Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This walkthrough demonstrates key features of the git-azure platform for running multiple node.js applications in Windows Azure Worker Role. It takes about 30 mins to present this content.

Prerequisities

• MacOS - git-azure was developed primarily for use by MacOS developers; it may work on *nix, but I have not tested it there yet; I know it does not work on Windows, and fixing it is of relatively low prioroty
• GitHub account
• node.js and Git client installed; I've tested it with 0.7.8 of node.js; support for multiple versions SxS is planned
• openssl installed
• Windows Azure account created (https://windows.azure.com)

One-time initialization

1. Create a new GitHub repo with a README, so that it can immediately be cloned.
2. Clone the repo into, say, atest directory.
3. Install git-azure with sudo npm install git-azure -g
4. Invoke git azure and explain the key concepts
5. Invoke git azure init and explain the key pieces of information that must be provided to initialize the system (publishSettings, serviceName, username, password)
6. Download the *.publishSettings from https://windows.azure.com/download/publishprofile.aspx
7. Go to the atest directory and stay there for the rest of initialization
8. Provide configuration parameters required for initialization

git config azure.publishSettings <path_to_your_publishSettings_file>
git config azure.username <username>
git config azure.password <password>

(The username and password are at present used to set up RDP access; going forward they will be used for Basic Auth to a mini management portal as well as SSH access to the box; Please note RDP access to Azure VMs from MacOS does not work today due to a known issue with Azure certificates). 9. Start the initialization process:

git azure init --serviceName <your_service_name>

<your_service_name> must be unique in Windows Azure as it will become part of a hostname (your endpoints will be accessible at <your_service_name>.cloudapp.net). The one time initialization process takes between 8-12 minutes. In this time the following things happen:

• git-azure runtime is registerded as a submodule int the atest\.git-azure subdirectory, commited and pushed to the repo
• A Windows Azure storage account is created is none exists
• The package is uploaded to the Windows Azure Blob Storage under that account
• A hosted service is created (one small instance - will be configurable going forward)
• RDP access is configured
• node.js and git are installed on the box
• The atest repo is cloned on the machine
• an HTTP reverse proxy (part of the git-azure runtime) is started on the machine If the initialization process fails, it can be restarted with

git azure init --serviceName <your_service_name> --force

In general the script is re-entrant; the --force option will override any prior artifacts deployed with git azure init.

After successful initialization, information similar to this one is displayed:

OK: your Windows Azure service git-azure-3 is ready

Configure a post-receive hook in your repository to enable automatic updates on 'git push'. Your post-receive hook URL is:
  http://git-azure-3.cloudapp.net:31417/ec0291ff-3e5d-4f36-a3dd-c7b929dc6d8a

The service can be accessed at the following endpoints:
  http://git-azure-3.cloudapp.net         - HTTP application endpoint
  https://git-azure-3.cloudapp.net        - HTTPS application endpoint (if SSL is configured)
  ws://git-azure-3.cloudapp.net           - WebSocket application traffic
  wss://git-azure-3.cloudapp.net          - secure WebSocket application traffic (if SSL is configured)
You can configure additional A entires in your DNS directed at IP address 65.52.238.34 (useful for /etc/hosts).
You can configure additional CNAME entires in your DNS directed at git-azure-3.cloudapp.net (recommended for production).

Management endpoints:
  https://git-azure-3.cloudapp.net:31415  - management endpoint (if SSL is configured)
  http://git-azure-3.cloudapp.net:31415   - management endpoint (if SSL is not configured)
  https://windows.azure.com - Windows Azure management portal (billing, accounts etc.)

Visit https://github.com/tjanczuk/git-azure for walkthroughs on setting up SSL, support for multiple apps, and more.
Finished at Fri May 11 2012 09:38:15 GMT-0700 (PDT)
Duration 10 min 8 sec.