DEV Community: Henrietta Takor

Ensuring High Availability: Best Practices for Azure-hosted Applications

Henrietta Takor — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 14:36:37 +0000

In today's digitally-driven world, where applications play a pivotal role in powering businesses, ensuring the high availability of applications hosted in Azure has become more critical than ever before. The importance of high availability cannot be overstated, as it directly impacts revenue, customer satisfaction, brand reputation, and even regulatory compliance.

In this article, we delve into the significance of ensuring high availability for applications hosted in Azure and highlight the tangible benefits that organizations can reap by investing in a robust and resilient infrastructure. By understanding the value that high availability brings to the table, businesses can make informed decisions to protect their applications and keep a competitive advantage in a highly increasing demanding market.

High availability is a critical requirement for many applications, especially those that are mission-critical or that serve a large number of users. High availability refers to the design and implementation of systems or applications that are continuously operational and accessible, with minimal downtime and disruptions.

The recommended practises for ensuring your Azure-hosted application stays highly available are listed below.

Use Azure Availability Zones

Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying resources across multiple Availability Zones can provide additional fault tolerance, ensuring that your application remains available even in the event of a datacenter-level failure.

Use Azure Load Balancer

Load balancing can help to improve the availability of your application by distributing traffic across multiple instances of your application. This can help to improve performance and reduce the impact of failures on individual instances. In addition, Azure Load Balancer offers health probes, which can be used to monitor the health of application instances and instantly remove any unhealthy ones from the load balancing pool.

Use Azure Traffic Manager

Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that can be used to distribute traffic to your applications hosted in Azure. Traffic Manager uses a variety of methods to ensure that your applications are always available, including:

Health monitoring: Traffic Manager monitors the health of your application endpoints and automatically routes traffic away from unhealthy endpoints.
Load balancing: Traffic Manager distributes traffic across your application endpoints based on a variety of factors, including availability, performance, and user location.
Geo-replication: Traffic Manager can be used to create a global network of application endpoints that are automatically routed to users based on their geographic location.

Use Azure Functions and Logic Apps

Azure Functions and Logic Apps offer serverless computing capabilities for running business logic or processes. You may benefit from automated scaling and fault tolerance by creating your application with serverless architecture. Functions and Logic Apps can be deployed across different regions or Availability Zones to ensure high availability and to mitigate the effect of any localised failures.

Implement Azure Backup and Site Recovery

Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery are critical disaster recovery and data protection services. Azure Backup performs frequent backups of your application's data, ensuring that essential information can be restored in the event of inadvertent deletions or data corruption. Azure Site Recovery allows for the replication and failover of complete apps or virtual machines to a separate Azure region, enabling for disaster recovery to be smooth.

Here are some additional tips for ensuring the high availability of your Azure application:

Use a reliable hosting provider: Azure is a reliable hosting provider, but it is important to choose a reputable hosting provider that has a good track record of uptime.
Use a load balancer: A load balancer can help to distribute traffic across multiple instances of your application, which can help to improve performance and reduce the impact of failures on individual instances.
Use a content delivery network (CDN): A CDN can help to improve the performance of your application by caching static content closer to your users. This can help to reduce the load on your application servers and improve the overall user experience.
Back up your data regularly: It is important to back up your data regularly so that you can restore it in the event of a failure. Azure offers a number of backup options, so you can choose the option that best meets your needs.
Monitor your application: It is important to monitor your application to ensure that it is performing as expected. This will help you to identify and address any issues that could impact the availability of your application.

By following these tips, you can help to ensure that your Azure application is highly available and that your users can always access it.

Please note that the images used in this blog post are sourced from various websites on the internet and do not belong to me.

How to Keep Your Azure Resources Safe with Resource Locks

Henrietta Takor — Fri, 19 May 2023 14:44:50 +0000

Accidents and unintentional changes can happen in the dynamic world of cloud computing, where many users collaborate and interact with many resources.

Resource locks allow you to protect important assets, prevent accidental deletion or modification, and ensure reliable functioning throughout your Azure environment. Resource locks act as a crucial defence mechanism which help impose restrictions on necessary resources to protect their availability, integrity, and confidentiality.

