Windows Azure Interoperability

@itcampro / #itcampro Premium conference on Microsoft’s Dev and ITPro technologies

Windows Azure – Plug and Play Interoperability and The Freedom of Choice

Mihai Nadăș

Yonder / www.tss-yonder.com

[email protected] / www.mihainadas.com


IT Camp 2011

• Thanks for coming!

• ITCamp is made possible by our sponsors:


Session agenda

1. Windows Azure - a short refreshment

– DEMO / PhooStock (Photo Sharing in Azure)

2. Interoperability? As-in JAVA and stuff?

– DEMO / Tomcat on Windows Azure

3. What about PHP? MySQL?

– DEMO / PHP and MySQL on Windows Azure

4. Q&A


The cloud evolves

• It becomes more crisp Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. (Peter Mell and Tim Grance, NIST)

• It grows as they told us it will

– ~$37.8B in 2010, expected $121.B by 2015 (26% CAGR) (MarketsAndMarkets Report)

– By 2014, ~65% of new products will be SaaS services (IDC Report)

– SaaS-derived revenue will account for 26% of net new growth in 2014 (IDC Report)

• New players confirm it by joining in

– Oracle and HP, just to name a few


Why should you care?

• You will have to taste it, sooner or later

• Your job will require it

• Your startup will need it


Windows Azure Refresher

• Scalable computation in the cloud

• Durable cloud storage

• Write code, test, debug locally

• Automated management in the cloud

• Utility business model


Guest VM

Guest VM

Guest VM

Host VM

Maintenance OS,

Hardware-optimized hypervisor

The Fabric Controller communicates with every server

within the Fabric. It manages Windows Azure, monitors

every application, decides where new applications

should run – optimizing hardware utilization.

Storage – distributed storage systems that

are highly consistent, reliable, and scalable.

Compute – instance types: Web Role &

Worker Role. Windows Azure applications

are built with web role instances, worker

role instances, or a combination of both.

Each instance runs on its

own VM (virtual machine)

and local transient storage;

replicated as needed

HTTP/HTTPS


DEMO

PhooStock – Photo Sharing on Windows Azure


What we’ve seen so far?

• Two roles – web and worker role

• They’re actually full fledged Windows Server machines

• We can open up ports to the world

• We’re free to program it as we like (Full Trust)


WINDOWS AZURE + JAVA

Introducing


Mental Model

• Windows

• Non-admin user

• USB drive with “runme.bat”

• Can your app run that way?


Core Principles

• Platform features: – Native code execution (run the JVM)

– Local storage (Tomcat logs, etc.)

– Worker roles with endpoints (listen on port 80)

– Initialization (copy and launch Tomcat)

• Java-specific artifacts: – Java storage client library

– Apache Tomcat solution accelerator

– (Eclipse tooling)


Worker Role Programming Model

• Basically DLL with main()

• In .NET – OnStart() – initialization

– Run() – main

– OnStop() – graceful shutdown

• Expected to run forever


Anatomy of a Java Worker Role


Creating a Java Worker Role

1. Include JRE in worker role

2. Launch java.exe with your class

A better Java Worker: • Reading configuration settings

• Discovering endpoints

• Handling changes

• Monitoring

• Diagnostics


DEMO

Running Tomcat on Windows Azure


What we’ve seen so far?

• Tomcat Solution Accelerator – http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/winazuretomcat

• Windows Azure can run anything that could basically run on a Windows machine (just add care)

http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/winazuretomcat

http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/winazuretomcat


Service Instance

Service Instance

Worker Role

RoleEntry

Point

Sub-Process

JVM

Tomcat

server.xml Catalina

Fabric

Controller

Load

Balancer

Table

Storage

Blob

Storage Queue

Service

Bus

Access

Control

SQL

Database

new Process()

bind port(x)

htt

p:/

/inst

ance

:x

htt

p:/

/inst

ance

:y

listen port(x)

http://app:80

get

runtime

info

index.jsp

Architectural Perspective

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tomcat.png


• Runtime – Multiple Java app servers

– Any Windows-based JRE

• Supports – Windows Azure Storage

– Windows Azure Drive

– Windows Azure AppFabric

– SQL Azure

• One-click cloud deployment

• Integrated diagnostics, monitoring, and logging

Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse/Java


• Windows Azure SDK for Java – Enables Java developers to develop against

Windows Azure Storage & Service Management infrastructure using familiar & consistent programming model

• Features – Set of Java classes for Windows Azure Blobs,

Tables & Queues (for CRUD operations) & Service Management

– Helper Classes for HTTP transport, AuhN/AuthZ, REST & Error Management

– Manageability, Instrumentation & Logging(log4j)

