Windows Azure

link - http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Azure/WindowsAzure/IntroToWindowsAzureLab/Overview/

Windows Azure
1. Windows Azure services

Web Role - ASP.NET Web application accessible via an HTTP or HTTPS endpoint and is commonly the front-end for an application

User Role - Background-processing applications and are typically found in the back-end

2. Windows Azure storage services

lob services - text and binary data
table services - structured storage that can be queried,
queue services - reliable and persistent messaging between services.


Structure of the Solution

1. Configuration project –

a. olds the configuration for the web and worker roles that compose the cloud application

1. ServiceDefinition.csdef, which contains metadata needed by the Windows Azure fabric to understand the requirements of your application, such as which roles are used,
their trust level, the endpoints exposed by each role, the local storage requirements and the certificates used by the roles. The service definition also establishes
configuration settings specific to the application
2. ServiceConfiguration.cscfg, specifies the number of instances to run for each role and sets the value of configuration settings defined in the service definition file.
3. The Roles node in the cloud service project enables you to configure what roles the service includes (Web, worker or both) as well as which projects to associate with
these roles. Adding and configuring roles through the Roles node will update the ServiceDefinition.csdef and ServiceConfiguration.cscfg files

2. Web Project –

a. standard ASP.NET Web Application project template modified for the Windows Azure environment. It contains an additional class that provides the entry point for the web role and
contains methods to manage the initialization, starting, and stopping of the role.



Data Storage

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Azure/Storage/WindowsAzureStorageOverview/