advance due to hardware lead timesActual load is highly variable over timePeriods where we have excess capacity. Capital laying idle, opex wasted powering and cooling serversPeriods where we have insufficient capacity and our customers get a bad experience
CLM = carreer limiting moments
Use Multiple Windows Azure SubscriptionsUse Descriptive Names for Windows Azure SubscriptionsUse Named User AccountsEstablish Guidelines for Microsoft Accounts (formerly Live IDs)Use Windows Azure Affinity GroupsUse Management Certificates
Now let’s look at managing Windows Azure subscriptions and I want to drill in a little bit about how we actually do this because there is a little bit to this. So let’s start. Now, we have on-premise, where we have an App Controller instance and then we have two subscriptions in Windows Azure. Now anyone who’s used Windows Azure knows that each subscription is tied to a Live ID. Which means that you need to be logged into the Live platform in order to manage these applications. So what we do with App Controller is take away the complexity of doing that.And the way we do this is that Windows Azure has the ability to be managed through an API using certificates. And basically what happens is we store a copy of the private key in the App Controller database on-premise, and you have the public key, loaded into the Windows Azure subscription and then App Controller can perform all these different tasks on multiple Azure subscriptions through the API model using certificate authentication.Now, what this allows us to do is to have a single view of multiple Windows Azure subscriptions, and it also means we can delegate access to those subscriptions. So, in the picture we have on the bottom of screen here, we have development and testing, production and staging. And then on the right-hand side we have a group which is delegating out to only access those Azure production subscription.So me as a user if I were under this construct, if I logged onto App Controller, I would only be able to see the applications running in the production subscription and I would not see the Developing and testing or staging subscription. So you can get very granular into what active directory user or group has access to which Windows Azure subscription.
Azure Blob supports REST APIs so you can use it directly and build tools to integrate, but there are several ways you can use Windows Azure storage to integrate with your on-premises datacenter environment: StorSimple Cloud-integrated Storage – StorSimple systems combine the data management functions of primary storage, backup, archive and disaster recovery with seamless Windows Azure integration – enabling a hybrid cloud storage solution through a single system and Windows Azure. StorSimple systems use Windows Azure as an automated storage tier, offloading capacity management burdens and ongoing capital costs, while providing enterprise-grade local performance for active data sets. Using local and cloud snapshots, application-consistent backups complete in a fraction of the time needed by traditional backup systems while reducing the amount of data transferred and stored in the cloud. Cloud-based and location-independent disaster recovery (DR) allows customers to recover their data from virtually any location with an Internet connection, and test their DR plans without impacting production systems and applications. Thin restore from data in the cloud enables users to resume operations after a disaster much faster than possible with physical tape, or cloud-based tape methods used with other cloud providers. Customers benefit from significantly reducing their storage infrastructure sprawl, lowering total storage costs (TCO) by 60-80%, and simplifying data protection while rapidly accelerating data recovery times.
Back Up and Restore of SQL Server DatabasesThe combination of Windows Azure Storage and Virtual Machines provides a great cost effective solution for backing up and restoring your on-premises SQL Server images. On-premises SQL Server images can be backed up asynchronously to Windows Azure Storage and in the case of an on-premises failure, the azure virtual machine can be quickly utilized to restore the image to reduce end user downtime.
