Running JBoss in Windows Azure - jboss

I have found an example of running Tomcat in Windows Azure, but JBoss seems to be a bit trickier. Has anyone succeeded in running JBoss in Windows Azure, and if so, what should I do to get it running?
I would like to know if JBoss can be run in a worker role, not the VM role which is currently in beta.

I'd recommend trying it and asking questions as you get roadblocked. Most "does this run in Azure" questions are answered with "yes", but full-fledged examples and guides are going to be sparse as the platform is very new. So be the guy who writes it :)
You have two options with something like this:
1.) Run a worker role that invokes and runs similar to a windows service. (most tomcat on azure guides approach this way)
2.) Use a Azure Startup task to install, configure, start jBoss as a windows service and/or on top of tomcat
With the addition of full-trust, startup tasks, RDP, and eventually even VMrole .. anything that can run on a Windows 2008 server can run on Azure. So try installing on a Windows box, document those steps, then 1 by 1, figure out the "azure way" to accomplish those tasks. Approached this way, the initial setup will likely be pretty simple. From there, you'll learn a lot about Azure's offerings and can probably even make some changes to better leverage the platform for JBoss needs.
Once you get up there and have issues, ask away and you're more likely to find direct answers by the audience of MVPs, Azure team members, and cloud geeks here vs just a generic "have you done this" answer.

Related

virtual machines automatic deployment and provisioning

In the recent times, I tend to set-up and configure more and more VMs daily with very similar or the very same configuration, and due to the time consumption caused by that, I'm looking for a way to automate the whole process.
I have started looking around and I have found Vagrant which could be a very good starting point.
I would like to create a custom build of a VMWare VM ( vagrant box if not mistaken ), and I would like to use that box as my base and deploy it on my servers.
The trouble starts here:
On my servers I use VMWare vSphere and I see that Vagrant can support it via an external plugin, but, as I read along, I see that vSphere only supports VMs created from template or cloned from an existing one.
Is there any change to run my VMWare Workstation boxes with it ?
Also, I would be very grateful if you could provide me with some more info on the same matter using other ( maybe better suited ) solutions.
I know there are also Chef and Puppet, but are they maybe an overkill for my needs ?Thank you for your time and help,Best regards.
Have you looked into Ansible? http://www.ansible.com/home
There is an opensource one available it is extremly easy to use. Might be what you're looking for.

Is this a practical use of a service?

I need to run an application which processes hooks in background. The problem is that I have to start it automatically on systemstart as administrator. I've tried to use the windows task scheduler but on some systems it does not start the program as administrator which causes strange behaviours.
I've never written an windows service but would that be a solution to create windows service? And if yes: Does it start automatically as administrator on systemstart? How can i communicate with the service from an configuration program? And as last question: If I am right, I need to install a service through an installer like a msi-package. How would you create such a msi-package. Visual Studio 2012 does not support that anymore.
It would be very nice if someone could help me. Sorry for my bad English but I am giving my best. If you don't understand some parts of my question, just ask me.
1) Yes, this sounds a lot like you should write a service.
2) If you configure it so, by default they start with a special service account.
3) You can find a lot of good information about communicating with a service here: How to communicate with a windows service from an application that interacts with the desktop?
4) You don't have to. Do you use C# for example? You can then make use of a nice library called TopShelf to write your service.

Best practice deploying windows service

I'm looking for best practice in continuous delivery of windows services.
Currently we hava a set of powershell scripts that unintall, reboot, install updates but error handling is tricky. We are reviewing System center but are there any other options available for deploying a windows service?
We've been using Presto since Dec 2011, and have done over 1,000 deployments. Most of what we deploy are Windows services.
What's nice is that we set up our apps and servers in Presto, then we can repeatedly deploy, to any server (or multiple servers at once), by just hitting a button. Presto will copy our official release binaries, update all of the items in our app config files, create and start the service, etc...
So, if you have an application that has 30 manual steps to deploying it, you can enter these steps in Presto, then it's done automatically for you after that.
It's worth a look: http://presto.codeplex.com/
Your most basic and generally accepted best option comes from this thread, which basically links to a Microsoft support article on creating an installer for the windows service.

What is the best way to automate windows azure deployment?

Newbie to automated azure deployment here! I have the happy task of automating our deployment to the cloud. I have also done some reading and discovered that the 2 main tools are MSbuild and Powershell. Please could anyone tell me why i would use one over the other or indeed if there are any better ways to automate the deployment. Keeping in mind that my main concern is performance and i need this deplymrnt to be as fast as possible.
Any insight would be most welcome.
I'm a fan of using PowerShell for deployments. It's pretty quick to set up and the script can be pretty straight forward.
MSBuild can be great too. I use MSBuild from TFS Team Build to kick off a PowerShell script to do the deployment. Works like a champ.
A good starting point would be http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tomholl/archive/2011/12/06/automated-build-and-deployment-with-windows-azure-sdk-1-6.aspx. This blog does a great job of showing you how to build and deploy with Team Build.
If you don't want/need the Team Build and MSBuild part, then just look at his PowerShell script. That covers the basics of getting a deployment from your dev environment to Windows Azure.
You should use Web Deploy, it only takes about a minute to deploy a fix. See these links
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cloud/archive/2011/04/19/enabling-web-deploy-for-windows-azure-web-roles-with-visual-studio.aspx
http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/funkyonex/Speed-Up-Azure-Deployments-with-the-New-Web-Deployment-Feature
At SplendidCRM, we had a similar need to automate deployments to Azure, but as our need was to service our live customers, we had to develop using C#. We have been watching Azure for many years, but it was not until they provided a DNS service did it make sense to make the move. Using the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) libraries, we were able to automate VM creation, SQL database creation and DNS name creation. In addition to the Microsoft documentation for ARM, we found it particularly useful to be able to get the Microsoft source code for the PowerShell scripts that wrap ARM. This is because the documentation does not always provide a complete set of settings.
In the end, we decided to release the Azure deployment code as part of a new Ultimate edition that combines order and customer management with software deployment.

How to build and deploy to Windows Azure using Powershell and Hudson?

I am looking at getting a continuous integration/continuous deployment environment set up for my windows azure project and I was wondering if anyone had managed to (can point me in the right direction to) build and deploy a windows azure cloud service using powershell and Hudson and perhaps has sample scripts.
I can get the project to build using MSBuild64 (I'm running x64 Windows 2008 R2 Standard).
I know 32 bit development works, but assume 64 bit development is better as i understand it as problems will be ironed out on my local box as opposed to once deployed in the Azure environment which i believe is 64 bit. (Please feel free to correct my thinking here)
I assume i have to get the cspack.exe file to package the deployment first as in a manual deployment via the development portal.
Ideally i would like to deploy it locally (with the development simulation) run unit tests against it (perhaps against cloud storage for integration tests), deploy it to staging (run the acceptance/bdd) tests and then switch from staging to production.
Any help with anyones experience in this which will speed this research up for me would be appreciated
Many Thanks
Mark
This may help to get you started: http://blog.smarx.com/posts/building-running-and-packaging-windows-azure-applications-from-the-command-line
Also see http://scottdensmore.typepad.com/blog/2010/04/windows-azure-deployment-for-your-build-server-part-2-deploy-certs.html.
Mark, I am looking at something similar. The best solution at this point appears to be a custom solution that uses the REST APIs.
Erick