1. Running PHP on the Windows Azure Platform
Brian Swan
PHP Developer Advocate
Microsoft
@brian_swan

2. Lots I could talk about…
Why is PHP 5.3 faster on Windows than previous versions of PHP?
Version 3.0 (beta) of the SQL Server Driver for PHP is available.
SQL Server ODBC driver for Linux is coming.
Hadoop for Windows Server/Azure is coming.

3. But I’ll tour Windows Azure (by looking at auto-scaling)

4. Windows Azure Platform Overview
Developer Experience
Use existing skills and tools.
Compute
Storage
Management
Relational data
Connectivity
Access control
AppFabric
Composite applications
LOB Applications
ON-PREMISES

5. What type of cloud is Windows Azure?
Packaged Software
Storage
Servers
Networking
O/S
Middleware
Virtualization
Data
Applications
Runtime
You manage
Infrastructure
(as a Service)
Storage
Servers
Networking
O/S
Middleware
Virtualization
Data
Applications
Runtime
Managed by vendor
You manage
Platform
(as a Service)
Managed by vendor
You manage
Storage
Servers
Networking
O/S
Middleware
Virtualization
Applications
Runtime
Data
Software
(as a Service)
Managed by vendor
Storage
Servers
Networking
O/S
Middleware
Virtualization
Applications
Runtime
Data
PaaS: you build it, Windows Azure runs it
Automatic OS patching
Elasticity and scale
Utility billing
Higher-level services
ACS, Traffic Manager, Caching, CDN

6. What are Web and Worker roles?
In general, think of a “role” as on OS template.
Web Role
External Facing
HTTP/HTTPS Endpoint
Short lived calls
(Think Web Server)
Worker Role
Internal Facing
TCP/HTTP Endpoint
Long running processes
(Think Service or Deamon)
Subscription = billing & determining what pieces of the platform you want to 'rent'. It also allows you to allocate both the Account Administrator (person who pays the bills,) and the Service Administrator, who administrates everything in the Azure portal. Sometimes these are both the same person, sometimes not. A subscription is also a container for services (hosted services and others, such as storage services).
A hosted service is both a container for deployments and a management interface; there are certain operations that must be performed at the service level.
A deployment is a logical container for roles. There are also certain operations to be performed at this level, such as configuring the number of instances for a given role within a deployment.
Role is when you get down to being almost purely a container, but role also somewhat defines function (web, worker, VM), and can be thought of as a container of instances (of a certain function).
There is also a VM Role
You configure and maintain the OS.
Lacks persistent state.

7. Instance Sizes and Costs
Cores
CPU Speed
Memory
Cost/hour
Ex. Small
Shared
1.0 GHz
768 MB
$0.04
Small 1
1.6 GHz
1.75 GB
$0.12
Medium 2
3.5 GB
$0.24
Large 4
7 GB
$0.48
Ex. Large 8
14 GB
$0.96
Local storage varies with instance size.

8. What is Azure Storage? Don’t forget
Tables: simply (and loosely) structured data (not relational)
Blobs: large, unstructured binary data (audio, video, etc.)
Queues: serially accessed messages
Don’t forget
Storage Costs
$0.14 GB/month*
$0.01/10k transactions
Transfer Costs
$0.15 GB outbound *

9. Azure Table Storage Query Performance Unique Partition Key
Row Key
Timestamp
DeliveryAddress
OrderAmount
Kirk
NC1701
10/24/2011 6:05:15 PM
6855 Kobayashi Maru Drive
$35,490.00
NC1701A
10/23/2011 6:09:10 PM
409 Tiberious Road
$98.99
NC1701B
10/24/2011 6:00:15 AM
1024 Priceline Ave
$4,523.99
Archer
31415
11/20/2010 8:05:15 AM
999 Sliders Blvd
$5,780.99 1
10/04/2011 6:55:15 PM
1405 Suliban Road
$55.39
234
09/24/2011 6:05:15 AM
DS9, Level 29, Suite 782
$1.58
Bender
10/24/2010 7:05:15 PM
900 South Futurama Drive
$87,399.99
Query Performance
VIN
Super Fast
Unique Partition Key
Very Fast
Partition Key + Row Key
Slower
Only Partition Key
No Row Key
Slowest
No Partition Key
12345
KJUDH
Property Max = 255
Combined size of all data in an entity cannot exceed 1MB. This size includes the size of the property names as well as the size of the property values or their types, which includes the two mandatory key properties (PartitionKey and RowKey).
PartitionKey and RowKey are of string type, and each key is limited to 1KB in size.

10. Azure Blob Storage Blob Account Container images videos PIC01.JPG
Account
Container
Blob
PIC01.JPG
images
PIC02.JPG
Containers are like folders (but they can’t contain other containers, only blobs).
mymedia
videos
VID01.AVI

11. *100 TB is the size limit for an entire storage account
Containers and Blobs
Containers
Multiple containers per account
Create/destroy on the fly
One container can hold up to 100 TB* worth of blobs
Set access policies (private, public read, full public read)
Set metadata
No search/query (i.e. no WHERE MetadataValue = ?)
Blobs
A blob can be up to 1 TB in size
Set access policy
*100 TB is the size limit for an entire storage account
Under the covers there are 2 types of blobs: block and page blobs.

12. What is the Diagnostics Monitor?
An Azure component (MonAgentHost.exe) that collects diagnostic data for application instances
Starts automatically by default
Must define a storage account connection string

13. How does it work (in a nutshell)?
Role Instance
Role Instance Starts
Diagnostic Monitor Starts
Monitor is configured
Imperatively at Start time
Remotely any time
Monitor buffers data locally
User can set a quota (FIFO)
User initiates transfer to storage
Scheduled or On Demand
Role
Diagnostic Monitor
Local directory storage
Windows Azure Storage

14. Diagnostic Data Sources
Default
Destination
Trace Logs
Enabled
Table
Diagnostic Infrastructure Logs
IIS Logs
Blob
Performance Counters
Disabled
Windows Event Logs
IIS Failed Request Logs
Crash Dumps
Arbitrary Files

15. What is the Management API?
A REST API that allows you to manage services under an Azure subscription.
Examples include…
Create/stop/start/delete a deployment
Move staging deployment to production
Increasing the number of instances
Initiate a rolling upgrade
Etc.
(almost anything you can do via the management portal)
All API calls must be signed with an X509 certificate
Limitations of the Management API:
Can’t get billing data
Can’t create a subscription
Can’t create storage or compute services
Can’t deploy management certificates

16. Windows Azure SDK for PHP
Open Source project
Mostly platform independent (only the packaging tools have a Windows dependency)
Features
PHP classes for Windows Azure Blobs, Tables & Queues
Scaffolds for quick application deployment
Helper Classes for HTTP transport, AuthN/AuthZ, REST & Error Management
Manageability, Instrumentation & Logging support
Support for storing PHP sessions in Azure Table Storage
Management API client
Diagnostics client
Command line tools set for packaging, management , diagnostics, and deployment

17. Auto-scaling a Windows Azure/PHP application
Demo
Auto-scaling a Windows Azure/PHP application
Windows Azure SDK for PHP + …

18. Code
GolferMessageBoard code is on the TechNet Wiki:
Auto-scaling code is on GitHub:
Read about it here:

19. Other Resources http://blogs.msdn.com/b/silverlining
A PHP on Windows Azure Learning Plan
Why is PHP 5.3 faster on Windows than previous versions of PHP?
Version 3.0 (beta) of the SQL Server Driver for PHP is available.
SQL Server ODBC driver for Linux is coming.
Hadoop for Windows Server/Azure is coming.

20. Try It Out

21. Q & A?