This book provides the most important information about the key services of the Azure platform for developers and IT professionals with no experience with cloud technologies. Detailed step-by-step instructions are provided to help the reader learn the basics of working with all important services.
 
 
The material will be useful not only for beginners mastering Azure, but also for professionals who need to restore material in memory, as well as for people familiar with only some of the topics discussed. The chapters of the book are independent: to understand the contents of a chapter, you do not need to study the examples from the previous chapters.
 
.
 
 
 

Table of contents

 
 
Acquaintance with Azure - 1;
 
Azure Application Service and Web Applications - 32;
 
Virtual machines - 70;
 
The storage service is 101;
 
Virtual networks Azure - 133;
 
Databases - 157;
 
Azure Active Directory - 181;
 
Controls - 206;
 
Additional Azure services - 231;
 
Scenarios for use are 238.
 
 
 

Acquaintance with Azure

 

What is Azure?

 
Azure is a Microsoft cloud platform.
 
 

Cloud technologies - general information

 
Cloud technology is a modern alternative to traditional local data centers. All procurement and maintenance tasks are entirely under the responsibility of the public cloud service provider. It provides clients with access to various platform services. Customers lease hardware and software resources, which they only need from time to time. So they convert the capital costs for the purchase of equipment into transaction costs. In addition, this approach allows customers to lease access to hardware and software resources, the purchase of which would be too expensive. Customers can access only those devices that the cloud platform provider offers, but they only pay when they are used.
 
 
Web portals are used to manage cloud environments (their computing resources, storages, networks and applications). For example, on the Azure portal, the user can create a virtual machine (VM) configuration in which the following characteristics will be defined: virtual machine configuration (processor, RAM and local disks), operating system, pre-deployed software, network configuration and virtual machine location. After that, the user can deploy the virtual machine based on this configuration and start working with it in a few minutes. Previously, it would take a physical machine to be deployed, one purchase of which could take several weeks, so the ability to deploy quickly looks very attractive.
 
 
We talked about public clouds. There are also private and hybrid clouds. A private cloud is a cloud environment that is created in the company's own data center, and users (employees of the company) are provided with tools for the independent use of its resources. Users work with this environment in much the same way as with a public cloud, but all the tasks of purchasing and maintaining equipment, choosing hardware and software resources are fully managed by the company. Hybrid cloud - an environment that combines a public and private cloud. This approach makes it possible to choose the most suitable variant for placing workloads. For example, if the load on a website varies widely, it can be placed in a public cloud and connected to a secure database in its private cloud (or in a local data center).
 
 
Microsoft solutions support public, private and hybrid clouds. The Microsoft Azure platform, which this book is dedicated to, is a public cloud. Microsoft Azure Stack is an extension for Windows Server 2016 that allows you to deploy many of Azure's core services to a local data center and provide users with a self-service portal. These components can be integrated with the hybrid cloud via a virtual private network (VPN).
 
 

The local environment and Azure are a comparison of

 
When using the local infrastructure, the hardware and software components that you deploy are completely under your control. Therefore, in the past, when purchasing equipment, they usually aimed at vertical scaling (that is, they tried to acquire a server with a large number of cores to ensure the required performance). If you are using Azure, you can only use the devices that Microsoft offers. In this case, in order to improve performance, horizontal scaling is used: you simply deploy additional computing nodes. This feature must be taken into account when designing the architecture of software systems, however, as practice has shown, horizontal scaling (the deployment of inexpensive devices) is much more cost effective than vertical (purchasing high-performance devices).
 
 
At the time of writing, Microsoft Azure data centers are open in more than 22 regions of the world: from Melbourne to Amsterdam, from São Paulo to Singapore. In addition, Microsoft has entered into an agreement with 21Vianet, and now the Azure platform is available in two regions of China. Microsoft Corporation announced the deployment of Azure in eight other regions. Only large corporations can open data centers on such a scale. Therefore, with the help of Azure, companies of any size can deploy their services in the places of concentration of their customers in any regions of the Earth. And all this - even without leaving the office!
 
