Kategorie: Microsoft Azure

Geo-filtering available for Akamai Standard profiles

Restricting access to your content by country is a powerful CDN feature. We’re excited to announce this is now available for all Akamai Standard profiles directly in the Azure portal.

This feature will allow you to specify specific paths on your endpoint and set rules to block or allow access to a specific list of countries.

If you are using either Standard or Premium from Verizon, the feature will still be accessed through the supplemental management portal for the time being. It will be migrated to the Azure portal in the future.

To access the new feature, follow these steps:

Find your CDN profile at https://portal.azure.com.

2. Select an Endpoint.

3. Navigate to Geo-filtering.

4. Enter a file or directory path for PATH, an ACTION to block or allow, and one or more countries. The example below allows access to “myendpoint1.azureedge.net/pictures/mypics/*” from only the United States.

5. Hit Save and wait for the changes to propagate.

For more details, see please visit the full documentation page.

Additional resources

CDN feature overview
Azure CDN UserVoice
Azure CDN MSDN forum

Quelle: Azure

ASR and Azure Hybrid Use Benefit make application migration to Azure even more cost-effective

Hybrid Use Benefit (HUB) lets Microsoft Software Assurance customers carry their on-premises Windows Server licenses to applications they move to Azure and easily extend their datacenter to the cloud. The HUB program, in addition to dramatic cost savings and asset productivity achieved by moving your applications to the industry’s leading hybrid enterprise public cloud,  allows you to realize significant savings on licensing costs.

Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is the tool of choice for our customers to migrate applications to Azure. ASR provides minimum downtime, hassle free migration to Azure across virtualization platforms and physical servers. By letting you test your applications in Azure before you migrate, and offering one click application migration through recovery plans, ASR simplifies the process of migrating to Azure. ASR supports migration of a wide range of operating systems including Windows Server and various Linux distributions, no matter what platform your applications are running on. What’s more – migration using ASR is free!  Yes, you read that right the first time, migration using ASR is free.  For the first 31 days from the time you start replicating your server, you only pay for the storage you consume on Azure and for the compute you use to test migration.

Azure Site Recovery, now lets you leverage your Hybrid Use Benefit while migrating your Windows servers to Azure. In this blog post, I’ll show you how you can use ASR and HUB to migrate your Windows Server environments to Azure.

Getting setup with Azure Site Recovery

The first thing you want to do is to get setup with Azure Site Recovery and start replicating your applications to Azure. All of this can be done in a few simple steps, as outlined in the following articles

If you are virtualized on Hyper-V, follow this article to get your servers replicating to Azure.

If you are virtualized on VMware or running on Physical servers, follow this article to get started with replication.

HUB is only available on servers migrated to Azure Resource Model (ARM) virtual machines. Ensure that the storage account you select for replication is an ARM Storage account and not a Classic Storage Account.

Once initial replication completes, your servers reach the protected state in ASR, at which point you are ready to test and migrate your applications to Azure.

Use the Compute and Network configuration on the replicated item settings blade on the Azure portal to select the Azure virtual network and virtual machine size to migrate to.

Configure migration to use HUB

Once your servers are protected and you’ve validated your application in Azure by performing a test failover, all that’s left to do before you complete the migration is to configure ASR to use HUB while migrating your server. You can set this up in a few simple steps using Azure PowerShell. Get the latest version of Azure PowerShell from here. Ensure that you have the latest version of the AzureRM.SiteRecovery module (version 3.1.0 or later.)

PS C:Usersbsiva> Get-Module -ListAvailable AzureRm.SiteRecovery

Directory: C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft SDKsAzurePowerShellResourceManagerAzureResourceManager

ModuleType Version Name ExportedCommands
———- ——- —- —————-
Manifest 3.1.0 AzureRM.SiteRecovery {Get-AzureRmSiteRecoveryFabric, New-AzureRmSiteRecoveryFabric, Remove-AzureRmSiteRecoveryFabric, Stop-AzureRmSiteRecoveryJob…}

 

Login to your Azure account and select your Azure subscription:

