Exist three ways for deploy Node.js app on Windows Azure, web-role, web-site and git-azure (link). I don't know whitch is most efficient for my needs. My app is readability algorithm with RESTful API, whitch parse news sites, simple computing, but highload. Of course, I need transparent horizontal scaling. I hope for your help.
My $0.02.
If your product is only based on Node.js, without many layers and components such as background workers, business logic layer and API layer, Windows Azure Web Site should be the best choice. It's very simple to deploy Node.js application through Git, GitHub, TFS, FTP, etc. It also provides scaling-up (in reserve mode) and scaling-out options. But keep in mind that all applications under Windows Azure Web Site will be running in 32bit WOW mode.
Windows Azure Web Role is similar as Windows Azure Web Site, but you need configure the Node.js environment by yourself. (If you are using the azure powershell tool, it can help you establish the node stuff by using some startup commands.) If you need something working in worker roles, or the caching (not the shared caching), Web Role may be better.
I've never heard about the git-azure but it looks like a tooling that you can host more than one node application on worker role.
Related
I have noticed when accessing windows mobile service I can schedule tasks to perform at certain times. I also noticed that the script to perform these tasks is only javascript? Is there a way I can use some server side code to perform a mobile service?
I want to be able to connect to an API. Check for a specific update. If that update is present send an email to myself.
Unfortunately this API suffers from the same-origin policy and doesn't offer a solution like JSONP. Therefore I will need to handle this API access server side.
Currently you can only use JavaScript, but support for other languages (like C#) is planned.
I was interested in Widows Azure Mobile Services because of the Scheduler service, as a simpler alternative to jobs running in Worker Roles with Quartz and other alternatives, but I felt the same difficulty you describe in having to work in a JS only environment, which is a problem in my scenario.
Are you aware of Windows Azure Web Site Web Jobs (here and here)? You can configure continuous or scheduled jobs developed in many script languages as well as in .Net.
We moved many smaller tasks from under-utilized and more complex Worker Roles to Web Jobs as simple .Net console apps. Via the Web Jobs SDK you also get a good monitoring environment.
I need to connect to a middle tier (think Azure) between both my Windows store app and WP8 app. Windows Azure Mobile Services has been proffered as a/the solution.
But am I reading too much into the name "...MOBILES Services" (as one of the pieces is not a mobile app, but runs on desktops, laptops AND tablets)?
In my case, am I better off with Azure Cloud Services as opposed to Windows Azure Mobile Services?
Windows Azure Mobile Services is a fast, easy way to get a back-end in the cloud for your mobile apps and Windows 8 apps (it's fine if your Windows 8 apps aren't necessarily targeting mobile devices). It includes the things most commonly needed in a back-end, such as authentication, database storage, and push notifications. There's no server-side development needed here, you just request the back-end and moments later it's ready to use; however, if you do want server-side logic you can add it in the form of JavaScript scripts.
Alternatively, you could build your own back end in the cloud using a combination of Windows Azure Cloud Services such as the Compute, Storage, and SQL Database services. You have access to more features at this level, but you also are doing your own development. You can write server-side logic in C#, VB.NET, PHP, Java, Python, etc. as you prefer.
Which should you use?
If Windows Azure Mobile Services meets your needs, and you'd rather focus on your mobile app than learning anything cloud-specific, that's likely the best path for you.
If you're conversant with the Windows Azure platform, and need features different from what WAMS provides, that suggests creating your own back end with Cloud Services.
If you're not sure which way to go, I suggest experimenting first with WAMS since it is quick and painless to get started.
Azure mobile services is designed to get you up and going with storing data, push notifications and authentication whichever of those components you might need.
It abstracts the need of creating a data access layer and a web/wcf service to access it from your applications; it's simply there to boilerplate as much functionality off the bat.
This however does not mean that it is only for mobile applications, behind it all is a normal SQL Azure database and an API that you can use from any .NET based application.
I would reason that if you need more than basic CRUD operations and won't be using authentication and push notifications, I would roll my own set of APIs and DAL and use cloud services instead.
If you need a flexible schema, boilerplate data access and want to use some of the other mobile services, it would suit you quite well.
Here is a link to getting going with mobile services from a non Windows8 or WP - ASP application : link
Current my company delivers our software to our customers through a Citrix Xenapp Server. As administrators we are able to launch instances of the servers and our customers are only able to launch their specific application
My Question is does Windows Azure also offer this type of environment. I am looking to deploy a new version of our application and I am leaning towards Azure, but if that is the direction we go in I would like to migrate all of our existing system to Azure and not maintain both Azure and Citrix.
