Windows Azure Infrastructure Services Now Live

Microsoft’s Windows Azure virtual machines have officially moved from customer preview to general availability. Microsoft now has the ability to compete head to head with Amazon Web Services and enables customers to deploy and run Windows Server and Linux virtual machines in minutes.

Azure VMs have been in preview mode for about one year and we’ve been working with our customers on a variety of application migration and hybrid cloud scenarios. Azure is a powerful platform and its IaaS capabilities have made it easier than ever for companies to run apps in the cloud.

Here are the major enhancements as of April 16th, 2013:

Windows Azure IaaS

Questions about Azure IaaS services? We offer free Windows Azure Consultations.

Posted in Windows Azure

Automating Windows Azure Virtual Machines with System Center 2012 Service Manager

Greetings all,
Today I take a break from the more technical underlining of development tasks to peek into the Infrastructure and Operations management side of things. This brief talk will explain how easy it is to take Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager, Orchestrator Runbooks, and Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines to integrate and automate provisioning of new VM instances.
Before I get into specifics, let’s discuss these topics from a high overview to make sure everyone understands the topic at hand.

Overview of System Center 2012 SP1

System Center 2012 SP1 is a suite of applications produced by Microsoft for managing enterprise servers, client machines, inventory and asset tracking, enterprise applications, request offerings, problem management and incident reports and many more features. System Center 2012 is comprised of Operations Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, AppController, Data Protection Manager, Configuration Manager, Service Manager, and Orchestrator.

Operations Manager is used to monitor servers, such as SQL database, BizTalk Server and IIS Web Servers. This application can monitor when these servers go offline and when errors occur on these servers. This application can also notify groups of individuals responsible for the health and maintenance of these servers.

Virtual Machine Manager is an application used to manage, create and monitor virtual machines created with Hyper-V. A virtual machine is a virtualized computer that is running in the memory process of a Host Hyper Visor application (Hyper-V). The Hyper Visor application divides up it’s hardware, memory and other assets to provide resources for the virtual machine image. AppController is an application that allows companies to manage their virtual machines created in Virtual Machine Manager from s self provisioning perspective. A Web site can be configured to allow internal employees request and self provision virtual machines across a private internal network, or even the public network known now adays as the public cloud.

Data Protection Manager is an application that allows you to backup and restore virtual machine hard drives, databases, and applications stored on network drives and network shares. It helps to automate the backup and restore process of large files and systems.

Configuration Manager is an application that allows companies to keep track of all hardware, and versions of software installed in a network. It can also be used as an inventory and asset tracking repository.

Read more ›

Posted in System Center 2012, Windows Azure

Windows Azure Developer Camp Kicks Off in NYC

Microsoft and Nimbo kicked off a 22 city Windows Azure Developer camp to help coders of all skill levels become more comfortable working with Microsoft’s cloud platform.

Ira Bell, Nimbo’s COO, led the presentation covering topics ranging from Hybrid Cloud Architectures to Azure Media Services. Washington Leon-Jordan and Rich Stephenson of Nimbo made guest appearances.

Missed it? Want a review? Well – we can’t recreate the magic that happened on the whiteboard but here is a link to part of the presentation: Get the Deck

As promised, here are some links to valuable info: 

If there are any links we missed – please email us at info@nimbo.com and we’ll do our best to add them to this article!

Below are some photos:

Rich Stephenson Talking Code

Washington Leon Jordan of Nimbo Presenting at Windows Azure Developer Camp

Ira Bell of Nimbo Presenting at Windows Azure Developer Camp

Nimbo Azure Deveoper Camp Raffle Winner

Nimbo talks Code

Windows Azure Developer Camp Attendees

Posted in Nimbo Headquarters, Windows Azure

How To Create a Private Cloud using Microsoft Technologies (part 1)

It’s simple really. As with most Microsoft products you right-click, make selection, and boom you are done. And so it is with creating a private cloud: Right-click on “cloud”, select “create cloud”, and click “next” a few times until your are done with the wizard. Is it really that simple?

image

Of course the answer is both yes and no. The steps are straight forward as long as you understand basic networking and virtualization. However, creating a highly-available cloud that is sufficiently elastic, and doing so in a cost effective and secure way is challenging.

