Category: Microsoft Azure

In this article, I will explain How to create a single database in Azure. We will use the Azure portal, a PowerShell script, or an Azure CLI script to create a single database in Azure SQL Database. We will then query the database using Query editor in the Azure portal.

A single database is the simplest and quickest option for Azure SQL Database. We manage a single database inside a server, which is within an azure resource group in a specified Azure region.

We can create a single database in the server or provisioned less compute tier. A purvey database is pre-allocated a determined amount of compute resources, including memory, CPU and uses one of two purchasing models.

Create a single database in Azure

Create a single database in Azure portal:
Sign in to the Azure portal

1- In the Azure search bar, enter azure sql and then select Azure SQL.

2- On the Azure SQL page, select + Add.

3- In the select SQL deployment option window, choose the SQL databases tile, with Single database. Choose Create.

4- Create SQL database Basics tab under Project details,
Select the Azure Subscription
Under Resource group, click on Create new, type a resource group name (my-sql), and then select OK.

5- Database details; enter a Database name (mydatabase).
For Server, click ok Create new.

New Server

6- Server name – Type a name (sqlserver44)
Server admin login: Enter username (jamil).
Password – Type a password that meets requirements and type it again to confirm password.
Location – Choose a location (US) Central US.
Select OK.

7- Record the server admin login & password so we can login to the server and then its databases. If you forget the login or password, we can get the login name or reset the password on the SQL server page after database creation. To open the SQL server page, choose the server name on the database Overview page.

Under Compute + storage, if you need to reconfigure the defaults, choose Configure database.

8- On the Configure page, you can optionally:
After making any changes, select Apply.

9- Select Next: Networking >.

10- Networking tab, under Connectivity method, choose Public endpoint.
Choose Next: Additional settings >.

11- Additional settings tab, in the Data source section, for Use existing data, choose Sample. Select Review + create

12- Select Create.

Query the database

Once the database is created, we can use the built-in Query editor in the Azure portal to connect to the database & query the data.
13- In the portal, search for, select SQL databases, and then choose your database from the list.
Choose Query editor (preview) in the left menu.

14- Type the server admin login information, and then select ok.

15- Type the below query in the Query editor pane.

SQL Copy
SELECT TOP 20 pc.Name as CategoryName, p.name as ProductName
FROM SalesLT.ProductCategory pc
JOIN SalesLT.Product p
ON pc.productcategoryid = p.productcategoryid;

Choose Run, and then review the query results in the Results pane.
Close the Query editor page, and then select OK when prompted to discard your unsaved edits.

16- Copy database server name.

To connect to use SSMS and query Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL Managed Instance

Connect to your database

In SSMS, connect to your server.

Important

A server listens on port 1433. The firewall must have this port open to connect to a server from behind a corporate firewall.

1- Open SQL Server Management Studio.

The Connect to Server window box appears
Server type – Database engine
Server name – type your SQL Database URL (example sqlserver44.database.windows.net)
Authentication – SQL Server Authentication
Login – username
Password – type your password
Select Connect The Object Explorer window opens.

2- To view the database objects, expand the Databases and then expand your database node.

Query data

3- In Object Explorer, right-click mydatabase and select New Query.

4- In the query window, paste the below SQL query:
SQLCopy
SELECT pc.Name as CategoryName, p.name as ProductName
FROM [SalesLT].[ProductCategory] pc
JOIN [SalesLT].[Product] p
ON pc.productcategoryid = p.productcategoryid;

From the toolbar, choose Execute to run the query and then retrieve data from the Product and ProductCategory tables.

Improve Website Response using Traffic Manager

In this guide, I will show how to create ASP.NET web app in Azure App Service. When you are finished, you will have an App Service plan.

Prerequisites

Download Visual Studio 2019 and install with the ASP.NET and web development workload.

If you have already installed Visual Studio 2019
Install the latest updates in Visual Studio
Add the workload by selecting Tools and then Get Tools and Features.

create ASP.NET web app in Azure

1- Open Visual Studio.

2- Visual Studio 2019, select Create a new project.

3- Create a new project wizard, select ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework), then click Next.

4- Project name – type a name (myazurewebapp)
Location – choose a location where you want to save the project
Click Create.

5- We can deploy any type of ASP.NET web app in Azure. For this guide, select the MVC template.
Make sure authentication is set to No Authentication and then click Create.

6- Start creating project.

7- From the Visual Studio menu, select Debug tab and then select Start Without Debugging to run the web app locally.

8- You can see it started.

Publish your web app

1- In Solution Explorer, select the myazurewebapp
Select Publish and then select start.

2- Select Azure (publish your application to the Microsoft cloud and then click next.

3- Select Azure App Service (Windows) and then click next.