 
Azure allows young companies to start at a very low cost and quickly scale the infrastructure as new customers arrive. Running one or more new virtual machines does not require large pre-payments. Modern young companies usually scale quickly and quickly learn from their mistakes. The use of cloud technologies fully complies with these principles.
 
 
Azure helps quickly and flexibly launch new environments for development and testing. You can use scripts to deploy such environments. So, if necessary, you can run the development or testing environment, test and delete it. As a result, the company saves a lot and almost does not spend money on supporting the infrastructure.
 
 
Another advantage of Azure is the ability to test new software versions without replacing local hardware. Suppose you need to find out how your application will change when you switch from Microsoft SQL Server 2014 to Microsoft SQL Server 2016. To do this, you simply create an instance of SQL Server 2016 and run a copy of your services by connecting it to a new database-no need to allocate equipment, or draw wires. Or you can run a virtual machine that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 instead of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2.
 
 

The cloudy offer is

 
Cloud services usually fall into one of three categories: SaaS, PaaS or IaaS. However, with the development of cloud technologies, the border between them is becoming less clear.
 
 

SaaS: software as a service

 
The software, which is located in a centralized environment and is managed on behalf of the client, is called SaaS (software as a service). Typically, this approach uses a multi-tenant architecture, i.e., an application of the same version is provided to all clients. It can be scaled to multiple instances to provide optimal performance regardless of location. For the licensing of SaaS, subscriptions with monthly or annual payments are usually used.
 
 
One example of SaaS is Microsoft Office 365. Users pay a monthly or annual subscription and access several products: Exchange as a service (web client and /or desktop Outlook application), storage as a service (OneDrive), and other components of the Microsoft package Office (desktop and /or web versions). At the same time, subscribers are always provided with the most current version of the product. So you can, in fact, get at your disposal the Microsoft Exchange server without the need to purchase it, install and maintain - other servers will be responsible for managing the Exchange server, including installing patches and updates. This option is much cheaper and easier in terms of maintenance than the installation of Microsoft Office and its annual update.
 
 
Other examples of SaaS products are Dropbox, WordPress and Amazon Kindle.
 
 

PaaS: platform as a service

 
As part of the PaaS approach, you deploy your application in a special application deployment environment that is hosted by a cloud service provider. The developer creates the application, and the PaaS provider provides the ability to deploy and run it. As a result, developers do not need to deal with infrastructure maintenance, which means they can devote all their time to development.
 
 
Within Azure, several PaaS offers are available, including the Azure Application Web Application component, as well as the Azure cloud services (web role and work role). In all cases, developers have many ways to deploy the application without having to understand the details of the auxiliary infrastructure. Developers do not have to create virtual machines, connect to them using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), or install the application. They just need to press a button (or perform another equally simple action), and Microsoft tools will prepare virtual machines, deploy and install the application on them.
 
 

IaaS: infrastructure as a service

 
The IaaS cloud service provider monitors and maintains the server farms on which virtualization software systems run. In these systems, customers create virtual machines that function in the provider infrastructure. The client creates a virtual machine running Windows or Linux (the available options depend on the service provider) and installs everything on it. Azure allows you to configure virtual networks, load balancers and storage, and use many other services that work in this environment. The client can not manage devices or software virtualization systems, but almost everything else is in its full
 
disposal. With this approach (unlike PaaS), the software is controlled by the customer.
 
 
Azure Virtual Machines (IaaS-Azure offer) is a very popular tool for migrating services to Azure, as it, in fact, allows you to simply transfer the necessary solutions. You can create a virtual machine, similar to the infrastructure of your data center, in which the services are working now, and move your applications to it. In some cases, additional actions may be required (for example, changing URLs in such a way that they point to new services or repositories), but this approach allows you to move a lot of applications.
 