In this blog post, we will show you how to create and manage resource locks in Azure.

Locks are used to prevent accidental changes and deletion of azure resources while maintaining privileges assigned to users. Users can maintain their roles and the resource locks can be applied when needed. Locks can also be applied to Subscription and on a Resource group level, this is known as Management Locks. The highest-level locks can be applied to is the subscription level.

Resource locks can be either of the following types:

CanNoDelete (Delete Locks): This lock type restricts the user from deletion. The user can read and update a resource.
ReadOnly: This lock restricts the user from updating and deleting resources. However, the user has only read access.

By making use of these locks strategically, you gain an additional layer of protection and peace of mind, reducing the chances of human error or unauthorized changes.
Now, let's delve into the process of applying resource locks in Azure. The good news is that the process is simple and straightforward.

To create a resource lock in the Azure portal, follow these steps:

Part 1

Go to the Azure portal
Log in to the Azure Portal using this link

Create a New Resource Group
A resource group is a logical container that holds related Azure resources. To create a resource group, search for resource group in the search bar and click on it

Click on "Create"

Give it a name (Resource Group) and click on "Create + Review"

Access the Locks section and Add a new lock
Click the "Locks" tab in the left-hand menu. On the "Locks" page, click on the "Add" button to create a new lock.

Define the lock details
In the "Add lock" dialog, provide the necessary information to configure the lock

Lock Name: Give a meaningful name to identify the lock
Lock Type: Select "Delete" from the drop-down menu since you want to prevent deletion
Notes (optional): Add any relevant notes or descriptions to provide additional context for the lock. Click on the "OK"
button to create the lock.

Verify the lock
After saving the lock, you should see it listed in the "Locks" section

Part 2

Locate the storage account
Use the search bar or navigate to the Azure "Storage service"

Click on "Create"

Give the Storage account a name and click on the "Review button" and then "Create button"

If you try to delete the storage account, an error message will appear

Once the lock has been removed, you will have the necessary permission to delete

Congratulations! You have successfully enabled a lock for your Azure storage account to prevent accidental deletion and unauthorized changes. This lock will help ensure the integrity and availability of your storage resources.

Securing Your Cloud Resources: A Guide to Managing Azure Access with RBAC

Henrietta Takor — Mon, 15 May 2023 21:41:13 +0000

Azure has become one of the most popular platforms for managing resources in the cloud. In this blog, we will guide you through the process of managing Azure access with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), assigning roles to a newly created user, and viewing audit logs once the role has been assigned.

RBAC is a method of managing access to Azure resources based on the roles of individual users within an organization. With RBAC, you can grant permissions to users and groups based on the roles they perform in your organization. This approach provides a flexible way to manage access to Azure resources while reducing the risk of unauthorised access.

If you haven't created a user in Azure Active Directory yet, you may want to check out our previous blog post on the topic. It covers step-by-step instructions on how to create a new user in Azure Active Directory, including how to fill out their information, and set up their username and password. Once you have created a user, you can then follow the steps outlined in this blog to assign roles and manage their access to Azure resources using RBAC.

How to Manage Azure Access with RBAC and Viewing Audit Logs

From there, select the Azure Active Directory option from the left-hand menu and select users as seen in the previous blog

When the newly formed user signs in to the Azure portal, the screen shown below appears on the user page in Azure active directory. Because the create new user button is greyed out, the user does not have access to manage user accounts.

In the list of users, select the user that you want to assign role to.

In the Overview blade, click the "Assigned Roles" tab and click on "Add assignment"

In the Role list, select the role that you want to assign. We have selected "User Management Role"

Click on the "Add" button

Once you've assigned a role to a user, log out and back in with their credentials to refresh and verify their access. As the create new user option is enabled, the user now has User Management Role.

You may want to view the audit logs to see system activity information about user

Navigate to the Users account and Click on the "Audit logs" tab.

Managing Azure access with RBAC is an essential part of securing your cloud resources. By assigning roles to users based on their responsibilities within your organization, you can ensure that they have the necessary permissions to perform their job without granting unnecessary access to sensitive resources. By following the steps outlined in this blog, you can manage Azure access with RBAC, assign roles to a newly created user, and view audit logs to monitor access to your resources.