In-App Service Create new, these options depend on whether you are signed in to Azure already and whether you have a Visual Studio account linked to the Azure account. choose Sign in to sign in to your Azure subscription.

Note

4- If you are already signed in, then do not select create yet.

5- Type your Azure account email and then click next.

6- Type password and then click sign in.

7- Click on create new azure app services.

8- App Service plans define: Name – type a unique name or you can accept the automatically generated unique name
Subscription – Select subscription
Region – select region
The URL of the web app is http://.azurewebsites.net, where the App name is your app name.
Select Create to start creating the Azure resources.

9- Click Finish.

10- After the wizard completes, the Azure resources are created and you are ready to publish. In the Publish page, click Publish.

11- Visual Studio builds, packages, and publishes the web app to Azure, and then start the app in the default browser.

Manage the Azure app

1- To manage the web app, open the Microsoft Azure Portal, and then search for and select App Services.

2- App Services window, choose the name of your web app.

3- You see your web app’s Overview page. In this window, we can do basic management like start, stop restart, browse, and delete.

Virtual Machine Scale-set in Azure

In this article, I will explore how to create virtual machine scale set in Azure. A virtual machine scale set permits you to deploy and manage a set of identical, auto scaling VM. We can scale the number of virtual machines in the scale-set manually, or specific rules to auto-scale based on resource usages like memory demand, CPU, or network traffic. An Azure load balancer then distributes traffic to the VM instances in the scale set.

Create a Load Balancer

Azure load balancer disseminates incoming traffic among healthy VM instances.
Create a public Standard Load Balancer by using the Azure portal. The public IP address and name we create are automatically configured as the load balancer’s front end.

1- In the Azure search box, type load balancer and then pick Load balancer.

2- Select + Add

3- Create load balancer wizard, In the Basics tab,
Select Subscription – Select your subscription
Resource group – select your resource group (mg-rg)

4- Instance details

Name – type a unique name (myloadbalancer)
Region – select a region (Central US)
Type – Select Public
SKU – Select Standard

5- Public IP address
Select create new
Public IP address name – Enter a name (mypublicip)
Availability zone – select Zone-redundant
Select Review + create

6- After it passes validation, select Create.

7- Load balancer successfully created.

create virtual machine scale set in Azure

We can deploy a scale set with a Linux or Windows Server images such as RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, or SLES.
1- Type virtual machine scale set in the Azure search box, select Virtual machine scale sets.

2- Virtual machine scale sets windows and then click the + add button.

3- Create a virtual machine scale set wizard.
Subscription – select your subscription
If you want to create new resource group then click create new. I am using existing one (my-rg).

4- Scale set details
Name – type a name (myscaleset).
Region – Select a region that is close to your area (Central US).
Availability zone – None
Image In this example, I have chosen windows server 2019 datacenter.

5- Type the desired username, and select which authentication type you prefer.
Select Next to move the other pages.
Leave the defaults for the Disks pages.

6- On the Networking page and then select virtual network.

7- Load balancing
Use a load balancer – select yes
Load balancing options – select Azure load balancer.
Select a load balancer – select myloadbalancer that we have created earlier.
Select a backend pool – select Create new.

8- Type a name mybackendpool and then select Create.

9- Click Next : Scaling >

10- In the Scaling tab

Instance
Initial instance count – select 2

Scaling

Scaling policy – select custom
Minimum number of instances – choose 2
Maximum number of instances – choose 10

11- When you are done, then select Review + create.

12- After passed the validation, so select create to deploy the scale set.

13- Virtual machine scale sets successfully created.

Virtual machine scale set overview

1- Virtual machine scale sets overview.

2- Under settings click instance.

3- Click settings and then select custom autoscale.

4- Custom autoscale.

5- Scale settings.

In this blog, I will show you how to integrate Azure Storage with Azure CDN. I will enable CDN (Azure content delivery) to cache content from Azure Storage. Azure CDN provides developers a global solving for delivering high-bandwidth content.

Integrate Azure Storage with Azure CDN

Sign in Azure portal with your Azure account.

Create a storage account

A storage account provides access to Azure Storage services. The storage account constitutes the highest level of the name-space for accessing every of the Azure Storage service components:
To create a storage account, you should be either the service administrator or a co-administrator for the associated subscription.

1- In the Azure portal, Search for Storage account and select Storage account.

2- Click on + Add button.

3- Select your Subscription
I am using an existing resource group (rg-cdn) already I have created.

4- Instance details

Storage account name – Enter a name for the account using (storagecdn2)
Location – Central US
Performance – Standard
Account kind – StorageV2 (general purpose v2)
Replication Locally-redundant storage (LRS)
Access tier – cool
Click Next : Networking > and then Next : Data Protection >

5- Advance tab
Security – Secure transfer required and blob public access select enabled.