We all hear a lot about private clouds but I don’t think most of us still know what technologies and products are used to assemble this relativity new formation. This post will cover why you should consider a private cloud. Future posts will get into the more challenging aspects including step-by-step tutorials.

Read more ›

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Posted in Cloud Computing, Hybrid Cloud, Private Cloud

C# MapReduce in Hadoop on Azure

Over the past year, Microsoft started answering the call companies are making about big data. Much like the industry as a whole, MS is answering with an implementation of hadoop that runs on windows. To run hadoop on your local machine, use the Web Platform Installer to download the HDInsight Server. The installation has a number of examples you can build from to run hadoop locally and get a feel of the offering. MS is taking this a step further by setting up a hadoop on azure solution which is still accessible by invitation only. Somehow I was able to score an invite and this post will focus on setting up a hadoop job.

Objectives

1. Find data to analyze in hadoop
2. Link hadoop azure cluster to BLOB storage
3. Write a MapReduce program in C#
4. Upload a repository file to the HDFS
5. Create a job to run the program
6. Checking Job Errors
Conclusion

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Posted in Windows Azure

How to Disable User Account Control in Windows Server 2012

While working with a System Center installation in Windows Server 2012, one of our clients was not able to access the Configuration Manager Console. Even though we added him to the appropriate groups he was receiving the following error:

The user account running the Configuration Manager console has insufficient permissions to read information from the Configuration Manager site database. The account must belong to a security role in Configuration Manager. The account must also have the Windows Server Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) Remote Activation permission for the computer running the Configuration Manager site server and the SMS Provider.

Even when we added his domain account to the Domain Admins and Enterprise Admins group, he still received the error. I eventually realized that User Account Control was blocking his ability to enter the Configuration Manager Console with elevated permissions. The problem I encountered with Windows Server 2012 is that even when you select “Never notify” to disable User Account Control – it’s not actually disabled. I should note that I never received a notification in the first place that User Account Control was blocking this access – but nonetheless I’ve located the proper place to disable User Account Control on Windows Server 2012.

  1. Open PowerShell
  2. Type Regedit then hit enter
  3. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
    CurrentVersion\policies\system
  4. Double click on EnableLUA
  5. Change the Value data to a 0
  6. Click OK, then reboot the server

A screen cap of this process is shown below:

Read more ›

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Posted in Ira Bell, New Jersey, New York City, System Center 2012, Windows Server 2012

The Ultimate PowerShell Guide for System Center 2012 SP1 App Controller Management Cmdlets

Hello, In this article, I will attempt to cover every known System Center 2012 App Controller Management Cmdlet for PowerShell. Each of the Cmdlets are displayed with a description, respective category, and the code / syntax. You can access the App Controller cmdlets on your App Controller server in one of two ways: 1. Open the App Controller command shell. When you open the App Controller command shell, a Windows PowerShell window opens and the App Controller module is imported for you.

  • To open the App Controller command shell, on your App Controller server, click Start, All Programs, Microsoft System Center 2012, App Controller, App Controller PowerShell.

2. Import the App Controller module. You can import the App Controller module into an open Windows PowerShell session.

  • To import the App Controller module, at the Windows PowerShell command prompt, enter Import-Module -Name AppController.
  • To verify that the App Controller module has been imported into your current Windows PowerShell session, at the Windows PowerShell command prompt, enter Get-Module. You should see the name AppController in the returned list of modules.