 
Scalable sets of Azure virtual machines (VMSS), based on Azure virtual machines, allow you to quickly create a cluster of identical virtual machines. In addition, VMSS supports automatic scaling (automatic deployment of new virtual machines as needed). Due to this, VMSS is an ideal platform for hosting computing clusters based on higher-level microservices: for example, for Azure Service Fabric and Azure Container Service.
 
 

Azure Service

 
The Azure cloud platform includes many services. Let's consider some of them.
 
 
 
Calculation services. This category includes Azure virtual machines (running Linux and Windows), cloud services, application services (web applications, mobile applications, Logic Apps, API applications and application functions), a batch service (for executing large parallel and batch computation tasks ), RemoteApp, Service Fabric and Azure container service.
 
Data services. This includes the Microsoft Azure store (which includes Azure BLOB, queue, table, and file services), the SQL Azure database, the DocumentDB, the StorSimple database, and the Redis cache.
 
Application Services. This category includes the services used to create and run applications, including Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), the service bus for connecting distributed systems, HDInsight for large data processing, Azure scheduler and Azure multimedia services.
 
Network services. This group includes Azure services such as virtual networks, ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Azure traffic manager and Azure content delivery network.
 
 
When migrating an application, it is important to understand what services are available in Azure, since this knowledge will help to simplify application migration and increase its flexibility. It is not possible to explain in detail all the available services within the framework of this book, so we selected a few of the most interesting ones. Chapter 9 ("Additional Azure Services") provides a list of these services and a brief explanation of their capabilities.
 
 

New World: Resource Manager Azure

 
Azure Resource Manager is a new approach to deploying resources.
 
 

What it is?

 
The deployment model using Azure Service Management (ASM) was used to deploy services since the launch of the public evaluation version. Services that are managed by ASM are referred to as classic on the Azure portal. In 201? Microsoft introduced the deployment model with the Azure Resource Manager (a modern and more functional ASM replacement), which is recommended for managing new workloads.
 
 
These deployment modes are often called "control planes" because they are used not only to deploy services, but also to manage them. Do not confuse them with "data planes" - data management tools that are used by the service.
 
 
The infrastructure functioning in Azure, as a rule, contains mA number of resources, some of which are linked: for example, to run a Web application, component services are required. Suppose you need two virtual machines on which the web application will work. To store data, a database located in the same virtual network will be used. The Resource Manager allows you to deploy all of this within a single resource group that you can manage as a single entity. Deployment, updating, and deletion of all resources that belong to the same group are performed in one action.
 
 
In this example, the resource group will contain the following:
 
 
 
Virtual machine 1
 
The virtual machine 2
 
Virtual network
 
Storage account
 
SQL Azure Database
 
 
In addition, you can create a template with an accurate description of all Resource Manager resources that are relevant to the deployment. After this, it is sufficient to perform one operation in the control plane to deploy this Resource Manager template as a resource group. In this case, the Resource Manager Azure will take care of ensuring that all resources are deployed correctly. In addition, the Resource Manager supports various options for working with deployed resources: security, auditing and adding tags.
 
 

What are the advantages of the Resource Manager?

 
Using the Resource Manager offers a number of benefits. It allows you to deploy resources faster, because it performs operations not sequentially (like ASM), but in parallel. The deployment model with the Azure Resource Manager allows each service to work with its service provider and, if necessary, update it independently of other services. The Azure store has one service provider, virtual machines have another, and so on. When using the ASM model, all services had to be updated at the same time, so if one service completed the upgrade earlier than the rest, it would still need to wait for others before the release. Here are a few more important advantages of the deployment model with the Azure Resource Manager:
 
 
Ability to deploy using templates.
 
 
 
You can create a JSON template and reuse it to deploy all resources for a solution with one action. You no longer need to create one virtual machine through the portal, wait for the process to complete, start the creation of the next one, and so on.
 
You can re-deploy the same resource sets with a template. Suppose you have configured resources in a test environment and realized that they do not fit your needs. You can delete this resource group (it will automatically delete all the resources that it contains), change the template and try again. To modify a set of deployed resources, just modify the template and run it again: Resource Manager will change the resources so that they match the new template.
 
