How to set up new password for the cluster certificate to connect to SFC in the VSTS Pipeline

by Contributed | Nov 2, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

How to set up new password for the cluster certificate to connect to Service Fabric Cluster in the VSTS Pipeline

This article helps you to set up new password for the cluster certificate which one can use in release pipeline to deploy your application to SF cluster.

Scenario : Adding the base-64 encoding of the client certificate file which is NOT PASSWORD protected when setting up the “New Service Fabric Connection” in the release pipeline will lead to deployment failure.

Below is the sample of the error:

“2020-10-15T20:58:45.3232533Z ##[debug]System.Management.Automation.RuntimeException: An error occurred attempting to import the certificate. Ensure that your service endpoint is configured properly with a correct certificate value and, if the certificate is password-protected, a valid password. Error message: Exception calling ‘Import’ with ‘3’ argument(s): ‘The specified network password is not correct.”

Steps to set new password for Cluster certificate:

1. Download the relevant cluster certificate from the Key vault to local machine. 

AzurePortal- > Key Vaults Resource -> Certificate- > Select the cluster certificate.

2. Install the certificate to local machine store with marking key as exportable. 

3. To set up new password, follow below PowerShell Script:

         a. # Retrieve the Certificate object from the certificate store
$SelfSignedCert = Get-ChildItem Cert:LocalMachineMy -DnsName “<clustername>.<clusteregion>.cloudapp.azure.com”

Note: Now the Client/ Cluster certificate is password protected, one can convert into base-64 encode(Step 4) to use in the Release pipeline

4. Convert the certificate into base-64 encoded representation of the certificate using PowerShell. 

[System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes(“C:TempSelfSignedCert.pfx”))

Please refer to below article to Deploy an application with CI/CD to a Service Fabric cluster:

Reference: https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/blob/master/articles/service-fabric/service-fabric-tutorial-deploy-app-with-cicd-vsts.md#create-a-release-pipeline
 

Using Runbooks to set Azure Alerts Status

by Contributed | Nov 2, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Background/Scenario

Azure Alerts can be used to proactively notify you when important conditions are found in your monitoring data.  After setting up either metric alerts or log alerts for your workloads, specifically IaaS workloads, there may be times when you need to disable those alerts during a maintenance window. 

Depending on the size of your environment and the number of alerts you’ve created, it might be quite a chore to go through each one to disable/enable.

The following will demonstrate how to setup an Azure Automation Runbook to quickly set the status of our IaaS Alerts to either Enabled or Disabled via a webhook.  The webhook will allow us to execute the Azure Automation Runbook from anywhere, like an on-premises workstation, to set the alert status.  The runbook will also take advantage of Azure Resource Graph as a mechanism to search for alerts across all of the available subscriptions.

Requirements

• Automation Account
  
  
  
  • Runbook – PowerShell
    
    
    
    • SetAzAlertsStatus-Webhook.ps1
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • PowerShell Modules
    
    
    
    • Az.Accounts
    
    
    • Az.Monitor
    
    
    • Az.ResourceGraph
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Alert(s)
    
    
    
    • The name of the alert must contain the server name
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Azure Resource Graph
    
    
    
    • Used to query all subscriptions to find alerts based on server name
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Configuration/Setup

Step 1: Create a metric alert(s) for your IaaS Server(s) based on CPU Usage

If you already have an alert(s) defined with the server name in the alert rule, skip this step.

1. Navigate to Alerts


2. New alert rule


3. Select resource
   
   
   
   • Select a virtual machine
   
   
   
   

4. Select a condition based on Percentage CPU

• Set the threshold value and leave the other options with their default value

5. Select or create an Action Group (required)


6. Fill in the remaining Alert rule details and include the server name in the Alert rule name

(For Step 2, chose either 2a or 2b for creating/deploying an Automation Account)

Step 2a: Create an Automation Account – ARM Template Method

1. Deploying this ARM template [GitHub] will include the following:
   
   
   
   1. Azure Automation Account
   
   
   2. Import of PowerShell Modules (Az.Accounts, Az.Monitor, Az.ResourceGraph)
   
   
   3. Runbook (SetAzAlertsStatus-Webhook)
   
   
   4. Creation of the Automation Run As account is not supported when you’re using an ARM template.
   
   
   
   


2. Create a Run As account in Azure portal
   
   
   
   1. Grant the run as account, at a minimum, the ability to manage Alerts. By default, the AAA run as account is granted contributor rights at the subscription it’s deployed into. In production, granting access to the AAA run as account at a Management Group is recommended.
   
