Think first. Code later.

Screencast for Minimizing SQL Azure’s Attack Surface

June 18, 2012

A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of minimizing SQL Azure’s attack surface. My point was to bring awareness to the fact that when you check the “Allow other Windows Azure services to access this server” check box when creating a SQL Azure server you’re opening the server up to potential attacks from within the data center. The solution, as I wrote is fairly simple. All you need to do is uncheck the box and add a rule to the SQL Azure firewall that only allows traffic through from you Azure service’s virtual IP address (VIP). To drive the point home I thought I’d create a screencast to show you exactly what I do. Click on the image below to watch and enjoy!

In azure azure, iaas, microsoft, paas, sql, sql azure, windows azure

Mobile.Compile() for the Week of June 10, 2012

June 15, 2012

Apple

Is This The Evolution Of iPhone’s UI We All Hoped For?

Apple Previews iOS 6

http://www.delicious.com/redirect?url=http%3A//blogs.forrester.com/thomas_husson/12-06-11-apples_ios_6_will_open_up_new_product_experiences%3Fcm_mmc%3DRSS-_-MS-_-79-_-blog_2317

iOS 6 SDK Beta Now Available

Simulating an iPhone or iPad browser for ASP.NET Mobile Web Development with Web…

Apple Previews iOS 6 With All New Maps, Siri Features, Facebook Integration, Sha…

Cross Platform

PhoneGap 1.8.1 Released!

What’s New with Sencha.io

Force

Mobile Application Development Library

Microsoft

Publishing wait times decline, new unlock option

In compile apple, compile, iOS, microsoft, mobile, phonegap, sencha

Cloud.Compile() for the Week of June 10, 2012

June 15, 2012

Amazon
AWS Support Expands Free Tier, Adds New Features, Lowers Prices
Amazon Elastic MapReduce Announces Support for HBase
Amazon RDS MySQL on t1.micro, starting at just $19 a month
Announcing AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles for EC2 instances
Announcing Internal Load Balancing in Amazon Virtual Private Cloud

Apple
New Resources for Using iCloud Storage

Cloud Foundry
Administer Cloud Foundry with mobile apps
Redis in Action with Cloud Foundry

Force
Database.com Presents Its New Documentation Portal
Creating Mobile Apps with PhoneGap and Database.com
When Mobile met Cloud

Microsoft
Infrastructure as a Service Series: Support for Linux Virtual Machines on Window…
USENIX Best Paper Award: Erasure Coding in Windows Azure Storage
Security, Privacy & Compliance Update: Availability of SSAE 16 / ISAE 3402 Attes…
SQL Reporting for Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud goes live
New Blob Lease Features: Infinite Leases, Smaller Lease Times, and More
Introducing Table SAS (Shared Access Signature), Queue SAS and update to Blob SA…
Introducing Asynchronous Cross-Account Copy Blob
TechEd 2012: New Windows Azure Storage Features, Improved Manageability, and Low…
Cross-Post: Welcome to the Era of the Cloud OS and Infrastructure by Satya Na…
New Storage Features on the Windows Azure Portal
Introducing Locally Redundant Storage for Windows Azure Storage

Rackspace
Rackspace Cloud Load Balancers Adds New API Features
Cloud Computing: More Secure Than You Think
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Now Available On Cloud Servers

In compile amazon, apple, aws, azure, cloud, cloud computing, cloud foundry, compile, ec2, icloud, microsoft, rackspace

Windows Azure Linked Resources

June 14, 2012

One of the new features available in the latest release of Azure is the ability to link related resources. This means that you can indicated which other Windows Azure resources you are using with your application such as databases, caches, or storage accounts. Once a resource is linked, you can easily scale, monitor, and configure the resources together. Setting up a linked resource is pretty straightforward. Here’s what you need to do:

First, log in to the Windows Azure Management portal at http://manage.windowsazure.com

Next, select CLOUD SERVICES

Click on the arrow next to the cloud service you want to link a resource to

On the dashboard for the cloud service, click the LINKED RESOURCES link

On the linked resources page click LINK A RESOURCE

Select if you want to create a new resource (i.e. a new SQL Database) or using an existing one. In this case I’ll select Link an existing resource

Then select SQL Database

Select your subscription and database, then enter your database credentials and click the checkmark in the bottom right hand corner of the page

A few seconds later you’ll see you’re resource has been successfully linked

I also created a screencast that walks you through these steps. Click on the image below to check it out!

In azure azure, cloud, cloud computing, iaas, paas, Scale, windows azure

Running WordPress on Windows Azure

June 13, 2012

One of the new features of Windows Azure is the ability to run WordPress sites backed by a MySQL databases. It’s incredibly simply to set up and should take you under 10 minutes. Heres’ what you need to do.

The first thing you’ll need to do, if you haven’t already done so, is to enable the new Windows Azure Web Sites features for you Azure subscription. You can do so by logging into http://account.windowsazure.com.

