{"id":421,"date":"2015-03-24T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ml2solutions.com\/blog\/?p=421"},"modified":"2021-05-02T17:09:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T00:09:22","slug":"learning-about-microsoft-azure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ml2solutions.com\/websites\/learning-about-microsoft-azure\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning about Microsoft Azure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I wanted to learn more about cloud services and decided to focus on <a href=\"http:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/\">Microsoft Azure<\/a>.&nbsp; The primary reason was I am familiar with Microsoft technologies.&nbsp; I was also interested in the hybrid cloud approach of running domain joined virtual machines in Azure.&nbsp; I am sure Amazon Web Services has many of the same cloud features but figured Azure would be the best platform for Windows Server and SQL Server.<\/p>\n<p>I started a 30 day trial account which included $200 of billing.&nbsp; So, I started created test services.<\/p>\n<p>The first issue was the fact that there were two portal to manage your account.&nbsp; I guess this is fine as the new portal looks \u201cMetro\u201d like and I assume will become the primary in the future.<\/p>\n<p>A great introductory resource is this <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.msdn.com\/b\/microsoft_press\/archive\/2015\/02\/03\/free-ebook-microsoft-azure-essentials-fundamentals-of-azure.aspx\">eBook<\/a>.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Here is my observation on the services I looked at:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Website running WordPress<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>The creation process was straightforward.&nbsp; The weird thing was I had to create a MySQL database using a different service from ClearDB.&nbsp; The free database has a limit of 20 MBs.&nbsp; Unfortunately, some of my current databases are already bigger than that.&nbsp; The next level up is a 1 GB database for $10 a month.&nbsp; This is fine but my current account at Media Temple for $20 allows for 100 databases.<\/li>\n<li>I went ahead and finished the installed.&nbsp; WordPress loaded fine.<\/li>\n<li>I wonder if Azure is the best platform for WordPress since a LAMP application but would probably be fine for a small site except that the free website plan doesn\u2019t allow for custom domain names.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>SQL Server<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>The creation process was also straightforward.&nbsp; I think it is cool you can connect directly from SQL Server Management Studio.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>Backup Vault<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>This service looked very interesting but wonder if it can work with Backup Exec.&nbsp; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>Storage<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>I created a new Blob Storage.&nbsp; I reviewed the intro PDF and then created a container which is similar to a folder.&nbsp; I wasn\u2019t sure how to upload a blog or a file.&nbsp; But, I found an explorer program called <a href=\"http:\/\/azurestorageexplorer.codeplex.com\/\">Azure Storage Explorer<\/a>.&nbsp; That allowed to me to upload a test file.&nbsp; Next, I wasn\u2019t able to access the file but when I created the container, I set the security to Private.&nbsp; I changed that to \u201cBlob\u201d and then the URL worked.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>Resource Groups<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>When I was doing my cleanup off all the test services, I realized that Resource Group hold everything related to a service.&nbsp; So, deleting them cleaned up everything.&nbsp; So, will try to create an individual resource group for each permanent service.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>Websites<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>The creating went fine.&nbsp; I downloaded the WebMatrix tool and it made it very easy to create a new websites.&nbsp; I also figured out how to create and access a website via Visual Studio.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>Virtual Machines<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>Again, creation was straightforward.&nbsp; I found the smallest VM spec barely had enough RAM to run at 750 MBs.&nbsp; The next tier up seemed necessary to do anything with the server.<\/li>\n<li>I created a data disk which is just another VHD file.&nbsp; It was linked to a storage account.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wanted to learn more about cloud services and decided to focus on Microsoft Azure.&nbsp; The primary reason was I am familiar with Microsoft technologies.&nbsp; I was also interested in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Learning about Microsoft Azure - ML2 Solutions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learning about Microsoft Azure I wanted to learn more about cloud services and decided to focus on Microsoft Azure.&nbsp; 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