Blog.BrianLoesgen.com

3 BizTalk Servers, 2 Datacenters, 1 On-prem

2013-05-21T15:26:27Z

As you’re probably aware, Windows Azure IaaS went general availability recently. There are three BizTalk images in the gallery that you use to create a new BizTalk virtual machine.

This was too much for me to resist, I wanted to do something cool and distributed as a proof-of-concept. The result is this blog post, and the accompanying video that shows the demo running.

To get to the bottom line, I used 2 BizTalk VMs on Azure, and 1 running “on prem” (in a Hyper-V VM). The roles of the servers are as follows:

Server 1 (“Spoke”, Western Europe):

receives a batch of orders
disassembles the batch into individual orders
uses the WCF-WebHttp adapter to send each order to the hub via a REST POST

Server 2 (“Hub”, Southeast Asia)

receives each order via the WCF-WebHttp adapter
sends each order on the the Azure Service Bus using the WCF-NetTcpRelay adapter

Server 3 (“On-prem”, San Diego USA)

establishes an endpoint on the Windows Azure Service Bus using the WCF-NetTcpRelay adapter
receives order messages sent to that endpoint
persists them to file

As this is the ultimate “watch a file disappear here and another show up there” canonical BizTalk demo, I put a video together showing it working. All BizTalk people have done one of these demos before, but this is as far as I know the first one to circle the planet, leveraging Windows Azure.

I created this demo by first getting everything running locally in a single Hyper-V VM. Then, after deploying, all I needed to do was re-configure thee Spoke machine send port to that it would send to the Hub machine. For the BizTalk Servers running in Windows Azure, I used the Evaluation image, which has SQL Server installed (the Standard and Enterprise images do not).

The Spoke machine uses the default settings (it seems the default behavior of a WCF-WebHttp adapter in a send port is to do a POST, which makes sense).

The Hub machine receive location also uses the default settings:

The Hub machine send port (sending to the Windows Azure Service Bus) looks like this:

The credentials used above are the credentials for the Service Bus namespace.

Remember to watch the video!

FIX: Missing itinerary designer after installing BizTalk 2013

2013-04-04T21:06:06Z

This happened to me. I’m not sure if it will prove to be a common problem, or just something specific to me, but I put this post together to save time for others that may run into it.

Scenario: I did a clean install of BizTalk Sever 2013. When I went into Visual Studio 2012, I did not have the option to add ESB Toolkit itinerary designers to a BizTalk project.

Explanation: During the BizTalk 2013 beta the itinerary designer was distributed as a VSIX package. However, in the RTM version it is no longer there. I went into the registry and saw there were entries for the designer, implying it was installed, yet it was not in Visual Studio.

Turns out that VSIX installation step is now integrated into the ESB Toolkit installation (yeah!), which is why there was no longer a separate VSIX package.

Fix: go to a Visual Studio command prompt, and run “devenv.exe /setup”. This “Forces Visual Studio to merge the resource metadata that describes menus, toolbars, and command groups, from all available VSPackages. ” (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ex6a2fad)

BizTalk 2013 is now RTM

2013-03-25T15:32:26Z

BizTalk Server 2013 (the 8th release!) has released to manufacturing, and is available NOW for download at MSDN for MSDN subscribers.

You can read the team blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2013/03/21/biztalk-server-2013-is-now-rtm.aspx

A list of enhancements can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2012/11/06/announcing-biztalk-server-2013-beta.aspx

Enjoy!

BizTalk Server 2010R2 Image Available for Azure Virtual Machine

2012-08-30T22:53:37Z

In case you missed it, the Windows Azure Virtual Machine Gallery now contains an image for BizTalk Server, letting you create an Azure Virtual Machine with BizTalk installed.

It was super-easy to do. I had to run the BizTalk configuration wizard and turn on SQL Agent, but that’s all. In a few minutes, you can be up and running with a fully configured BizTalk Server running on a Windows Azure VM. This opens up MANY interesting use cases…

Connecting Cold Fusion 10 to Azure SQL Database

2012-07-05T22:53:05Z

This is easy to do, IF you have the right pieces.

For the connection string, you can use the JDBC connection string presented in the portal (see below).

For the JDBC driver, you need to be using Version 4. The reason is that earlier versions had problems with wildcard SSL certificates. You can download the driver at: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11774

We tested this using with Cold Fusion 10 installed in an Azure Virtual Machine.

