Microsoft #Azure Service Fabric Mesh for your #Microservices and #Container Apps in the #Cloud

Microsoft Service Fabric Mesh

Azure Service Fabric Mesh is a fully managed service that enables developers to deploy microservices applications without managing virtual machines, storage, or networking. Applications hosted on Service Fabric Mesh run and scale without you worrying about the infrastructure powering it. Service Fabric Mesh consists of clusters of thousands of machines. All cluster operations are hidden from the developer. Simply upload your code and specify resources you need, availability requirements, and resource limits. Service Fabric Mesh automatically allocates the infrastructure and handles infrastructure failures, making sure your applications are highly available. You only need to care about the health and responsiveness of your application-not the infrastructure.

With Service Fabric Mesh you can:

• “Lift and shift” existing applications into containers to modernize and run your current applications at scale.
• Build and deploy new microservices applications at scale in Azure. Integrate with other Azure services or existing applications running in containers. Each microservice is part of a secure, network isolated application with resource governance policies defined for CPU cores, memory, disk space, and more.
• Integrate with and extend existing applications without making changes to those applications. Use your own virtual network to connect existing application to the new application.
• Modernize your existing Cloud Services applications by migrating to Service Fabric Mesh.

Build high-availability into your application architecture by co-locating your compute, storage, networking, and data resources within a zone and replicating in other zones. Azure services that support Availability Zones fall into two categories:

• Zonal services – you pin the resource to a specific zone (for example, virtual machines, managed disks, IP addresses)
• Zone-redundant services – platform replicates automatically across zones (for example, zone-redundant storage, SQL Database).

To achieve comprehensive business continuity on Azure, build your application architecture using the combination of Availability Zones with Azure region pairs. You can synchronously replicate your applications and data using Availability Zones within an Azure region for high-availability and asynchronously replicate across Azure regions for disaster recovery protection.

Store state in an Azure Service Fabric Mesh application by mounting an Azure Files based volume inside the container

Twitter AMA on Service Fabric Mesh :

The Service Fabric team will be hosting an Ask Me Anything (AMA) (more like “ask us anything”!) session for Service Fabric Mesh on Twitter on Tuesday, October 30^thfrom 9am to 10:30am PST. Tweet to @servicefabric or @AzureSupport using #SFMeshAMA with your questions on Mesh and Service Fabric. More information here

More information about Azure Service Fabric Mesh :

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Mesh LAB on Github

Get started with Microsoft Azure Service Fabric for your Microservices and Container Apps

Service Fabric Microsoft Ignite 2018 sessions

JOIN Containers in the Cloud Community Group on LinkedIn here

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Make your first Pipeline with Azure DevOps Project in the #Cloud #Azure #AzureDevOps

Start here your Azure DevOps Project in Azure.

Microsoft Azure DevOps Services (Tools) to make your own CI/CD Pipeline in the Cloud

Azure Pipelines is a cloud service that you can use to automatically build and test your code project and make it available to other users. It works with just about any language or project type.
Pipelines combines both Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) to constantly and consistently test and build your code and ship it to any target.

Microsoft made it really easy to make your first Azure DevOps Pipeline in the Cloud.
Here you find a step-by-step guide to make your first Azure pipeline :

When you already made your Cloud application, you can choose option Bring your Own Code 😉

But in this step-by-step guide, I choose for a HTML5 Azure Web App template which is available in Azure.

Static Azure Website => Next.

When you create your Azure DevOps project you can see the Flow steps for Creation.

For the Service of the Web App, there are two options in this deployment template :

1. Web App for Containers
2. Web App as a Service.

Azure Web Apps enables you to build and host web applications in the programming language of your choice without managing infrastructure. It offers auto-scaling and high availability, supports both Windows and Linux, and enables automated deployments from GitHub, Azure DevOps, or any Git repo

Web App for Containers provides built-in Docker images on Linux with support for specific versions, such as PHP 7.0 and Node.js 4.5. Web App for Containers uses the Docker container technology to host both built-in images and custom images as a platform as a service. In this tutorial, you learn how to build a custom Docker image and deploy it to Web App for Containers. This pattern is useful when the built-in images don’t include your language of choice, or when your application requires a specific configuration that isn’t provided within the built-in images.