PowerShell Cmdlet Description, Code, and Syntax
Add-SCACShare Adds a library share. (Function)

Parameter Set: __AllParameterSets
Add-SCACShare [-SharePath] <String> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> Add-SCACShare -Path "\\LibraryServer\LibraryPath"
Add-SCACUserRole Creates an App Controller user role. (Function)

Parameter Set: Default
Add-SCACUserRole [-Name] <String> [-Description <String> ]  [-IsReadOnly] [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\>Add-SCACUserRole -Name "UserRole01" 
-Description "Test User Role" -IsReadOnly
Add-SCACUserRoleMember Adds a member to a user role. (Function)

Parameter Set: Default
Add-SCACUserRoleMember [-UserRole] <ACUserRole> [-Member]
 <String> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $UserRole = Get-SCACUserRole –Managed | where 
{ $_.Name –eq "UserRole01" }
PS C:\> Add-SCACUserRoleMember –UserRole 
$UserRole –Member "Contoso\ReneeLo"
Add-SCACUserRoleScope Adds Service Provider Foundation connection cloud objects to the scope of objects that a user role can manage. (Function)

Parameter Set: AzureScope
Add-SCACUserRoleScope [-UserRole] <ACUserRole>
[-AzureSubscriptionScope] <ACAzureSubscriptionCloud>
[ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: SPFScope
Add-SCACUserRoleScope [-UserRole] <ACUserRole>
[-ServiceProviderConnectionScope] <ACCloudSystem>
[-VmmUserRoleName] <String> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $UserRole = Get-SCACUserRole -Managed | 
where {$_.Name -eq "UserRole01"}
PS C:\> $CloudSystem = Get-SCACCloudSystem -Name 
"SvcProvider01.Contoso.com"
PS C:\> Add-SCACUserRoleScope -UserRole $UserRole 
-ServiceProviderConnectionScope $CloudSystem -VMMUserRoleName 
"TenantSSUserRole01"
Remove-SCACAzureSubscription Removes a Windows Azure subscription from App Controller. (Function)

Parameter Set: Default
Remove-SCACAzureSubscription [-Subscription]
<ACAzureSubscriptionCloud> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $Cloud = Get-SCACCloud | where { $_.Name 
–eq “AzureSubscription01” }
PS C:\> Remove-SCACAzureSubscription 
–Subscription $Cloud
Remove-SCACCloudSystem Removes a connection to a cloud system. (Function)

Parameter Set: Default
Remove-SCACCloudSystem [-CloudSystem] <ACCloudSystem>
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $CloudSystem = Get-SCACCloudSystem -Name 
"Management.Core.Windows.Net"
PS C:\> Remove-SCACCloudSystem 
–CloudSystem $CloudSystem
Remove-SCACShare Removes a library share. (Function)

Parameter Set: Default
Remove-SCACShare [-Path] <String> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> Remove-SCACShare -Path “\\LibraryServer\LibraryShare”
Remove-SCACUserRole Removes the specified user role. (Function)

Parameter Set: Default
Remove-SCACUserRole [-UserRole] <ACUserRole>
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $UserRole = Get-SCACUserRole –Managed | where 
{ $_.Name –eq “UserRole01” }
PS C:\> Remove-SCACUserRole 
–UserRole $UserRole
Remove-SCACUserRoleMember Removes a member from a user role. (Function)

Parameter Set: Default
Remove-SCACUserRoleMember [-UserRole] <ACUserRole>
[-Member] <String> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $UserRole = Get-SCACUserRole –Managed | where 
{ $_.Name –eq "UserRole01" }
PS C:\> Remove-SCACUserRoleMember 
–UserRole $UserRole –Member "Contoso\ReneeLo"
Remove-SCACUserRoleScope Removes a Windows Azure subscription cloud object from the scope of objects that a user role can manage. (Function)

