Category: ALM

Build your own Azure retirements email alerts service using Java, Azure Functions and Communication Services

I was recently at an event where I had a discussion with someone who mentioned they'd missed the news about the retirement of a feature in Azure that they were making use of in a solution. As a result, they continued to build against the feature until they were forced to make a change when … Continue reading Build your own Azure retirements email alerts service using Java, Azure Functions and Communication Services →

Make working with Git an easier commitment

Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) is a key part the cloud technology landscape which has meant I've had many discussions with people who traditionally haven't had to worry about software development practices in their roles as IT Operators. One key area that seems to undo a lot of folks is file versioning using source control, with the prevailing … Continue reading Make working with Git an easier commitment →

Multi-environment deployments for Compiled C# Azure Functions with VSTS Release Management

This post covers an approach you can use to deploy compiled C# Functions using the tooling available in Visual Studio 2017 and various Build and Release Management Tasks contained in Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS). Note that this post discusses deploying to the v1 Functions runtime platform. I was lucky enough to speak with Damian … Continue reading Multi-environment deployments for Compiled C# Azure Functions with VSTS Release Management →

Microsoft Application Insights – APM for Everyone

When you work as heavily as I have with a technology like Application Insights you do tend to forget the amazing power you have at your fingertips. Over the last few years I've come to rely heavily on Application Insights as the primary Application Performance Management (APM) tool of choice for services I build, whether … Continue reading Microsoft Application Insights – APM for Everyone →

Provide non-admin users with read-only access to Service Endpoints in VSTS

I am currently transitioning some work to another team in our business. Part of this transition has been to pre-configure various Service Endpoints in Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) to provide a way for the new team to deploy into target Azure environments without the team necessarily having direct or privileged access into those Azure … Continue reading Provide non-admin users with read-only access to Service Endpoints in VSTS →

Moving from Azure VMs to Azure VM Scale Sets – Runtime Instance Configuration

In my previous post I covered how you can move from deploying a solution to pre-provisioned Virtual Machines (VMs) in Azure to a process that allows you to create a custom VM Image that you deploy into VM Scale Sets (VMSS) in Azure. As I alluded to in that post, one item we will need … Continue reading Moving from Azure VMs to Azure VM Scale Sets – Runtime Instance Configuration →

Moving from Azure VMs to Azure VM Scale Sets – VM Image Build

I have previously blogged about using Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) to securely build and deploy solutions to Virtual Machines running in Azure. In this, and following posts I am going to take the existing build process I have and modify it so I can make use of VM Scale Sets to host my API … Continue reading Moving from Azure VMs to Azure VM Scale Sets – VM Image Build →

Retrieve Work Item Discussion History using Visual Studio Online’s REST API

At TechEd North America Microsoft announced the availability of a preview REST API for Visual Studio Online.  Anyone who has spent time around Team Foundation Server will know that it's always had a strongly-typed C# SDK which can be used to extract and manipulate work items held in TFS.  This REST API is new and … Continue reading Retrieve Work Item Discussion History using Visual Studio Online’s REST API →

Use Tags to better manage your TFS work items

Updated: early in 2014 Microsoft released an update that now makes it possible to query using Tags.  See the full details online. As many of you have found, at present it isn't possible to customise work item templates to provide custom fields the same way you can in the on-premise version of TFS. While the … Continue reading Use Tags to better manage your TFS work items →