Greg,
In principle yes you can do this, but you can't just plug in Azure as a direct replacement for XenApp (with zero/minimal effort). Azure effectively has it's own runtime. While it is Windows based and there is certainly potential to reuse code in an existing app in an Azure equivalent, you would need to re-write your app to make it run in Azure.
Given your app is running on XenApp it is likely it is a fat client app, i.e. most of its logic lives in the main executable that you run on XenApp, with potentially some other back end services being utilised. In comparison you should think of Azure as a platform for providing web apps. So you would re-architect the app as an Azure hosted web app, then you could deploy it via Azure in a multi-tenanted manner to your customers who would then access it through a browser rather than a Citrix Receiver.
Regards,
Donovan
I've recently been asked to redevelop an .Net 2.0 WinForms application with a back end SQL Server Express DB.
One of the requirements is to allow remote users access to the application, so I've been considering hosted options to avoid VPN setup. The data is not sensitive and does not fall under data protection act, so a basic security approach for the web will cover me.
I like the idea of using Azure for a few reasons, but I'm not sure if a good fit for a users base of 5 or 6 with no real scope to grow. I've never used Azure and I plan to develop using MVC and a SQL backend as this is my main skillset.
A few points in favour of Azure in my mind are:
Tight integration with the TFS preview that I'm using for this project
Easy to setup a sandpit and a live version
Easy maintenance as I expect other hosted options will require more knowledge of underlying OS
Sticking to a full Microsoft stack should hopefully make things simpler
From what I find on the Azure site the message is all about scalability, which is great if you need it.
My question is simply, do you need a large user base, or plans to grow quickly, to use azure or is it how we should be hosting apps now?
What you're asking here is the perfect case for Windows Azure Web Sites:
You get 10 web sites for free (no custom DNS, but this is perfect for your 'sandpit'/test version). The shared mode supports custom DNS and is very cheap.
Tight integration with TFS preview and GitHub
You don't need to worry about the underlying OS, you simply publish from Visual Studio or with TFS Preview.
Sticking to the Microsoft stack is the easiest solution, but other technologies work great aswell. Since you're talking about MVC I'm assuming you are considering ASP.NET MVC, which is a perfect match with Windows Azure. Take a look at the training kit for some good examples.
The day you'll need a solution which more scalable (meaning you'll have more users and more income) you can easily upgrade to a reserved instance or to a Cloud Service (Web/Worker Role).
About your question: "My question is simply, do you need a large user base, or plans to grow quickly, to use azure or is it how we should be hosting apps now?"
Windows Azure is a cloud service platform (includes PaaS as Cloud Services, IaaS as Windows Azure Virtual Machines and also Websites suggest by Sandrino above), and with cloud services you have ability to start very small and grow as much and as quickly as your user requirement is, so you can use Azure with both cases. On the other hand there are some advantages using certain offering depend on your which service you are going to use to run your application.
I think article (Section: "What Should I Use? Making a Choice") will explain the strategy about how you make a selection among various services.
This SO discussion does talks about the difference between cloud Services and Azure WebSites as well.
What type of projects/software applications are suitable for Azure and why?
Thanks
Rather than thinking of what can be supported in Azure, it might be more helpful to think about its challenges as you decide to port your app over:
Web applications. Since a Web Role hosts IIS, you'll generally have little issue porting a general-purpose asp.net or asp.net mvc website to Azure. There are some glitches you'll run into - see my related answer for more details.
UI. If your app has specific output similar to a WinForms app, you won't be able to run it since you have no video output.
GPU dependencies. If you're doing some background processing dependenton a specific GPU, you won't be able to run in an Azure VM.
Registry and other system-level access. If your app needs to update the registry or run an MSI, you won't be able to install your app.
Instance affinity. If your app requires session stickiness (e.g. a logged-in user MUST visit the same server instance with each access), you won't be able to accomplish this.
COM interop. COM interop is very limited, since you can't install anything via the registry. If you rely on Excel Services, you won't have that capability.
SQL limitations. SQL Azure is limited to 50GB today, and offers no ability to custom-tune the server instance. Also, while it does support a big subset of SQL Server, it doesn't support 100% of SQL Server, so it's possible some of your sprocs may no longer work. There's no SQL Agent today, so you'd need to recreate that functionality in a worker process.
That's just a quick braindump of some challenges you might run into - I'm sure there are others.
Just keep in mind that Azure is providing Windows 2008 Server images for your app to run on, so if your app can run in that environment today, and doesn't require things I listed, you should be in pretty good shape.
You can make most of the .NET projects working in Azure. Azure has support of following project types: web site (both ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC), worker (background application) and wcf service.
Don't forget security too - there's various ways of authenticating onto Azure but none are as simple as just setting IIS/ASP to windows auth.