While StorSimple solution we discussed earlier is more of an on-premises SAN solution that is integrated wit Windows Azure, you can also use Windows Azure directly for backups with Windows Server and System Center DPM.Windows Azure Backup service extends Windows Server Backup, Essentials, or DPM with offsite backup to Windows Azure. You can backupserver data to be backed up and recovered from the cloud in order to help protect against loss and corruption. Both Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1 support this service. Here’s how you can use Windows Server and System Center with Windows Azure Online Backup:Windows Server 2012 - Cloud-based backup from Windows Server 2012 is enabled by a downloadable agent that installs right alongside the familiar Windows Server backup interface. From this interface backup and recovery of files and folders is managed as usual but instead of utilizing local disk storage, the agent communicates with a Windows Azure service which creates the backups in Windows Azure storage. System Center 2012 SP1 With the System Center 2012 SP1 release, the Data Protection Manager (DPM) component enables cloud-based backup of datacenter server data to Windows Azure storage. System Center 2012 SP1 administrators use the downloadable Windows Azure Online Backup agent to leverage their existing protection, recovery and monitoring workflows to seamlessly integrate cloud-based backups alongside their disk/tape based backups. DPM’s short term, local backup continues to offer quicker disk–based point recoveries when business demands it, while the Windows Azure backup provides the peace of mind & reduction in TCO that comes with offsite backups. In addition to files and folders, DPM also enables Virtual Machine backups to be stored in the cloud. http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2012/09/07/windows-azure-online-backup.aspxBenefits:Reliable offsite data protectionConvenient offsite protectionSafe, geo-replicated dataEncrypted backupsA simple, integrated solutionFamiliar interfaceProtection for older serversWindows Azure integrationEfficient backup & recoveryEfficient use of bandwidth and storageFlexible recoveryFlexible configuration
Test-drive your apps Any organization that creates custom applications needs a dev & test environment. Developers need specific tools installed, while the test environment must replicate the world in which the new application will be deployed. Given the cost and time required to provision physical servers, it’s become common to use virtual machines to do this. So, given these are virtual machines on-premises anyway, why not use Windows Azure for this?
Here’s an easy way to do this - an IT administrator or a developer can use the Windows Azure Management Portal to create VMs in the cloud (step 1). Those VMs are created using Windows Azure Virtual Machines, the platform’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering. Developers can supply their own VM images as ordinary VHDs or use VHDs provided by Windows Azure, with support for both Windows Server and Linux. Once the VMs exist, developers and testers can use them to build and test a new application, customizing the VMs as they see fit (step 2). Why would you want to do this? Two main reasons - low cost and speed. Windows Azure VMs are available to their users in a few minutes, while deploying VMs in an organization’s own datacenter can take days or weeks. Also, an organization pays for public cloud VMs by the hour, at prices ranging from $0.02 to $1.10 per hour. This is relatively inexpensive, and the VMs can be shut down when they’re not in use, making them even cheaper. Furthermore, with a gallery of images to readily choose from - like Windows Server, SQL Server, and various Linux distributions - your developers can quickly grab the images and start building or testing applications. In addition to using VMs in Azure to build a test and dev environment, your developers can rapidly create apps using the various other services that would usually require time to set up on-premises. For example, there are ready- to-use-services in Windows Azure such as caching or NoSQL databases or SQL Database which are offered as services. Typically, if you had to setup a development environment on-premises, you’d need up servers for all of these and you’d need licenses. With Azure, you eliminate all of this and give your developers a developer friendly environment. Benefits:Deliver Faster. Agile development with no waiting for IT, new hardware, or availability of existing dev/test boxes.Cost. Eliminate cap-ex expense and yet build test environments that scale better than ever.Use Existing Tools. Continue using the development languages, tools and lifecycle technologies you are using today. Test Better.Build bigger test environments that simulate real customer load including spikes without resource contention on the cloud’s “infinite” resources.Leave Production Alone.Prevent dev/test apps from affecting on-premise production performance. Even virtualized on-premise test workloads can on-premise production on shared machines.Access Existing Resources - Securely network from the cloud to on-premise to test against systems of record if necessary.Deploy Anywhere with No Lock-in. Once testing deploy either in the cloud or on-premise
Once everything is developed and tested, you o course have the choice of running in Azure or bringing it back to production environment on your premises. If that’s the case, moving the deployment is easy. Because Windows Azure VMs use the exact same format as the Windows Server Hyper-V i.e. VHD. So if it runs on Hyper-V it runs in Azure and vice-versa. In fact, Windows Azure is built on the same foundation as Windows Server 2012!This is unique for us. Other public cloud vendors will convert the image into proprietary formats and it becomes hard to convert back.If you have your on-premises environment on a different platform other than Hyper-V, the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) Solution Accelerator is a Microsoft-supported, stand-alone solution to convert VMware-based virtual machines and disks to Hyper-V®-based virtual machines and disks. How about management? While you can use the Windows Azure management portal, you can also use the familiar System Center 2012 management console. System Center 2012 introduced the App Controller component to enable organizations to optimize resource usage across their private cloud and Windows Azure resources from a single pane of glass. In SP1, we’ve extended App Controller’s capabilities to integrate with Windows Azure Virtual Machines enabling you to migrate on-premises Virtual Machines to run in Windows Azure and manage them from your on-premises System Center installation.
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