Using the template, you can quickly create several versions of the infrastructure: for example, the intermediate and the working environment. Different fields (for example, the name of the virtual machine, the name of the network, the storage account, etc.) can be parameterized, and then load the template several times with different parameter values.
 
 
Resource Manager is able to detect dependencies in templates and allows you to specify additional dependencies. For example, deploying a virtual machine before creating a storage account for VHD files that store operating system and data disks is a bad idea.
 
 
Security
 
 
 
To control access to group resources, you can use a new mechanism called "Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)." For example, you can assign the user an "owner" role, and then he will have full administrative rights with respect to the resources of this group - but not other subscription resources. There are other roles, for example, the "reader" (allows you to read everything except classified data) and "participant" (allows you to perform almost any operation except adding and removing access).
 
 
Invoicing
 
 
 
To organize all the group resources for convenient billing, you can assign tags to each resource, and then get data on payments for using resources with a specific tag.
 
 
If, for example, a web application and several related resources are occupied by one department, you can assign one tag to all these resources. After that, you will be able to receive information about payments related to this department by the specified tag.
 
 
Note. Resources within a group do not inherit the tag set for the group as a whole. The tags will need to be assigned to each individual resource.
 

Use the Resource Manager as efficiently as possible

 
Microsoft has prepared several tips for effectively working with applications and components using the Resource Manager.
 
 
 
Instead of using PowerShell scripts or the command-line interface (CLI), it is recommended that you use templates. The script commands are executed sequentially, and the resources specified in the template can be deployed in parallel, which is much faster.
 
Automate as many operations as possible using templates. You can specify configurations for various extensions, for example, PowerShell DSC and Web Deployment. Then, when creating and configuring resources, you do not need to perform any actions manually.
 
Use PowerShell or Azure CLI to manage resources (for example, to start or stop a virtual machine or application).
 
Place resources with the same life cycles in the same resource group. Let's return to the example above. What if the database is used for multiple applications or is it required that it continue to work even after the application is disconnected or uninstalled? It is not very convenient to create a database every time you redeploy an application and its components. In this case, you can put the database in a separate resource group.
 
 

Tips for using resource groups

 
When dividing resources into groups, be guided by considerations of expediency in a particular situation. A resource group is a logical container that contains related resources for an application or group of applications. When deciding on a resource group, consider the following:
 
 
 
As already mentioned, in one group should be placed resources with a common life cycle.
 
A resource can not be added to several groups simultaneously.
 
A resource can be added to or deleted from a resource group at any time. Note: each resource must belong to a group, so when you remove a resource from one group, you must add it to another group.
 
A resource of almost any type can be moved to another resource group at any time.
 
Resources that belong to the same group can be located in different regions.
 
The resource group allows you to control access to the resources that it includes.
 
 

Tips for using the Resource Manager templates

 
The Resource Manager templates are essentially instructions for deploying and configuring the application. They are used to repeatedly deploy the application and all the resources that are required for it.
 
 
You can split the deployment into several templates and create a master template that will contain references to all other required templates.
 
 
Templates can be changed. Modified templates can be deployed again. For example, you can add a record of a new resource to the template, or update the resource configuration information. When you re-deploy the template, Resource Manager creates all the necessary new resources and applies the updated settings. An example of using this feature is discussed in Chapter 5 ("Azure Virtual Networks") when deploying a Vnet template with two subnets. After that, the third subnet is added and the template is re-expanded, after which this subnet appears on the Azure portal.
 
 
Templates can be parameterized to more flexibly manage the deployment process. The parameterization allows you to reuse the template, but you can also assign other values ​​to parameters such as the virtual machine name, virtual network name, storage account name, region, etc.
 
 
Data about the current state of resources in the resource group can be exported as a template. It can then be used as a layout for other deployments, or you can modify and deploy it again to modify the properties of the current resources in the group.
 
