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Using Service Bus Queues with WCF
In 2008 I posted a series of blog articles about how to use MSMQ, WCF and IIS together. I chose to use this architecture as it combined the scalability and resiliency benefits of durable asynchronous...
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Using Service Bus Topics and Subscriptions with WCF
IntroductionIn my last post, I showed how to use Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus Queues with WCF. Service Bus Queues provide a great mechanism for asynchronous communication between between two...
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Updates to Windows Azure MSBuild post for SDK 1.5
Just a quick note that I’ve edited my previous post Using MSBuild to deploy to multiple Windows Azure environments based on some changes to the platform that have come with the Windows Azure SDK 1.5...
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Automated Build and Deployment with Windows Azure SDK 1.6
A few months ago I posted on how to automate deployment of Windows Azure projects using MSBuild. While the approach documented in that post continues to work, Windows Azure SDK 1.6 has introduced some...
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New ABC iView plug-in for TunerFreeMCE
Most Australians will recognise ABC iView as the country's best online TV service. In recent years they have done a good job of expanding to multiple platforms including PS3, Xbox 360, iOS and many...
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Integrate Lync into your intranet sites using the NameCtrl plug-in
IntroductionIf you’re a regular user of both SharePoint and Lync, you’ve probably seen that SharePoint integrates with Lync by showing users’ presence on the page, and giving you a nice hover dialog...
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Keeping diagnostics in sync across Windows Azure instances
Windows Azure Diagnostics provides a great way for operations staff, developers and testers to find out what’s going on within a Windows Azure PaaS (Cloud Service) deployment. In a nutshell, it lets...
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Using Windows Firewall to restrict access to Windows Azure instances
Summary: If you ever have a need to restrict access to your Windows Azure deployment to known IP address ranges, you can do this by programmatically modifying the Windows Firewall. You’ll need to do...
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Zip your IIS log files before transferring with Windows Azure Diagnostics
Summary: If your Windows Azure-hosted website is really popular, the IIS log files can start to get pretty big. To prevent them from filling up your local VM’s quota and to minimise storage size and...
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Using XPath to set environment variables in ServiceDefinition.csdef
In my last post on zipping IIS log files in Windows Azure, my ServiceDefinition.csdef file included the following code to set an environment variable to the value of a local resource...
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Running scripts from a Windows Azure role’s OnStart method
Summary: Startup scripts declared in ServiceDefinition.csdef work well in most cases, but if you need to modify IIS configuration you’ll need to run your scripts from your role’s OnStart method. This...
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Keep your Windows Azure applications running with custom health checks
Summary: Even though Windows Azure does a great job of keeping your VMs running, only you know exactly what it means for your own apps to be healthy. This post and sample code shows a pattern for...
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Windows Azure in Australia: Facts and Rumours
Today, Microsoft has made the long-awaited announcement that Windows Azure is coming to Australia! Of course it’s been possible for Aussies to deploy and use applications in Windows Azure for some...
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What do you think of the EntLib 5.0 configuration tool?
Hello again! It’s been a while, I know. I’ve been busy over the last few months with several projects, some of them software related, and one of them human – my son Jesse was born on 26 February 2010....
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“Suggested Resources” Visual Studio Plug-In
Today’s post is a quick plug for a new tool developed by my friend Olaf Conijn, who (amongst other things) has been a developer on several versions of Enterprise Library. His new tool is called...
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Get logging in Windows Azure with Enterprise Library
Hi again – yes I know it’s been a while. Recently I’ve started a new role in Microsoft which involves helping customers deploy applications on Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. I...
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The role of an architect in an agile team
I’ve just come back from Microsoft’s Tech.Ed conferences in Australia and New Zealand, where I presented a session called The role of an architect in an agile team. Thanks to everybody who attended the...
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Adding a Windows Firewall rule using PowerShell
PowerShell is an amazing technology which I’d love to learn to use properly some day. Unfortunately I’m still at the stage where I don’t really know much about it, but from time to time I need to use...
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Using MSBuild to deploy to multiple Windows Azure environments
Update 6 December 2011: Windows Azure SDK 1.6 includes some significant changes to how credentials and publishing settings are managed, so I've written a new post Automated Build and Deployment with...
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Creating multi-series Bubble Charts in Excel
Bubble Charts are a great way to visualise data that has three numerical values for each point. Two of the values are plotted on the X and Y axis, while the other is represented via the diameter of the...
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