The last step needs information about :

• Organization: for the site name.
• Projectname
• Subscription ID
• Web App Name
• Azure Location.

And then click on Done

 

Deployment overview.

Your Azure DevOps Pipeline is Running as easy like that 🙂

But most important your Azure Web App is running.

Running in your Container in Azure Cloud Services.

Azure DevOps Container Web App Pipeline is running.

From here you can build your Project and Share it with your Developer Team.
More information you can find on Azure DevOps Docs

Here you see some snapshots on the latest Releases of Azure DevOps release features when I made this blogpost :

When you want to keep up-to-date on Microsoft Azure DevOps, here are some links :

Follow Microsoft Azure DevOps on Twitter

Start here free with Azure DevOps

Microsoft Azure DevOps Blog

JOIN the Azure DevOps Community Group on LinkedIn

Watch the Live Stream Today of #Microsoft Ignite 2018 in Orlando 24 – 28 September #MSIgnite #Azure #Cloud #DevOps and More

Don’t miss the Live Stream of Microsoft Ignite 2018

Get the latest insights and skills from technology leaders and practitioners shaping the future of cloud, data, business intelligence, teamwork, and productivity. Immerse yourself with the latest tools, tech, and experiences that matter, and hear the latest updates and ideas directly from the experts.

Watch live https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ignite as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella lays out his vision for the future of tech, then watch other Microsoft leaders explore the most important tools and technologies coming in the next year. After the keynotes, select Microsoft Ignite sessions will stream live—take a deep dive into the future of your profession.

More then 700+ Sessions and 100+ Expert-led and self-paced workshops

#MSIgnite

Upgrading Azure #Kubernetes Cluster and Set #Azure monitor Alerts on #AKS

Current version of Kubernetes on Microsoft Azure.

Upgrading Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Services

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) makes it simple to deploy a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure. AKS reduces the complexity and operational overhead of managing Kubernetes by offloading much of that responsibility to Azure. As a hosted Kubernetes service, Azure handles critical tasks like health monitoring and maintenance for you. In addition, the service is free, you only pay for the agent nodes within your clusters, not for the masters.

AKS clusters support Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). An AKS cluster can also be configured to integrate with Azure Active Directory. In this configuration, Kubernetes access can be configured based on Azure Active Directory identity and group membership.
For more information, see, Integrate Azure Active Directory with AKS.

From here I will do a step-by-step Upgrade of a Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Cluster to a newer version and set Azure Monitor alert rule active for the future to get an Alert notification when a colleague is upgrading the AKS Services.

Here you see all the newer versions of Kubernetes.

Upgrading to version 1.11.1 of Kubernetes.

IMPORTANT NOTE :

When upgrading an AKS cluster, Kubernetes minor versions cannot be skipped. For example, upgrades between 1.8.x -> 1.9.x or 1.9.x -> 1.10.x are allowed, however 1.8 -> 1.10 is not. To upgrade, from 1.8 -> 1.10, you need to upgrade first from 1.8 -> 1.9 and then another do another upgrade from 1.9 -> 1.10

KubeCluster Activity Log

At the green arrow on this picture you can download the activities into CSV file. At the Red arrow you see the User ID who initiated the Upgrade of the Kubernetes Cluster. This is important information for Azure Alert monitoring.

10 minutes later Kubernetes Cluster is Upgraded to version 1.11.1

Upgrade is done.

We now do a minor Upgrade of Kubernetes from version 1.11.1 to 1.11.2 to get the newest version on Azure.
Click on 1.11.2 version and hit Save.

 

Microsoft Azure Monitoring Alerts

When you click on the second activity of the Upgrade you see at arrow 2 that you can add an Activity Log Alert by Azure monitoring.

Creating Rule Alerts.

1. Define Alert condition is already set. We want an Alert notification on Upgrading KubeCluster.
2. Define Alert details, must be set.
3. Define Action Group, must be set to create the Alert Rule.

2. Define the Alert Details.

3. Define Action Group : Click on + New Action Group

Click on OK

Created Action Group name AKSAdmins

An action group is a collection of notification preferences defined by the user. Azure Monitor and Service Health alerts are configured to use a specific action group when the alert is triggered. Various alerts may use the same action group or different action groups depending on the user’s requirements.

