Windows Azure Checklist

Work in progress...

• Coming soon◄
  • W3C link checker
  • iWebTool Broken Link Checker
• Under construction
• Check back often◄
  • no-www.org score of 'B'
  • Remove 'www' in web.config

Design

• Application is stateless

Deployment

• Every role on at least 2 instances
• Application and data in same datacenter
• Application and data in same affinity group

Development

• Use Git, Bitbucket or TFS for ALM and CI◄
  • Setup publishing with GIT
  • Setup publishing with TFS
  • Setup CI with TFS
  • Resolving Error403 (c:\a\bin folder)

Configuration

Windows Identity Foundation / ACS

• IssuerNameRegistry contains only trusted issuers
• cookieHandler set to use SSL
• wsFederation requireHttps set to true
• tokenReplayDetection enabled
• audienceUris contains only your realm(s)

Certificates

• Install required certificates
• Monitor expiry

SQL Database

• Using retry logic
• Using connection pooling
• Configured firewall◄
  • Creating a server level FW rule
  • Creating a database level FW rule
• Using less-privileged user

RoleEntryPoint (optional)

• Bootstrapping in OnStart
• No blocking code in OnRun
• Handle last-chance Exceptions
• Handle RoleEnvironment.ConfigurationChanged event

Diagnostics

• Enable diagnostics◄
  • Enabling Diagnostics in Windows Azure
• Configure performance counters and log files
• Diagnostics on a separate storage account

Security

• Security best practices◄
  • Security Best Practices
  • Apply IP address restrictions to your Windows Azure Cloud Services (optional)

Best Practices (Generic)

• Design for Cost efficiency◄
  • Cost Architecting for Windows Azure by Maarten Balliauw