• Open Source Project site: – Developed by Soyatec

– www.windowsazure4j.org

Windows Azure SDK for Java

Blobs, Tables, Queues

Manageability, Instrumentation,

logging

Helper for Http, Auth, REST, Error

Your Java application

REST

Accessing Windows Azure Storage from Java


• SQL Azure Database – Full relational Database as a Service

• Direct connectivity to SQL Azure – Connect with JDBC/ODBC using the latest driver

– Eclipse tooling support

• Interoperability using REST – Easily wrap SQL Azure with WCF Data Services

– Restlet extension for OData (Java)

• Committed to OSS support and app compatibility

Accessing SQL Azure from Java


Platform – Dynamic networking

• <your app>.cloudapp.net

• CNAME re-direct from custom domain

• cannot open arbitrary ports

– No OS-level access

– Non-persistent local file system

• allocate local storage directory

• read-only: Windows directory, machine configuration files, service configuration files

– Available registry resources

• read-only: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_USERS, HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

• full access: HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Java – Sandboxed networking

• need to configure networking

– Non-persistent local file system

• logging, configuration, etc.

– REST-based APIs to services

• Table Storage – schema-less (noSQL)

• Blob Storage – large files (<200GB block blobs; <1TB page blobs)

• Queues

• Service Bus

• Access Control

Some Constraints


Deployment Options

• Worker Role – native deployment

– automated, need additional code

– available now

• VM Role – host your own pre-configured

VM image

– automated, full control

– In beta


WINDOWS AZURE + PHP/MYSQL

Is this limited to Java?


Running PHP in Windows Azure • How to Do It

– Host in Web role (like .NET) – Supply PHP runtime – Point to runtime via FastCGI

configuration in • Web.config • Web.roleConfig

• Eclipse Tooling @ http://windowsazure4e.org does the above for you

PHP Web Role Instance 2

VIP

Load

Bal

ance

r

PHP Web Role Instance 1

http://windowsazure4e.org/


MySQL: Simple Configuration

Web

Ro

le

VIP

Load Balancer

Wo

rker

Ro

le MySQL


MySQL in a Windows Azure Application

• Running MySQL in a worker role – Copy MySQL to the worker role sub-directory

– Copy to read-write local storage

– Configure MySQL to listen on the right port

– Monitor MySQL health

• Consuming MySQL – Discover IP address and port

– Normal access from then on

– Handle topology changes


Replication

VIP

Load Balancer

MySQL MySQL MySQL

M S S


Windows Azure Drive with Hot Spare

VIP

Load Balancer

MySQL MySQL


Windows Azure Drive with Hot Spare

VIP

Load Balancer

MySQL MySQL


MySQL Solution Accelerator

• Built by Infosys

• Master/slave configurations in a worker role – Master election and replication on startup

– Failover and recovery

– Scale up/down slaves

– Periodic backups - full and incremental

• Available with source code


DEMO

Running PHP/MySQL on Windows Azure


PHP with Windows Azure Storage

• Windows Azure SDK for PHP @ http://phpazure.codeplex.com

• PHP programming model for Windows Azure Storage

• Features – PHP classes for Blobs, Tables & Queues

– Store PHP sessions in Table Storage

http://phpazure.codeplex.com/


PHP with SQL Azure

• SQL Server Driver for PHP @ http://sqlsrvphp.codeplex.com/

• Supports PHP access to SQL Azure

• Features – Choose between SQL Server and SQL Azure by

changing connection string

– Use from on-premises or in Windows Azure

http://sqlsrvphp.codeplex.com/


Benefits of Database as a Service

SQL Azure Database as a Service

• Lower TCO

• Automatic High Availability

– Multiple servers with live copies of your data --- instant failover

• Automatic Fault-Tolerance

• Automatic maintenance

– No downtime

• Instantly expand/contract databases to meet application needs

• Metered by database

• Mission-critical SQL Server foundation

MySQL Solution Accelerator

• Compatibility w/ MySQL apps • Pre-configured clustering across

multiple compute instances • Database maintenance required • Metered by compute hour


DOES THIS STOP HERE?

Exploring the limits of Windows Azure’s Interoperability


Cats + Internet = LOLCats


So what’s the catch?

• LOLCode – a cat inspired language


Anatomy of a LOLCode Worker Role


Key Takeaways

1. Powerful platform primitives

2. Worker role with endpoint is a flexible model

3. Windows Azure can run anything that adheres to the „mental model”

• JAVA

• PHP, MySQL

• Python, Ruby

• [enter your platform of choice here]


To Remember

• Tomcat Solution Accelerator

• MySQL PHP Solution Accelerator

• Windows Azure SDK for Java

• Windows Azure SDK for PHP

• Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse

• Windows Azure Interoperability

• LOLCode .NET Compiler


More, online

• AzureWorks.ro / www.azureworks.ro – Windows Azure User Group – LinkedIn Community – News – This presentation, the references and the source

files – Comming soon – LOLCode on Windows Azure

http://www.azureworks.ro/


Q&A


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Technology

Windows Azure Interoperability