This document discusses Azure development best practices, including using diagnostics to monitor applications, implementing retry mechanisms for transient errors, leveraging the AppFabric service bus for messaging, and strategies for connectivity in Azure. It provides guidance on configuring diagnostics using the wadcfg file, writing trace files and events to storage, and using Powershell cmdlets. It also covers using leasing for concurrency control with blob storage and copying blobs to local storage for performance. The Codit.Azure framework and options for addressing connectivity issues like firewalls are also summarized.

1. Azure Development
Best practices
Wouter Seye

2. Overview
| Diagnostics
| Retry mechanism
| AppFabric Servicebus
| Using Blob Storage
| Codit Framework (Codit.Azure)
| Connectivity
Azure Development Best Practices 2

3. Diagnostics
 Configure using
diagnostics.wadcfg config file
 Alternative to the programming
approach.
 Key benefit: executes the setup
before the role itself starts and
before any StartUp tasks execute
Azure Development Best Practices 3

4. Diagnostics
Trace files
| Trace files are written to LocalStorage
| LocalStorage is setup to copy to Blob storage
| Download file from blob container wad-tracefiles
Azure Development Best Practices 4

5. Diagnostics
Event Log
| Writes to Table Storage (WADWindowsEventLogsTable)
Azure Development Best Practices 5

6. Diagnostics
Performance Counters
| Writes to table storage
(WADPerformanceCountersTable)
Azure Development Best Practices 6

7. Diagnostics
Azure Management Pack for SCOM
| Discovers Windows Azure applications.
| Provides status of each role instance.
| Collects and monitors performance information.
| Collects and monitors Windows events.
| Collects and monitors the .NET Framework trace messages
from each role instance.
| Grooms performance, event, and the .NET Framework trace
data from Windows Azure storage account.
| Changes the number of role instances via a task.
Azure Development Best Practices 7

8. Diagnostics
Powershell CmdLets
 Configure the Windows Azure Logs
$roles | foreach { Set-WindowsAzureLog -LogLevelFilter "Error" -RoleName $_.RoleName -InstanceId $_.InstanceId -StorageAccountName $SAN -
StorageAccountKey $SAK -DeploymentId $did -BufferQuotaInMB 50 -TransferPeriod 5 }
 Configure the Diagnostics Infrastructure Logs
$roles | foreach { Set-InfrastructureLog -LogLevelFilter "Error" -RoleName $_.RoleName -InstanceId $_.InstanceName -BufferQuotaInMB 50 -
TransferPeriod 5 -StorageAccountName $SAN -StorageAccountKey $SAK -DeploymentId $did }
 Configure the Windows Event Logs
$logs = "Application!*","System!*“
$roles | foreach { Set-WAEventLog -EventLogs $logs -LogLevel "Error" -RoleName $_.RoleName -InstanceId $_.InstanceName -BufferQuotaInMB 10 -
TransferPeriod 5 -StorageAccountName $SAN -StorageAccountKey $SAK -DeploymentId $did }
 Configuring Performance Counters
$cpu_perfcounter = new-object Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounterConfiguration
$cpu_perfcounter.CounterSpecifier = "Processor(_Total)% Processor Time" $cpu_perfcounter.SampleRate = new TimeSpan(0,5,0)
 Configuring IIS Log Files
Azure Development Best Practices 8

9. Overview
| Diagnostics
| Retry mechanism
| AppFabric Servicebus
| Using Blob Storage
| Codit Framework (Codit.Azure)
| Connectivity
Azure Development Best Practices 9

10. Retry mechanism
Transient Fault Handling
| SqlAzureTransientErrorDetection
| StorageTransientErrorDetection
| ServiceBusTransientErrorDetection
Azure Development Best Practices 10

11. Overview
| Diagnostics
| Retry mechanism
| AppFabric Servicebus
| Using Blob Storage
| Codit Framework (Codit.Azure)
| Connectivity
Azure Development Best Practices 11

12. AppFabric Servicebus
Brokered Messaging API
| Ensure that message processing happens strictly within
the designated lock period. (currently max 5 min)
| Messaging objects are intended to be created once and
reused whenever possible.
| “out-of-the-box” resilience against the faulted
communication objects.
| As soon as a BrokeredMessage object is sent to a queue
or topic, it is consumed by the underlying messaging
stack and cannot be reused for further operations.
Azure Development Best Practices 12

13. AppFabric Servicebus
Emulator?
| No service bus development emulator
| In development each member needs his own NS
Azure Development Best Practices 13

14. Overview
| Diagnostics
| Retry mechanism
| AppFabric Servicebus
| Using Blob Storage
| Codit Framework (Codit.Azure)
| Connectivity
Azure Development Best Practices 14

15. Using Blob Storage
Leasing
| Only in REST API
| Allows for concurrency control
| The distributed equivalent of a lock
| Perform initialization on deployment
Azure Development Best Practices 15

16. Using Blob Storage
Copy to Local Storage
| Copy to LocalStorage on startup
| Re-use Prism’s DirectoryCatalog
| Faster access
| Cheaper
Azure Development Best Practices 16

17. Overview
| Diagnostics
| Retry mechanism
| AppFabric Servicebus
| Using Blob Storage
| Codit Framework (Codit.Azure)
| Connectivity
Azure Development Best Practices 17

18. Codit.Azure
| Reliable storage classes
| CloudBlob
| CloudQueue
| CloudTable
| ServiceBus Topic
| ServiceBus Queue
| BrokeredMessage Extensions
| Utility classes
Azure Development Best Practices 18

19. Overview
| Diagnostics
| Retry mechanism
| AppFabric Servicebus
| Using Blob Storage
| Codit Framework (Codit.Azure)
| Connectivity
Azure Development Best Practices 19

20. Connectivity
Issues
| If the server sits behind an Internet connection with
dynamically assigned IP addresses
| If the upstream ISP is blocking select ports
| If it’s not feasible to open up inbound firewall ports
| You have no influence over the infrastructure whatsoever
Azure Development Best Practices 20

21. Connectivity
Connect
| Ideal for on-premise databases
| Firewall issues
| Netsh startup command
Azure Development Best Practices 21

22. Connectivity
Appfabric Service bus
| Dll’s not on the cloud machine
| Install in GAC with startup script
| Update machine.config with RelayConfigurationInstaller
| Relay bindings
| Queues
| Topics
Azure Development Best Practices 22

23. Connectivity
Port Bridge
| What if your service isn’t a WCF service or doesn’t speak
HTTP?
| What if it speaks
SMTP, SNMP, POP, IMAP, RDP, TDS, SSH, etc…
| A point-to-point tunneling utility to help with these
scenarios
Azure Development Best Practices 23