PS C:Usersbsiva> Login-AzureRmAccount

Environment : AzureCloud
Account : bsiva@microsoft.com
TenantId : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
SubscriptionId : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
SubscriptionName : ASR PM team subscription 5
CurrentStorageAccount :

PS C:Usersbsiva>
PS C:Usersbsiva>
PS C:Usersbsiva> Select-AzureRmSubscription -SubscriptionName "DR Hybrid Application Scenarios"

Environment : AzureCloud
Account : bsiva@microsoft.com
TenantId : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
SubscriptionId : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
SubscriptionName : DR Hybrid Application Scenarios
CurrentStorageAccount :

Set the Recovery Services vault context:

 

PS C:Usersbsiva> $vault = Get-AzureRmRecoveryServicesVault -Name "Contoso-RecoveryVault" PS C:Usersbsiva> Set-AzureRmSiteRecoveryVaultSettings -ARSVault $vault ResourceName ResourceGroupName ResourceNamespace ResouceType ———— —————– —————– ———– Contoso-RecoveryVault Contoso-Recovery Microsoft.RecoveryServices vaults

Get the list of replicating machines in the vault:

PS C:Usersbsiva> $ReplicatedItems = Get-AzureRmSiteRecoveryFabric | Get-AzureRmSiteRecoveryProtectionContainer | Get-AzureRmSiteRecoveryReplicationProtectedItem
PS C:Usersbsiva> $ReplicatedItems | Select-Object -Property FriendlyName

FriendlyName
————
Contoso-EngWikiDB
Contoso-PayrollDB

 

Set the HUB License Type for the machines that are being migrated:

PS C:Usersbsiva> $Job1 = Set-AzureRmSiteRecoveryReplicationProtectedItem -ReplicationProtectedItem $ReplicatedItems[0] -LicenseType WindowsServer

 

Validate that the ASR Job completed successfully:

PS C:Usersbsiva> Get-AzureRmSiteRecoveryJob -Job $Job1

Name : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
ID : /Subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/Contoso-Recovery/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/Contoso-RecoveryVault/repl
icationJobs/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx
Type :
JobType : UpdateVmProperties
DisplayName : Update the virtual machine
ClientRequestId : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx-2016-10-19 18:50:18Z-P ActivityId: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
State : Succeeded
StateDescription : Completed
StartTime : 10/20/2016 12:20:18 AM
EndTime : 10/20/2016 12:20:22 AM
TargetObjectId : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
TargetObjectType : ProtectionEntity
TargetObjectName : Contoso-EngWikiDB
AllowedActions :
Tasks : {Update the virtual machine properties}
Errors : {}

 

And that’s it! You are now all set to migrate your application to Azure.

Migrate to Azure

With ASR now setup to let you migrate to Azure and benefit from HUB, all that’s left to do is the final step of migrating your application to Azure. You can do this from the Portal or using ASR PowerShell cmdlets. To do this from the portal, go to your Recovery Services vault, select the replicated machine or recovery plan if you’ve set one up, and select the Failover action.

 

Once the failover job completes successfully, you’ll find your migrated VM among the virtual machines in your subscription. Verify that your VM is utilizing the licensing benefit.

At this point you can clean up the replications you had setup in your Recovery services vault by selecting Complete Migration and retire the on-premises infrastructure that you were previously using to host your application.

Migrating to the cloud was never easier. With a few simple steps you can easily migrate your existing applications and benefit from the superior cloud economics and power of the hyper-scale platform that Azure is.

This is awesome, where do I learn more about leveraging ASR to provide business continuity for my IT infrastructure, or to migrate my applications to Azure?

You can  check out additional product information, and start replicating your workloads to Microsoft Azure using Azure Site Recovery today. You can use the powerful replication capabilities of Site Recovery for 31 days at no charge for every new physical server or virtual machine that you replicate. Visit the Azure Site Recovery forum on MSDN for additional information and to engage with other customers, or use the ASR UserVoice to let us know what features you want us to enable next.