Parameter Set: Default
Remove-SCACUserRoleScope [-UserRole] <ACUserRole>
[-Scope] <ACAzureSubscriptionCloud> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $UserRole = Get-SCACUserRole –Managed | where 
{ $_.Name –eq “UserRole01” }
PS C:\> $Scope = Get-SCACCloud | 
where { $_.Name –eq “AzureSubscription01” }
PS C:\> Remove-SCACUserRoleScope -UserRole $
UserRole -Scope $Scope
Add-SCACAzureDisk Adds a virtual hard disk to Windows Azure. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: SourcePath
Add-SCACAzureDisk -Cloud <ACAzureSubscriptionCloud>
-DisplayName <String> -Name <String>
-OperatingSystem <OperatingSystemType>
-SourcePath <String> -StorageBlob
<Uri> [-Force] [ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: SourceVHD
Add-SCACAzureDisk -Cloud <ACAzureSubscriptionCloud>
-DisplayName <String> -Name <String>
-OperatingSystem <OperatingSystemType>
-SourceVHD <StandaloneVirtualHardDisk>
-StorageBlob <Uri> [-Force]
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $Clouds = Get-SCACCloud
PS C:\> Add-SCACAzureDisk 
-Name "VHD01" -DisplayName "VHD01.vhd" 
-Cloud $Clouds[0] -StorageBlob 
"https://container01.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/VHD01.vhd" 
-SourcePath “\\FileShare\VMs\Vhd01.vhd" 
-OperatingSystem "Windows" -Force
Add-SCACAzureImage Adds a virtual hard drive to the Windows Azure image store. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: SourcePath
Add-SCACAzureImage -Cloud <ACAzureSubscriptionCloud>
-DisplayName <String> -Name <String> -OperatingSystem
<OperatingSystemType> -SourcePath <String> -StorageBlob
<Uri> [-Force] [ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: SourceVHD
Add-SCACAzureImage -Cloud <ACAzureSubscriptionCloud>
-DisplayName <String> -Name <String> -OperatingSystem
<OperatingSystemType> -SourceVHD <StandaloneVirtualHardDisk>
-StorageBlob <Uri> [-Force] [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $Clouds = Get-SCACCloud
PS C:\> $VHD = Get-SCVirtualHardDisk -Name "VHD01.vhd"
PS C:\> Add-SCACAzureImage –Name "Image01" 
-DisplayName "Image01" -Cloud $Clouds[0] -StorageBlob 
"http://container01.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/VHD01.vhd" 
-SourceVHD $VHD -OperatingSystem "Windows"
Add-SCACAzureSubscription Adds a Windows Azure subscription to App Controller. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Default
Add-SCACAzureSubscription [-Name] <String>
[-Id] <Guid> [-ManagementCertificatePath]
<String> [-ManagementCertificatePassword]
<SecureString> [-Description <String> ]
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $MCPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString 
"PassWord!" -AsPlainText -Force
PS C:\> Add-SCACAzureSubscription –Id 
"1626950e-3af6-4fe8-a7d2-e489c18931a2" 
–ManagementCertificatePassword $MCPassword 
–ManagementCertificatePath "C:\CertificatePath" 
–Name "AzureSubscription01"
Add-SCACCloudSystem Adds a new connection to a VMM management server or service provider. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: SPF
Add-SCACCloudSystem [-Name] <String>
[-ServiceLocation]
<Uri> [-CertificateFilePath] <String>
[-CertificatePassword] <SecureString> -SPF
[-Description <String> ] [ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: VMM
Add-SCACCloudSystem [-Name] <String> [-ServerName]
<String> [-Port] <Int32> -VMM [-Description <String> ]
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $Password = ConvertTo-SecureString "PassWord!" 
-AsPlainText -Force
PS C:\> Add-SCACCloudsystem 
-Name "ServiceProvider01" -ServiceLocation 
"https://Server01.contoso.com:8090/SC2012/VMM/
Microsoft.Management.OData.svc/
4deca2d5-6169-49ca-aa7a-efd6e4b372a3" 
-CertificateFilePath "\\FileServer01\Certs\TenantCert.pfx" 
-CertificatePassword $Password -SPF
Export-SCACAesKey Exports the App Controller AES key from the registry to the specified file. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Default
Export-SCACAesKey [-Path] <String> [-Password]
<SecureString> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\>$Password = ConvertTo-SecureString "PassWord!" 
-AsPlainText -Force
PS C:\> Export-SCACAESKey 
-Path "C:\Keys\Key.txt" -Password $Password
Get-SCACAdminSetting Gets one or more administrator settings from the App Controller server. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: CEIP
Get-SCACAdminSetting [[-CEIPEnabled]]
[ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: JobHistoryPeriod
Get-SCACAdminSetting [[-JobHistoryPeriodInDays]]
[ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: RefreshInterval
Get-SCACAdminSetting [[-RefreshIntervalInSeconds]]
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\>Get-SCACAdminSetting
PS C:\>Get-SCACAdminSetting -CEIPEnabled
Get-SCACAzureHostedService Gets the hosted services on a specified Windows Azure cloud. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Default
Get-SCACAzureHostedService [-Cloud]
<ACAzureSubscriptionCloud> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $CloudSystem = Get-SCACCloudSystem -Name 
"CloudSystem01.Contoso.com"
PS C:\> $Cloud = Get-SCACCloud -CloudSystem 
$CloudSystem
PS C:\> Get-SCACAzureHostedService 
-Cloud $Cloud
Get-SCACAzureRoleInstance Gets all role instances running in Windows Azure. (Cmdlet)