Select Review + create.

6- Then select Create.

7- Storage account successfully created.

How to create a blob container.

1- Click on storage account, under blob service select containers and then + Container.

2- New container wizard, enter a container name (containercdn)
Public access level – choose container (anonymous read access …..)
Click create.

3- Container successfully created.

Upload Images to Container

1- Choose Containers (containdercdn), choose Upload tab, and then click on folder icon next to file.

2- Select images and then click Open.

3- Advanced

Under upload to folder type a folder name (images) and then click upload.

4- Now you can see folder and click on it.

5- Click on image.

6- Here you can find the URL copy it.

7- Paste in notepad.

Create a New CDN Profile

CDN profile is a container for CDN endpoints and a specifies pricing tier.

1- In the Azure portal search bar type CDN profile and then select it.

2- Select + Add

3- Enter the following values:

Name – cdnprofile
Subscription –
Resource group – rg-cdn
Resource group location – East US
Pricing tier – choose one
Leave unselected – Create a new CDN endpoint now
Click on Create to create the profile.

4- CDN profile.

Create a new CDN Endpoint

After creating a CDN profile, you use it to create an endpoint.
1- In the Azure portal, select the CDN profile that you created in your dashboard.
On the CDN profile Overview, select + Endpoint.

2- Add an endpoint wizard

Name – endpointcdn3
Origin type – Select Storage
hostname – Choose the hostname of the Azure Storage account
Origin path – Leave blank
Origin host header – Leave the default
Protocol – HTTP and HTTPS
Select Add to create the new endpoint

3- After the endpoint successfully created, it appears in the list of endpoints for the profile.

It takes the time for the endpoint to circulate depends on the pricing tier chooses when you created the profile.

Access CDN Content

1- To access cached content on the CDN (Content Delivery Network), use the CDN URL provided in the portal. The endpoint address for a cached blob has the following format.

2- Storage blob image URL.

3- Links blob storage and CDN.

4- Blob Storage

5- CDN storage URL

In this article, I will explain, how to Improve Website Response using Traffic Manager. Use Traffic Manager to create a highly responsive website by directing user traffic to the website with the lowest latency. Generally, the datacenter with the minimum latency is the one that is closest to the geographic distance.

In this article, you learn how to:

Create two virtual network
Create 2 VMs running a basic website on (IIS)
Configure DNS name for the VMs (running IIS)
Create two tests VMs to view Traffic Manager in action
Create a “Traffic Manager profile” for improved website performance
Add VM (Instance) endpoints to the Traffic Manager profile
View Traffic Manager in action

Prerequisites

In the interest of see the Traffic Manager in action, this article requires that you deploy the following:
2 instances (VMs) of basic websites running in different Azure regions – (East US and West Europe).
2 test VMs for testing the Traffic Manager – 1st VM in West Europe and the 2nd VM in East US. The test VM (Instance) is used to represent how Traffic Manager Routes user traffic to the website that is running in the same region as it provides the lowest latency.

Improve Website Response using Traffic Manager

Sign in to the Microsoft Azure portal

Create a virtual network

1- In the search bar type (virtual networks) to find or from the Azure portal menu and then select virtual networks.

2- In the virtual network, select the add button create a virtual network.

3- Create virtual network window, choose your subscription. Resource Group, select create new to create.

Enter a resource group name (rg-vnet) and then click ok.

4- Under the instant details type a virtual network name (vnet01).
Choose a location to use as the basis for your virtual network. Select a location that is near to your location to increase performance. Click on Next: IP Addresses >

5- Choose an address space IPv4 address space, I am selecting 10.1.0.0/8, but if you prefer to use a different address feels free. Click + Add subnet

6- In the Add subnet wizard, type a subnet name (vnet-subnet) and then type 10.1.0.0/24 for Subnet address range.
To create service endpoint policy to allow traffic then select a service under services.

7- Click Next : Review + Create >

8- Virtual network validation passed, selects Create.

9- To create a 2nd virtual network follow the above steps from 3 to 6 again with the following changes.

Setting	Value
Resources Group	rg-westus
Name	vnet-westus
Region	(US) west US
IPv4 address space	192.168.0.0/16
Subnet name	subnetwestus
Subnet address range	192.168.1.0/24
Create

9- Virtual network overview.

Create Virtual Machines

Now we need to create VM in each virtual network so that we can communicate between them.

1st VM

1- Azure portal menu tab, select Virtual Machines.

2- Select the + Add button to create virtual machine.

3- Resource group select existing (rg-eastus).

