So the Windows Azure platform AppFabric was recently launched into production and made available for commercial use. For many of us, this meant that Azure moved from “place to mess around with no real consequences” to “crap, I better figure out what this is going to cost me.”
I’ve heard a few horror stories of folks […]
In BizTalk 2006 R2, I have noticed that sometimes the promoted property fields are not available. This seemed to be a random occurance so I decided to spend a little time investigating.
Problem Scenario:
The property schema field will not show up in a Receive Shape filter. No matter how many times you build, rebuild, and close […]
<Whinge>
Thought id just have a little whinge about this product which caused me a load of grief the other day…..
So the background was that my development machine had a completely full hard disk which I needed to sort out. Upon investigation I found the issue was that the msdb database had managed to get very large.
This was caused because a long time ago (and I cant even remember why) I tried out Apex SQL. After a few days I decided to uninstall it and thought nothing more of it. What I didnt realise was that uninstalling it doesnt actually uninstall it (and it doesnt inform you about this), but there was still some assemblies left on my machine. Everytime SQL Server was running it was starting the Apex SQL Connection monitor which was then running in the background and regularly recording information in the msdb database. Over time it had recorded enough to fill the disk.
The below article advises how to sort this out by removing this fully so if your having a problem then try this out:http://knowledgebase.apexsql.com/2007/08/how-to-uninstall-apexsqlconnectionmonit_09.htm
Once this was sorted out its interesting to read the above article because I just dont think the approach used by the vendor of this software is a very good one. So for the Apex team just wanted to pass on a thought:
If I want to uninstall your product you should tell me if stuff is left on the machine especially if a process will be running which is going to fill my machine with useless data,
</Whinge>
We talked to Richard Prodger, Technical Director at Active Web Solutions (AWS), about using the Windows Azure platform to deliver the company’s search-and-rescue application and the benefits that Windows Azure platform AppFabric provides. Here’s what he had to say:
MSDN: Tell us about Active Web Solutions and the services you offer.
Prodger: AWS specializes in Web application and custom software development. In 2006, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution contracted AWS to build an automated alerting system for fishing vessels in the United Kingdom. We developed a location-based service infrastructure, code-named GeoPoint, that transmits position data to a centralized tracking and alerting system. We then used GeoPoint to build MOB Guardian, a search-and-rescue application for fishing vessels (MOB stands for “man overboard”).
MSDN: What was the biggest challenge Active Web Solutions faced with GeoPoint and MOB Guardian before migrating to the Windows Azure platform?
Prodger: Our original infrastructure could handle approximately 10,000 boats, but we wanted to offer MOB Guardian to the 500,000 leisure craft in the U.K. and the millions of marine users worldwide. However, as a small company, we would find it hard to accommodate the massive infrastructure that would be required to offer MOB Guardian more broadly.
MSDN: Can you describe the solution you built with Windows Azure and Windows Azure platform AppFabric to help address your need for a cost-effective, scalable solution?
Prodger: We migrated our existing application to Windows Azure very quickly. Now, instead of passing emergency messages by satellite to physical servers, messages are transferred by satellite using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and delivered to a number of message queues. Multiple service instances read from the queues, process the messages, and store the data using Table storage in Windows Azure. Emergency alarms are then relayed through the AppFabric Service Bus to the end-user monitoring application in the search-and-rescue operations center. We also used the AppFabric Service Bus to connect cloud-based GeoPoint to on-premises databases without exposing the data to the public Internet.
MSDN: What makes your solution unique?
Prodger: In the waters surrounding the United Kingdom, an estimated 350 fishing crew lost their lives at sea between 1996 and 2007. However, in our first 18 months of operation, MOB Guardian helped to save nine lives. Our original architecture supported 10,000 vessels, but with Windows Azure and AppFabric, we can support hundreds of thousands or even millions of vessels, without any capital expenses, and help save more lives.
MSDN: Are you offering MOB Guardian to any new customer segments or niche markets?
Prodger: By using the Windows Azure platform, we’ve been able to transform the original fishing vessel-focused MOB Guardian application into a broader geolocation services platform that has more extensive capabilities and can be marketed to many more customers. There are also new market opportunities for GeoPoint where pleasure sailors might access GeoPoint from Facebook, for example, to see a map of where they’ve been or to log their trip once they get home. With AppFabric Access Control, we wouldn’t have to force users to create another set of authentication credentials; they could use their Facebook credentials as their GeoPoint ID.
MSDN: What are some of the key benefits Active Web Solutions has seen since migrating to the Windows Azure platform?
Prodger: The ability to scale up without capital expenditures is key. To scale, we simply provision more computing capacity and add more message queues from the Windows Azure platform Web portal. With AppFabric Service Bus, we can manage requests and message volumes globally with massive scale. We’re also able to avoid additional IT staffing costs because Microsoft handles all operating system updates and upgrades, which occur without downtime. In addition, we slashed development time and costs-Windows Azure saved us three to six months of development effort.
Read the full story at:
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000005892
Read more AppFabric customer success stories, visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/evidence/appfabric/
There are many .NET developers that can’t live without Jetbrain’s R# product. I’m not really one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of R# and some of the features it offers, it’s just that it could be so much better if it didn’t keep getting in my way!
Let’s get something out […]
We have just run into an interesting issue. A BizTalk production environment was moved between data centres overnight by the infrastructure team. Everything looked ok, the server IP addresses were the same. But we started getting exceptions in BizTalk from SOAP receive locations saying:
“The message found multiple request response subscriptions. A message can only be […]
While Windows Server AppFabric is a great addition to your server to production management monitoring and troubleshooting you might be interested to learn that it can also be very useful at development time.
You can install Windows Server AppFabric on your Windows 7 development environment using the Web Platform Installer (see this post for more on installing AppFabric)
Interested? I’ve got step by step instructions to get you up and running with your first Web Site development project using Windows Server AppFabric, Visual Studio and IIS right here.
The emails are rolling in Usually they say something like this.
Hi Ron – I installed VS2010 and the .NET 4.0 Framework RTM versions yesterday. I then went to re-install Windows Server AppFabric from the Web Platform Installer, but it has a dependency on the .NET 4.0 Framework RC. Is there a build of AppFabric coming soon that runs on .NET 4.0 RTM?
Before you try this let me say just don’t.
I know, you really want to move on to VS2010 RTM. So do I but you can’t use AppFabric Beta 2 with .NET 4 RTM.
So your next question is when can I make this move to RTM?
We have been saying that Windows Server AppFabric will release in H1 of 2010. That means by the end of June you will have the RTM version of AppFabric in your hands so hang on just a little longer.
After all, the RC release of .NET 4 is pretty good. There were not a lot of changes between RC and RTM so keep plugging away on the RC release and we promise to get AppFabric released as soon as possible.
Ron
[Source: http://geekswithblogs.net/EltonStoneman]
I learned over Easter that I have been awarded a BizTalk MVP by Microsoft for 2010, which is great news.
It’s all a bit shadowy, but I suspect Michael Stephenson had a hand in it – so thanks Mike.
This is my first color scheme specifically created for Visual Studio 2010; I’m not likely to port it back to VS2005/2008 but I’m sure it would be possible if someone cared enough about it.
I started this color scheme on VS2008 but never completed it. When the Visual Studio 2010 betas started coming out, I imported […]