SCCM and FEP support for Windows Azure Virtual Machines

 

Microsoft just release new KB regarding support for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection support for Windows Azure Virtual Machines.

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later versions and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection SP1 or later versions support two specific scenarios to manage server software in the Windows Azure Virtual Machine environment.
The following table lists the scenarios and supported Configuration Manager features in each scenario.

Supported scenarios	Supported Configuration Manager features
Use an existing on-premises Configuration Manager infrastructure to manage Windows Azure Virtual Machines that are running Windows Server or Linux through a secure site-to-Site connection.	For Windows Server: Application Management Compliance Settings Endpoint Protection Inventory – Software, Hardware, and Asset Intelligence Network Access Protection Software Updates Deployment Software Metering Remote Control Reporting For Linux: Software Distribution Endpoint Protection Inventory – Hardware, Software Reporting
Set up a single stand-alone Primary site in the Windows Azure Virtual Machines environment to manage Windows Azure Virtual Machines that are running Windows Server or Linux in the same virtual network. Note The all-in-one, stand-alone Primary site is a single Windows Azure Virtual Machine that runs all required site system roles and Microsoft SQL Server locally without using any remote site systems or roles.	For Windows Server: Application Management Compliance Settings Endpoint Protection Inventory – Software, Hardware, and Asset Intelligence Software Updates Deployment Software Metering Remote Control Reporting For Linux: Software Distribution Endpoint Protection Inventory – Hardware, Software Reporting

The following Linux distributions are endorsed for Windows Azure Virtual Machines in the supported scenarios:

• Canonical Ubuntu 12.04
• OpenLogic CentOS 6.3
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2

Note The Linux-based virtual machines must be running version 1.0.0.4648 or later versions of the Linux client for Configuration Manager.

Microsoft® SQL Server® Backup to Microsoft Windows® Azure®Tool

Microsoft SQL Server Backup to Windows Azure Tool enables backup to Windows Azure Blob Storage and encrypts and compresses SQL Server backups stored locally or in the cloud.

SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 have built in capability to back up to Windows Azure storage. The SQL Server Backup to Windows Azure tool provides the same functionality to previous versions of SQL Server. It can also be used to specify encryption and compression for your backups.

Using the 3-step wizard, you can specify a rule or set of rules that are applied to any SQL Server backup. One example of a rule could be to redirect all local backups to the specified Windows Azure storage. Another example of a rule would be to use compression or encryption for backups stored in a specific location.

Once you configure the rules, these rules are applied to SQL Server Backup files. If the rule is set to use Windows Azure storage account, the tool redirects the backups to the specified Windows Azure storage account, but leaves a stub file with metadata information to be used during restore.

Benefits:

· Support for backups to Windows Azure Storage for SQL Server versions that do not have the built-in capability. Using Windows Azure storage for your backups has several benefits off-site storage for disaster recovery, ability to access from any location, etc. For more information, see SQL Server Backup and Restore with Windows Azure.

· Encryption and Compress support for SQL Server versions that do not have the built in capability. Currently only SQL Server 2014 has encryption support, and SQL Server 2008 or later support compression during backup. SQL Server 2008 supports compression in Enterprise edition only, but for SQL Server 2008 R2 and later encryption is supported on Standard editions or higher.

 

Download from there

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40740

Oracle on Windows Azure

 

Microsoft and Oracle provide end-to-end support for customers running business-critical Oracle software on Windows Azure

Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, and the Java development environment are now available, in preview, in the Windows Azure Virtual Machines Image Gallery. These images include licenses for the Oracle software that they contain.

During the preview period, there is no charge for the included Oracle licenses. You will pay only for the Windows Azure compute and storage resources that your Virtual Machine consumes. If you would prefer to use an Oracle software license that you already own, you can do that too. Just choose a Windows Server image from the Image Gallery and install the Oracle software yourself.

Whether you bring your own Oracle license or use one of the license-included images, you now have increased flexibility and choice in where to deploy your applications and the peace of mind that comes from knowing you will be fully supported by Oracle.

To get started, sign in to the

Windows Azure Management Portal and add a new Virtual Machine from the Image Gallery. For more information, visit the Oracle information page on the Windows Azure website.

Windows #Azure Technical Deep Dive: TalkTalk Business

Windows Azure Technical Deep Dive TalkTalk Business ABOUT THIS EVENT Dive deep into a real life mobile project using Windows Azure. TalkTalk Business is a leading telco that provides a suite of broadband, telephone, mobile phone, and IT support services to businesses across the UK. They wanted to meet the customer demand for mobile access to service information while maintaining secure business requirements for sensitive data. To solve this challenge, TalkTalk Business turned to Windows Azure. With a scalable backend provided by Windows Azure Mobile Services and on-premises to cloud messaging through Service Bus Relay, TalkTalk Business was able to provide a consistent experience across devices and platforms while preserving data security. Come hear from folks at TalkTalk Business about this solution, their best practices and key learnings. PRESENTER Gary Pretty, Lead Architect

June 18, 2013 9:00 AM PST For start and end times in other locations, please click here.

Windows Azure IaaS: Ubuntu apt-get update is not running “404 Not Found”

After provisioing a new VM in Windows Azure with Ubuntu Server 12.10 and while trying to install Apache on it running

apt-get install apache2 mysql-server php5 php5-mysql libapache2-mod-auth-mysql libapache2-mod-php5 php5-xsl php5-gd php-pear

I get an error, So I tried to get some packages installed via apt-get and still see that some files are misconfigured and not able to find packages in http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com

# apt-get install lamp-server

Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  lamp-server
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 20 not upgraded.
Need to get 28.2 kB of archives.
After this operation, 147 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Err http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main lamp-server

403  Forbidden
Failed to fetch http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/w/lamp-server 403  Forbidden
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with –fix-missing?
root@Admin:~# apt-get update
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal InRelease
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security InRelease
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates InRelease
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security Release.gpg
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal Release.gpg
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security Release
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates Release.gpg
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal Release
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security/universe Sources
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates Release
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main Sources/DiffIndex
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security/universe amd64 Packages
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe Sources/DiffIndex
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main amd64 Packages/DiffIndex
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main Translation-en
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe amd64 Packages/DiffIndex
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security/universe Translation-en
Hit http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main Translation-en
Hit http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe Translation-en
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main Sources/DiffIndex
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe Sources/DiffIndex
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main amd64 Packages/DiffIndex
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe amd64 Packages/DiffIndex
Hit http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main Translation-en
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security/universe Translation-en_US
Hit http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe Translation-en
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Err http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main Sources
  404  Not Found
Err http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe Sources
  404  Not Found
Err http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main amd64 Packages
  404  Not Found
Err http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe amd64 Packages
  404  Not Found
Err http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main Sources
  404  Not Found
Err http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe Sources
  404  Not Found
Err http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main amd64 Packages
  404  Not Found
Err http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/quantal/main/source/Sources  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/quantal/universe/source/Sources  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/quantal/main/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/quantal/universe/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/quantal-updates/main/source/Sources  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/quantal-updates/universe/source/Sources  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/quantal-updates/main/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/quantal-updates/universe/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

 

Solution:

Edit edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add those Universe and Multiverse repositories

 

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal universe multiverse

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates universe

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal-security multiverse