Certification Notes: 70-583 Designing and Developing Windows Azure Applications

BuckWoody — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:07:00 GMT

Last Updated: 07/04/2011

It’s time for another certification, and we’ve released the 70-583 exam on Windows Azure. I’ve blogged my “study plans” here before on other certifications, so I thought I would do the same for this one. I’ll also need to take exam 70-513 and 70-516; but I’ll post my notes on those separately.

None of these are “brain dumps” or any questions from the actual tests - just the books, links and notes I have from my studies.

I’ll update these references as I’m studying, so bookmark this site and watch my Twitter and Facebook posts for when I’ll update them, or just subscribe to the RSS feed. First, there are some Azure-specific books I read:

Moving Applications To the Cloud
Programming Windows Azure by Siriram Krishnan (Note, this one is out of date, but still has some great info)

The first place to start is at the official site for the certification. link On that page you’ll find several resources, and the first you should follow is the “Save to my learning” so you have a place to track everything. Then click the “Related Learning Plans” link and follow the videos and read the documentation in each of those bullets.

There are six areas on the learning plan that you should focus on - make sure you open the learning plan to drill into the specifics. From the “Skills Being Measured” section on this page I pulled out these topics, and my references and notes are below each.

+ Designing Data Storage Architecture (18%)

- Choose the appropriate data storage model based on technical requirements: This objective may include but is not limited to: SQL Azure, Cloud drive, performance, scalability, accessibility from other applications and platforms, Windows Azure storage services: blobs, tables, and queues

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee691964.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee924681.aspx

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/data-storage-offerings-on-the-windows-azure-platform.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2010/05/10/windows-azure-storage-abstractions-and-their-scalability-targets.aspx

http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/12/Azure-Storage

- Design a synchronization strategy: This objective may include but is not limited to: synchronize online and offline data by using sync framework and SQL Azure Sync service

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/sqlazure/database/#datasync

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Sync_Framework

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sync/archive/2010/09/24/how-to-sync-large-sql-server-databases-to-sql-azure.aspx

- Plan a cost-effective data architecture based on business requirements: This objective may include but is not limited to: code migration cost, data migration cost, bandwidth cost

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/

- Design a database migration plan from SQL Server to SQL Azure: This objective may include but is not limited to: differences between SQL Azure and SQL Server, concessions for unsupported features, schema, data, reporting an analytic tooling

http://blogical.se/blogs/jahlen/archive/2010/11/23/sql-azure-why-use-it-and-what-makes-it-different-from-sql-server.aspx

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/john_paul_cook/archive/2010/09/12/sql-azure-differences.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlazure/archive/2010/11/18/10093245.aspx

- Plan for media storage and accessibility: This objective may include but is not limited to: media accessibility, global distribution with Content Delivery Network (CDN), blob storage

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2009/11/05/introducing-the-windows-azure-content-delivery-network.aspx

+ Optimizing Data Access and Messaging (17%)

- Optimize a data access strategy: This objective may include but is not limited to: batch operations and performance techniques, data latency due to location, saving bandwidth cost

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd894038.aspx

- Design a reliable data access layer to access SQL Azure: This objective may include but is not limited to: define client data access standards, connection timeout scenarios

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1541.aspx

- Design an efficient strategy to avoid data access throttling: This objective may include but is not limited to: table storage, partition, transaction volumes, SQL Azure CPU throttling, query design

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Azure/SQLAzure/SQLAzureTipsAndTricks/Exercise-3-Managing-Connections--Throttling-latency-and-transactions

- Design a queue strategy that guarantees idempotency: This objective may include but is not limited to: multiple processing, multiple consumers, long-running processes

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd179353.aspx

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsazure/thread/f61b7a32-bad6-4c80-b2d7-45ec6d65bb5d

http://www.wintellect.com/CS/blogs/pmehner/archive/2010/02/28/idempotency-for-windows-azure-message-queues.aspx

- Design communication strategies using queues: This objective may include but is not limited to: asynchronous message dispatch, durable message handling,multiple consumers for scalability

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms789028.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/appfabriccat/archive/2010/12/20/best-practices-for-maximizing-scalability-and-cost-effectiveness-of-queue-based-messaging-solutions-on-windows-azure.aspx

+ Designing the Application Architecture (19%)

- Choose appropriate role types for compute instances: This objective may include but is not limited to: difference between web and worker roles, considerations for hosting standalone applications, scaling considerations for web and worker roles

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg433012.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jnak/archive/2010/01/22/windows-azure-instances-storage-limits.aspx

- Optimize worker role design for efficient resource usage: This objective may include but is not limited to: design a worker scheme for handling multiple background tasks, storage

http://www.microsoftpdc.com/2009/SVC08

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/morebits/archive/2011/01/01/building-windows-azure-service-part5-worker-role-background-tasks-handler.aspx

