Monday, 21 April 2014

Why Windows Azure became simply Azure? Introduction to the platform for users to Linux, Open Source, Oracle DB, Android, iOS and other tools

Not long ago, a cloud platform Microsoft Windows Azure was renamed to Microsoft Azure. This is essentially a small, but very important in fact an event that reflects Microsoft's commitment to offer Azure as an open public cloud platform for all users.








This renaming was asking for a long time , because the platform is open to all technology, offering solutions to build on whatever instrument of Windows, SQL and . NET and to Python, Ruby, Node.js, Java, Hadoop, Linux , and Oracle. In this article we look at what opportunities Azure offers users Linux, different languages ​​and opensource- tools :

    
support for Linux as the OS in virtual machines
        
1000 + finished VM images
        
Use your favorite Linux distribution
        
opensource- partners Azure
    
Oracle and Java support
        
support OpenJDK, Java development and Eclipse
    
Support Java, PHP, Python, Node.JS, Ruby as PaaS
        
Visual Studio, Azure and Python, Node.js
        
WebMatrix, Azure and PHP
        
integration with Git, Mercurial, GitHub and other systems
    
support for Android, iOS, Xamarin, HTML5/JS, PhoneGap single mobile backend
    
Hadoop as a service in the Azure cloud
    
Azure administration
        
work with Azure from the command line in Linux, OSX, Windows
        
integration with Puppet and Chef
    
MongoDB, Redis and MySQL on request from the Azure StoreSupport Linux as OS virutalnyh machinesToday ( and for quite some time ) Azure out of the box support operating systems based on Linux. Users are invited to choose from a range of ready distributions to deploy virtual machines:


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Including : Ubuntu Server, CentOS, openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Oracle Linux. These distributions are available to users from the gallery of virtual machines and require no further action , they are available for deployment on the first request . Deployed inside the machines you can install any server application runtime frameworks or tools of your choice .Community VMDepotAnother possibility for the user is able to use community portal VMDepot, which offers free 1000 + ready virtual machine with preconfigured environment and a variety of tools :

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Among ready -minded you can find tools for every taste , for example : LAMP, Drupal, Jenkis, Magento, MongoDB, Neo4js, Redis, WordPress, Apache Solr, Ruby Stack, Cassandra, Coppermine, Discourse, Django, DokuWiki, GitLab, Gitorious, Horde, JBoss, Jetty, Joomla, JRuby, Mantis, MediaWiki, Moodle, Node.js, OpenERP, ownCloud, phpBB, Plone, Redmine, Riak, Spree, SugarCRM, Tomcat, XOOPS , and dozens of others.VMDepot - a community in which you can participate and you upload and share their own virtual machine images . Detailed description of the community portal VMDepot you can read in this article.Using your favorite Linux distributionA third option, Azure offers Linux users is the ability to download and use in their own cloud of virtual machine images with your favorite distributions Linux.Detailed description of the process of creating a virtual disk with your favorite distribution is described here . For example, users can upload your Debian distribution in preparing Azure virtual disk as it is described in the Debian Wiki.Opensource- partners AzureFinally, another possibility offered by Azure for Linux users is the integration with the services cloud platform partners such as BitNami, Opscode (Chef), RightScale, ScaleXtreme, SUSE Studio, Ubuntu Juju.

Juju Rightscale SUSE ScaleXtreme Opscode   Bitnami

These partners offer a variety of support services through its Azure . For example, using SUSE Studio or Ubuntu Juju can in a few minutes to prepare a Linux image with a set of necessary components to choose and upload it to the cloud.More offers these partners can be found on this page .Support for Oracle and JavaWe should also talk about the full support of Oracle products and platform Java. Not long ago, Microsoft announced a strategic partnership with Oracle, which means full-fledged support for the deployment of products and Oracle platforms in the Azure cloud and use of official support for Java in the Azure.

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Among these tools : Oracle Database, Java 7 ( and 6 ), WebLogic Server, Oracle Linux. You can learn a lot from the official page and Oracle partnership Azure:

    
Oracle provides the ability to use licenses for Oracle software in Azure
    
Microsoft now offers a fully licensed and supported by the Java component in AzureVery convenient that way with deploying Oracle in Azure you automatically get " included " license. Pricing and licensing can be found on a separate page .Support OpenJDK, Java development and EclipseAlong with support for the official version of Java JDK from Oracle, Azure platform also supports OpenJDK version from the company Azul.Along with this support platform Java, Microsoft offers and instrumental support - special set for developers with integration into Eclipse. It supports both JDK and OpenJDK, servers Tomcat, Jetty, GlassFish and JBoss.