4- Instance details

Enter a virtual machine name (server-eastus)
Region select (East US)
Image selects Windows Server 2019 Datacenter. You can select a different operating system, but the remaining steps presume you selected Windows Server 2019 Datacenter.

5- Administrator account.

Enter a username (jamil), Password.
Public inbound ports choose allow selected ports.
Select inbound ports (HTTP, RDP) and then click Next : create >

6- Under Management tab
Monitoring boot diagnostics (off) and then click Review + create

7- Select create

Create the second VM

Complete steps 2 to 7 again, with the following changes:-

Name	Value
Resource group	rg-westus
Virtual machine name	server-westus
Region	(US) West US
Image	Windows Server 2019 Datacenter
Administrator account	username password
Public inbound port	allow selected ports
Select inbound ports	HTTP, RDP
Management tab	monitoring boot diagnostic (off)
Review + create
Create

The VMs take a few minutes to create. Now the both VMs (web1, web2) successfully created.

Configure DNS names for the VMs running IIS

In this section, we will configure the DNS names for the IIS servers – server-eastus and server-westus.

1- Select server-eastus

2- Overview page, under DNS name, select Configure.

3- Select Configuration under settings, under DNS name label (optional), enter a unique name, and then select Save.

4- Select server-westus.

5- Overview page, under DNS name, select Configure.

6- Configuration page, under DNS name label (optional), type a unique name, and then select Save.

Create Test VMs

In this section, you create a VM (vmtest-eastus and vmtest-westus) in each Azure region (East US and West US). We will use these VMs (Virtual Machines) to test how Traffic Manager routes traffic to the nearest IIS server when we browse to the website.

1- On the upper, left corner of the Azure portal, select Azure menu, and then select virtual machine.

2- In Create a virtual machine, click on + add button.

3- In the Basics tab
Select Subscription
Resource Group – Select rg-eastus.

4- Instance Details

Virtual machine name – Type vmtest-eastus.
Region – Select East US.
Image – Windows Server 2019 Datacenter.

5- Administrator Account

Username – Enter a user name.
Password – Enter a password.

Public inbound ports – Choose Allow selected ports.
Select inbound ports – Choose HTTP, RDP in the pull down box.

6- Review the settings, and then click Create.

Follow the Steps to Create a 2nd VM.

Settings	Value
Resource group	rg-westus
Name	vmtest-westus
Region	West US
Server	Windows server 2019 datacenter
Administrator account	Username, password
Public Inbound ports	HTTP, RDP
Review + create
create

The VMs take a few minutes to create. Please do not continue with the remaining steps until all VMs are created.

Create a Traffic Manager profile

To create a Traffic Manager profile that instructs user traffic by sending them to the endpoint with lowest latency.

1- In the Azure search type traffic manager, select Traffic Manager Profiles.

2- Traffic Manager profiles, click the + Add.

3- In the Create Traffic Manager profile wizard
Name – Type a name (trafficmanager33)
Routing method – type Performance
Select Subscriptions
Resource group – select rg-eastus
Select Create

4- Traffic Manager profiles.

Add Traffic Manager Endpoints

Add the two VMs running the IIS servers – server-eastus & server-eastus to route user traffic to the closest endpoint to the user.

1- In the portal’s search bar, search for the Traffic Manager profile and then select it.

2- In Traffic Manager profile, click on trafficmanager33.

3- Select Endpoints under settings, and then click + Add.

4- Add Endpoint

Type – Azure endpoint
Name – eastusendpoint
Target Resource type – Public IP address
Public IP address – server-eastus-ip
Click Add

5- Select + add button again for second endpoint.

6- Add Endpoint

Type – Azure endpoint
Name – westusendpoint
Target Resource type – Public IP address
Public IP address – server-westus-ip
Click Add

7- After the addition of both endpoints completed, they will displayed in Traffic Manager Profile together with their monitoring status as Online.

Test Traffic Manager Profile

Determine DNS name of Traffic Manager Profile

In this step, we use the DNS name of the Traffic Manager profile to visit the websites.

1- In the Azure search bar, search for the Traffic Manager profile name and then select it that we created in the preceding section. select the traffic manager profile.

Overview

2- Your Traffic Manager profile will display the DNS name of your newly created one.
Copy DNS name

Improve Website Response using Traffic Manager

3- Go to the virtual machines and then click vmtest-eastus.

4- Connect virtual machine (server-eastus), using RDP.

5- Open web browser on the VM (instance) vmtest-eastus, enter the DNS name of the Traffic Manager profile to view the website. Since the VM located in East US, you are routed to the nearest website hosted on the nearest IIS server server-eastus that is located in East US.