   
   
   

Step 2b: Create an Automation Account – Manually Method

1. Create an Azure Automation Account (AAA)


2. Grant the AAA run as account, at a minimum, the ability to manage Alerts. By default, the AAA run as account is granted contributor rights at the subscription it’s deployed into. In production, granting access to the AAA run as account at a Management Group is recommended.


3. Import PowerShell Gallery modules (Az.Accounts, Az.Monitor, Az.ResourceGraph) into the AAA
   
   
   
   1. Under Shared Resources, select Modules.
   
   
   2. Select Browse gallery, and then search the Gallery for a module.
   
   
   3. Select the module to import, and select Import.
   
   
   4. Select OK to start the import process.
   
   
   
   


4. Create an Azure Automation runbook (PowerShell Runbook)
   
   
   
   1. In Create an Azure Automation runbook article, step #6, copy SetAzAlertsStatus-Webhook.ps1 from GitHub and paste it into the runbook.
   
   
   
   

Step 3: Create a Webhook for your Runbook

1. Create a webhook for your Runbook.
   
   
   
   1. From the Runbooks page in the Azure portal, click the runbook that the webhook starts to view the runbook details. Ensure that the runbook Status field is set to Published.
   
   
   2. Click Webhook at the top of the page to open the Add Webhook page.
   
   
   3. Click Create new webhook to open the Create Webhook page.
   
   
   4. Fill in the Name and Expiration Date fields for the webhook and specify if it should be enabled. See Webhook properties for more information about these properties.
   
   
   5. Click the copy icon or press Ctrl+C to copy the URL of the webhook. Then record it in a safe place.
      
      

       

      
      
      
      
      1.       Please save your webhook URL. Once you create the webhook, you cannot retrieve the URL again.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   6. Click Parameters, leave it blank, press OK.
      
      

       

      
      
   
   
   7. Click Create to create the webhook.
   
   
   
   

Step 4: Test your Automation Account Runbook via webhook

1. Download the PowerShell script SetAzAlertsStatus-Webhook-Wrapper.ps1 and save it to your computer.


2. Edit the script and update line 32 with your webhook URL:
   
   
   
   1. $uri = “<runbook webhook URL you saved earlier>”
   
   
   
   


3. Execute the PowerShell script from your local computer.

Conclusion

With an Alert naming convention that includes your server name, this method works very well for quickly enabling or disabling Azure alerts.

I hope you have found this article helpful and thank you for taking the time to read this post.

References

• Search-AzGraph 


• Azure Monitor PowerShell samples


• Starter Resource Graph query samples

Disclaimer

The sample scripts are not supported under any Microsoft standard support program or service. The sample scripts are provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. Microsoft further disclaims all implied warranties including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk arising out of the use or performance of the sample scripts and documentation remains with you. In no event shall Microsoft, its authors, or anyone else involved in the creation, production, or delivery of the scripts be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use the sample scripts or documentation, even if Microsoft has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

CloudEvents APIs and Azure Event Grid

by Contributed | Nov 2, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

[As of October 31, 2020]

Original publication is in medium.

https://logico-jp.medium.com/use-cloudevents-apis-to-interact-with-azure-event-grid-32dc63518af3

Japanese edition is listed below.

https://logico-jp.io/2020/09/06/use-cloudevents-schema-in-azure-event-grid/
https://logico-jp.io/2020/10/23/tips-for-using-event-grid-sdk-to-handle-cloudevents/
https://logico-jp.io/2020/10/30/using-cloudevents-apis-to-post-events-to-azure-event-grid/
https://logico-jp.io/2020/10/31/using-cloudevents-apis-to-create-an-application-which-subscribe-an-azure-event-grid-topic/

Introduction

Azure Event Grid supports CloudEvents 1.0. And Azure Event Grid client library also supports sending/receiving events in the form of CloudEvents.