Azure Site Recovery, as part of Microsoft Operations Management Suite, enables you to gain control and manage your workloads no matter where they run (Azure, AWS, Windows Server, Linux, VMware or OpenStack) with a cost-effective, all-in-one cloud IT management solution. Existing System Center customers can take advantage of the Microsoft Operations Management Suite add-on, empowering them to do more by leveraging their current investments. Get access to all the new services that OMS offers, with a convenient step-up price for all existing System Center customers. You can also access only the IT management services that you need, enabling you to on-board quickly and have immediate value, paying only for the features that you use.
Quelle: Azure

Azure is Gold: CSA STAR Certification achieved

We are happy to announce that Azure recently obtained the CSA STAR Certification. This is very exciting for us since Microsoft Azure is the only major public cloud service provider to earn this certification with the highest possible Gold Award for the maturity capability assessment.

With CSA STAR Certification, customers can gain confidence that Microsoft Azure is meeting customer needs and relevant regulatory requirements, as well as actively monitoring, measuring, and continually improving the effectiveness of our management system. In addition, Microsoft Azure has proved its diligence and effective methods around corrective actions, addressing customer complaints, and implementing a systematic process to remediate issues.

The CSA STAR Certification for Microsoft Azure can be downloaded from the CSA Registry. The certificate covers Microsoft Azure, Intune, and Power BI. If you would like additional information, you can star-gaze at our Microsoft Trust Center.

NOTE: The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) maintains the Security, Trust & Assurance Registry (STAR), a free, publicly accessible registry in which cloud service providers can publish their CSA-related assessments. STAR Certification represents a rigorous third-party independent assessment of cloud provider’s security posture based upon achieving ISO 27001 certification and the specified set of criteria outlined in the CSA Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM), which has been mapped to industry accepted security standards, regulations, and control frameworks such as ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, AICPA SOC 2, FedRAMP, and NIST. It demonstrates that Microsoft, as a cloud service provider, conforms to the applicable requirements of ISO 27001, addresses issues critical to cloud security as outlined in the CCM, and has been assessed against the STAR Capability Maturity Model for the management of activities in CCM control areas.
Quelle: Azure

Use actors to talk to millions

You have hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of sensors in your stores, factories, pipelines. And something goes wrong. You need software that can make intelligent decisions in real time, perhaps coordinating hundreds of devices: stop the assembly line, reroute the flow.

Or you’ve created a SaaS service that’s suddenly become wildly successful, with tens of thousands of users online at any given time. Your site is groaning under the strain. Your users demand real-time response, you need resiliency, you can’t wait on SQL databases – and you need it to be easy to program so your developers can get it to market fast.

There’s a solution, and it’s been “battle-tested” in a surprising place: online video games, in particular, the best-selling “Halo” franchise from Microsoft. “Actor frameworks” make massive scale for millions of interacting users (or devices) a straightforward thing.

Think about it: when you log on to Halo online, there’s a little piece of code running in the cloud – it represents you; and there may be hundreds of thousands of other players online simultaneously, all with their own little piece of code. That little code object is your “actor,” and it keeps track of where you are in the game, your score, your weapons.

It’s you in the cloud.

The same concept can be used for managing IoT sensors, cars, customers – any scenario where you have to keep track of lots of things at once. Little code objects that represent something real. Not you (or your sensor or your customer): but code in the cloud that acts on your behalf. An actor.

Which server is your actor running on? Where is your opponent’s? What if the server fails? How do you scale? Your developers don’t have to care: the framework takes care of all the low-level infrastructure, scale, networking, and failover.

The point: massive, distributed scale – which used to be a Hard Problem – isn’t anymore. Your developers focus on business logic – adding value to your business.

The “actor frameworks” in Halo were originally developed by Microsoft Research and 343 Industries. But there’s been such demand for a “productized” version that we’ve incorporated the actor model into our comprehensive next-generation microservice cloud application framework, called Service Fabric, available in Azure (and on-premises as well) today. Service Fabric is equally battle-hardened, being the evolution of the application infrastructure used in mission-critical applications like Skype for Business, Cortana, and a number of Azure services. It includes auto-scaling, integrated health monitoring, service healing, orchestration and automation for microservices of all kinds – actors, as well as containerized (like Docker) applications.