Get-SCACAzureRoleInstance [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> # The Get-SCACAzureRoleInstance 
cmdlet is for internal use only.
Get-SCACAzureServiceDeployment Gets a specified Windows Azure service deployment. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Cloud
Get-SCACAzureServiceDeployment [-Cloud] <ACCloud>
[ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: HostedService
Get-SCACAzureServiceDeployment [-HostedService]
<ACAzureHostedService> [[-DeploymentSlot] <String> ]
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $CloudSystem = Get-SCACCloudSystem 
-Name  "CloudSystem01.Contoso.com"
PS C:\> $Cloud = Get-SCACCloud 
-CloudSystem $CloudSystem
PS C:\> $HostedService = 
@(Get-SCACAzureHostedService -Cloud $Cloud)
PS C:\> Get-SCACAzureServiceDeployment 
-HostedService $HostedService[0]
Get-SCACCloud Gets one or more App Controller cloud objects. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Default
Get-SCACCloud [[-CloudSystem] <ACCloudSystem> ]
[[-Id] <Guid> ] [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $CloudSystem = Get-SCACCloudSystem -Name 
"CloudSystem01.Contoso.com"
PS C:\> Get-SCACCloud 
-CloudSystem $CloudSystem
PS C:\> Get-SCACCloud -Id 
"bb4915e4-e4bf-499d-8126-b6e80c63daff"
Get-SCACCloudSystem Gets one or more cloud systems on an App Controller server. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Default
Get-SCACCloudSystem [[-Name] <String> ] [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> Get-SCACCloudSystem
PS C:\> Get-SCACCloudSystem -Name "Management.Core.Windows.Net"
Get-SCACJob Gets App Controller jobs. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: AllJobs
Get-SCACJob [[-All]] [ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: SingleJob
Get-SCACJob [[-Id] <Guid> ] [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> Get-SCACJob -All
PS C:\> Get-SCACJob -ID "bb4915e4-e4bf-499d-8126-b6e80c63daff"
Get-SCACServer Gets and establishes a connection with an App Controller server. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Default
Get-SCACServer [-ServerName] <String> [[-Credential]
<PSCredential> ] [[-UserRole] <String> ]
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $Credentials = Get-Credential
PS C:\> Get-SCACServer -ServerName 
"https://AppControllerSvr01.Contoso.com" 
-Credential $Credentials
PS C:\> $Credentials = Get-Credential
PS C:\> $ACServer = Get-SCACServer -ServerName "
https://AppControllerSvr01.Contoso.com" 
-Credential $Credentials
PS C:\> $ACServer
PS C:\> $Credentials = Get-Credential
PS C:\> Get-SCACServer -ServerName 
"https://AppControllerSvr01.Contoso.com" 
-Credential $Credentials -UserRole "UserRole01"
Get-SCACServiceDeployment Gets the service deployment for a cloud. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Cloud
Get-SCACServiceDeployment [-Cloud] <ACCloud>
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $CloudSystem = Get-SCACCloudSystem 
-Name "CloudSystem01.Contoso.com"
PS C:\> $Cloud = Get-SCACCloud -CloudSystem 
$CloudSystem
PS C:\> Get-SCACServiceDeployment 
-Cloud $Cloud
Get-SCACTemporaryStorage Gets the temporary storage used by the App Controller server. (Cmdlet)