6- Connect virtual machine (server-westus), using RDP

7- Open web browser on the VM vmtest-westus, type the DNS name of your Traffic Manager profile to view your website. Since the VM located in West US, you are routed to the nearest website hosted on the nearest IIS server server-eastus that is located in West US.

In this article, I will describe how to create a Traffic Manager profile that delivers high availability for our web application.
In these steps, we will read about two instances of a web application. Both Instances are running in a different Azure region. We will create a Traffic Manager profile based on endpoint priority. The profile instructs user traffic to the primary site running the web application. Traffic Manager continuously monitors the web application. If the primary site is unavailable, it provides automatic failover to the (secondary site) backup site.

Sign in to the Azure Portal

Prerequisites

We need two instances of a web application deployed in two different Azure regions (1st in East US and 2nd in West Europe). Each one will serve as primary & failover endpoints for Traffic Manager.

Create a 1st Web App

1- In the Azure Portal screen, select + Create a resource.

2- Select Web under developer tools.

3- Click on Web App.

4- Create a Web App wizard, Basics tab.

Select your Subscription
Resource Group, select Create new
Enter a name (myrg-tm) and then click ok.

5- Instance Details

Name – Type webappeastus.
Publish – Select Code.
Runtime stack – Select ASP.NET V4.7
Operating System – Select Windows.
Region – Select East US

6- App Service Plan – Windows Plan (East US)
Select Create new
Type a name (AppServicePlanEastUS) and then click OK.

7- SKU and size – Select Standard S1.
Select Next : Monitoring >

8- Monitoring Tab
Application Insights
Enable Application Insights select No and then select Review + create

9- Review the settings, and then click on Create.
It will create a default web site when the Web App successfully deploys.

Create a 2nd Web App

Settings	Value
Resource Group	myrg-tm2
Web App Name	webappweurope
Publish	code
Runtime Stack	ASP.NET v4.7
Operating system	windows
Region	West europe
App service plan	Create new
Name	AppServicePlanWEurope
SKU and size	Standard S1
Next : Monitoring >
Enable Application insights	No
Review + create
Create

Now you can see two Web App successfully created.

Create a Traffic Manager profile

A Traffic Manager Profile that instructs user traffic based on endpoint priority.

1- Type traffic manager profile in Azure search bar then elect Traffic Manager Profiles.

2- Select the + Add button.

3- Create Traffic Manager Profiles wizard

Type a name – myTManager
Routing Method – select Priority
Resource group – select myrg-tm and then click create.

4- Traffic Manager profile successfully created.

How to Add Traffic Manager Endpoints

Add the website in the target resource (East US) as Primary Endpoint to route all the user traffic. Add the website in target resource “West Europe” as a Failover Endpoint. When the primary endpoint is unavailable, then the traffic automatically routes to the failover endpoint.

1- Select the Traffic Manager profile name that you created in the preceding section.

In the Traffic Manager profile

2- Select Endpoints under Settings section and then click on + Add.

3- Type > Select Azure endpoint
Name > Type PrimaryEndpoint
Target resource type > Select App Service
Target resource > select webappeatus (East US)
Priority > Select 1
Select OK.

Create a failover endpoint for your 2nd Azure region.

1- Click on + Add button again.

2- Type > Select Azure endpoint
Name > Type FailoverEndpoint
Target resource type > Select App Service
Target resource > select webappweurope (West Europe)
Priority > Select 2
Select OK.

3- When you are done adding the both endpoints, they are displayed in Traffic Manager profile. Notice that their monitoring status is Online now.

Test Traffic Manager Profile

In this section, we will check the domain name of our Traffic Manager profile. You will also configure the primary endpoint to be unavailable. Finally, we get to see that the web app is still available. It is because Traffic Manager sends the traffic to the failover endpoint.

Check the DNS name

1- Go to your Traffic Manager profile name that you created in the preceding section.
Select the traffic manager profile and then overview.
In the Traffic Manager profile, you can see the DNS name of your newly created Traffic Manager profile.

View Traffic Manager in action

2- In the web browser, paste the DNS name of your Traffic Manager profile to view your Web App’s default website.

Note
In this scenario, all requests route to the primary endpoint. Because we set it to Priority 1.

3- Disable your primary site, to test Traffic Manager Failover:
In the Traffic Manager Profile page, select Endpoint under settings and then select PrimaryEndpoint.

4- In PrimaryEndpoint, select Disabled and then click on Save.
Close PrimaryEndpoint window.

5- Notice that the status is Disabled now.

6- Copy the DNS name of the Traffic Manager Profile from the preceding step to view the website in a new web browser session.

7- Verify that the web app is still available.
The primary endpoint is not available, so you were routed to the failover endpoint.