Creating an Azure virtual machine using command-line interface (CLI)

Henrietta Takor — Sat, 13 May 2023 22:16:21 +0000

Welcome, tech enthusiasts! In this blog post, we will be looking at how to create an Azure virtual machine using the command line. This blog is perfect for you if you are new to Azure or are just beginning to explore the exciting possibilities of cloud computing.

But first, let's take a look back at some of our prior blog posts. We explained how to create a virtual machine using the Azure portal, PowerShell, an ARM Template, and Azure Quick Start in earlier posts. We hope you found those blogs helpful and educational. Today, we'll expand on that understanding by teaching you to the power of the command line.

Azure command-line interface (CLI) is a command-line tool that can be used to manage Azure resources from any operating system.

To begin, log in to the Azure Portal using this link

Once you are logged in, you should see a search bar at the top of the page. To the right of the search bar, there should be an icon that looks like a >_ symbol as highlighted in the image below. This is the Cloud Shell icon.
Click on the Cloud Shell icon to open the Cloud Shell window.

Select the Bash option to open the command line environment within the Cloud Shell.

Step 1: Create a Resource Group
To create a resource group, you can use the following command:

az group create --name myCoolg --location EastUs

Replace 'myCoolRg' with the name of your resource group and 'EastUS' with the location of your choice.

Step 2: Create a Virtual Machine
To create a virtual machine, you need to use the az vm create command. The command takes a few parameters that define the configuration of the virtual machine. Here's an example of how to create a virtual machine:

az vm create - -resource-group myCoolRg --name myVMcli --image UbuntuLTS --generate-ssh-keys

Step 3: Verify the Virtual Machine Creation
After you have created the virtual machine, you can verify that it has been created successfully and running

Creating an Azure virtual machine using the CLI is a simple process that involves creating a resource group, defining the configuration of the virtual machine, and verifying the creation. By following the steps outlined above, you can create an Azure virtual machine quickly and easily.

Creating a New User Account in Azure Active Directory

Henrietta Takor — Sat, 13 May 2023 22:02:20 +0000

Azure is a cloud computing platform that offers developers and organisations a variety of services. Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), which provides identity and access management services, is one of the core services provided by Azure. This blog article will walk you through the process of creating an Azure user.

Before we begin, it is important to keep in mind that you will require an Azure account to complete this course. After you've created your account, go to the Azure portal to get started.

Step 1: Create a new Azure AD user

To create a new Azure AD user, you will first need to navigate to the Azure portal. From there, select the Azure Active Directory option from the left-hand menu.

This will take you to the Azure AD dashboard. Once you are on the Azure AD dashboard, click on the Users option from the left-hand menu.

This will take you to the users page. Next, click on the "New User" button at the top of the page and select create new user.

Step 2: Fill in user details

You will need to fill in the user details. The required fields are: User principal name, display name and Password. After providing the necessary information, Click on "Review + Create"

Step 3: Review and create the user

Once you have reviewed the information, click on "create".

Step 4: Verify user account

Refresh the user page to see the newly created user. The new user will now be able to log in to their newly created account using their credentials.

Creating an Azure user is a straightforward process. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can easily create a new Azure AD user

Understanding the Differences Between Azure Service Health and Azure Advisor

Henrietta Takor — Thu, 11 May 2023 21:56:21 +0000

Azure Service Health and Azure Advisor are both Microsoft Azure services, however they serve distinct objectives.

When Azure service issues affect an organization's resources, Azure Service Health delivers tailored notifications and recommendations. It aids in the monitoring of Azure services' health and gives information on service outages, planned maintenance, and other events that may have an impact on an organization's resources.

You may set up a health alert to be alerted of certain events based on specific services in certain regions and event types.

image source

Azure Advisor, on the other hand, is a personalised consultant service that analyses an organization's Azure use and settings in order to make advice on best practises and improvements. It gives tailored suggestions for optimising Azure resources for reliability, performance, security, cost-efficiency, and operational excellence.

