Manage your Azure resources using automation tasks

by Contributed | Feb 24, 2021 | Technology

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

There are different ways to manage your Azure resources depending on your specific needs. With automation tasks, Azure offers a simple way to manage a specific resource or resource group using automation task templates. These templates depend on the Azure resource. For example, for an Azure virtual machine, you can create an automation task that turns on or turns off that virtual machine on a predefined schedule or sends the resource’s monthly cost. This can be especially helpful if you are trying to reduce the cost of your Azure VMs.

An automation task is actually a workflow that runs on the Azure Logic Apps service behind the scenes. Automation tasks are currently in preview and support sending monthly cost for all Azure resources and special templates for Azure virtual machines, Azure Storage accounts, and Azure Cosmos DB.

You might now think how this is different from Azure Automation. For that, you can check out the following article on Microsoft Docs.

How to create an automation task

Creating an automation task is simple. In the Azure Portal, find the resource you want to manage, and on the resource menu, scroll to the Automation section and select Tasks.

Create automation task for an Azure resource

Now you will see the existing automation tasks, or you can click on Add to add a new automation task from a template.

Add a Task

You can select the template you want to use. Under Authentication, the necessary connections for that specific task appear. You will need to create these connections.

Authentication

In the configuration section, you can add additional information for the task. In this example, I start the virtual machine every day at 10 am.

Task Configuration

After the automation task has been created, you can see it under Tasks. You can see the tasks and view the runs, as well as edit the task.

View and edit automation tasks

You can do in-line editing to make simple changes, but you can also open it in the Logic Apps Designer.

Logic Apps Designer

Conclusion

Automation Tasks is currently in preview and provides an easy and simple way to manage Azure resources. If you want to learn more, check out Microsoft Docs. If you want to provide feedback, report bugs, or ask questions, you can contact the Azure logic Apps team.

Azure Service Bus | Receive Messages from DLQ for Queue/Subscription

by Contributed | Feb 23, 2021 | Technology

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

Azure Service Bus queues and topic subscriptions provide a secondary subqueue, called a dead-letter queue(DLQ). The dead-letter queue need not to be explicitly created and can’t be deleted or otherwise managed independent of the main entity.
Azure Service Bus messaging overview – Azure Service Bus | Microsoft Docs

Messages that can’t be processed because of various reasons fall into DLQ. Below are few conditions where messages will fall into DLQ:
1. Not matching with the filter condition
2. TTL expired, header exceed
3. Quota exceed for header size
4. Max delivery count reached
5. Session enabled and sending messages without sessionID
6. Using more than 4 forward to

Case:
To receive DLQ messages from queue/subscription

Pre-Requisites:

1. Service Bus namespace
2. Already created queue/subscription
3. Should have messages in DLQ either for queue/subscription
4. Service Bus Explorer

We have multiple ways to receive messages from DLQ.

Using Service Bus Explorer:

1. Download the “Service Bus Explorer” from: https://github.com/paolosalvatori/ServiceBusExplorer


2. Open service bus explorer and click File and connect it.

3. From the drop down, select connection string and provide the connection string of the namespace level.

4. Once it is successfully connected, you will see Service Bus Explorer shows the count of the DLQ message.
   In the below screenshot, there are 11 messages currently in the DLQ for the queue “ankitatest“.
   

    

   
   


5. To receive messages from DLQ through SB explorer, you need to click on that particular queue and then click on “Deadletter” tab then one dialogue box will pop up then you need to click on “Receive and Delete”. The default value is Top10 so top10 messages will be received from DLQ.

        The updated DLQ message count is now 1.

Through C# Code:

In the given screenshot, we have 12 messages in DLQ for queue and we wanted to receive them.

I will run the below code which will receive the message from the mentioned queue. Once you run the code successfully, you will see the message ID in the console window as below.

Now, check on SB explorer and you will see 1 message has been gone from DLQ.

class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            RetrieveMessageFromDeadLetterForQueue();
            RetrieveMessageFromDeadLetterForSubscription();
        }
        public static void RetrieveMessageFromDeadLetterForQueue()
        {
            var receiverFactory = MessagingFactory.Create(
                 "sb://<ServiceBusNamespaceName>.servicebus.windows.net/",
                 new MessagingFactorySettings
                 {
                     TokenProvider = TokenProvider.CreateSharedAccessSignatureTokenProvider("RootManageSharedAccessKey", "<NamespaceLevelKey>"),
                     NetMessagingTransportSettings = { BatchFlushInterval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0) }
                 });
            string data = QueueClient.FormatDeadLetterPath("<QueueName>");
            var receiver = receiverFactory.CreateMessageReceiver(data);
            receiver.OnMessageAsync(
            async message =>
            {
                var body = message.GetBody<Stream>();
                lock (Console.Out)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(message.MessageId);
                }
                await message.CompleteAsync();
            },
            new OnMessageOptions { AutoComplete = false, MaxConcurrentCalls = 1 });
        }
        public static void RetrieveMessageFromDeadLetterForSubscription()
        {
            var receiverFactory = MessagingFactory.Create(
                 "sb://<NS>.servicebus.windows.net/",
                 new MessagingFactorySettings
                 {
                     TokenProvider = TokenProvider.CreateSharedAccessSignatureTokenProvider("RootManageSharedAccessKey", "<NamespaceLevelSASKey>"),
                     NetMessagingTransportSettings = { BatchFlushInterval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0) }

