Windows Azure Series 1: Concepts and software required for development and deployment based on Windows Azure

Recently, my company has been exploring Windows Azure for more than a month, so I am sharing some experience with my colleagues.

The first part describes some basic concepts and the software to be used.

1. What is Azure?

Azure is a relatively new concept. Why is it a concept instead of a product? Because Azure's technical foundation is relatively mature, whether it's Amazon, Microsoft, or Google, the cloud was quickly started, rather than saying that such a product was only available after a research in year 35. However, we will find that cloud technologies are mostly used by large companies, and few new startups can run cloud services on their own. The reason is traced back to the origin of Cloud technology. Amazon was the first to make the cloud. We all know that Amazon was the first to buy books and buy books on the Internet. Many investors have invested a lot of money to buy numerous servers and resources around the world, but in recent years, they have discovered that only 15% of these hardware resources are not in use. However, things have already been purchased, and they are not value-added and cannot be sold. So they tried to find a way to use so many excess resources that a US research institute was studying Cloud technology or the concept of cloud, simply put, the excess hardware resources are combined and then provided to users for use. Then, they are charged based on the amount of usage. This is a good idea. You don't need to say much about the benefits. As a result, the earliest cloud service of Amazon appeared.

Currently, there are three main cloud services: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), that is, hardware is a Service; PaaS (Platform as a Service), and Platform is a Service; software as a Service (SaaS), Software is a Service. Amazon first provided IaaS; now Microsoft's major PaaS products have also opened up IaaS recently; SaaS products are available in various products, and SOA products are basically known, this is what BS development architecture currently means.

We chose Windows Azure, which does not mean that its performance is better than others, its functions are better than others, and its services are better than others, mainly because it provides a relatively complete Windows-based PaaS, we are now a Windows development platform. Small and medium-sized enterprises generally choose Windows, because the development cycle is short, the cost is low, and the maintenance is convenient. The price is relatively cheap and acceptable. For example, in our company, the users of our BS products have peak and low valley periods. The peak periods are only one or two months, and we can pay as much as we can. The choice of cloud service providers should be determined based on the actual needs of their own companies. one sentence: no best, only the most suitable.

In addition, Microsoft provides public clouds and private cloud solutions. If you think you need data security, consider private data. Not to mention, there is a lot of information on the Internet in detail, so you can read it slowly.

2. concepts to be aware:

Portal: Windows Azure Management Center website, http://www.windowsazure.com, and a MSN account bound, now Chinese Mainland cannot use directly, need to apply from Hong Kong or other countries, each account can apply for a three-month free subscriber, but requires a Hong Kong phone number, a mobile phone number from other supported countries, and a credit card. Or you can join bizspark if you are a company. For more information, see http://www.bizspark.com.

Subdomains: Simply put, An MSN can be bound to different cloud service setting environments, because one of my accounts can be used for testing and for official release, it is like a war network pass with multiple WOW instances. All services and payments are based on subdomains.

Host Service: the node used to deploy our services.

Storage Account: cloud-based Message Queue, Blob large file Storage, and Table structured data Storage all require Storage accounts. Because azure provides automatic load balancing, every virtual machine may encounter unexpected node switchover, restart, and storage location change. Therefore, we used to write files using IO, which would be useless, to dynamically store data on the cloud, either a database, blog, or Table.

Windows Azure SDK: A development kit used to create a Windows Azure Project

Windows Azure Emulator: Windows Azure local simulator installed with the SDK.

Package: when Windows Azure is released, the SDK is packaged before being uploaded for deployment.

Role: two types of WebRole and WorkerRole. WebRole is automatically deployed on IIS, and WorkerRole is deployed as a common process. Currently, I have tested and confirmed that the REST-based WCF Service cannot be correctly published on WorkerRole. For details, I will describe it in the blog that details Worker Role.

Instance: a Role can be deployed on multiple instances. Each Instance is a virtual machine. You can use Remote Desktop Connection to automatically balance the load. Microsoft recommends that at least two instances be required for each Role. Why? I mentioned above. This is the biggest charge. Instances are divided into several types based on the CPU and memory sizes from extremely small to extremely large.

Certifacte: used to verify local communications with the cloud.

SQL Azure: the version of SQL on the cloud.

Firewall: to access a database, you must add the local IP address to Firewall to locally connect to SQL Azure.

Service Bus: If you want to put code on your own machine, but want people outside to access your service, you need to use Service Bus. It also has many functions, so I will discuss them later.

Virtual Network: similar to VPN.

3. software to be installed:

1) Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate (if you are a member of bizspark, you can have a subcategory for free, 2 Small instances per month, 5 GB Web SQL Azure)

2) Windows Azure SDK

Https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/downloads/

Java and PHP can also be used

3) Fiddler (recommended for simulating/testing HTTP Request)

4) SQL Server Management Studio 2008 R2/SSMS 2012

5) Script Wizard, used to port the database to SQL Azure

Http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/(3rd-part)

Http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ee730904.aspx

6) tools used by Azure Diagnostics Manager to monitor debugging data

Http://cerebrata.com/Products/AzureDiagnosticsManager/ (3rd-part, paid, 30-day trial, with dashboard)

Of course, there is also free of charge in codeplex.

7) A heart that loves New Technologies!

I have to say that the era of selling software has passed. 10 years ago it was the era of OO, 5 years ago it was the era of SOA, and now and in the future it is the era of XaaS. The concept of cloud is an inevitable trend, we don't need to, but we can't help but understand.

Today we will simply write this point. Tomorrow I will write more details about Role.