You can also configure alerts to be notified when new notifications arrive.

image source

In summary, Azure Service Health focuses on monitoring the health of Azure services, while Azure Advisor focuses on optimizing Azure resources for performance, security, and cost.

Secure Secrets: A beginner's guide to creating and securing Azure Key Vaults

Henrietta Takor — Thu, 11 May 2023 21:37:04 +0000

Azure Key Vault is a Microsoft Azure cloud-based service that allows you to securely store and manage keys, certificates, and secrets. It also allows you to securely control key and secret access permissions and access logging.

The number of days to retain deleted items in an Azure Key Vault can be configured by the user within a range of minimum to maximum values. The minimum retention period for deleted items in an Azure Key Vault is 7 day and the maximum retention period for deleted items in an Azure Key Vault is 90 days.

Once the retention period has expired, deleted items will be purged from the Key Vault and cannot be recovered. Therefore, it's important to carefully consider the retention period setting and ensure it aligns with your specific needs and compliance requirements.

In this blog post, we will walk you through the step-by-step process of creating an Azure Key Vault.

Search for "Key Vault" in the search bar.

Click on "Key Vault" from the results and then click on the "Create" button.

Create a New Resource Group

After selecting subscription, create a new resource group. Click on "create new" and give it a name

Fill in the details for the "Key Vault name". We have named our Key vault "confidentialthings"

Select the amount of days to retain deleted vault (7 - 90 days) and then click on "Review + create"

Click on "Create" to create the Key Vault

Click on the "Go to resource" button

Create a Key

To create a Key, navigate to the Key Vault you just created, and click on the "Keys" tab

Click on the "Generate/Import" button to create a new key, and fill in the details, such as the name, key type, and size

Click on "Create" to create the Key

Create a Secret

To create a Secret, navigate to the Key Vault you just created, and click on the "Secrets" tab. Click on the "Generate/Import" button to create a new secret

Fill in the details, such as the name, value, and content type. Click on "Create" to create the Secret

Once you've completed these steps, you should have a new Azure Key Vault, Key, and Secret. You can now use these resources to securely store and manage keys, certificates, and secrets for your Azure applications and services.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Easily Creating Azure Virtual Machines with PowerShell

Henrietta Takor — Thu, 11 May 2023 21:33:50 +0000

In a recent blog article, we demonstrated how to Create a Virtual Machine in Less Than a Minute with ARM Template and Azure Quick Start. However, there are other ways of creating an Azure virtual machine, and in this blog article, we will show you how to achieve this using PowerShell.

Creating an Azure virtual machine using PowerShell

PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language. It allows you to perform various tasks and automate processes, including creating and managing virtual machines in the cloud. Let's get started with the steps to create an Azure virtual machine using PowerShell.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Select the PowerShell option to open the PowerShell environment within the Cloud Shell.

Step 4:

Fill in the storage account and file sharing fields if requested to create storage.

Step 5:

Create a Resource Group
To create a resource group, you can use the command below

New-AzResourceGroup -Name 'myCoolRg' -Location 'EastUS'

Note: Replace myCoolRg with the name of your resource group and EastUS with the location of your choice.

Step 6:

Once you have created a resource group, you can create a new virtual machine using the code below

New-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'myCoolRg' -Name "myvMps" -Location "West US" -VirtualNetworkName "myVnetPS" -SubnetName "mySubnetPS"-SecurityGroupName "myNSGPS"-PublicIpAddressName "myPublicIpPs"

Once you hit enter, you will be prompted to supply a username and password

Step 7:

Verify the virtual machine creation
Once the virtual machine creation process is complete, you will see the screen below

Step 8:

Navigate to Azure Resource Group page in the portal and click con the Resource Group created to see the running Virtual Machine

Step 9:

The Virtual machine can be delete using this command

Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name 'myCoolRg'

Creating an Azure virtual machine using PowerShell is a straightforward processing you can create yours using the steps above.

Create a Virtual Machine in Less Than a Minute with ARM Template and Azure Quick Start

Henrietta Takor — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 22:47:20 +0000

Welcome to the thrilling world of cloud computing! Today, we'll look at how to use an ARM Template with an Azure Quick Start template to create a virtual machine in under a minute.