Because developers focus only on business logic, not infrastructure, actors accelerate your time to market. Dr. Gregory Athas, principal software architect at BMW, who implemented Service Fabric actors for their BMW Connected application, says, “We’ve found actors to be a natural way to model users in our system. They allow us to focus on our core functionality while inherently supporting persistence, scalability, and resiliency.” Similarly, Stephen Berard of Schneider Electric adds, “Service Fabric reliable actors enabled us to build a scalable solution for implementing our device logic within EcoStruxure.io.”

You may have detected a theme in our recent posts: that increasingly the cloud permits developers and analysts to focus on business logic, and not infrastructure. Actor-model is a great example of this: the cloud provides hyperscale, failover, and all sorts of other benefits, while your developers focus on adding value to your business.

That’s what enterprise computing in the 21st century is all about.

*  *  *

Oh, and a postscript: You can do all sorts of things with actors. One of my colleagues, Barry Briggs, wrote an actor-based spreadsheet – where each cell is an actor — a few years ago as a technology demonstration running in Azure. Using several hundred cores he was able to load and model the world’s historical weather records – into one sheet.

Here he is demonstrating (with a nice technical description of actor model):

Quelle: Azure

Release preview of Microsoft System Center and Application Insights integration

Microsoft released a technical preview of System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) management pack for .NET Application Performance Monitoring (APM) with Visual Studio Application Insights. You can use this management pack to centrally configure Application Insights APM directly in the Operations Manager console for the .NET web apps that are already deployed to your on-prem web servers.

The management pack wizard lets you choose which web apps you want to monitor and associate them with new or existing Application Insights resources in Microsoft Azure portal. When running, the management pack automatically detects new instances of the web apps on the desired group of servers, deploys necessary monitoring infrastructure, and starts sending the application telemetry to Azure. The monitored app does not have to be pre- instrumented by the developer, although using the Application Insights SDK can further increase the diagnostic value of the collected telemetry.

Learn how to configure and use .NET APM with Application Insights in System Center and download the management pack from Microsoft Download Center.
Quelle: Azure

Application Insight Analytics: Schema updates

We have enhanced the schema of Analytics, the powerful query language of Visual Studio Application Insights. We’ve separated metrics into performanceCounters and customMetrics, and we’ve introduced browserTimings to show page load data from the client side. These changes improve the discoverability of the data, simplifying your queries and exposing new metrics and dimensions of your telemetry.

performanceCounters schema

This schema is the single place where you should look for any performance counter that is reported from your application. Whether the performance counter is automatically collected by Application Insights SDK or you have configured the application to send other performance counters, the data can be found in this schema.

For example, to find out what performance counters are being reported:

To get a chart of available memory over the recent period:

The performanceCounters schema exposes the category, counter name, and instance name of each performance counter. Counter instance names are only applicable to some performance counters, and typically indicate the name of the process to which the count relates. In the telemetry for each application, you’ll see only the counters for that application. Let’s see what counters are available in our sample telemetry:

Like other telemetry, performanceCounters also has a column cloud_RoleInstance that indicates the identity of the host machine on which your app is running. For example, to compare the performance of your app on the different machines:

customMetrics schema

If you are using TrackMetric() to send your own telemetry, you’ll find that in the customMetrics schema. For example:

browserTimings schema

At last we expose client side metrics. Many of you have asked for this and we are happy to support your request.

Set up your app for client-side telemetry in order to see these metrics.

The new schema includes the following metrics: networkDuration, sendDuration, receiveDuration, processingDuration and totalDuration. These metrics indicate the lengths of different stages of the page loading process. (They don’t indicate the length of time your users read a page.)

name can be used to filter by page name, and there are also properties such as client_OS and client_Browser. We also provide you with the performanceBucket property to quickly analyze and group the client side metrics by buckets.

For example, to find out which pages on your site are most popular, and how long they take to load:

Tell us what you think

We hope these changes help you to understand your application’s usage and performance better. The data is there – all you have to do is just query it.

As always, feel free to send us your questions or feedback by using one of the following channels:

Suggest ideas and vote in Application Insights ideas
Join the conversation at the Application Insights Community
Try Application Analytics

Quelle: Azure