In this guide, I will show you how to create a Standard Load Balancer that load balances VMs across availability zones. Azure Load balancing provides a higher level of availability by distributing incoming requests across multiple VMs. This helps to defend your apps & data from a doubtful failure or loss of an entire datacenter. One or several availability zones, with zone-redundancy, may fail, & the data route remains as long as one zone in the region remains healthy.

Azure Standard Load Balancer just supports a “Standard Public IP address”. When we create a new public IP during creating the load balancer, it is automatically configured as a “Standard SKU” version, & is also automatically zone-redundant.

Steps to Create a Standard Load Balancer

Create a Standard Load Balancer
Create a Virtual Network
Create network security groups
Create VMs across multiple zones (zone redundant) and attach to the load balancer
Create load balancer backend pool
Create a load balancer health probe
Create load balancer traffic rules
Create a basic IIS site
Test load balancer

For more information about using Availability zones visit Microsoft Standard Load Balancer and Availability Zones.

Sign in to Azure Portal

Create Load Balancer

1- Choose Azure menu tab and then select Load Balancers.

2- Select the + Add button to create load balancer.

3- Create load balancer wizard, Basics tab, select your resource group, or click new to create a new one.

4- Type a resource group name and then click ok.

5- Type a name of your Load Balancer (myloadbalancer)
Region (Central US)
Type (Public)
SKU (Standard)

6- Public IP address name (mypublicip)
Availability zone (Zone-redundant)
Select Review + create >

7- Click on Create.

8- Now you can see load balancer successfully created.

Create backend servers

In this step, I will create a virtual network, VM (virtual machines) in different zones. For the region, and then install IIS on the VMs to help test the zone-redundant load balancer. Therefore, if a zone fails, the health probe for virtual machines in the same zone fails, and then traffic continues to be served by VMs in the other zones.

Create virtual networks

Log in to the Azure portal

1- In the Azure portal, choose Azure menu bar and then select Virtual Network.

2- Click on + Add to create virtual network.

3- Select your subscriptions
Resource group (my-rg)
Instance details
Virtual network name (myvnet)
Regions (Central US) and then click Next : IP Address >

4- IP Addresses tab, type 10.0.0.0/16 for the IPv4 Address Space field. Click the + Add subnet button below.

5- Add subnet wizard;
Name (backendsubnet)
Subnet address range types 10.0.0.0/24 and then click Add.

6- Select Review + Create.

7- Select Create.

8- Virtual network successfully created.

Create a network security group

Create “network security group” to specify inbound connections to our virtual network.

1- In Microsoft Azure portal, in the search box type Network Security Group, and select it.

2- Click Create network security group.

3- Create network security group wizard
Name of the existing resource group (my-rg)
Name (mynsg) Network Security Group
Region (Central US) and select Review + create

4- Select create.

5- Network Security group successfully created.

Create network security group rules

In this portion, we will create network security group rules to allow inbound connections using HTTP and RDP using the Azure portal.

1- Select your network security group.

2- Under Settings, select Inbound security rules, and then click Add.

3- Source (Service Tag)
Source service tag (Internet)
Destination port ranges (80)
Protocol (TCP)
Action Allow (Allow)
Priority (100)
Load balancer rule name (allowhttp)
Description (allow HTTP traffic)
Click Add.

4- Create another rule to allow for an inbound RDP connection using port 3389.

5- Source (Service Tag)
Source service tag (Internet)
Destination port ranges (3389)
Protocol (TCP)
Action Allow (Allow)
Priority (200)
Load balancer rule name (allowrdp)
Description (allow RDP connection)
Click Add.

6- Inbound security rules successfully created.

Create virtual machines

Now we need to create virtual machines in different zones (zone 1, zone 2, and zone 3) for the region that can act as “backend servers” to the load balancer.

First VM

1- Select Azure menu bar and then select virtual machine.

2- Select + Add

3- Select existing resource group (my-rg).

4- Virtual machine name (myvm1)
Region (Central US)
Availability options (Availability zone)
Availability zone (1)
Image (Windows Server 2019 Datacenter

5- Enter username, password
Public inbound ports (Allow selected ports)
Select inbound ports (HTTP, HTTPS, RDP)
Select Next : Disks > and then select Next : Networking >

6- Virtual network (myvnet)
NIC network security group (advanced)
Configure network security group (mynsg)
Select Next : Management >

7- Boot diagnostic (Off) select Review + create and then select review + create.