Before we go into the specifics, let's define an ARM Template and an Azure Quick Start template.

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template is a JSON file that describes the infrastructure and configuration of an Azure resource. It enables you to automate Azure resource deployment and manage them as a single entity. When you need to deploy several Azure resources with a single command, ARM templates are incredibly beneficial since they reduce time and maintain consistency.

Azure Quick Start templates are pre-built templates that enable you to establish a wide range of Azure resources rapidly. These pre-built templates are optimised to help you get started with Azure fast and effortlessly.

Now that we've covered the basics of ARM Templates and Azure Quick Start templates, let's get started on creating a virtual machine in under a minute.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Type "Deploy a custom template" into the search box and choose the Linux Virtual Machine option from the list of common template.

Step 3:

Fill in the blanks with the virtual machine's name, username, and password.

Step 4:

Click on "Review + Create" and wait a few seconds for the validation to completed.

Then, for the virtual machine to be created, click "Create".

Click on "Go to resources" and choose the virtual machine you named in Step 3

Prefect! Your virtual machine is now ready to use. It's that easy!

To summarise, creating a virtual machine in less than a minute utilising an ARM Template with an Azure Quick Start template is really simple and saves you a significant amount of time. It's an excellent approach to deploy many Azure resources with a single command. So go ahead and give it a go now!

How to Create and Test an HTTP-Triggered Function with Azure Function App

Henrietta Takor — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 22:53:55 +0000

Azure Functions is a cloud-based serverless computing service provided by Microsoft Azure that allows developers to run code without having to manage servers. You only pay for the job you complete with the serverless solution. Because it is event driven, you trigger something, it does something, and you pay for the job it accomplishes.

One of the most common ways to trigger an Azure Function is through HTTP requests. In this blog post, we will look at how to develop and test an Azure Function App with an HTTP-triggered function.

Step 1: Create an Azure Function App

To begin sign in to the Azure portal using this link using your Microsoft account credentials.

To create a Function App, type "Function App" into the search field.

In the results, select "Function App" and then press the "Create" button.

On the Function App creation page, fill in the required settings:

Subscription: Choose the subscription that you want to use for the Function App.
Resource group: To host the function App, you need to create a resource group. To do so, click "Create new" next to Resource Group and name it.
Function app name: Give your Function App a unique name.
Runtime stack: We will use the.NET programming language and version 6 to publish. After you've filled out the runtime stack and version options, select a region where you want your Function App to be hosted.

The Windows operating system was chosen as the default base OS for the runtime stack, and the default plan is consumption-based.

After you've completed all of the necessary parameters, click the "Review + create" button.

After reviewing the parameters, click the "Create" button to build the Function App.

Step 2: Create an HTTP-triggered Function

Once the Function App has been set up, we can create a new function. You may access it by clicking on "Go to resources"

Click on Functions in the left-hand menu and then click create

Choose the "HTTP trigger" template

Give the new Function a name and click create

Step 3: Code

Click on "Code + Test" to view the code

This code creates an HTTP trigger that can handle GET and POST requests. The function extracts the "name" parameter from the query string and returns the message "Hello, {name}. This HTTP trigger function executed successfully."

Step 4: Test the Function in a web browser

To test the function in a web browser, navigate to overview. Click on the "Get Function URL" button to get the URL for the function. Copy the URL and open your preferred web browser. Paste the URL into the address bar. Add "&name=YourName" to the end of the URL and hit "Enter". The function should return a message similar to the image below

The procedure of creating a Function App on the Azure portal is simple. You can rapidly create a Function App and begin developing serverless applications by following these instructions.

Simulating IoT Solutions with the Raspberry Pi Web Simulator and Azure IoT Hub

Henrietta Takor — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:33:20 +0000

Azure IoT Hub is a cloud service provided by Microsoft that allows you to securely connect, monitor, and manage Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The Raspberry Pi Web Simulator is a web-based application that lets you imitate the Raspberry Pi environment in your browser without the need to buy a physical device.

This blog would focus on the benefits of using a web-based simulator like the Raspberry Pi Web Simulator to test IoT solutions, and how it can be connected to Azure IoT Hub for data management.

