Forem: Sarah-Nonye

Azure core Fundamentals: Iaas, PaaS, SaaS - Made Easy!

Sarah-Nonye — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 16:33:26 +0000

Hello guys,

I am excited to write this article today, before I go into the topic, I'd like to buttress these terms for a bit, just because we can't really discuss app services or Azure Fundamentals without highlighting and grasping these key terms:

IaaS, PaaS and SaaS

I'd start off with this analogy of the terms, just to share an insight and help the concepts stick better

In the App Services space, Your App is a Car and let's assume there are 3 different Scenarios for you to access this car

Scenario 1:

Purchasing a car - Purchasing a car comes with responsibilities such as: outright/installment payment, securing a driver's license, car documentation and registration, fuel, periodic maintenance, you will need an insurance plan especially if the car is brand new, and many other responsibilities that you have to take on solely, although you are not the manufacturer of the car, you are only a customer who made a "happy" purchase.

Recall that a very common example of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is a Virtual Machine and the scenario described above "corresponds with - IAAS where you purchase, maintain and secure your own virtual machine. You own the Virtual Machine but it means you have full responsibility whenever something goes wrong, the cloud service provider is only responsible for the physical security of the datacenter and other hardware components , just like the manufacturer of the car.

Scenario 2:

Hiring a car: When you hire a car you can choose what car model you get, how fast you want drive it, you get to choose the kind of car you want and the specifications, you can decide to go back and upgrade your car- you don't have to worry about all the infrastructure and the maintenance of it. When you have a web app running on PaaS, you do not worry about the VM and the maintenance of it, all you just have to do is bring your code, host it on the platform, make changes as at when necessary and let the cloud service provider handle the maintenance and be responsible for it.

Scenario 3:

Taking a Cab: You order a Taxi, Uber or Bolt and all you care about is sitting in the car and getting to your destination. You are not responsible for maintenance, driving, you don't exactly choose the model of the car or the driver, no need to have a driver's license to order a cab, you basically just order it and enjoy the ride. This scenario corresponds with SAAS (Software as a Service) - the product is pre-built for you, think of your everyday applications: Team, gmail, quora, Uber, facebook etc. You simply download the app and access the features therein, no responsibility for upgrades or the latest versions, you are the end user of the product.

I hope I have been able to give you a better understanding of these concepts using these analogies, it helped me as a beginner in my app service class.

Beginner's guide to Azure core Fundamentals - Part 2 (Compute Services)

Sarah-Nonye — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 06:31:50 +0000

In my previous article, we introduced Cloud computing, Microsoft Azure and highlighted the services Azure provides

I'll reiterate the services, so we can continue: Remember, I'll be explaining the most common services in each category.

1. Compute Services

Compute Services offer a variety of hosting choices for apps and services. This is one of the key reasons for enterprises migrating to the Azure platform.

Some common services in this category and their Functions:

Virtual Machines in Azure: Virtual machines are computer simulations that run on software. Virtual machines (VMs) run an operating system and allow you to install and run software much like a real computer. You can use and operate the virtual machine as if you were sitting in front of it while utilizing a remote desktop client. Virtual machines are useful when you need complete control over an operating system and its surroundings, they can run on Windows or Linux and hosted in Azure.

Scale Sets for Azure Virtual Machines: This can be hosted on Windows or Linux VMs.
Scale sets are an Azure compute resource that may be used to deploy and manage a group of identical virtual machines. Virtual machine scale sets are meant to provide real auto-scale when all VMs are setup the same. Virtual machines do not need to be pre-provisioned. As a result, developing large-scale services for big computing, big data, and containerized workloads is easy. More VM instances can be added as demand grows. VM instances can be withdrawn when demand decreases.

App Services: You can swiftly design, deploy, and scale enterprise-grade web, mobile, and API apps on any platform with Azure App Service. When you use a fully managed platform to execute infrastructure maintenance, you can meet stringent performance, scalability, security, and compliance requirements. App Service is a PaaS (platform as a service) solution.

Azure Functions: When you simply care about the code that runs your service and not the underlying platform or infrastructure, functions are very handy. They're frequently used when you need to respond to an event via a REST request, a timer, or a message from another Azure service, and the task can be accomplished rapidly, in seconds or less.

Azure Container Instances: This provides the quickest and most straightforward way to start a container on Azure without the need to manage virtual machines or use extra services. It's a platform as a service (PaaS) that lets you upload containers and have them operate for you. Containerized apps run on Azure without provisioning servers or VMs

Azure Kubernetes Service: This is a service that allows you to run Kubernetes cluster management for containerized services running on VMs. You can leverage Azure compute resources like Container Instances and Azure Kubernetes Service to deploy and manage containers. Think of Kubernetes as an orchestration of a cluster of container instances

Okay, let's clear the air a little bit:

What is a Container?
Containers are virtualized application environments that are lightweight. They're built to be dynamically formed, scaled out, and stopped. On a single host machine, you can run many instances of a containerized application.

