Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing SDK

Microsoft has developed a software system that runs distributed data centers that it develops. The Azure development package under Microsoft Windows platform is already available. This development package can be found in the technical community and can be used for application development.

This is the first of a number of azure articles on Microsoft's 2008 cloud computing platform. Azure is so large that you can see some complete books on Azure next year. In other words, it is not yet possible to give a comprehensive introduction to Azure. But anyway, I do want to let you know about Azure and lead us all to run azure together. So in the first article, I'm going to take you through the simple examples in the software development package and explain the concepts.

In order to run Azure, you must install the Vista operating system with Service Pack 1 or the Windows Server 2008 operating system beforehand, and then install Visual Studio 2008 (or Visual Studio 2008, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition). Finally, you will also need to install database SQL Server or SQL Server 2008 Express. Finally, you need to install the Azure SDK (software Development Kit) and Azure Tools for Visual Studio. These two tools can be obtained from here and here respectively.

The Fundamentals of Azure

One of the basic tenets of Azure (and many other cloud computing platforms) is the concept of distributed services in geography. It allows users around the world to download or use servers that are geographically isolated from users. This has obvious benefits, such as faster response times and minimal data exchange.

When you develop software based on Azure, the software you develop is in the form of a so-called "computing service," a major part of the software running on the Azure platform, because server-side code (such as ASP.net) runs on the Azure platform.

Microsoft uses the word "role" to represent a code component that can be run. For example, we can create a asp.net application as a "role", called a "network role". Further, you can create additional modules for background programs that are called "worker roles." In combination, one or more roles form a computing service.

Before uploading the software to the Azure cloud computing platform, we can use the two tools in the SDK (software Development Kit) to help implement cloud computing in our environment. These two tools simulate Azure's service features, the first of which is development Fabric and the other is development Storage.

Development fabric mainly simulates azure locally and includes a tool for managing running services.

The Development storage simulates the service-side storage service. Azure provides two ways to store data, and you can decide what you want to do based on your actual needs. First, you can access the traditional relational database through SQL Data Services, the cloud version of SQL Server. Second, you can also access the storage database called flat storage System services. development tool, Development storage simulates the latter storage mode.

Compared to other platforms, such as Amazon.com's AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Google's Web apps, installing the Azure SDK is cumbersome. The first thing to do is download a fairly large SDK and related tools for Visual Studio. (I find that many online forums on the Internet ignore the second part of the--visual Studio tool, so they're frustrated when they can't install successfully)

In many cases, even if you have installed SQL Server 2005 and 2008, I still need to install SQL Server 2008 Express, because this is clearly a required component. (I say "obviously" because this document implies that while SQL Server 2008 Express is needed, you may still be working without it.) I can't actually do that. )