Use CloudEvents v1.0 schema with Event Grid

Introducing the new Azure Event Grid Client Libraries with CloudEvents v1.0 Support

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/azure-sdk/event-grid-client-libraries/

If Azure Event Grid is the only system which consumes and posts cloud events in your environment, Azure Event Grid SDK should be chosen. However, if several systems which consume and post cloud events have already existed in your environment and you plan to introduce Azure Event Grid, you would look for ways to interact with Azure Event Grid using industry standard APIs. In this article, I describe how to interact with Azure Event Grid using CloudEvents APIs.

Prerequisites and basic information

What is CloudEvents?

If you are not familiar with CloudEvents, please check the following URL.

CloudEvents

https://cloudevents.io/

What format does Azure Event Grid support?

As of now, Azure Event Grid supports Structured Content mode only (Binary Content mode is not supported). We have to follow JSON Event Format specification in case of creating events.

JSON Event Format for CloudEvents – Version 1.0

https://github.com/cloudevents/spec/blob/v1.0/json-format.md

What language and SDK is available?

CloudEvents SDKs are provided in several languages. In this article, sample applications are created with Java APIs for CloudEvents. Json EventFormat implementation with Jackson and HTTP Protocol Binding APIs for Jakarta RESTful Web Services allows us to create applications easier than using core APIs.

Java SDK for CloudEvents API
https://github.com/cloudevents/sdk-java

How do we post events to Azure Event Grid via CloudEvents APIs?

When posting events to Azure Event Grid through CloudEvents APIs, the following URL is helpful.

Quickstart: Route custom events to web endpoint with the Azure portal and Event Grid
https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/event-grid/custom-event-quickstart-portal

According to this document, we can post events to Azure Event Grid topic with the following URL (Access key or Shared Access Signature is required). We can get the access key in Azure Portal and via Azure CLI.

https://{topic-endpoint}?api-version=2018-01-01

Shared Access Signature is similar to access access key, but it can be configured with an expiration time. It might be suitable if access restriction to a topic or domain is required. The following URL describes how to create Shared Access Signature.

Creating a shared access signature

https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-java/blob/master/sdk/eventgrid/azure-messaging-eventgrid/README.md#creating-a-shared-access-signature

Send CloudEvents to Azure Event Grid

 

In this part, a REST client application which uses CloudEvents APIs is created in order to post events to Azure Event Grid topic. Azure Event Grid Viewer application verifies and shows these events. This viewer application is described in the following URL.

Quickstart: Route custom events to web endpoint with the Azure portal and Event Grid
https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/event-grid/custom-event-quickstart-portal

With following the document above, you can configure Event Grid topic. No special configuration is required.

Dependencies

As this client application requires JAX-RS related modules, the following dependencies should be added to pom.xml.

<!-- for CloudEvents API -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>io.cloudevents</groupId>
  <artifactId>cloudevents-http-restful-ws</artifactId>
  <version>2.0.0-milestone3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>io.cloudevents</groupId>
  <artifactId>cloudevents-json-jackson</artifactId>
  <version>2.0.0-milestone3</version>
</dependency>

<!-- for JAX-RS -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
  <artifactId>jersey-client</artifactId>
  <version>3.0.0-M6</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.inject</groupId>
  <artifactId>jersey-hk2</artifactId>
  <version>3.0.0-M6</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.media</groupId>
  <artifactId>jersey-media-json-jackson</artifactId>
  <version>3.0.0-M6</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
  <artifactId>jakarta.json</artifactId>
  <version>2.0.0-RC3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>jakarta.ws.rs</groupId>
  <artifactId>jakarta.ws.rs-api</artifactId>
  <version>3.0.0-M1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>jakarta.json</groupId>
  <artifactId>jakarta.json-api</artifactId>
  <version>2.0.0-RC3</version>
</dependency>

Create events using CloudEvents APIs

CloudEvents::v1() method allows us to create events. JSON is used as a format of custom data, and we use the withDataContentType() method to specify application/json as Content-Type.