See this screenshot below:

As a side note:

There are 3 types of Services offered by Microsoft Azure:

SaaS, PaaS and IaaS
I'd like to use an everyday analogy to explain this, I learnt this analogy from my instructor once and it has helped me to differentiate the concepts greatly.

All the services Azure offers falls into one of the aforementioned types. Look out for the Analogy in my next article.

P.s: Our next Azure cloud Service Category will be the NETWORKING

Beginner's guide to Azure core Fundamentals

Sarah-Nonye — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 12:57:35 +0000

Preface

This article is specially curated for newbies in the cloud space especially for people with an interest in Microsoft Azure cloud services. Think of it as a formal introduction to the Azure environment and a breakdown of their functionalities. Let's dig in!

Introduction

First, there is a course title for this topic, officially it is referred to as AZ-900, when you come across this course "code", it is referencing Azure Fundamentals - now that we have established that, let's give cloud computing a suitable definition.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a method of renting computation and storage capacity/space from another person's datacenter. You can treat cloud resources the same way you would your own datacenter's resources. You return them once you've finished using them, and You are only charged for what you use.

You rent CPUs and storage for the time you need them rather than maintaining them in your datacenter, the infrastructure is maintained by the cloud provider for you. You may use the cloud to quickly solve your most difficult business problems and provide cutting-edge solutions to your users.

The cloud allows you to move more quickly and innovate in ways that were previously unthinkable. And in our ever-changing digital world;

Development teams bring new features to their users quickly,
and users anticipate a more rich and immersive experience with their gadgets and software. And the cloud is a great way to achieve all this and more.

Let's talk about AZURE for a bit:

Azure is a growing set of cloud services that can help your company address current and future business difficulties. Azure provides 100s of cloud services that gives you the freedom to use your favorite tools and frameworks to build, manage, and deploy apps on a huge global network.

Businesses and Organizations now have everything they need to build the next great solution with Microsoft Azure.

Before I continue, I'd recommend you create an Azure account, simply visit "portal.azure.com" this will help you connect better with my next few points. Not to worry, I will be holding your hands carefully, with these screenshots.

If you have an existing account, kindly sign in, otherwise sign up

Your Azure portal homepage should look like this:

select "more services" to give you an overview of the services Azure offers:

We will be discussing the most popular features from each category.

Azure runs deep and many more features are being developed and added on a daily basis!

Kindly be on the look out for my next article on the Beginner's guide to Azure Fundamentals - Az-900

p.s: if you wish you create a free Microsoft student account to help you access 20 selected Azure service, go here:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/students/

How to activate Azure Command Line Interface (Azure CLI)

Sarah-Nonye — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 10:50:20 +0000

The Azure Command-Line Interface is a cross-platform tool that can be used to run administrative tasks on Windows computers. It can be installed and used locally on a variety of devices. You can also use it to connect to Azure through a browser or run it from inside a Docker container.

The Azure CLI is automatically installed on Windows computers using a multi-system image (MSI). It can be accessed through the Windows Command Prompt or the Powershell.

When installing the software for Linux, you can also use the packages that are available for Windows Subsystem for Linux. See the main page for more details.

The latest version of the Azure CLI is version 2.36.0. To find out if it's still working properly, run "az version". The Azure CLI is a cross-platform command line tool that can be used to connect to Azure resources. It can also be used to run tasks from inside a Docker container. You can also use it through a browser.

Update or install
On Windows, the MSI distributable is used to install or update the Azure CLI. Current versions do not need to be uninstalled before installing the MSI installer because the MSI will upgrade any existing version.

The Recent version:
Make sure to Install the most recent version of the Azure CLI. Click the "Yes" box when the installer asks if it can make changes to your device. To utilize the Azure CLI, close and reopen any open Windows Command Prompt or PowerShell windows after the installation is complete.

Version specific
Change the version section in the URL https://azcliprod.blob.core.windows.net/msi/azure-cli-version>.msi to download the MSI installer for a given version. The Azure CLI release notes list the available versions.

Activate the Azure CLI
The az command can now be used to launch the Azure CLI from either Windows Command Prompt or PowerShell.

How to create and deploy an Azure Resource Manager template

Sarah-Nonye — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 10:37:48 +0000

In this article, you will develop an Azure Resource Manager template (ARM template), deploy it to Azure, and then change the ARM template to add parameters and output.

I will explain the Azure Resource Manager Tools for Visual Studio Code as they will be used in this article. Before beginning the practice, make sure you have this extension installed in Visual Studio Code.

Creating an ARM template on Visual Studio Code.

Create a new file called azuredeploy.json in Visual Studio Code.

The Visual Studio Code ARM template addon includes snippets to assist you in creating templates. Let's begin with a blank template. Enter arm on the first line of the file.

VS Code prompts you for numerous options that begin with the letter "arm!" Select the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template from the drop-down menu. (see image below)

The schemas and languages for your template are processed automatically by VS Code.

Your code file should have something like this:

{
"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {},
"functions": [],
"variables": {},
"resources": [],
"outputs": {}
}

Remember to save with the ctrl + s command

Next stage is to:

Deploy the ARM template to Azure

First, Sign in to your Azure account from the Visual Studio Code shell to deploy this template to Azure. Make sure you're using the same account that you've installed Azure PowerShell Tools from the VS Code Extensions.