Get-SCACTemporaryStorage [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> Get-SCACTemporaryStorage
Get-SCACUserRole Gets user roles on the App Controller server. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Managed
Get-SCACUserRole -Managed [ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: MyRoles
Get-SCACUserRole -MyRoles [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> Get-SCACUserRole -Managed
PS C:\> Get-SCACUserRole -MyRoles
Resume-SCACServiceDeployment Resumes the specified suspended service deployment. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Default
Resume-SCACServiceDeployment [-ServiceDeployment]
<ACServiceDeployment> [[-RunAsynchronously]]
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $CloudSystem = Get-SCACCloudSystem -Name 
"CloudSystem01.Contoso.com"
PS C:\> $Cloud = Get-SCACCloud -CloudSystem 
$CloudSystem
PS C:\> $SvcDeployment = @(Get-SCACServiceDeployment 
-Cloud $Cloud | where { $_.Status -eq "Suspended" })
PS C:\> Resume-SCACServiceDeployment -ServiceDeployment 
$SvcDeployment[0] -RunAsynchronously
Set-SCACAdminSetting Sets an administrator setting to a specified value. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: AdminSettingBySettingObject
Set-SCACAdminSetting [-AdminSetting] <ACAdminSetting>
[-Value] <Int32> [ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: CEIP
Set-SCACAdminSetting [-CEIPEnabled] <Boolean>
[ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: JobHistoryPeriod
Set-SCACAdminSetting [-JobHistoryPeriodInDays]
<Int32> [ <CommonParameters>]

Parameter Set: RefreshInterval
Set-SCACAdminSetting [-RefreshIntervalInSeconds]
<Int32> [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> Set-SCACAdminSetting -JobHistoryPeriodInDays 60
PS C:\> Set-SCACAdminSetting –CEIPEnabled $True 
PS C:\> $Setting = Get-SCACAdminSetting 
-RefreshIntervalInSeconds
PS C:\> Set-SCACAdminSetting -AdminSetting 
$Setting -Value 30
Set-SCACCloudSystem Updates the properties of a cloud system. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Default
Set-SCACCloudSystem [-CloudSystem] <ACCloudSystem>
[-CertificateFilePath <String> ] [-Description <String> ]
[-Name <String> ] [ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $CloudSystem = Get-SCACCloudSystem -Name 
"CloudSystem01.Contoso.com"
PS C:\> Set-SCACCloudSystem -CloudSystem 
$CloudSystem -Name "Test Cloud System" 
–Description "This is a test cloud system."
Set-SCACTemporaryStorage Sets the temporary storage used by the App Controller server. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: SpecifyPath
Set-SCACTemporaryStorage [-Path] <String>
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> Set-SCACTemporaryStorage -Path "\\ACServer02\ACStorage"
Suspend-SCACServiceDeployment Suspends the specified service deployment. (Cmdlet)

Parameter Set: Default
Suspend-SCACServiceDeployment [-ServiceDeployment]
<ACServiceDeployment> [[-RunAsynchronously]]
[ <CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> $CloudSystem = Get-SCACCloudSystem -Name 
"CloudSystem01.Contoso.com"
PS C:\> $Cloud = Get-SCACCloud 
-CloudSystem $CloudSystem
PS C:\> $SvcDeployment = @(Get-SCACServiceDeployment 
-Cloud $Cloud)
PS C:\> Suspend-SCACServiceDeployment 
-ServiceDeployment $SvcDeployment[0] -RunAsynchronously

- Ira Bell

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Posted in Ira Bell, New Jersey, New York City, Nimbo Headquarters, PowerShell, System Center 2012, Windows Azure

Windows Azure IaaS Scheduled Maintenance

Hello,

Microsoft has just announced planned maintenance on Windows Azure IaaS VMs:

The Windows Azure team will be performing maintenance operations that will briefly impact Windows Azure Virtual Machines. The expected impact should be limited to brief Virtual Machine unavailability and should only impact single Virtual Machines in an Availability Set, if they are deployed as part of an Availability Set, as described here. The daily maintenance window for this activity for each sub-region can be found in the table below.