JsonObject jsonObject = Json.createObjectBuilder()
                            .add("message", "Using CloudEvents.io API to send CloudEvents!!")
                            .build();
 
CloudEvent ce = CloudEventBuilder.v1()
        .withId("A234-1234-1234")
        .withType("io.logico-jp.ExampleEventType")
        .withSource(URI.create("io/logico-jp/source"))
        .withTime(OffsetDateTime.now(ZoneId.ofOffset("UTC", ZoneOffset.UTC)))
        .withDataContentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
        .withData(jsonObject.toString().getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8))
        .build();

Serialization

Serialization of created JSON formatted events is required. To do so, we use “Json EventFormat implementation with Jackson” APIs. Steps for creating a client application are completed.

EventFormat format =EventFormatProvider
        .getInstance()
        .resolveFormat(JsonFormat.CONTENT_TYPE);
 
byte[] serialized = format.serialize(ce);

Create REST Client

We can follow typical ways to creating REST client. No special configuration is required. Access key of Event Grid should be set to HTTP Header. Note that not application/json but application/cloudevents+json should be set as Content-Type.

MultivaluedMap<String, Object> headers = new MultivaluedHashMap<>();
headers.add("aeg-sas-key", AEG_KEY);
Response response = ClientBuilder.newClient().target(AEG_ENDPOINT)
        .path("/api/events")
        .queryParam("api-version", "2018-01-01")
        .request("application/cloudevents+json")
        .headers(headers)
        .post(Entity.entity(serialized, "application/cloudevents+json"));

Receive CloudEvents through Azure Event Grid

 

In this part, a JAX-RS application is created to subscribe the Event Grid topic. As Azure Event Grid send events using webhook, the JAX-RS application requires a POST endpoint to listen events.

Event Grid topic which we use is already configured in the previous section (precisely, the Event Grid topic should have been already configured).

Dependencies

In this case, Helidon MP is chosen to create JAX-RS application. Needless to say, you can choose any development framework freely.

Helidon Project

https://helidon.io/

This application depends on the following modules.

!-- for Cloud Event -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>io.cloudevents</groupId>
  <artifactId>cloudevents-http-restful-ws</artifactId>
  <version>2.0.0-milestone3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>io.cloudevents</groupId>
  <artifactId>cloudevents-json-jackson</artifactId>
  <version>2.0.0-milestone3</version>
</dependency>

Create an endpoint

We can create a JAX-RS applications without special configuration. As Azure Event Grid supports Structured Content mode only, event format is JSON. So, the sample application waits for events using JsonObject. AndEventFormat::deserialize() method is used for deserialization of events.

@Path("/updates")
@POST
public Response receiveEvent(Optional<JsonObject> obj) {
        if(obj.isEmpty()) return Response.noContent().status(Response.Status.OK).build();

    EventFormat format = EventFormatProvider
            .getInstance()
            .resolveFormat(JsonFormat.CONTENT_TYPE);

    CloudEvent ce = format.deserialize(obj.get().toString().getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
    JsonObject customData = JsonUtil.toJson(new String(ce.getData())).asJsonObject();
    // output to console
    System.out.println("Received JSON String -- " + obj.get().toString());
    System.out.println("Converted to CloudEvent -- " + ce.toString());
    System.out.println("Data in CloudEvent -- " + customData.toString());
    return Response.noContent().status(Response.Status.ACCEPTED).build();
}

Configure OPTIONS method for enabling webhook

When configuring Azure Event Grid integration through webhook, subscriber (i.e. this JAX-RS application) has to respond to Azure Event Grid using OPTIONS method.

