This is probably a basic question but all I am looking for in Azure is the ability to back up files on my Windows Server at a scheduled time. MS SQL, MySQL and Web Site Files.
I have created a Trial account and a Storage plan but need a pointer to which section of the Dashboard I should be visiting - it isn't immediately apparent!
I assume you are asking about backing up your Windows server running as a VM instance on Azure.
Below is the latest Azure VM backup guide from Microsoft.
Hope it helps!
Azure virtual machine back up
Related
After global overview about Windows Azure platform i still have some questions in my mind i would like you to kindly answer. Hope it will be also usefull for some people besides me.
One of my application uses sql server db for text data and second db which is just simply images db (folder structure own db) where
images are stored and by using ftp my aplication can download/upload
there. The question is: a) If i would go azure does "sql azure" is
place where can i place my sql server db? b) What about my folder
structure database - is there some place on azure storage i could put
my folders containing images and configure ftp to it? I heard about
BLOBS but can i ftp to it?
Is there possibility to place Windows forms application to Azure that it could work as remote application which specific users could
access instead of installing on every client machine?
Regarding Worker role - is there possibility to just simply move Windows service application to azure as worker role or there are some
things which has to be rebuilt to work in azure?
If i would go azure does "sql azure" is place where can i place my sql
server db.
You could definitely use SQL Azure to host your SQL database. Other alternative would be to use a SQL Server inside a Virtual Machine.
What about my folder structure database - is there some place on azure
storage i could put my folders containing images and configure ftp to
it? I heard about BLOBS but can i ftp to it?
Blobs is definitely the place to store files and folders though they don't support FTP. However there are many storage explorers available (both free and paid), using which you can upload files and folders from your local computer into Azure Blob Storage. Another alternative would be Azure File Storage.
Is there possibility to place Windows forms application to Azure that
it could work as remote application which specific users could access
instead of installing on every client machine?
Yes, it is possible. Please look into Azure Remote App Service.
Regarding Worker role - is there possibility to just simply move
Windows service application to azure as worker role or there are some
things which has to be rebuilt to work in azure?
You can't deploy a Windows Service application as is into a Worker role. You have to tweak your code a bit. Other alternatives that you may want to look into is hosting your Windows Service in a Virtual Machine (to the best of my knowledge, it should be without any code changes) or converting your Windows Service into a WebJob.
In addition to everything that Gaurav mentions and as he alludes to, you can also investigate Azure Files. You can mount file shares from any onprem application. Since Azure Files supports the SMB protocol, you can use standard file system API to interact with it.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/storage-dotnet-how-to-use-files.
My web project uses an software, which need to be installed on destination PC. So, I have to use Azure VM and no way to use Azure Cloud Service, right?
Also, can I use SQL Azure with Virtual Machine?
You can install any third party software on Azure Web/Worker roles (Cloud Services), as long as the installer supports a quiet/unattemded install from a command line with switches. Learn more how to do this via StartUp tasks here.
As for Azure SQL Database - you can use with any combination of services. Even with on-premises only solution. You have to take care of Firewall rules.
Azure SQL Database tends to be much less expensive than a VM with SQL Server installed. It won't run on a VM but you can access an Azure SQL database from an VM or web application in the same way you access local databases - You just set the connection string to the Azure SQL connection string.
There is an excellent post that can help you with in order to understand how to configure customization with cloud services.
microsoft-azure-cloud-services-part-4-lifecycle-and-customization-of-your-vm
As the link explains there is nothing persisted on a cloud service VM but this is not a limitation instead a good practice which allows easy scaling out by adding more instances if required.
You can use Azure PaaS SQL just like a SQL server installed on a different server then your web server with some limitations. Please have a look at the link below from MSDN to understand these limitations.
sql-database-transact-sql-information
I am trying to deploy a large web site to Azure as a Web Role. However, Azure on the Instances tab of the Azure dashboard, it tells me it suffers an error during start up, causing it to restart over and over again.
Where can I find log files that will tell me what specifically is going wrong? The manage.windowsazure.com site doesn't seem to have any.
First, debug on your dev machine. Make sure you deployed the right .cscfg file, you don't have any broken connection strings, you're referencing the right version of the DLLs (the same as Azure's VMs) or are copying newer versions to Azure. If those fail, read this topic on WindowsAzure.com and the topics in this node on MSDN. The Hello World code sample also has a basic demonstration of diagnostics that should be helpful.