- Ira Bell

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Posted in Azure VM Role, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Ira Bell, New York City, Nimbo Headquarters, Windows Azure

How to Provision SQL Server 2012 in Windows Azure IaaS

The days of waiting for Tuesday’s staff meetings to put a request for a new server for your team are long gone, and so are the weeks of waiting for the network guys to find a time to set it up. After a few interactions of the Microsoft Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering, provisioning a Server has never been easier.

In this tutorial I am going to walk you through the steps needed to provision a virtual machine in the Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform, with SQL Server 2012. Once the server is installed, we will implement the recommended hard drive optimizations to maximize the performance of this server.

Read more ›

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Posted in Azure VM Role, Cloud Computing, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Washington Leon-Jordan, Windows Server 2012

System Center 2012 Orchestrator Runbook Designer Activities List

Hello,

I’ve been working with System Center 2012 Orchestrator a lot more lately in an effort to facilitate the management of Windows Azure. After spending a lot of time in the Runbook Designer, I thought it might be relevant to call out some of the Activities you can include in a Runbook – since I don’t think many people are really aware of what’s available:

  • System
    • End Process
    • Get SNMP Variable
    • Monitor SNMP Trap
    • Query WMI
    • Restart System
    • Run .NET Script
    • Run Program
    • Run SSH Command
    • Save Event Log
    • Send SNMP Trap
    • Set SNMP Variable
    • Start/Stop Service

    Read more ›

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Posted in Ira Bell, New Jersey, New York City, Nimbo Headquarters, Windows Azure

How to use Flashcards to Stay Current in your Field

We all know that technology changes quickly. With mobility and cloud computing I’ve never seen things move faster. The rate of change is astonishing. How do we keep up?

I like to use flashcards. Specifically the Flashcards Deluxe app on iOS. It’s easy to use and powerful. Plus it has a spaced repetition mode that is a learning technique that maximizes long term retention. It also has a cram mode based on the Leitner system.

There are loads of flashcards on many topics available on sites like Quizlet.com or Flashcard Exchange.com. It’s easy to import the cards into the Flashcards app.

Because I’m usually learning bleeding edge tech, I often have to make my own cards. Again, this is easy to do but time consuming. My preferred method is using a Google Docs spreadsheet.  Column A is for the front of the flashcard and column B is for the back.

image

Inside of the Flashcards app, you connect to your Google Drive and select the Spreadsheet that represents the deck. Here’s the app’s website for more info.

Read more ›

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Posted in Education

A quick spin around Google Compute Engine

Like most geeks I sometimes can’t wait to play with a new gadget that I hurry to get it out of the box and start seeing what it can do. This morning Nimbo got accepted into the limited beta of their Google Compute Engine (GCE) so I thought that I would provide my thoughts on it.

First up a quick disclaimer, although we partner with some of the largest cloud providers in the industry we take an open mind to any new cloud players and see if they are a fit for our customers. Most of our customers have Windows OS cloud computing workloads and are dabbling in big data but are not fully in yet.

This is a very quick first look at GCE.

Google Compute Engine Background

GCE is a cloud service in the flavour of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and was announced by Google at the Google IO conference on June 29, 2012. It ignored the big hypervisors such as VMWare, Microsoft (Hyper-V) and Citrix (Xen) instead of opting for an open source Linux Kernel Based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor, see the open source project here. Red hat assisted Google in making efficient use of the KVM to allow it to scale to Enterprise loads which could pave the way for Redhat running their own Enterprise Linux in GCE. Currently GCE only supports running Linux workloads and Windows workloads are not supported. KVM itself has support for running Windows Images so Google would be crazy not to include this in their roadmap. KVM open source project has support for migrating workloads from VMWare and Xen images so it can be assumed that this tooling will be offered for free to GCE customers.

