Understanding Azure Tools – The Real Starting Point
The real starting point
I am writing this blog to help the very beginner in all of us. I started writing on the "Thumbnails" example, but found all the talk about "blobs" and "queues" was too fast. Also, the documentation is at the "conceptual level." I always like starting from scratch when learning something. I love seeing things like "File – New – Project."
Goals
We are interested in creation, building, debugging, running and packaging of scalable services on Windows Azure.
Setup
Install Windows Azure SDK
Install Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
The Solutions will include two projects
A Cloud Service project
A Web Role which is an ASP.NET Web Application
Creating a new Cloud Service
Create a new project. (File – New – Project)
In the C# template notice a new group called "Cloud Services" and select the "Web Cloud Service" template
Name = BrunoWebCloudService
Give the project a name and hit Ok
You should have a solution with two projects
A Cloud Service project
A Web Role which is an ASP.NET Web Application
Add a button to default.aspx. Bring up the button's property windows and define an event called "Button1_Click"
Add the following code to the click event.
RoleManager.WriteToLog("Information",
"Doing my lap around the tools and clicking the button");
Set a breakpoint
We will change the number of instances to 3.
Start Debuggintg by choosing from the Debug Menu
Debug -> Start Debugging (F5)
Note that a Development Fabric icon is added to the system tray that allows you to bring up the Development Fabric UI or to shutdown the Development Fabric altogether.
Note that 3 instances are running.
This means that in a fully implemented Azure environment, IIS will spin off 3 web role instances.
Click the Button on the web page and we can
Deploying the application to the cloud
But first make sure you claim your Azure token. This blog contains steps to get it:
Registration Link - How Can I Get A Azure Services Platform Token?
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=129453
My Colleague Lynn explains this also
The goal is to see "2 project(s) remaining." This means your token was successfully claimed.
Click on Storage Account and fill in "Project Label" and "Project Description"
Click the "Next" button
Finally, the information we really need
Notice I got 3 different endpoints:
https://brunoterkaly.blob.core.windows.net
https://brunoterkaly.queue.core.windows.net
https://brunoterkaly.table.core.windows.net
Publishing the Cloud Service
Create the Service Package (cspkg) by right clicking on the Cloud Service project node and selecting "Publish".
Because we have successfully developed to the cloud, now we must modify our ServiceConfiguration file