The basics of diagnostics in Windows Azure:
Must be manually enabled for each role by importing the Diagnostics module in your ServiceDefinition.csdef file
A storage location needs to be configured for the resulting logs in your ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file, such as the storage emulator, or a Windows Azure Storage account. Depending on the types of logs, they are stored in either blobs or tables.
You can either configure diagnostics collection programmatically or with a file that is read when your role starts and can be updated on-the-fly
You can set up and control how often diagnostics data is downloaded to your storage account (important because transactions/transfer/storage costs money), performance counters, or other metrics you need
There are a series of 4 blog posts at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kwill/archive/2013/08/09/windows-azure-paas-compute-diagnostics-data.aspx which will walk you through step by step how to troubleshoot a role startup failure including log file locations, etc.
As you can tell from the title, I set up a virtual machine on Azure and installed a website and database that my company is hosting for a client. The spending limit was not lifted, and after it was reached my VM was deleted.
Since that time I have lifted the spending limit, but I have no idea how to get the VM back, or if that is possible at all. What are the steps I need to take in order to get back to where it was? Is the database that was on this server gone for good? I spent hours getting this server up to date with updates and Web Platform Installer software. This would be rather cruel if everything is now lost.
Are you sure the VM was actually deleted, or was the deployment deleted? Check in the portal under the Virtual Machines tab. Look under the Disks section and see if you have a disk there that represents the server that was running.
If so, you should be able to create a new Virtual Machine instance by using the New button at the bottom of the portal. Click on the New button and select Compute > Virtual Machine > From Gallery. Then click on the My Disks under the popup screen. This will let you select the disk that represents the OS disk from your server.
You may also want to check to see if the Cloud Service container that was running the server was also deleted. When you create a Virtual Machine a Cloud service is created to act like a container for that machine instance. You can also add additional machines to that same container. Take a look under Cloud Services in the portal and see if one is there named like what you had setup for the virtual machine. If so, then you'll either have to delete this one so you can reuse the name, or you can user the PowerShell cmdlets to start the virtual machine and put it into the already existing cloud services container.
I had the same experience. Our Azure Virtual machine was gone, and I got really scared when it was also missing from the management portal. I solved it like this.
Remove the spending limit on the credit card from the Azure account portal.
Delete the cloudservice that had the same name as the VM. The cloud service was only an empty container now that the VM was gone.
It is easy to restore the missing VM by creating a new Virtual Machine. Choose to create a new VM from Gallery, and under the Gallery you can find your missing machines harddisk under "My disks".
Wait while the machine is restored, and then start it.
Now you have to manually recreate all network endpoints. That was a pain as I had quite a few different streaming servers installed.
I wish that Azure only stopped an virtual machine instead of silently removing it when the customer fails to pay. Especially because it is quite hard to understand which services are free, which services are free trials and which services that you must pay for.
I have created my first app for azure. It's has an MVC3 web role which writes some data to table storage.
It also has a worker role that does some work behind the scenes to the same data.
It all works fine in the emulator.
I've uploaded it all to Azure as a staging deployment, the hosted service it is reports all roles as "ready". The health for all roles is "healthy", though the worker role appears to crash and goes to "degraded" and then resets itself (I assume this is what is happening).
So what now? I have found a "DNS Name" on my Web Role in the form "http://{guid}.cloudapp.net/"
Clicking on that link just gives me a network access error, http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ can't find it either.
What am I missing? Where can I see diagnostics similar to the emulator? I've set "Enable Diagnostics" to use my Azure storage account in each role. How do I get into the storage to see if it has traced anything? Can this be done through the Management Portal?
I've tried searching through MSDN, but I can't find a page that says "and then you click the DNS name link and your website will launch. I'm sure there is a lovely page like that but I can't find it.
thanks in advance!
In August 2011, the Windows Azure role templates were updated to work with the ASP.NET Universal Providers. As such, when you create a new project, the session state provider is backed by SQL Express by default. If you don't change this to SQL Azure or Cache (or disable session state), you'll run into issues.
I'm not sure this is exactly the issue you're running into, but it's a common one. See Nate Totten's blog post for more information about this (Nate calls out this issue a few pages down, under IMPORTANT NOTE).
You can access diagnostics data directly from Visual Studio Server Explorer.
Here you have all necessary information: Browsing Storage Resources with Server Explorer http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ff683677.aspx
Personally I use Azure Diagnostics Manager from Cerebrata http://www.cerebrata.com/products/AzureDiagnosticsManager/ that is easy and has a good dashboard