More information on Creating and managing action groups in the Azure portal can be found here

For information on how to use Azure Resource Manager templates to configure action groups, see Action group Resource Manager templates.

 

From here you can Create the Alert Rule and make it Active.

Azure Monitor Alerts with one rule Enabled.

Here is our Active KubeCluster Alert Rule.

Now we will get a notification when a Colleague is Upgrading our KubeCluster in the Future 😉

KubeCluster is now running the latest available version of Kubernetes.

Kubernetes Cluster nodes are Healthy and running version 1.11.2

Here you see in the Kubernetes Dashboard the Node version of Kubernetes.

For Developers and DevOps it’s Great to work with Microsoft Visual Studio Code and the Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) to work in a CI/CD Pipeline, to create continuous business applications in the Cloud.

Here is my Azure KubeCluster running in Visual Studio Code 🙂

And at last, most important thing is that my Application is running on my Azure Kubernetes Cluster for the Business My Test Site.

Hope this blogpost is useful for you and your business to manage your AKS Cluster in the Microsoft Cloud.

More information About Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) :

 Upgrade an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster via Azure CLI

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Docs

Monitor Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) container health (preview)

Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Services website Start Free here

Follow Containers in the Cloud Community Group on LinkedIn

Installing #Azure Service Fabric Cluster on Windows Server 2019 Insiders #Containers #Winserv

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster

Azure Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that makes it easy to package, deploy, and manage scalable and reliable microservices and containers. Service Fabric also addresses the significant challenges in developing and managing cloud native applications. Developers and administrators can avoid complex infrastructure problems and focus on implementing mission-critical, demanding workloads that are scalable, reliable, and manageable. Service Fabric represents the next-generation platform for building and managing these enterprise-class, tier-1, cloud-scale applications running in containers.

In the following Step-by-Step Guide I created a Standalone Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster
on Windows Server 2019 Insiders Preview for DevOps testing :

First I downloaded the Contents of Service Fabric Standalone package for Windows Server here

Several sample cluster configuration files are installed with the setup package. ClusterConfig.Unsecure.DevCluster.json is the simplest cluster configuration: an unsecure, three-node cluster running on a single computer. Other config files describe single or multi-machine clusters secured with X.509 certificates or Windows security. You don’t need to modify any of the default config settings for this tutorial, but look through the config file and get familiar with the settings.

I made the Unsecure three-node Cluster running on Windows Server 2019 Insiders Preview in my MVPLAB.

 

Open Powershell in Administrator modus and run the Script :

.\CreateServiceFabricCluster.ps1 -ClusterConfigFilePath .\ClusterConfig.Unsecure.DevCluster.json -AcceptEULA

Connect-ServiceFabricCluster

 

Service Fabric Explorer (SFX) is an open-source tool for inspecting and managing Azure Service Fabric clusters. Service Fabric Explorer is a desktop application for Windows, macOS and Linux.

I Installed Azure Service Fabric Explorer to visualize the Cluster.

Here we got Azure Service Fabric 3-Node Cluster running on Windows Server 2019 Insiders

Azure Service Fabric CLI

The Azure Service Fabric command-line interface (CLI) is a command-line utility for interacting with and managing Service Fabric entities. The Service Fabric CLI can be used with either Windows or Linux clusters. The Service Fabric CLI runs on any platform where Python is supported.

Prior to installation, make sure your environment has both Python and pip installed.
The CLI supports Python versions 2.7, 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7. Python 3.x is the recommended version, since Python 2.7 will reach end of support soon.

You can download the latest Python version here

Check the Python version and the Pip version by typing :

python –version
Pip –version

The Pip version which is delivered via Python has to be updated with the following command :

python -m pip install –upgrade pip

We now have pip version 18.0 instead of 10.0.1

Installing Service Fabric CLI by command :

pip install -I sfctl

Done ! Service Fabric CLI is installed on my Windows 10 Surface.

sfctl -h 

Now we have installed Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster on Windows Server 2019 Insiders Preview and the Service Fabric CLI on Windows 10, we now can connect to the 3-node Fabric Cluster via CLI.
Because we are working under Windows 10 and not on the host itself we have to set an endpoint connection :

sfctl cluster select –endpoint http://192.168.2.15:19080

sfctl cluster health

sfctl node list

Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise and Service Fabric SDK

As a Developer or DevOps you like to work from Microsoft Visual Studio to deploy your Apps, Microservices or Containers to the Azure Service Fabric Cluster.