Create 2nd VM

Settings	Value
Resource group	my-rg
Name	myvm2
Region	Central US
Availability set	Availability zone
Availability zone	2
Server	Windows server 2019 datacenter
Administrator account	Username, password
Public Inbound ports	HTTP, HTTPS, RDP
Networking, virtual network	myvnet
NIC network security group	Advanced
Configure network security group	mynsg
Management	Boot diagnostic off
create

Create 3rd VM

Settings	Value
Resource group	my-rg
Name	myvm3
Region	Central US
Availability set	Availability zone
Availability zone	3
Server	Windows server 2019 datacenter
Administrator account	Username, password
Public Inbound ports	HTTP, HTTPS, RDP
Networking, virtual network	myvnet
NIC network security group	Advanced
Configure network security group	mynsg
Management	Boot diagnostic off
create

Now you can see three virtual machine has been created.

Install IIS on VMs

How to install Web server IIS

1- # install IIS server role
Install-WindowsFeature -name Web-Server -IncludeManagementTools

2- # remove default htm file
remove-item C:\inetpub\wwwroot\iisstart.htm

3- # Add a new html file that displays server name
Add-Content -Path “C:\inetpub\wwwroot\iisstart.htm” -Value $(“Hello World from” + $env:computername)

4- C:\inetpub\wwwroot
Right-click on iisstart and open with notepad

5- Rename text.

Repeat steps 1 to 5 to install web server IIS and the updated iisstart.htm file on myVM2 and myVM3.

Create load balancer Resources

In this section, we will configure load balancer settings for a backend address pool and a health probe, and specify load balancer and NAT rules.

Create a backend address pool

To “distribute traffic” to the VMs virtual, a “backend address pool” contains the IP addresses of the virtual (NICs) connected to the load balancer.

1- Select Azure menu and then select load balancer.

2- Click on myLoadBalancer.

3- Under Settings, select Backend pools, then click + Add.

4- Add a backend pool wizard, do the following.
backend pool name (backendpool).
Virtual network, in the drop-down menu, select (myvnet)
Under Virtual machines click the add button.

5- Select the virtual machines to add to backend pool and then click add.

6- Click Add.

7- Make sure your load balancer backend pool setting displays all the 3 VMs and then select Health probe.

Create a health probe

To permit the load balancer to monitor the status of our app, you use a health probe. The health probe dynamically adds or removes virtual machines from the load balancer rotation based on their response to health checks.

1- Click + Add.

2- Add health probe wizard

Name (healthporbe)
Protocol type (HTTP)
Port number (80)
Number of Interval (5 seconds)
Number of “Unhealthy threshold” or consecutive probe failures (two seconds) that must occur before a VM is considered unhealthy.
Click OK.

3- Health probe successfully created
Under settings click on load balancing rule

Create a load balancer rule

A load balancer rule is used to specify traffic how it distributed to the VMs. You specify the front-end IP configuration for the incoming traffic and then the back-end IP pool to receive the traffic, ahead with the required source and destination port.

1- Click + Add.

2- Add load balancing rule wizard.

Name (lb-rule)
IP version (IPv4)
Protocol type TCP
Port number (80)
Backend port (80)
Backend pool (3 virtual machines)
Health probe name (healthprobe)
Click Add.

Test the load balancer

1- Select Azure menu and then select Load balancers.

2- Click on myloadbalancer

3- On the overview screen, find the public IP address for the Load Balancer.
Select mypublicip
Copy the public IP address,

4- Open any web browser and then paste it into the address bar.
On the browser, the default page of IIS Web server is displayed.

5- You can force-refresh your web browser, to see the load balancer distribute traffic across the VMs distributed across the zone

Read more: Internal Load Balancer in Microsoft Azure.

This article is part of the series; in this article, I will provide you with steps on how to Recover Data Using MARS Agent. If you mistakenly deleted a file and then want to restore it to the same virtual machine (from which the backup you have taken).

Article Series

Setup and Configure Azure Backup

Azure Recovery Services vault

Download and install MARS Agent and vault credentials

Configure MARS Agent Backup Schedule

Recover Data Using MARS Agent

Open the Microsoft Azure Backup

1- Select Recover Data under Action to start the wizard.

2- Recover data wizard, to restore the data to the same server or computer, select this server (server name) click Next.

3- Select Recovery Mode page, choose Individual files and folders and then click Next.

Note

Recover individual files & folders require .NET Framework 4.5 or later. If you do not see the Individual files and folders option, you must upgrade .NET Framework to version 4.5.2 or later, and then try again.
Choose the Volume & Date page, select the volume that contains the files and folders you need to restore.
On the calendar, select a recovery point. Dates in bold signify the availability of at least one restore point. If several recovery points are available inside a single date, select the exact recovery point from the Time drop-down menu.

4- Click Mount

5- Mounting recovery volume in progress.

Azure Backup mounts the local recovery point, and then you can use it as a recovery volume.
6- Browse and Recover Files page, select the Browse to open the Windows Explorer, and find the files and folders you want.