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With these tools , Java developers can easily create , debug locally and publish their applications to the cloud Azure. Set Windows Azure Toolkit for Eclipse is open- source and is constantly updated.Details on how to use Java and Eclipse for Azure can be read in this article.Support Java, PHP, Python, Node.JS, Ruby as PaaSAlong with ready-made images environments for PHP, Java, Python, Node.js, Ruby , and other languages ​​and platforms for deployment as a virtual machine infrastructure Azure, developers and PaaS- proposed approach application development in different languages ​​, which involves publication in the cloud entire infrastructure , but your code will run on the finished quickly and scalable infrastructure. More support for each language on this page.

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All the necessary tools to develop can be downloaded in one place at http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/.

Visual Studio, Azure and Python, Node.js

Individual focus of Microsoft is working to integrate work on projects based on Python and Node.js environment in the development environment Visual Studio (including its free version). The result of this work are powerful tools Python Tools and Node.js Tools for Visual Studio, which is already in its first versions offer rich functionality and superior to many free or paid counterparts.


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I propose to read the articles Python Tools for Visual Studio, on first-hand updates and Meet: Node.js Tools for Visual Studio, which is divided developer tools with the progress they have achieved.

Node.js Tools for Visual Studio

Projects offer a full user experience for developers in Python and Node.js, including debugging , code completion, integration with package managers (pip or npm) and many other features . Both projects are distributed with source code and actively developed . Both tools are able to be integrated not only in the paid version of Visual Studio, but also free .Of course these tools and offer seamless integration with Microsoft Azure offering a simple and easy way to publish projects based on Django, Flask, Bottle or Express Azure cloud in just a couple of clicks of the Visual Studio.WebMatrix, Azure and PHPPHP developers tools except PHP SDK for Azure, located on http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/develop/php/ agencies can use and the proposed free editor Microsoft WebMatrix. WebMatrix supports the development of PHP- based applications and offers a choice of ready- to-use templates and popular CMS framework based on PHP, Node.js or ASP.NET.

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WebMatrix offers integration with Git, MySQL database and publication in the cloud Azure. Thus you can quickly publish your PHP-application to the cloud. It should be added that along with PHP, WebMatrix supports projects based on Node.js and ASP.NET. WebMatrix details can be found in this article and the other.

Integration with Git, Mercurial, GitHub and other systems

To support developers Azure cloud platform integrates with many services and tools version control and file storage. Among them: Git, TFS, Mercurial, GitHub, Codeplex, BitBucket, Dropbox and Visual Studio Online.


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Tight integration with version control systems it is possible to configure Azure continuous occupancy code in production or steydzhing environment for each of the commits in your repository . Moreover , Azure keeps history deploymenta code and allows rollback code placed on one of the available versions.For more information about using Azure integration capabilities with version control systems can be found in this article on the example of Git.Support Android, iOS, Xamarin, PhoneGap single mobile backendSingle backend for all mobile applications - this is the most demanded today service among mobile developers . Instead of creating your own backend service , configure OS, DB, runtime , write REST API and so you really can just use a ready service that offers all this and more out of the box .

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Along with these features cloud backend and offers even higher reliability, flexibility and scalability under the current operating conditions of your mobile customers.Azure provides developers with iOS, Android, Windows, Windows Phone, HTML5/JS, PhoneGap, Sencha, Xamarin, Kindle opportunity to get ready for a single cloud backend for all applications at once. While Azure Mobile Services offer the following opportunities for developers the same iOS, Android and so on :

    
Work with the data :
        
relational data store with internal replication for reliability;
        
file storage , NoSQL- database or database MongoDB;
    
Work with server-side code
        
CRUD- processing requests from clients through the server code to choose based on Node.js or . NET / C #;
        
creation and launch of REST Web API out of the box through the in-browser editor or a local code;
        
integration with Git;
    
Server support push- uvedmoleny (PNS) for all platforms :
        
Google GMC, Apple APNS, Microsoft WPNS / WNS, Kindle;
    
Built- in authentication support mobile clients :
        
through social networks Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft Account;
        
through Active Directory for corporate clients;
    
open REST API for managing the entire backend :
        
