Category: Windows Azure Cloud

How to add a Windows Azure Cloud Service Project on an existing Web Project

You can accomplish this easy step just right-clicking on the Web Project and then select the menu entry “Add Windows Azure Cloud Service Project”

How to add a Windows Azure Cloud Service Project on an existing Web Project

How to know if your code is running on the Windows Azure compute emulator

To understand whether the role instance is running in the Windows Azure compute emulator, you simply need to check this static variable:

RoleEnvironment.IsEmulated

Namespace: Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime
Assembly: Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime (in Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime.dll)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.windowsazure.serviceruntime.roleenvironment.isemulated.aspx

How to know if your code is running in the Windows Azure environment

To understand whether the role instance is running in the Windows Azure environment you simply need to check this static variable:

RoleEnvironment.IsAvailable

Namespace: Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime
Assembly: Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime (in Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime.dll)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.windowsazure.serviceruntime.roleenvironment.isavailable.aspx

Adding a PaaS Cloud Service (Web, Woker Role) to a Virtual Network

A PaaS cloud service, web or worker role, can be added in a Virtual Network only by changing its service configuration file (ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg).

You need to add the NetworkConfiguration node just after the Role node as follow:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<ServiceConfiguration xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" serviceName="MyAzureApplication" osFamily="3" osVersion="*" schemaVersion="2013-03.2.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration">
    <Role name="MyMvcWebRole">
        <ConfigurationSettings>
            <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=xxx;AccountKey=xxx" />
        </ConfigurationSettings>
        <Instances count="1" />
    </Role>
    <NetworkConfiguration>
        <VirtualNetworkSite name="myazure-vnet"/>
        <AddressAssignments>
            <InstanceAddress roleName="MyMvcWebRole">
                <Subnets>
                    <Subnet name="MainSubnet"/>
                </Subnets>
            </InstanceAddress>
        </AddressAssignments>
    </NetworkConfiguration>
</ServiceConfiguration>

Azure Cloud: Sql Virtual Machine – Access with Management Studio over Internet

Today I was trying, using Sql Server Management Studio (SSMS), connecting to a Sql Server 2012 instance, installed on a Windows Azure virtual machine, and even if I followed each step of the easy MSDN guide I’ve not been able to connect to it, as if something was blocking the communication port 1433. In fact, despite having opened the endpoint on the virtual machine from the windows azure control panel, I could not connect, when I realized that probably some ports are blocked by default from Microsoft, then I tried to change to a different public port from 1433 to one that has got a number as high as were the others I seen in the control panel, and everything worked out:

Sql Server SSMS To Azure

Honestly, I do not have documentation that actually Microsoft blocks the ports of known services (maybe for security reason), but I’ve not found a way to be able to use the classic 1433 as the public port, instead the random 55890 port perfectly worked.

This is the MSDN guide that I followed

I hope this advice will face save valuable minutes if not hours