Video Case Study: MOC1 Solutions Brings Wireless Service Advisor To Windows Azure, Streamlines Auto Service Experience

2012-06-27T15:01:32Z

This is the third in a series of video case studies I am doing with some of the ISVs I work with.

The video is available here. Enjoy!

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When MOC1 Solutions wanted to move their applications supporting automotive dealerships to the cloud, they chose Windows Azure.

In this video, Software Development Manager Alex Hatzopoulos and Architect Greg Cannon speak with Microsoft Principal Architect Evangelist Brian Loesgen. In this wide ranging conversation, they cover their experiences in ramping up their team, setting up their environments, and share other first-hand application migration experience gained while moving their flagship Wireless Service Advisor™ (WSA™) product to Windows Azure.

WSA uses wireless and mobile technologies to streamline and standardize the Repair Order (RO) write-up process. WSA enables a service advisor to greet customers at their vehicle when they arrive at the dealership service department. Using a tablet PC, the service advisor scans or hand-writes the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) or license plate number and transmits the information to multiple databases to retrieve critical customer and vehicle data related to that particular vehicle identifier – the critical data includes repair history, recommended services, warranty and recall information, and customer contact information.

Additionally, the WSA allows the service advisor to complete a full inspection process, handle customer's questions, and provide maintenance recommendations in a timely and interactive fashion, all while standing at the customer's vehicle. The customer can provide service authorization by signing the RO on the tablet PC so they can avoid having to wait for a printed copy. The WSA also allows for the preparation of a printed repair order as well as the update of the DMS database. The WSA presents a user-friendly front-end application that both effectively represents the entire Repair Order write up process and efficiently standardizes the Repair Order write-up procedure. The WSA™ accomplishes all this via an Azure-based backend.

About MOC1 Solutions

Based in in Glendora, CA MOC1 Solutions is a traditional ISV that was founded in 2005 and was incubated in MOC Products until June 2006 when the company was spun out as an independent private entity. MOC1 offers software applications used by automotive dealership service departments and vehicle service facilities.

Cloning Azure Virtual Machines

2012-06-27T04:03:02Z

Azure Virtual Machines are still new to everyone, and I got a great question from a partner a few days ago: “I have an Azure Virtual Machine set up just the way I want it, now I want to spin up multiple instances, how do I do that?”

In the “picture is worth 1,000 words” category (and I don’t have time to write 1,000 words ), please see the following sequence of screen shots for the answer.

Things to note:

run sysprep (%windir%\system32\sysprep) with “generalize” so each machine will have a unique SID (security ID)
when you “capture” the VM, it will be deleted. You can re-create it from the image as shown below

San Diego CodeCamp June 23 and 24, I am presenting

2012-06-18T00:55:15Z

CodeCamp San Diego is next weekend. I will be presenting “What’s new in Windows Azure” in a demo-loaded session. I will also do an espresso triple shot beforehand so I stand a chance of fitting all the Windows Azure goodness into a single session! There are also lots of other great Azure (and other) sessions.

It’s always a great **FREE** event, hope to see you there!

All the details are at http://SoCalCodeCamp.com

Signing up for preview features

2012-06-07T21:42:04Z

Here’s where you go to sign up for the just-announced preview features….

Azure 1.7 SDK now available

2012-06-07T16:28:52Z

Back here I debunked the myth that Azure is “a .NET thing”.

Should there be *any* lingering doubts, just take a look at the new SDK downloads page (that’s the EN-US version)! Our goal is to be the best cloud platform, bar none, regardless of choice of development tools or languages.

Meet Windows Azure event is June 7th (next week)

2012-05-31T21:53:32Z

Coming up next Thursday. Live stream starts at 1:00PM pacific time. Hear from Scott Guthrie and other senior technologists from Microsoft and the Bay area who will introduce you to Windows Azure and the latest in Microsoft's cloud-based development technology.

Video Case Study: iVoteSports – Making you part of the Game

2012-05-29T16:15:19Z

This is the second in a series of video case studies I am doing with some of the ISVs I work with.

The video is available here. Enjoy!

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iVoteSports Baseball Edition makes you part of the action of a live Major League Baseball game using your iPhone or Android device.