Read more ›

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Posted in Cloud Computing, Google Compute Engine, Nimbo Headquarters

Windows Azure Hybrid Cloud Authentication and Access Architectures

This article was originally posted on Microsoft TechNet as a guest blog. It is part of a series, “31 Days of Windows Servers (VMs) in the Cloud.”

Throughout January, some really bright people have come together to touch on several topics around Windows Servers (VMs) in the Cloud. We’ve seen things covering topics from the basics of creating Virtual Machines in the Cloud to more advanced PowerShell approaches for management of the Azure platform. The aim for these discussions has been centered on peeling the layers back to expose what’s capable with Windows Azure.

One of the topics that I discuss most with CIOs and CTOs in New York City is Authentication and Access using Windows Azure. The flexibility of Windows Azure is great – in that you can have isolated environments for development, testing, or production – as well as a hybrid environment using Azure’s Virtual Network connectivity offering. But how do you address the architecture around Authentication and Access when we’re connecting a new foreign environment to our on-premise environment?

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Posted in Active Directory Federation Services, Azure VM Role, Cloud Computing, Hybrid Cloud, Ira Bell, Windows Azure

How to Create a Hybrid On Premise-Cloud TFS 2012 Build Server

Introduction

TFS Server 2012, and Team Foundation Service (TFS in the Cloud) allow you to take advantage of the power to provide source control, collaboration, agile planning, test execution and continuous builds and integration.

We recently completed a project for a global law firm where we needed to implement continuous builds, and create an automatic packaging and deployment mechanism. We utilized Team Foundation Service (TFS in the cloud) as our source control, however the default feature set of TF Service did not allow us to customize our packaging and deployment process according to our requirements.

TFS in the Cloud Diagram

Enter the World of Hybrid

We wanted to take advantage of Team Foundation’s Source Control in the cloud (TF Service), and still have the ability to customize packaging and deployment processes. At first we thought this was going to be difficult, however to our surprise, TFS makes hybrid designs a first class citizen with it’s core new functionality.

TF Service does provide a default build server. It’s limitations are that you can only build pure Core .Net Framework applications. This includes: ASP.Net, WF, WCF, WPF, and Windows Forms. Whenever you want to build Server specific product applications such as SharePoint Server, BizTalk Server, or anythng that requires server components or third party components to be installed and registered, you’ll have to ask Microsoft for the permission to install it upon the default TF Service Build server instance. This means it’s left up to Microsoft to allow you to do it or not. At the time of our project, SharePoint and BizTalk were not supported, and thus we needed to look elsewhere for a solution.

The Setup

We created  two on premise TFS Build servers. Each server was configured to retrieve it’s source code from TF Service Source Control.

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Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Hybrid Cloud, Team Foundation Server

WOWZAPP 2012: Worldwide Hackathon for Windows 8

I attended a three day Windows 8 Hackathon in Brooklyn, NY this past weekend. The goal was to learn how to create Windows 8 apps for traditional PC’s as well as Windows tablets like the Surface.

Microsoft has great resources for helping people create apps so I won’t go into app creation too much, but I will write about the app submission and approval process. I’ll also rant a little bit about something called product-market fit.

Think Different

Creating an app for Windows 8, which really is a mobile operating system, introduces some new challenges for developers who are accustomed to writing Web or PC software. Three things that are going to be new to us Microsoft developers:

1. Responsive user interface: asynchronous programming

Many of us have done asynchronous programming before, but with Windows Store apps it is required so the users experience is fast and fluid. In the past async programming added complexity to an app. More code was required and the code jumped around a lot and was scattered and often unorganized. It was difficult to understand what was happening and when it was happening. Choosing to do async calls made a code base more difficult to maintain and harder for new team members to ramp up. With Windows RT, Microsoft has abstracted away a lot of the complexity with async programming. Here is explanation and code sample from Microsoft.

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Tagged with: , , ,
Posted in Education, Mobility, Richard Stephenson, Windows 8

        

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