The SDK for all platforms , languages ​​isoplzovaniya advantages of each;
        
access to a backend for REST from any device offering work with HTTP;
    
offline- mode operation of your mobile client
    
deep integration with Visual Studio:
        
support for remote debugging ;
        
logging in real time;
        
resource management;
    
free rate for a quick start :
        
rapid scaling and autoscaling
    
administration tools for all platforms.More about Azure Mobile Services can learn from video report 5 mobile platforms - one ready in the cloud from the backend needs to use the conference made ​​Yandex YaC, the link available and presentation slides .Start developing mobile applications in Azure cloud backend you can visit the official portal and center in Russian azurehub.ru.Hadoop as a service in the Azure cloudHadoop users can look at the use of cloud-based Azure HDInsight, which is a 100% - compatible implementation of Apache Hadoop available for deployment on the first request . Azure HDInsight offers an opportunity to raise ready in minutes with a Hadoop cluster nodes are configured and deployed them tools ecosystem Hadoop, perform calculations , and then remove the cluster , stop paying money for it .




You can deploy on-demand cluster with up to 40 data nodes (larger clusters can be deployed through a support request in).

Microsoft is not just simply offers ready cloud service based on existing technologies Hadoop, but also actively participates in the development of the project in Apache, delivering code.



When deploying a cluster HDInsight you immediately available numerous tools : Hive, Pig, Sqoop, Oozie, HCatalog, Templeton, Ambari and others. Details of these components are set for different versions of the cluster can be found at the following link .For a more detailed description of this service Azure HDInsight refer to this article in Russian . All official documentation is available on the portal.administration AzureAs an open platform , Microsoft Azure offers the ability to manage cloud resources and administration of any operating system : OSX, Linux or Windows.Working with Azure from the command line in Linux, OSX, WindowsAzure on the portal you can find links to install suitable for your operating system command-line tools that will manage all the resources in the cloud via a command or script written in advance

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Comprehensive documentation for installing and using the command line tools for all the available on this page. These tools, like all other instruments Azure distributed with open source.

Integration with Puppet and Chef

C recently Azure has a close integration with the built-in automation systems Puppet and Chef, offering centralized control over your resources and help solve problems DevOps in the cloud.


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Besides the server itself Puppet Enterprise, which is available their galleries Azure VMs users are able to specify the stage of creating the VM need to install a virtual machine Puppet agent for further centralized control.Details on the integration you can find on the site , or Puppet Labs site Opscode.MongoDB, Redis and MySQL on request from the Azure StoreAnother opportunity to work with third-party tools in Microsoft Azure is the ability to purchase services on request from the shop Azure Store. Azure Store includes dozens of tools and services , including free available that extend the capabilities of the platform.Some of these services include services MongoLab, MongoDB Inc, Redis Cloud, ClearDB MySQL

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Many of these services offer several payment , including free, which allows you to get the required server as a service for the development and testing. The benefits of these services is that you do not have to deploy their own infrastructure for locating servers that manage and ensure proper functioning . You get a ready-made database as a service .conclusionPlatform Microsoft Windows Azure - has always been more than just Windows. And the name change on the Microsoft Azure - a logical continuation of the history of the platform as a place itself equally well attended by all operating systems , programming languages ​​, tools and services .We examined both the Azure and allows users to carry out their tasks with any Linux distribution and for any environment . We talked about a strategic partnership with Oracle, which allows you to make Azure the best place to organize and support solutions based on Oracle Database and Java. We saw how Microsoft offers not only services , but also tool support for developers of Java, Python, Node.JS, PHP, Ruby and other languages ​​.Services Azure - it is not only the virtual machines , but also a wide range of flexible PaaS- services, such as Web Sites and Mobile Services, which allow users of different programming languages ​​, developers from different mobile platforms to create solutions for any mobile OS. Researchers and developers handle more data can use the service offering HDInsight Hadoop clusters from across the ecosystem on the first request .Important point - the administration deployed capacity. And here Azure offers not only ready sets of command line tools for all operating systems, but also integrates the popular opensource- tools Puppet and Chef himself.Finally , we looked at how to use the Azure Store opensource- technology vendors as a service offering you access to Azure to popular tools such as databases MySQL, Redis, MongoDB on request and as a service .The author hopes that this article will help all the developers and IT professionals to understand the capabilities of Azure cloud and its openness to any technology of your choice . It's time to try to cloud the taste !

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