Basic requirements

Before we start, you will need the following:

An Azure account with an active IoT Hub (I explain how to sign up / log in to azure here.
Access to the Raspberry Pi Web Simulator, which can be found here

Setting up Azure IoT Hub

First, we need to create an Azure IoT Hub. Follow these steps:

Step 1 Log in to the Azure portal.
Step 2 Search for "IoT Hub" and select it

Step 3 Click "Create" to start the creation process

Step 4 Fill out the required information, such as subscription, resource group, IoT Hub name, and region

Step 5 Click "Review + create"

Step 6 Review your configuration, and then click "Create" to create the IoT Hub.

After the IoT Hub is created, click on Go to resources to register the device

Click on Devices under Device Management and Add device

Give the device a name and click on save

Once the device is added open the device and copy the Primary connection String that should be used on the Raspberry Pi to begin transferring data.

Connecting Raspberry Pi Web Simulator to Azure IoT Hub

Now that we have set up the Azure IoT Hub, let's connect the Raspberry Pi Web Simulator to it.

Follow these steps:

Step 1 Open the Raspberry Pi Web Simulator in your web browser.

Step 2 Replace Your IoT Hub device connection string in line 15 with the Primary connection string of the device you created earlier and Click on the Run button to run the code.

Step 3 If everything is set up correctly, the simulator will send a message to the IoT Hub as seen below

Conclusion

In this blog, we have learned how to connect the Raspberry Pi Web Simulator to Azure IoT Hub. With this connection, you can simulate your IoT solution without needing any physical hardware and easily manage them from the Azure portal. You can now use this knowledge to build and test your own IoT projects and take advantage of the power of Azure IoT Hub.

Creating a Virtual Machine in Azure: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Henrietta Takor — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 15:37:09 +0000

Do you want to create a virtual machine (VM) in Azure but are unsure of where to begin? Fear not, we will walk you through a quick and simple step so you can follow along.

The digital equivalent of a physical computer is known as a virtual machine (VM). In essence, a virtual machine is a computer that runs on another computer. This virtual machine can be configured to run a variety of operating systems, software, and configurations.

So, how do you create a virtual machine in Azure? Here are the steps to take:

Step 1: Sign up / log in to Azure

If you haven't signed up for an Azure account yet, you can easily create one using this link follow the steps on the website and log in to the Azure portal.

Step 2: Create a new Virtual machine

Click on Virtual Machine (VM) from the home page of the portal.

If you can't find it on the portal's home page, type virtual machine into the search box. Select Virtual machine from the Azure services menu.

Click on Create and select Azure virtual machine from the drop down menu

This will lead you to a configuration screen for your virtual machine

We have the option to create a new resource group by clicking on Create new.

We will give our resource group a name called marchload.

At this stage, you can give your VM a name and we will call our VM henriettavm. You can select your preferred Region and Availability zone from the drop down menu.

Step 3: Choose your operating system

Under instance details, select your operating system from the Image drop down menu. Azure provides a wide range of operating systems, including multiple versions of Windows and Linux.
We will be selecting Windows Server 2019 Datacenter - x64 Gen 2 as shown in the image below.

Step 4: Choose your VM size

Enter the size of your virtual machine from the Size option. This will be determined by your requirements, such as the amount of RAM and CPU power required.

Step 5: Create a username and password

Under the Administrator account section, create a username and password. This will be used to log in to your virtual machine.

Under inbound port rule choose Allow selected ports and select HTTP (80) and RDP (3389) from the drop down menu.

After you've finished all of the steps, click on the Review + Create button at the bottom of the page. You will see a message saying Validation passed.

After the validation passes, go through your settings and change the monitoring and select Disable (you can also keep the default setting under monitoring)

Click the "Create" button

Azure will then begin the process of constructing your virtual machine, which could take a few minutes

After deployment has been completed, click on Go to resource

You have now successfully created a virtual computer on Azure!

To connect to the VM, click on Connect and then the RDP option on the overview page of Virtual Machine.

Download the RDP file

Open the downloaded RDP file and click Connect when prompted

Input your credentials you created under the Administrator account section

Congratulations you have created your first Virtual Machine!

You may now use it for whatever reason you require!