Tag: Windows Azure

New MP: Windows Azure SQL Database Management Pack

New management pack is available for Windows Azure service. Now you can monitor your Windows Azure SQL Databases from SCOM. These are the key features:

  • User-friendly wizard to discover Windows Azure SQL Database servers.
  • Provides availability status of Windows Azure SQL Database server.
  • Collects and monitors health of Windows Azure SQL Database databases.
    • Space monitoring:
      • Used space
      • Free space
      • Total allocated quota
    • Track the total number of databases per server
  • Collects and monitors performance information:
    • Average memory per session
    • Total memory per session
    • Total CPU time per session
    • Total I/O per session
    • Number of database sessions
    • Maximum Transaction execution time
    • Maximum Transaction lock count
    • Maximum Transaction log space used
    • Network Egress/Ingress bandwidth
  • Ability to define Custom thresholds for each monitor to configure the warning and critical alerts.
  • Run-as profile to securely connect to Windows Azure SQL Database.
  • Detailed knowledge to guide the IT operator with troubleshooting the problem
  • Custom tasks to redirect the user to the Windows Azure SQL Database online portal
  • Custom query support to enable application-specific availability and performance monitoring

Grab the management pack and the installation and configuration guide from here.

Brining Windows Azure Services to Windows Server for Hosting Service Providers

I have heard about these solutions from Microsoft but really didn’t had time to make some advance search but today accidently I’ve found the web site that stores information about them:

Microsoft is committed to delivering customers a consistent platform regardless of deployment location and calls this vision the Cloud OS. As part of this strategy, Microsoft is now enabling Hosting Service Providers to use Windows Server and System Center to deliver the same great experiences already found in Windows Azure. The first two of these finished services are high density website hosting and virtual machine provisioning and management. Hosting Service Providers enable these modules through the new Service Management API and optional portal, which will continue to add more services from Microsoft and 3rd party providers over time.

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 Beta Integration Pack for Windows Azure

Customers who have Hybrid Clouds want to automate their Private Cloud as well as their Public Cloud. Now this task can be easier with the new System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 Integration Pack for Windows Azure. This integration pack for Orchestrator is still in beta but you can download it and start testing it. The integration pack includes activities as:

  • Azure Certificates- the Azure Certificates activity is used in a runbook to add, delete, and list management and service certificates
  • Azure Deployments- the Azure Deployments activity is used in a runbook to create, delete, get, and swap deployments, change deployment configurations, update deployment statuses, rollback an update or upgrade, get and change deployment operating systems, upgrade deployments, walk upgrade domains, and reboot and reimage role instances
  • Azure Cloud Services- the Azure Cloud Services activity is used in a runbook to create, delete, and get cloud services, check cloud service name availability, and create affinity groups
  • Azure Storage- The Azure Storage activity is used in a runbook to create, delete, update, and list storage accounts, get storage account properties, get and regenerate storage account keys, create, list, and delete containers, and put, copy, delete, list, snapshot, and download blobs
  • Azure Virtual Machine Disks- the Azure Virtual Machine Disks activity is used in a runbook to add, delete, update, and list virtual machine disks and virtual machine data disks
  • Azure Virtual Machine Images- the Azure Virtual Machine Images activity is used in a runbook to add, delete, update, and list virtual machine operating system images
  • Azure Virtual Machines- the Azure Virtual Machines activity is used in a runbook to create virtual machine deployments, download virtual machine remote desktop files, as well as get, delete, start, restart, shutdown, capture, and update virtual machine roles

 

Download the integration pack from here.

Integrating public and private clouds with AppController by Daniele Grandini

Another great article by Daniele Grandini titled “Integrating public and private clouds with AppController”. In the article he shows how to connect to Windows Azure and move virtual machine from SCVMM to Windows Azure and vise versa.

MVA: Windows Azure Virtual Machines

Four Two videos from Windows Azure Virtual Machines course on MVA: