Are you migrating applications from on-prem to Azure? Do you know what you’re doing? I thought I did. After spending years developing for SharePoint Server, I started migrating applications for a government client to Azure Government. In this session, I’ll share the issues I ran into, as well as my solution, to hopefully spare you the hours of research and influx of gray hairs as you start migrating. We’ll cover topics such as: databases, DevOps, managing multiple environments, and more.

1. Lessons Learned
MIGRATING APPS TO AZURE

2. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
About Me
 Solutions Advisor at Applied Information Sciences
 Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert
 Azure & DevOps Engineer
 Former SharePoint Developer
 @SPSamL
 samlarko@gmail.com
 Sam.larko@appliedis.com
 Blog.Appliedis.com

3. 3 | © 2018 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
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Agenda
 Set the stage
 Lesson One: File Storage
 Lesson Two: Databases
 Lesson Three: DevOps

6. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
Welcome to the Cloud!

7. Lesson One
Storage

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File Storage
 Storage Emulator
 Storage Explorer
 Blobs vs File shares (Tables and Queues – didn’t use either)
 SAS Tokens
 Security – Firewalls and vnets

9. Demo
SAS TOKENS, NETWORKING, AND STORAGE EXPLORER

10. Lesson Two
Databases

11. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
Data Migration Assistant
 Analyze databases for migration support
 Can migrate databases, too!
 Multiple target types
> Azure SQL Database
> SQL Managed Instance
> SQL Server on Azure VM
> SQL Server (version-to-version)
 Download: https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=53595

12. Demo
DATA MIGRATION ASSISTANT

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T-SQL
PROBLEM SOLUTION
Depricated field types (TEXT, NTEXT, IMAGE) varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max)
USE statement isn’t available • Usage was only for current/single DB in Azure SQL DB
• Can use with SQL Managed Instance
Unavailable system functions (sp_send_dbmail) • Notification DB table, Web Job to check table & send
• Storage Queue with Web Job listening would be near
instant
• SQL Managed Instances do support Database Mail
Cross-database Queries • Moved SQL logic into application code
• Elastic queries for migrated DBs
• SQL Managed Instance

14. Demo
ELASTIC QUERY

15. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
Linked Servers
 Some DBs were linked to Oracle DBs on-prem
 No ExpressRoute or other connection back
 Apache NiFi was going to be used to surface the data
 App would query NiFi
> Stored Procedure logic would be moved to app’s data layer
 Managed Instance
> Refactored from 2 MIs to use single MI – Linked Servers not needed

16. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
SQL Agent Jobs
 Typically scheduled data updates – 1-4 times/day
 Azure Web Jobs
> Minimum hour polling
> Runs on App Service
 SQL Managed Instances

17. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
Managed Instance Backup Issue
 SQL MIs used to allow copy-only backups to restore on-prem
 MS changed to only allow MI to MI restore
 Kendra Little explains further: https://www.red-gate.com/blog/how-can-
redgate-help-with-backups-for-azure-sql-managed-instances

18. Lesson Three
DevOps & Automation

19. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
Azure Pipelines/TFS
 Classic vs YAML
> Classic: WYSIWYG, more mature/functionality, not easily portable
> YAML: Portable, new CI/CD standard, Pipeline-as-Code, learning curve
 Service Connections
 Dated build servers
> Old PowerShell Modules (AzureRm vs Az)
> Ran deployments from Azure Automation Account

20. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
Disconnected Environments
 Dev work in Azure DevOps
 Environments using TFS
 Used Artifactory to upload packages to environments
 2 sets of pipelines
> Used Classic Pipelines for both
> Import/Export Pipelines, Task Groups

21. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
Resource provisioning
 ARM Templates vs Terraform vs PowerShell vs Azure CLI vs Others?
> ARM: most robust/functionality, JSON, more declarative than imperative
> HashiCorp Terraform: cross-platform, more programmatic, 3rd party, behind ARM
> PowerShell: programming language, more functionality than TF, Windows only
> Azure CLI: runs on Linux/OSX, similar to PowerShell in functionality
 Idempotence

22. Demo
CLASSIC VS YAML, ARM TEMPLATE

23. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
Misc DevOps
 GitLab - no service connections or tasks
 Ansible – not really for Azure resource provisioning, more for VM
management (like DSC)
 Use AAA for DSC Node Manager

24. © 2015 Applied Information Sciences, Inc.
Resources
 Elastic Query: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-
sql/database/elastic-query-getting-started-vertical
 App Service Tutorial: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-
service/app-service-web-tutorial-dotnet-sqldatabase
 Managed Instance Error Explanation: https://www.red-
gate.com/blog/how-can-redgate-help-with-backups-for-azure-sql-
managed-instances
 My blog posts
> Automation & Deployment: https://www.ais.com/things-i-wish-i-knew-before-
migrating-apps-to-azure-automation-and-deployment/
> SQL Server vs Azure SQL: https://www.ais.com/things-i-wish-i-knew-before-
migrating-apps-to-azure-sql-server-vs-azure-sql/

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