Today I was reading about Microsoft Azure Automation and got some interesting links to share with the community when you want to start with automation.
It’s all about Powershell workflows to start with.
Windows PowerShell Workflow is a powerful solution that can gather data from and make changes to hundreds of computers every time it runs. Plan the workflow design for simplicity and efficiency. Keep in mind that the workflow can suspend itself or be suspended by users, that it can be controlled from numerous PSSessions that connect to a single server-side process, that it can survive restarts, include commands and functions that run in parallel, and that each command runs its own session.
When you understand how Powershell workflow scripting works, Microsoft has a central ScriptCenter where you can find all kind of scripts made by the community. Ps. when you download a script, please test it first in your test environment before you run it in production !
Now let’s get started with Microsoft Azure Automation ! 😉
While I’m writing this blogpost, Microsoft Azure Automation is still Preview and you have to add it to your Microsoft Azure subscription.
Here you find more information getting started with Azure Automation
From here you are ready to GO for Automating your jobs in the Cloud
Here are some Awesome blogposts about Getting started with Microsoft Azure Automation and Runbooks :
In June 2013, I was introducing the Dell PowerEdge VRTX for Hybrid Cloud with System Center 2012 SP1 Suite with a video and a Hyper-V 2012 Reference Architecture guide. You can find that blogpost here
Now the Dell PowerEdge VRTX All-In-The-Box Solution works great together with Microsoft Cloud :
4ward is pleased to offer the first appliance for the Cloud on the market, specifically designed for both Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and for organizations with offices, departments or branch offices. A solution that once the first setup is completed is fully supported by Dell, 24×7, through their ProSupport services, for the Windows components and by Microsoft for the System Center part, it is based on an unique infrastructure in the industry: Dell PowerEdge VRTX, a converged system that can enable any organization to implement a Data Center with a solution in-a-box, even within an office.
Thanks to Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft System Center 2012 R2, and the intellectual property of 4ward customers can order and receive a private Cloud solution that will be deployed at the first boot of the system with the help of a wizard. Just as easily could be extended to a public Cloud, creating a hybrid solution. Through the Cloud in-a-box appliance, workloads and services will get geographical high availability, scale up and scale down features, always letting the characteristics of the IT infrastructure perfectly adhere
business needs, even if for intense and short periods of time.
All this at the cost of a virtualization infrastructure.
Here you see more detailed technical information of the Dell PowerEdge VRTX :
All in One Box
With Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2
You are ready for Microsoft Cloud OS.
With this Big Datacenter in a Little box you got a lot of benefits :
Reduce costs like power consumption
Flexible in moving
Datacenter Rackspace
Microsoft Cloud OS
Software Defined Networking will do the rest for you 🙂
For Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) and Educational institutes you can build now Twin Datacenters for disasterrecovery with Hyper-V Recovery manager (Microsoft Azure) for low costs.
You Need two Dell PowerEdge VRTX
With all the possibilities of the Dell PowerEdge VRTX I can recommend every SME company this sollution Cloud in a Box.
Here you see the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with Microsoft and 4ward making a Private Cloud in One Hour.
This management pack requires System Center Operations Manager 2012 or later. A dedicated Operations Manager management group is not required.
Management pack supports monitoring of HDInsight Appliance and HDInsight Service, although Service monitoring is limited.
The following table details the supported configurations for the Management Pack for HDInsight:
Configuration
Support
HDInsight Appliance
Microsoft Analytics Platform System (APS) AU1 and AU2.
The Microsoft Cloud OS
Cloud computing is happening. It is being driven by the exponential growth in modern applications, data and devices. These trends require organizations to quickly scale and deliver continuous services. Simultaneously, innovation is happening across storage, network and compute technologies. With these new requirements and innovations, IT is under pressure to deliver capacity on demand, whether for short-term projects or longer-term initiatives. At the same time, organizations have higher expectations for service levels – services must be always up, always on, with no planned or unplanned downtime. To meet these challenges, a new modern platform is required. In the era of cloud computing, Microsoft delivers this with the Cloud OS. The Cloud OS takes on a broader role than just managing a server. Microsoft’s vision for the Cloud OS is focused on the transformation of the datacenter, enabling modern applications, unlocking insights on any data and empowering people-centric IT.
The Cloud OS requires a comprehensive execution of vision crossing a wide range of enterprise technologies, including Microsoft Azure, SQL Server, System Center and Windows Server.
Fundamental to the modern datacenter, is the ability to build private cloud infrastructures and quickly scale within the datacenter as well as agile and secure consumption of Microsoft Azure and service provider cloud capacity.
Replication and recovery to Azure
You can further simplify your disaster recovery protection by replicating to Azure and still benefit from the simplicity, automation, customizable recovery plans, health monitoring, and orchestrated recovery the service provides. One of the primary roadblocks to comprehensive protection of applications is the expense of establishing and maintaining a secondary site for disaster recovery. Now Azure can be your disaster recovery site.
Continuous Health Monitoring
Site Recovery monitors the state of System Center Virtual Machine Manager clouds continuously and remotely from Azure. When replicating between two sites you control, only the Virtual Machine Manager servers communicate directly with Azure – your virtual machines data and replication remains on your networks. All communication with Azure is encrypted. When replicating to Azure as the secondary site, your data is encrypted and you can also select encryption for data at-rest.
Orchestrated Recovery
The service helps automate the orderly recovery of services in the event of a site outage at the primary datacenter. Virtual machines can be brought up in an orchestrated fashion to help restore service quickly, even for complex multi-tier workloads. Recovery plans are simple to create through the Azure management portal, where they are stored. The plans can be as simple or as advanced as your business requirements demand, including the execution of custom Windows PowerShell scripts and pauses for manual interventions. Networks can also be customized by mapping virtual networks between the primary and recovery sites. These plans can be tested whenever you like without disrupting the services at your primary location.
Extend your datacenter into the cloud
Azure Virtual Network easily extends your on-premises network through a secure site-to-site VPN, much the way you’d set up and connect to a remote branch office. You control the network topology, including configuration of DNS and IP address ranges, and manage it just like your on-premises infrastructure. ExpressRoute allows you to securely add compute and storage capacity to your existing datacenter. With high throughput and fast latencies, Azure will feel like a natural extension to your datacenter so you enjoy the scale and economics of the public cloud without having to compromise on network performance.
You can find a lot of information on the blogsite of Microsoft Corporate Vice President Enterprise & Client Mobility Brad Anderson about HybridCloud Success Series : Link to table of Contents: Success with Hybrid Cloud.
While I’m writing this blogpost, Microsoft Azure Automation is still Preview and you have to add it to your Microsoft Azure subscription.
From here you are ready to GO for Automating your jobs in the Cloud
Cloud and Datacenter Management Blog 