- Identify performance vs. cost trade-offs: This objective may include but is not limited to: number of instances, VM size, Service Bus connections, geographic location of the resources

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/compute/

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg213848.aspx

- Choose appropriate ways to respond to Azure Fabric Controller events: This objective may include but is not limited to: instance Start and Run events, instance count change, service configuration changes

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-SG/windowsazuredevelopment/thread/0183e4c1-70a5-4098-9fb9-752da43f970e

- Develop a plan to migrate existing applications and services: This objective may include but is not limited to: identify dependencies of an existing application that will not translate or will require migration to Azure platform, determine the gap to migrate an existing application to Azure, assess an existing solution for suitability to migrate to Azure

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee336250.aspx

+ Preparing for Application and Service Deployment (15%)

- Choose an appropriate upgrade strategy: This objective may include but is not limited to: upgrade path options such as staging vs. production, port number and protocol, service definition changes, service configuration changes, affinity, upgrade domains, operating system versions

http://azure.snagy.name/blog/?tag=configuration

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/COS311

- Choose the appropriate virtual machine size: This objective may include but is not limited to: local size storage, memory, raw processing power, bandwidth

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jnak/archive/2010/01/22/windows-azure-instances-storage-limits.aspx

- Plan a deployment for the entire application life cycle: This objective may include but is not limited to: Windows Azure portal, Microsoft Visual Studio, Service Management API, deploy from build server, manage SSL certificates for
hosted services

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jnak/archive/2009/05/12/https-endpoint-on-windows-azure.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff803362.aspx

- Define a resource-efficient environment for application development and testing: This objective may include but is not limited to: deployment status, hourly metering, difference between DevFabric and AzureFabric

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff966484.aspx

http://www.kindohm.com/post/235271466/azurelessons.html

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg433135.aspx

- Choose a naming scheme for resources: This objective may include but is not limited to: custom domain name, service registry in Service Bus, Content Delivery Network (CDN)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd582704.aspx

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsazuredata/thread/d804c832-d06e-4171-99dc-8c7020b7ec15

+ Investigating and Analyzing Applications (16%)

- Plan, collect, and interpret diagnostics and instrumentation data: This objective may include but is not limited to: polling frequency, upload
frequency, different log types, trace levels

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg433048.aspx

- Identify SQL Azure performance and storage capacity with Dynamic Management Views: This objective may include but is not limited to: identify long-running queries, monitor connections and capacity, capabilities of the Dynamic
Management Views

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee336238.aspx

- Identify and mitigate deployment and runtime issues for Windows Azure: This objective may include but is not limited to: diagnose Start-Stop cycling, runtime memory issues, examining instrumentation and diagnostic outputs, IntelliTrace,
SQL Azure connectivity, access control, Service Bus connectivity, role startup activity

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jnak/archive/2010/06/07/using-intellitrace-to-debug-windows-azure-cloud-services.aspx

+ Designing Integrated Solutions (15%)

- Design hybrid solutions: This objective may include but is not limited to: Cloud bursting, interoperability with non-Microsoft technologies, integrate with existing applications and services not hosted in Azure, Service Bus,
publish subscribe

http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/D/8/FD863D17-E85E-478C-B06F-6825D50EA103/A%20Developer's%20Guide%20to%20Service%20Bus%20in%20Windows%20Azure%20platform%20AppFabric.docx

- Identify and mitigate connectivity issues in hybrid solutions: This objective may include but is not limited to: non-Azure databases and services, relay bindings, connection sizing with Service Bus, store and forward

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee794877.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg602420.aspx#SB_FAQ

- Plan for appropriate access control schemes based on security requirements: This objective may include but is not limited to: identity federation, claims transformation, claims-based security

http://zamd.net/2011/02/08/using-simple-web-token-swt-with-wif/

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Europe/2010/ARC303

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff359102.aspx

The main site for the Azure documentation is here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd179367.aspx

The TechNet Wiki and Updated Security Checklists

BuckWoody — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:18:20 GMT

You're probably familiar with a Wiki - a document set that anyone can edit. Did you know TechNet (Microsoft's source for technical professionals) has one? And did you know there are lots of folks keeping it up to date? Well, Rick Byham, one of my friends over in the SQL Server group has posted a bunch of security checklists - and you know how much I love checklists! You can go to the Wiki here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/ and search for "Checklists", but here's what he's posted to get you started:

Database Engine Security Checklist: Encrypting Sensitive Data

Database Engine Security Checklist: Enhancing the Security of Database Engine Connections

Database Engine Security Checklist: Limiting Access to Data

Database Engine Security Checklist: Database Engine Security Configuration

Thanks, Rick!

Buck Woody : Checklists

Certification Notes: 70-583 Designing and Developing Windows Azure Applications

The TechNet Wiki and Updated Security Checklists