Microsoft - MCPD / MCTS .NET 4 Windows Azure Developer

Curriculum

Creating Services

• Create service and operation contracts
• Create data contracts
• Create message contracts
• Implement generic message handling
• Implement RESTful services
• Create and configure a Routing service
• Create and configure a Discovery service

Hosting and Configuring Services

• Create and configure endpoints
• Configure behaviors
• Implement self hosting
• Implement web server hosting

Consuming Services

• Create a service proxy
• Configure client endpoints
• Invoke a service
• Consume RESTful services
• Implement service discovery

Securing Services

• Secure bindings
• Message security
• Authentication
• Authorization
• Impersonation
• Security auditing

Manage the Service Instance Life Cycle

• Service Instances
• Sessions
• Transactions
• Concurrency
• Manage consistency between instances, sessions, transactions and concurrency

Monitoring and Troubleshooting Distributed Systems

• Configure message logging
• Configure diagnostics
• Debug client-service interactions

Modeling data

• Map entities and relationships by using the Entity Data Model
• Map entities and relationships by using LINQ to SQL
• Create and customize entity objects
• Connect a POCO model to the Entity Framework
• Create the database from the Entity Framework model
• Create model-defined functions

Managing Connections and Context

• Configure connection strings and providers
• Create and manage a data connection
• Secure a connection
• Manage the DataContext and ObjectContext
• Implement eager loading
• Caching data
• ADO.NET Data Services

Querying data

• Execute a SQL query
• Create a LINQ query
• Create an Entity SQL (ESQL) query
• Handle special data types
• Query XML data
• Query data using ADO.NET Data Services

Manipulating data

• Create, update, or delete data by using SQL statements
• Create, update, or delete data by using DataContext
• Manage Transactions
• Create disconnected objects

Developing and Deploying Reliable Applications

• Monitor and collect performance data
• Handle exceptions
• Protect data
• Synchronize data
• Deploy ADO.NET components

Cloud Computing

• Define cloud computing.
• Learn the benefits of cloud computing.
• Understand the different types of cloud computing services.
• Explore where computing clouds might exist.
• Hear about potential concerns with cloud computing.
• Learn where cloud computing can and cannot be applied.
• Place Windows Azure in light of general cloud computing.
• Know how Windows Azure compares to other cloud environments.

Windows Azure Architecture

• See a simple Windows Azure application.
• Learn about the Microsoft data centers.
• Explore the hardware, servers and virtualization (the Fabric) that host cloud applications and data.
• Understand the role of the Fabric Controller in managing the Windows Azure cloud.
• Know the general architecture and components of the Windows Azure Platform.
• Understand the tools used to create and deploy Windows Azure services and data stores.
• Understand the different types of roles in Windows Azure (Web, worker, VM).
• Understand the types of storages provided by the Windows Azure Platform (Azure Storage, SQL Azure, etc.)

Windows Azure Web Roles

• Explore the purpose of Windows Azure Web roles.
• Understand how to create Web roles in a cloud service project.
• See how to configure a Web role.
• Learn how to test Web roles run in the Compute Emulator.
• Start exploring the Windows Azure API.
• Examine how to build Web roles with multiple Web sites.

Local Storage

• Examine Windows Azure local storage.
• See how local storage differs from normal server file systems.
• Learn how to configure local storage.
• Understand the limitations of local storage and where/when to use it.
• Explore the API to access local storage.
• Learn about Windows Azure Drive (formerly X-Drive).

Windows Azure Administration

• Explore the various Windows Azure subscription administrators.
• Understand Windows Azure OS Families and Guest OS Versions.
• See how to Remote Desktop to a Windows Azure virtual machine.
• Learn how to define a startup task for a role.

Windows Azure Storage and Queues

• Understand the purpose of Windows Azure Storage.
• Learn how to create a Windows Azure Storage account.
• Explore Windows Azure Storage costs.
• Understand the Storage Emulator, how to use it, and how it is different from Windows Azure Storage.
• See how to access Windows Azure Storage using both the REST API and the Storage Client Library.
• Examine Windows Azure Storage Queues.
• Learn how to get messages in and out of Windows Azure Queues.

Blob Storage

• Understand the rationale for using blob storage.Learn about the different types of blobs: block and page blobs.
• Examine blob storage containers and how they are used to organize and control access to blobs.
• Explore how to access blob storage with both the Storage Client and REST API.

Table Storage

• Explore Windows Azure Storage’s structural data service.
• Understand the reason for table storage.
• Examine the differences between table storage and traditional relational databases (as exhibited by SQL Azure).
• Learn how to access table storage with both the Storage Client and REST API.
• Understand entities as they relate to table storage.
• Examine how to save and retrieve entities in table storage.

Worker Roles

• Explore the purpose of Windows Azure worker roles.
• Understand how to create worker roles in a cloud service project.
• See how to configure a worker role.
• Learn how to test worker roles run in the Compute Emulator.
• Learn how to use Windows Azure Storage queues and messages to communicate with worker roles.
• Explore how to setup worker role endpoints.
• Learn how to communicate with worker role internal and input endpoints.

SQL Azure Introduction

• Learn what SQL Azure is and why you want to use it.
• Understand SQL Azure in comparison to SQL Server and Windows Azure table storage.
• Learn how to provision a SQL Azure server and databases.
• Examine costs associated with SQL Azure.
• See how to use familiar tools and APIs to work in SQL Azure.
• Explore how to create and manage database objects in SQL Azure.
• Know how to limit SQL Azure access.
• Understand options for performing database backups.
• See how to migrate data to SQL Azure.

Diagnostics

• Learn how to accomplish debugging and logging in Windows Azure.
• Examine Windows Azure Diagnostic Service.
• Understand the role of the Diagnostic Agent process in the diagnostic service.
• Learn how to configure the diagnostic service.
• See how to transfer diagnostic data to Windows Azure Storage.