@Path("/updates")
@OPTIONS
public Response isWebhookEnabled() {
    return Response.ok()
            .allow("GET", "POST", "OPTIONS")
            .header("Webhook-Allowed-Origin","eventgrid.azure.net")
            .build();
}

Create Docker container and deploy to Azure App Service

After these steps are completed, we build the JAX-RS application, containerize it, and deploy it on Azure App Service.

Test

The following events are posted to Azure Event via the client application.

[{
  "specversion": "1.0",
  "id": "A234-1234-1234",
  "source": "io/logico-jp/source",
  "type": "io.logico-jp.ExampleEventType",
  "datacontenttype": "application/json",
  "time": "2020-10-31T13:54:34.308619Z",
  "data": {
    "message": "Using CloudEvents.io API to send CloudEvents!!"
  }
},
{
  "specversion": "1.0",
  "id": "A234-1234-1234",
  "source": "io/logico-jp/source",
  "type": "io.logico-jp.ExampleEventType",
  "datacontenttype": "application/json",
  "time": "2020-10-31T13:54:26.082221Z",
  "data": {
    "message": "Using CloudEvents.io API to send CloudEvents!!"
  }
}]

 

Azure Event Grid Viewer also shows delivered events.

And from JAX-RS application side, we can observe each delivered event in App Service console log. Three logs appears per each event.

 

Conclusion

CloudEvents APIs allow us to post structured events to Azure Event Grid, and to handle structured events delivered from Azure Event Grid. CloudEvents APIs support various languages, and especially Java, if you are familiar with JAX-RS and Jackson, you would easily create applications with these APIs.

If Azure Event Grid were the only system which consumes and posts cloud events in your environment, Azure Event Grid SDK would be the best APIs. However, if Azure Event Grid is one of services which consume and post cloud events, industry standard APIs is often more suitable than Azure Event Grid SDK.

I hope this article would be helpful for you.

Announcing Project and Roadmap apps for Microsoft Teams

by Contributed | Nov 2, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

We are pleased to announce the release of the Project and Roadmap apps in Microsoft Teams. Connecting directly to Project from within Teams has been one of the major requests from Project users, and these apps will make it easy to manage, track, and collaborate on all aspects of a team’s project in one place. This brings content and conversation side-by-side in one integrated experience.

Team members can create new projects or roadmaps, or open existing ones, in Microsoft Teams and keep communications within the context of work and collaboration within Office 365. The Project and Roadmap apps can be added as tabs in any channel by selecting the “+” icon at the top of a channel. Anyone who has access to that channel can also access that tab.

Microsoft Teams ♥ Microsoft Project

Today, each one of us has become a project manager. To stay on top of the ever-shifting requirements of our jobs, we need tools that are simple yet robust enough to support any requirement, flexible enough to support any project type, and, most importantly, easy enough to collaborate with anyone no matter where they are or what device they are using.

The Project app in Teams helps you tackle anything from small projects to large initiatives and is designed for just about any role, skill level, or project type. You can access the features and capabilities, of the Project for the web experience such as the automated scheduling engine to set effort, duration, and resources from inside Teams.

Microsoft Teams ♥ Roadmap

If your group runs multiple projects at the same time and needs visibility across all the work being done, Roadmap provides a visual and interactive way to connect these projects and show their status in a transparent way across the organization.

The Roadmap – Microsoft Project app will give you a cross-functional, big picture view of the work that is most important to you. You can create a consolidated timeline view of projects from Microsoft Project and Azure Boards and plan larger initiatives across all of them – complete with key dates and milestones – so that all the work is visible. 

Note: All Office 365 users will be able to view Projects/Roadmaps shared within Teams in a read-only mode. Users with appropriate Project for the Web licenses to create and edit Projects/Roadmaps will be able to do the same from within Teams as well. Learn more about Project for the Web licenses here.

If you want to learn more, see Use Project or Roadmap in Microsoft Teams. Next, notifications in Teams will be added so that users can see what’s important to them within Project and Roadmap in their team’s activity feed.

We love hearing from you. Please tell us how we can improve your Project experience in Teams through our UserVoice site. You can also leave a comment below to engage with us directly to provide feedback.

Keep checking our Tech Community site for the latest feature releases and Project news.