To open a PowerShell window, choose Terminal > New Terminal from the command bar.

If PowerShell appears in the terminal window's command bar, you're in the appropriate shell and may move on to the next phase.

If not, click the down arrow and choose PowerShell from the dropdown list. If that option isn't available, choose Select Default Profile.

Scroll down and pick PowerShell in the input area.

Select Terminal > New Terminal to open a PowerShell terminal window.

Azure PowerShell is used to log in to Azure.
To sign in to Azure, enter the following command from the console in Visual Studio Code. A browser window appears, allowing you to login in to your account.

Log in with the same account you used from the beginning. In the terminal window, VS Code lists the subscriptions linked with your account after you sign in. You'll notice a code block with the subscription name: This is the subscription that will be used throughout the rest of the exercise.

Set the default subscription for this session's PowerShell commands.
To get your subscription(s) and their ID, use the command below (s).

Get-AzSubscription

The second column is the subscriber ID. reveal the keys and copy the value

To change your active subscription to the your active Subscription, run the following command, substituting Your subscription ID with the one you copied in the previous step.

$context = Get-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId {Your subscription ID}
Set-AzContext $context

To make the default resource group the one generated for you in the sandbox environment, run the following command. This step allows you to leave that parameter out of the rest of the Azure PowerShell instructions in this article.

Set-AzDefault -ResourceGroupName [your resource group name]

More tips will be shared in the next article, I have no rights to the images used in my explanations.

Azure Resource Manager Templates

Sarah-Nonye — Sun, 05 Jun 2022 14:42:42 +0000

Examine the Azure Resource Manager template hierarchy.

You'll learn how to use Azure Resource Manager templates (ARM templates) to implement infrastructure as code in this article. We'll go over the sections of an ARM template, learn how to deploy your ARM template to Azure, and go over the resources portion in depth.

What is infrastructure as code, and how does it work?

Infrastructure as code allows you to express the infrastructure that your application requires in code.
You can maintain both your application code and everything you need to deploy your application in a common code repository with infrastructure as code. The following are some of the benefits of infrastructure as code:

Configurations that are consistent
Scalability has been improved.
More rapid deployments
Improved traceability

What is an ARM template, and how does it function?

ARM templates, which are JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) files, establish the architecture and parameters for your deployment. The template employs declarative syntax. Declarative syntax is a way of defining the structure and elements that describe how resources will appear without having to specify the control flow. Declarative syntax is different from the imperative syntax, which uses commands to do computer activities. The goal of imperative scripting is to define each step of the resource deployment process.

You can declare what you want to deploy using ARM templates rather than having to write the programming commands to make it happen. An ARM template specifies the resources and characteristics for those resources.

We will discuss the:

Advantages of ARM Templates

You can utilize ARM templates to automate deployments and use infrastructure as code (IaC). Your infrastructure and development initiatives will benefit from the template code. IaC files, like application code, can be stored in a source repository and versioned.

Idempotent means that you can use the same ARM template multiple times and get the same resource types in the same state.

Resource Manager coordinates the deployment of resources to ensure that they are created in the proper order. Resources will be produced in parallel whenever possible, making ARM template deployments faster than scripted deployments.

Validation is also included into Resource Manager. Before initiating the deployment, it examines the template to ensure that it will succeed.

You can break down your ARM templates into smaller, reusable components as your deployments become more complicated. At deployment time, you can join these smaller templates together. Templates can also be nestled inside other templates.

You can review your deployment history and get information about the status of your deployment via the Azure site. All parameters and results are displayed in the portal.

Beginners guide to Azure App Service

Sarah-Nonye — Mon, 16 May 2022 08:00:14 +0000

This is a step by step guide on how you can set up your Microsoft Azure app service , developers will benefit greatly from Azure App Services

What is Microsoft Azure App Service?

Azure app services are quite strong and can get you up and running in a matter of minutes. They offer a slew of incredible features, including (auto)scaling, simple authentication, offline sync (for Mobile Apps), hybrid connections, and much more.

kindly follow through and let me know if you experience any challenge, let's dig in:

Okay, so the first step is to create a Microsoft account (if you don't already have one, you can use ANY name of your choice.

I already have one, so I'll skip that part, once you create your outlook account(Microsoft account), you can then proceed to:

portal.azure.com this is basically where it all happens, log in with your existing outlook account and proceed

On the homepage, select "App service"- see image below:

Remember, we are creating a new app service, so what we need is to click "create"

Quickly fill the details such as:

Subscription
Select a resource group - you can leave the default value
Web Name (input a befitting name of your choice)
Runstack Time should be '.NET 3L'

The next tags e.g Deployment, Networking, Monitoring etc.
please use the default values an proceed to "review + create"

Please give it a few minutes to deploy, after the deployment is successful, you have successfully created an app service on the Azure portal.

The next part of this post is to walk you through , how to deploy an Api using your new App Service

This is a little technical so please stay with me, I'll be walking you through in the next posts.