                 });

            string data = SubscriptionClient.FormatDeadLetterPath("<TopicName>", "<SubscriptionName>");

            var receiver = receiverFactory.CreateMessageReceiver(data);

            receiver.OnMessageAsync(

            async message =>
            {
                var body = message.GetBody<Stream>();
                lock (Console.Out)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Message ID :" + message.MessageId);
                }
                await message.CompleteAsync();
            },
            new OnMessageOptions { AutoComplete = false, MaxConcurrentCalls = 1 });
        }
    }

How to use REST API to send notifications to Baidu device?

by Contributed | Feb 23, 2021 | Technology

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

This article will introduce how to use Azure Notification Hub REST API to send a notification to device with Baidu Push. It provides an example of how to retrieve the PNS handle and send notification to device using REST API with Baidu Push.

Pre-requirement :

Before starting, you must setup a Baidu Push environment and create a application in Android Studio.

• Download Baidu Push Android SDK


• Create a Baidu Push account and create application : Getting Started with Baidu Push (baidu.com)


• Create an application in Android Studio : Connect your app to the notification hub | Microsoft Docs

Getting started with Azure Notification Hub using Baidu

1. Enter API Key and SECRET KEY in Azure Portal -> Notification Hub -> Baidu (Android China).
   
   Note : Go to the Configuration page of the Baidu Push application and you can find API KEY and SECRET KEY.
   


2. Execute your application in Android Studio and you should see below keywords in.
   errorCode=0 : 0 means the device is registered successfully via Baidu SDK.
   userId : copy this for next step
   channelId: copy this for next step
   


3. Create a registration for the device. This method generates a registration ID, which you can subsequently use to retrieve, update, and delete this registration.
   – Request
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Method	Request URI
   POST	https://<notification_hub_namespace>.servicebus.windows.net/<notification_hub_name>/registrations/?api-version=2015-01

   
   
   – Request Headers
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Request Header	Description
   Content-Type	application/atom+xml;type=entry;charset=utf-8
   Authorization	Azure Service Bus access control with Shared Access Signatures – Azure Service Bus | Microsoft Docs
   x-ms-version	2015-01

   
   
   – Request Body
   XML
   

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <entry xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom>
       <content type="application/xml">
           <BaiduRegistrationDescription xmlns:i=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance xmlns=http://schemas.microsoft.com/netservices/2010/10/servicebus/connect>
               <BaiduUserId>{userId}</BaiduUserId>
               <BaiduChannelId>{channelId}</BaiduChannelId>
           </BaiduRegistrationDescription >
       </content>
   </entry>

   
   – Response Code
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Code	Description
   200	Registration created successfully.

   
   
   – Response Body
   Upon success, a validated Atom entry is returned. It includes read-only elements such as ETag, RegistrationId, and ExpirationTime. For example:
   XML
   

   <entry a:etag="W/&quot;1&quot;" xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom xmlns:a=http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/metadata>
       <id>https://notificationhubn.servicebus.windows.net/notificationhub1/registrations/{registerId}?api-version=2015-01</id>
       <title type="text">{registerId}</title>
       <published>2021-02-19T06:52:22Z</published>
       <updated>2021-02-19T06:52:22Z</updated>
       <link rel="self" href=https://notificationhubn.servicebus.windows.net/notificationhub1/registrations/{registerId}?api-version=2015-01/>
       <content type="application/xml">
           <BaiduRegistrationDescription xmlns=http://schemas.microsoft.com/netservices/2010/10/servicebus/connect xmlns:i=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance>
               <ETag>1</ETag>
               <ExpirationTime>9999-12-31T23:59:59.999</ExpirationTime>
               <RegistrationId>{registerId}</RegistrationId>
               <BaiduUserId>{userId}</BaiduUserId>
               <BaiduChannelId>{channelId}</BaiduChannelId>
           </BaiduRegistrationDescription>
       </content>
   </entry>​



4. Use Test Send to check whether the device is registered successfully in the previous step.
   


5. Sends a Baidu native notification through a notification hub.
   – Request
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Method	Request URI
   POST	https://<notification_hub_namespace>.servicebus.windows.net/<notification_hub_name>/messages/?api-version=2015-04

   
   
   – Request Headers
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Request Header	Description
   Content-Type	application/json;charset=utf-8
   Authorization	Azure Service Bus access control with Shared Access Signatures – Azure Service Bus | Microsoft Docs
   ServiceBusNotification-DeviceHandle	{RegistrationId}
   ServiceBusNotification-Format	baidu
   x-ms-version	2015-04

   
   
   – Request Body
   JSON
   

   {"title":"Title","description":"Notification Hub test notification"}​

   
   – Response Code

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Code	Description
   201	Message successfully send to Baidu.

   
   


6. Your device should receive the notification you send in previous step in few seconds.

Additional Reference :

• Create a registration | Microsoft Docs


• Direct send | Microsoft Docs