7- Click OK

8- In Windows Explorer, copy the files & folders you need to restore and then paste them to the location local to the server or PC. You can open the files directly from the recovery volume, and then you can verify that you are recovering the right versions.

9- When you are finished your job, on the Browse and Recover Files page, choose Unmount.

10- Choose Yes to confirm that you need to unmount the volume.

Note

If you never select Unmount, the recovery volume will keep mounted for 6 hours from the time when it was mounted. Although, the mount time is spread up to a maximum of 24 hours in case of an ongoing file-copy. You can’t run backup operations while the volume is mounted. Any backup job scheduled to run within the time when the volume is mounted will start after the restore volume is unmounted.

What is the Azure Backup service

This article is a part of the series: In this guide, I am going to configure MARS Agent Backup Schedule. The Microsoft Azure Backup console looks like very familiar to Windows Server Backup.

Setup and Configure Azure Backup

Azure Recovery Services vault

Download and install MARS Agent and vault credentials

Recover Data Using MARS Agent

1- Click Schedule Backup to begin.

2- Azure schedule backup wizard click next.

3- Select item to backup, select add items.

4- Add the items you need to backup and then click ok.

5- Click next.

6- Specify backup schedule and then click next.

7- Select retention policy and then click Next.

8- Most of us will just choose online to upload the backup directly from the server into the Azure cloud.

9- Review your selections and then click Finish.

10- Click close.

11- Backup schedule.

For more details Configure MARS Agent Backup Schedule visit Microsoft

This article is part of the series; in my previous article How to Create Azure Recovery Services Vault. In this article, I will show you how to install Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent. MARS is as well known as an Azure Backup agent.

Azure Backup uses the MARS agent to backup files, folders, & system state from on-premises VMs and Azure virtual machines. These backups are stored in a Recovery Services vault in Azure.

Directly on on-premises Windows machines. These VMs can back up directly to a Recovery Services vault in the Azure.

In the Microsoft Azure virtual machines that run Windows side by side with the Azure VM backup extension. The Azure Backup agent backs up specific files and folders on the VM.

In a MABS (Microsoft Azure Backup Server) instance or a System Center DPM (Data Protection Manager) server. In this layout, machines & workloads back up to MABS or Data Protection Manager. Then Azure recovery services agent or Data Protection Manager uses the MARS agent to back up to a vault in Azure.

Article Series

Setup and Configure Azure Backup

Azure Recovery Services vault

Configure MARS Agent Backup Schedule

Recover Data Using MARS Agent

Download MARS agent and your vault credentials

Login to Azure Portal

1- Select your vault, then select Backup under Getting Started.

2- Choose On-premises

3- Select Files and folders and/or System State in this article I am only selecting (files and folders).

4- Select Prepare Infrastructure

5- Click the links for Download Agent for Windows Server or Windows Client under recovery service agent.

6- Download vault credentials.

7- Azure recovery service agent setup

Install Microsoft Azure Recovery Services Agent

Install the agent and provide credentials

8- Azure Recover services agent setup wizard, click next.

9- Port configuration select next.

10- Microsoft Update Opt-in click next.

11- Select install button to start the installation.

12- Azure agent installation completed, so click Proceed to Registration.

13- Click on Browse

14- Select the credentials you downloaded earlier from Azure and then click open.

15- Validating Vault credentials

16- Click next

17- After your credentials are validated, select generate passphrase.
Click the browse button to save the file (store this somewhere safe for your customers, not on the local machine).
Click finish.

18- Now you will be given the option to launch the Azure Recovery Services Agent. Click Close to proceed.

This article is part of the series in which I will explore how to create different resources in Microsoft Azure. In this today’s article, I am going to show you how to Create Azure Recovery Services Vault. A component that every Azure subscription must have an Azure Recovery Service vault. We can use Recovery Services vaults to store backup data for various Azure services such as virtual machines, Azure SQL database, Azure File shares, and more.

Azure Recovery Service vault is a superintendence entity that stores recovery points created over time and offers an interface to perform backup related operations. These contain taking on-demand backups, creating backup polices, and performing restores.

Article Series

Setup and Configure Azure Backup

Download and install MARS Agent and vault credentials

Configure MARS Agent Backup Schedule

Recover Data Using MARS Agent

1- In the Azure search box, type Recovery Services vaults. In the list select Recovery Services vaults.

2- Recovery Services vaults dashboard, so choose + Add button.

3- Create recovery service vault wizard.
Select Subscription
Resource group – enter my-rg

Instance details

Vault name – enter backupvault
Region – select Central US
Select Review + create

4- Review the summary and then click create.

5- It will take few minutes to create the Recovery Services vault.

How to setup and configure Azure Backup