You need to install the Service Fabric SDK in Visual Studio before you can deploy :

Select Service Fabric Application at New Project

Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise : Service Fabric SDK must be installed

Installing Microsoft Azure Service Fabric SDK

Done.

Now you can make your Service Fabric Container.

Happy Developing 😉

More information on Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster :

Service Fabric on GitHub

Add or remove nodes to a standalone Service Fabric cluster running on Windows Server :

Scaling your Azure Service Fabric Cluster

More info :

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric documentation

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Cluster Learning Path

Scale and Upgrade your Azure Kubernetes Cluster #AKS #Containers #Azure #Kubernetes #DevOps #Cloud

I start with a 2 Node Kubernetes Cluster.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) makes it simple to deploy a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure. AKS reduces the complexity and operational overhead of managing Kubernetes by offloading much of that responsibility to Azure. As a hosted Kubernetes service, Azure handles critical tasks like health monitoring and maintenance for you. In addition, the service is free, you only pay for the agent nodes within your clusters, not for the masters.

When you have a Web App like Joomla CMS running on Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) and you need more capacity or performance, you can really easy Scale-Up and Scale-Down when needed. It is easy to scale an AKS cluster to a different number of nodes. Select the desired number of nodes and run the az aks scale command. When scaling down, nodes will be carefully cordoned and drained to minimize disruption to running applications. When scaling up, the az command waits until nodes are marked Ready by the Kubernetes cluster.

Scaling your Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS)

In the following step-by-step guide I’m scaling my AKS Cluster from 2 nodes to 4 node Kubernetes Cluster :

Here you can scale your Cluster to the right Size
Click on Save to execute.

One AKS Cluster can Scale-Up to 100 vCPU’s and 350 GB of Memory 😉

It’s updating now my 2 Node AKS Cluster to 4 Nodes.
( wait a couple of minutes )

Done !

In Visual Studio Code a got 4 Nodes

In the AKS Cluster Health Monitor you see the Update of the Config.

When you open the Kubernetes Dashboard you see the load on the 4 Nodes.

When you don’t need a 4 Node Cluster performance and/or capacity any more because of the workload, you can scale your Cluster back to 2 Node Cluster for example.

Scaling down to 2 Node AKS Cluster.

Back to 2 Node Azure Kubernetes Cluster.

Just Refresh in Visual Studio Code
2 Node Cluster Again.

And my Joomla CMS Web App is running on 2 Node AKS Cluster.

This was Scaling your Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS), the Next step-by-step guide I’m Upgrading my Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS) to a New version.

Upgrading your Azure Kubernetes Cluster (AKS)

My Current version of AKS is 1.10.5

I’m Upgrading to Kubernetes version 1.10.6
Click on Save to Execute.

After +/- 10 minutes my AKS Cluster was Up-to-Date.

with kubectl version you see the Changes in Visual Studio Code (VSC)

And of course you get notified by the Azure Portal when your Upgrade is Done 🙂

When you like to work from Azure CLI or Cloudshell or VSC you can Upgrade your Kubernetes Cluster from here

More information about Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) :

Kubernetes versions on GitHub

Kubernetes Documentation

Microsoft Azure AKS Docs

Hope this easy Quick Step-by-Step Guides are helpful for you and your Business.

#Azure Cloud Shell editor with Visual Studio Code inside (Project Monaco) #VSC #IaC

Azure Cloud Shell is an interactive, browser-accessible shell for managing Azure resources. It provides the flexibility of choosing the shell experience that best suits the way you work. Linux users can opt for a Bash experience, while Windows users can opt for PowerShell. But now with Project Monaco my favorite tool Visual Studio Code is integrated in Microsoft Azure Cloud Shell 🙂 Awesome for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) like I did with Terraform 

Just type Code . in Azure Cloud Shell

Command Palette VSC in Azure Cloud Shell

Just Cool in https://shell.azure.com

More information about Microsoft Azure Cloud Shell :

Azure Cloud Shell Overview docs

Here you find more information about the Monaco Editor

Your Microsoft-managed admin machine in Azure, for Azure