Azure/AWS Flashcards
Azure :
Development Options Overview
Windows Azure is a cloud computing platform used to build, deploy and manage applications using a network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.
Azure allows for applications to be built through different languages and frameworks.
One aim is to enable developers to integrate (new Azure) public cloud applications into their existing IT environment.
It provides both Platform as a Service (PaaS) and
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services.
Azure : Cloud Service Types
Paas :
Platform as a Service (PaaS) supplies all of the resources required to build applications and services completely. There is no need to download or install software.
PaaS services include application design, development, testing, deployment and hosting.
IaaS :
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is where Azure outsources the equipment used to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and networking components.
The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, running and maintaining it.
The client pays on a per-usage basis.
Azure :
Microsoft Azure Cloud Services
Windows Azure is Microsoft’s application platform for the
public cloud.
You can use this platform in many different ways:
to build a web application that runs and stores its data in Microsoft datacenters;
to store data, with the applications that use this data running on-premises (not the public cloud!);
to create virtual machines for development and test or run;
to build massively scalable applications with lots and data and users
the platform offers a wide range of services, all of these are possible.
Azure :
Windows Azure Execution Models
Types of Execution Models :
Windows Azure provides three different execution models for running applications:
Virtual Machines
Web Sites
Cloud Services
Each is different and thus, requires a different approach
We describe each technology and discuss when it should be deployed.
Azure
virtual machine :
Azure Virtual Machines facilitates developers, IT operations staff, and users in creating and using virtual machines in the cloud.
Providing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), this technology can be used in variety of ways.
Azure :
Interpreting the Architecture Diagram
Layer 1. Applications, scripts, etc.
Layer 2. Azure Management Portal
Layer 3. Virtual Machines Middleware (execution model)
Layer 4. VMs and VHDs
Azure :
Azure Management Portal
Create VMs using Azure Management Portal.
Creating a new VM requires choosing a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) for the VM’s image.
These VHDs are stored in Azure blobs, with two choices: upload your own or use VHDs provided by Microsoft (from the Azure Marketplace).
Azure :
What is Azure Marketplace?
A community-driven catalog of pre-configured operating systems, applications, and development stacks for easy deployment on Azure.
VM Depot is useful to:
Discover useful Virtual Machine Images to be deployed on Windows Azure
Distribute Virtual Machines for use by others
Azure :
Using REST
REpresentational State Transfer (REST) is a style of software architecture for distributed systems such as the World Wide Web.
REST is the predominant Web service design model.
Azure :
Operating System Updates
Each running VM has an associated OS disk, kept in a blob (Binary Large OBject).
When you create a VM using a gallery VHD, that VHD is copied to your VM’s OS disk.
Changes to the OS of your running VM are stored here: if you install an application that modifies the Windows registry, that change will be stored in your VM’s OS disk.
For VHDs stored in the gallery, Microsoft applies updates when needed, such as operating system patches.
Azure :
System Monitor
Virtual Machines also monitors the hardware hosting each VM.
If a physical server running a VM fails, the platform notices this and starts the same VM on another machine.
You can copy a changed VHD, run it elsewhere, such as in your own on-premises datacenter or another cloud provider
Azure :
Disk Types
Along with its OS disk, your VM has one or more data disks.
Even though each of these looks to your VM like a mounted disk drive, the contents of each one is stored in a blob.
Every write made to a data disk is stored persistently in the underlying blob.
As with all blobs, Azure replicates these both within a single datacenter and across datacenters to guard against failures.