 
Below is an example of a JSON template. When you deploy this template, you create an account named "mystorage" in the "West US" region. The template is parameterized; you can create a file with parameters and specify the newStorageAccountName (the name of the new storage account) and location. If there is no such file, standard parameters are used.
 
 
{
"$ schema": "http://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "???.0",
"parameters": {
"newStorageAccountName": {
"type": "string",
"defaultValue": "mystorage",
"metadata": {
"description": "The unique DNS name of the storage account in which the virtual machine disks will reside."
}
},
"location": {
"type": "string", "defaultValue": "West US", "allowedValues":["West US", "East US" ],
"metadata": {
"description": "Limits the choice of regions in the United States, in which Premium storage is available."
}
}
},
"resources":[

{
"type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts", "name": "[parameters('newStorageAccountName')]"," apiVersion ":" 2015-06-15 "," location ":"[parameters('location')]"," properties ": {" accountType ":" Standard_LRS "
.
}
}
]
} .
 

Classical deployment model

 
Let's talk a little about what was before the appearance of the Resource Manager. Now such resources are called classical. For example, a client can have storage accounts, virtual machines, and virtual networks that are managed using a classic deployment model. The classic model and deployment model using Azure Resource Manager is incompatible - Resource Manager resources can not interact with classic resources and vice versa. For example, the "PaaS Azure Cloud Services" component is classic, so you can work with it only through classic storage accounts. There is one exception to this rule: you can host the Resource Manager virtual machines in classic storage accounts. This feature simplifies the migration of virtual machines from the classic deployment model to the deployment model using the Azure Resource Manager.
 
 
Note: during this migration, you may need to log in to the classic Azure portal, which displays classic resources, but does not have Resource Manager resources, and vice versa.
 
 
Note. There are two versions of the portal. The current portal is Azure, available at portal.azure.com . Most of the features have been moved to the Azure portal, but there are a few exceptions, for example, Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). The previous version of the portal is called "classic Azure portal" (https://manage.windowsazure.com). Now it can be used to manage Azure AD services, as well as to configure and scale classic resources (for example, cloud services).
 
You can transfer your resources from the classic deployment model to the deployment model using the Azure Resource Manager.
 
 
 
Files, tables, and BLOBs can be moved from the classic storage account to a new Resource Manager storage account using AzCopy. Note: the tables must be exported from the classic account, and then imported into the Resource Manager account.
 
Virtual machines can be moved as follows: disable them, copy the VHD file to a new Resource Manager storage account, and then re-create the virtual machine using the VHD file.
 
Virtual networks can be created as Vnet objects in the Resource Manager.
 
In addition, the migration service is started (now it is in the publicly available trial version). At the moment it is not recommended to use it for production loads. For more information, see article .
 
 
 

Deployment model accounting in PowerShell scripts

 
Chapter 8 ("Management Tools") discusses some tools for working with Azure, including the Azure PowerShell and Azure CLI cmdlets.
 
 
When you developed the deployment model using the Resource Manager, Azure tried to create PowerShell cmdlets that only worked for the deployment model using the Resource Manager. In the names of these cmdlets, AzureRm is used instead of the word Azure. For example, to create a classic storage account, you can use the New-AzureStorageAccount cmdlet. To create a storage account in the Resource Manager, you must run the New-AzureRmStorageAccount cmdlet.
 
 
This is done so that the user can immediately understand what kind of resource he creates. In addition, in this way, it is possible to correctly execute the previously created scenarios. Each time you deploy a Resource Manager resource, you must specify the resource group to which you want to place it. In addition, some Resource Manager cmdlets (for example, the cmdlet to create a virtual machine) support more detailed parameters than the cmdlets of the classical model.
 
 
And the last note: the changes affect only those PowerShe cmdletsll associated with the storage accounts that are related to the control plane (for example, cmdlets for creating, deleting, and displaying a list of storage accounts). For PowerShell cmdlets that serve to access storage contents (BLOBs, tables, queues, and files), nothing has changed. It is enough to transfer them a link to the necessary storage account, and they are ready to use.
 
 
 
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