Skip to main content

VM role - o noua dimensiune pentru Windows Azure

Windows Azure permite pana in acest moment doua tipuri de instance:
  • web role - similar cu 'Web Application', in principiu orice ce merge pe http si https;
  • worker role - similar cu un 'Windows Service', ruleaza neincetat prelucrand date;
Nu vreau sa intru in amanunte pe aceasta tema. Pe langa aceste doua, Microsoft ne pregateste un nou rol, denumit VM role. In momentul de fata este in ultima faza de testare, urmand sa apara pe piata cat de curand.
VM role-ul o sa ne permita sa controlam in intregime masina. Este nevoie sa cream local local un VM role pe care apoi sa il copiem in cloud. Pe el o sa putem pune de exemplu Windows Server 2003, putem sa controlam tot ce este instalat pe el. Singurul dezavantaj este partea de administrate care o sa fie facuta in totalitate de utilizator. O parte din pachete de update de exemplu nu o sa mai fie facute automat sau configurarea nivelului de securitate. Iar cloud-ul NU ne ofera back-up la aceasta instanta in mod automat. In cazul in care instanta moare, imaginea care o sa fie folosita este cea pe care am trimis-o ultima data spre cloud. Imaginea care este pusa pe cloud si care este folosita de catre instance pentru a initializa un VM role se numeste "golden image".
Putem sa controlam totul pe aceste intante, de la sistemul de operare la ce aplicatii ruleaza si in ce fel. Dar acest lucru se poate intoarce impotriva noastra, trebuie sa facem si partea de administrare, care poate sa fie uneori costisitoare, nu doar din punct de vedere a timpului cat si financiara.
Se recomanda folosirea acestor tipuri de instante in cazul in care configurarea unui web/worker role ia mai mult de 5 minute. Aici nu stiu ce sa zic, s-ar putea ca noi sa nu fi gandit corespunzator modul in care noi facem deploy.
Chiar daca VM role poate sa para pentru unii un vis devenit realitate, eu il vad mai mult ca in compromis. Trebuie din nou sa facem partea de administrare, licentiere si alte lucruri care cresc pretul final si complexitatea proiectului. Trebuie sa avem un motiv intemeiat cand dorim sa alegem aceasta optiune( poate se preteaza pentru aplicatiile deja scrise, in cazul carora costul portarii pe cloud ar fi destul de mic).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Windows Docker Containers can make WIN32 API calls, use COM and ASP.NET WebForms

After the last post , I received two interesting questions related to Docker and Windows. People were interested if we do Win32 API calls from a Docker container and if there is support for COM. WIN32 Support To test calls to WIN32 API, let’s try to populate SYSTEM_INFO class. [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] public struct SYSTEM_INFO { public uint dwOemId; public uint dwPageSize; public uint lpMinimumApplicationAddress; public uint lpMaximumApplicationAddress; public uint dwActiveProcessorMask; public uint dwNumberOfProcessors; public uint dwProcessorType; public uint dwAllocationGranularity; public uint dwProcessorLevel; public uint dwProcessorRevision; } ... [DllImport("kernel32")] static extern void GetSystemInfo(ref SYSTEM_INFO pSI); ... SYSTEM_INFO pSI = new SYSTEM_INFO(

Azure AD and AWS Cognito side-by-side

In the last few weeks, I was involved in multiple opportunities on Microsoft Azure and Amazon, where we had to analyse AWS Cognito, Azure AD and other solutions that are available on the market. I decided to consolidate in one post all features and differences that I identified for both of them that we should need to take into account. Take into account that Azure AD is an identity and access management services well integrated with Microsoft stack. In comparison, AWS Cognito is just a user sign-up, sign-in and access control and nothing more. The focus is not on the main features, is more on small things that can make a difference when you want to decide where we want to store and manage our users.  This information might be useful in the future when we need to decide where we want to keep and manage our users.  Feature Azure AD (B2C, B2C) AWS Cognito Access token lifetime Default 1h – the value is configurable 1h – cannot be modified

ADO.NET provider with invariant name 'System.Data.SqlClient' could not be loaded

Today blog post will be started with the following error when running DB tests on the CI machine: threw exception: System.InvalidOperationException: The Entity Framework provider type 'System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlProviderServices, EntityFramework.SqlServer' registered in the application config file for the ADO.NET provider with invariant name 'System.Data.SqlClient' could not be loaded. Make sure that the assembly-qualified name is used and that the assembly is available to the running application. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=260882 for more information. at System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.DependencyResolution.ProviderServicesFactory.GetInstance(String providerTypeName, String providerInvariantName) This error happened only on the Continuous Integration machine. On the devs machines, everything has fine. The classic problem – on my machine it’s working. The CI has the following configuration: TeamCity .NET 4.51 EF 6.0.2 VS2013 It see