In this video, iVoteSports CEO and co-founder, Dennis Peters, speaks with Microsoft Principal Architect Evangelist Brian Loesgen. Dennis discusses how iVoteSports delivers a consumer-oriented interactive social networking experience for sports fans while watching or attending sporting events, which creates a more engaging experience for fans. Dennis also goes on to share the Azure-based architecture that the mobile devices are interacting with, and discusses some of the unique challenges they needed to deal with.

About iVoteSports:

iVoteSports (http://www.iVoteSports.com) was established in 2011 in Santa Ana, CA. iVoteSports was founded to deliver interactive social networking experiences for sports fans.

Video case study: PrivacyCentral uses Ruby on Azure

2012-05-08T16:59:04Z

I’ve been busy making videos of a few of the ISVs that I’ve had the pleasure of working with. This is the first of those video case studies.

The video is available here. Enjoy!

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Most consumers are unaware of the extent of publicly available, online exposures of their information – including phone numbers, current and past addresses, birth dates, home values, income level, religion, and relative names (including mother's maiden name) – all of which can easily be used for identity theft and other cybercrimes.

Like an antivirus for consumer privacy, PrivacyCentral exposes privacy threats to consumers, provides analysis and reports via a risk profile and risk score, and then empowers consumers with the ability to remove detected threats and monitor for future threats.

In this video, Privacy Central's CEO and founder, Zoiner Tejada, speaks with Microsoft Principal Architect Evangelist Brian Loesgen. Tejada discusses the benefits Privacy Central realized from building on the Azure platform, and how they run their Ruby crawlers on Azure. Tejada also goes on to share some lessons learned along the way during their development cycle, and offers up some tips for people new to the platform.

About Privacy Central

Privacy Central is a San Diego CA-based startup and is a member of Microsoft's BizSpark program, it is the first service to allow the consumer to regain full control over their sensitive information.

PrivacyCentral is dedicated to protecting consumer privacy, with powerful tools designed to make protection simple.

About BizSpark

Microsoft BizSpark is a global program that helps software startups succeed by giving them access to Microsoft software development tools, connecting them with key industry players, including investors, and providing marketing visibility to help entrepreneurs starting a business

A Tale of Two Emulators and a VM

2012-04-24T09:46:52Z

I’m not sure how many other people on the planet may want to do this, but I developed a technique which I thought was really cool, and is somewhat non-obvious, so I thought I’d blog about it.

When I develop, out of years of habit, I always install my development environment in a virtual machine, leaving the host with just my productivity software like Outlook. However, the Windows Phone emulator is not supported in a virtual machine. This forced me into installing in my host machine, leaving me with 2 machines:

Host machine, with Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
Virtual machine, with Visual Studio Ultimate, SQL Server, Azure tools

Fine. Not what I ideally would have liked, but I can live with that. I was developing a Windows Phone app that calls some RESTful services running on Azure, so my workflow was:

Develop/debug/test RESTful service in VM
Deploy service to Azure
Work on phone app hitting that service live-on-Azure

That worked fine, until I ran into a situation where I was throwing an exception in the RESTful service (due to the data I was submitting), and I had not set up diagnostics for the Azure app. What to do next?

I reasoned that since the host and the VM were on the same network, I should be able to talk between them. However, that would mean using the Windows Phone *emulator* in my host to call into a service running in the Windows Azure *emulator* inside the virtual machine. Can that work? YES!!

Here’s how:

In the VM, run Windows Advanced Firewall and set up inbound and outbound rules to allow full access to port range 81-82 (this is what I did, your mapping may vary, watch the messages as the Azure emulator starts)
In the VM, run the cloud app containing your services, in debug mode with breakpoints set
In the VM, attach to the Azure emulator process (DevFC)
In the VM, do an IPCONFIG to see what your IP address is
In the host, ping that IP address just as a reality check to ensure you can get there
In the host, change your service base URI you are calling to match the VM (in my case it was http://192.168.1.7:82, remember the emulator does port remapping to avoid conflicts)
In the host, run your app and call the service
In the VM, notice that your breakpoint has been hit!

So there you have it: emulator-to-emulator communications with a VM hop in between. Using this technique, you can develop a Windows Phone app running against an Azure backend, debugging both sides at the same time. As an added bonus, you can do this without actually calling anything on Azure, or needing to re-deploy.

Enjoy!

DevCamp Irvine is this Friday April 20th

2012-04-17T16:41:54Z

I’ll be at DevCamp:Cloud this Friday at the UC Irvine campus. The L.A. event was sold out, and most stayed all day. Lots of good info.

See you there?