Once Windows Azure Web Sites are enabled for your subscription, log in to the management portal at http://manage.windowsazure.com

Next, click on WEB SITES

Then click CREATE A WEB SITE

Next click FROM GALLERY at the bottom of the page

Scroll down the list of apps, select WordPress, and click the arrow in the bottom right corner

Enter a URL for your WordPress site and click the arrow in the bottom right corner

On the New MySQL Database change the name of the database (if you want to), check the legal terms checkbox, and click the checkmark in the bottom right corner

Windows Azure will now create your WordPress site. This will take less than five minutes. Once the site has a status of running, you can click on the URL to start configuring WordPress.

At this point, it’s just like configuring any other WordPress site. Enter your site’s title, username, password, email and click Install WordPress.

The installation will take less than five minutes. Once completed, click on the Log In button.

Then log in with your credentials…

…and

…there you go your ready to start blogging on Azure using WordPress

I also created a screencast of how to do this. Click on the picture below to check it out!

In azure azure, cloud computing, iaas, microsoft, paas, WordPress

Getting to the BIOS on Windows 8

June 12, 2012

In a couple of prior posts I talked about how to install the Windows 8 Release Preview from a USB stick and how to create a bootable VHD for the Windows 8 Release Preview. But, what if you need to install Windows 7 on the machine where you installed Windows 8? Well, believe it or not, I had to because I’m testing out some recording equipment and the drivers fail to install on Windows 8.

The first thing I did was to create a bootable USB stick to install Windows 7 from using the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool from the Microsoft Store Online.

Next, I shutdown my Acer Iconia tablet, plugged in the USB stick, and pressed the power and Windows buttons so I could get into the BIOS and boot from the USB stick, just like I had done to install Windows 8. The only problem was that I couldn’t get into the BIOS. The tablet would boot into Windows 8, instantly.

After doing a little digging I found out that the secret to Windows 8 ridiculously fast boot time is due to a feature called Fast Startup. Here’s a description of the feature:

Fast startup is a setting that helps your PC start up faster after shutdown. Windows does this by saving system info to a file upon shutdown. When you start your PC again, Windows uses that system info to resume your PC instead of restart it

Notes

*The fast startup setting doesn’t apply to Restart. You need to shut down and then start your PC again for fast startup to take effect.

*Fast startup is turend on by default in Windows.

If you want to read more about Windows 8 fast boot time, I recommend this article by Steven Sinofsky.

So, to get to the BIOS I needed to disable the Fast Startup feature. Here’s how I did it.

Open the Control Panel and select Hardware and Sound

Under Power Options click Change what the power buttons do

Click Change settings that are currently unavailable

Scroll down and uncheck the checkbox labeled Turn on fast startup (recommended)

Click Save changes

After following the steps above, powering down the device, inserting the USB stick, and powering on the device holding down the power button and Windows key, I was able to get into the BIOS, boot from the USB stick, and install Windows 7.

In windows 8

How to Get the New Windows Azure Goodies

June 11, 2012

Yesterday Microsoft release an incredible number of new Windows Azure features at the Meet Windows Azure event. The two biggest features, in my opinion were Windows Azure Virtual Machines & Virtual Networks and Windows Azure Web Sites. However you may be wondering how to get your hands on this awesomeness. It’s actually really, really easy to do. Here’s what you need to do.

First log in to your Windows Azure account at http://account.windowsazure.com. Note, this is not the same as the Windows Azure Management portal (http://manage.windowsazure.com).

Next click on the preview features link:

Then click the try it now button next the feature(s) you want to use:

For each feature you select you will see a YOU ARE QUEUED status message until the feature has been enabled:

As each feature is enabled you will receive an email notifying you of the activation as well as see a YOU ARE ACTIVE status in the account portal:

You can verify the activation by logging into the new management portal at http://manage.windowsazure.com. You should see entries on the left hand side of the page for each feature you activated:

I also created a screencast on how to get access to all the new Windows Azure goodness. Just click on the picture below to check it out!

In azure antares, azure, azure network, azure vm, azure web sites, iaas, paas, windows azure

Add STS Reference Disappears from Visual Studio

June 11, 2012

(I’ve run into these issue enough times that I thought I’d do a quick post about as it can be incredibly frustrating if you don’t know how to resolve this issue.)

As you may know I do a lot of work with Azure and, in particular, the Access Control Service (ACS). I’m a huge fan of ACS because it is a great way to offload authentication and authorization from your web sites. In order secure your web sites with ACS you need to download and install the Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) runtime and sdk. Once installed, you’ll get some nice templates in Visual Studio. You’ll also get a context menu option to add a Secure Token Service (STS) reference to your web site. This is typically what you use to integrated your web sites with ACS (unless you like crafting your web configuration files by hand, which I don’t recommend.)

Every now and then, typically after I install some update or additional tools for Visual Studio, the add STS reference option disappears. As evidences in the picture below.

I can’t replicate the scenario that removes the context menu option from Visual Studio. I just know it’s happened to me 5-6 times.

The resolution is simple enough:

Run the Visual Studio Command Prompt as an administrator
Run the following command: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv” /ResetAddin Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tools.VS.VSAddin.FederationAddin

After you’ve executed the steps above, open a project containing a web site in Visual Studio, right-click on the project, and you should be good to go: