My favorite tasks for customers

You have an IT solution with 4.000.000 lines of code. You want an audit ? What need to be rewritten, cut, reorganized. Want some ideas ? I can give you ideas with one hour !

You want to migrate your legacy apps into a modern Microsoft solution ?

You want to put some deprecated stuff on Docker, reorganize some others stuff ?

You need to look at a large amount of various source code ? You are lost with your source code, I can help !

You have old Microsoft technologies, ASP.NET Forms, various ASP.NEt MVC appz, WinForms or WPF APps, C++ Win32 or MFC Appz and you want to stay on the edge ? Call me !

Article for Programmez May 2019

You can find my new technical article about C++ Appz in Docker and Azure in May 2019 issue of french magazine Programmez.

The NET Azure Rangers Technical Community

I am proud to lead the community of NET Azure Rangers. This month, in french magazine Programmez for April 2019 issue, we have written 3 artciles.

How to make a dockerfile for running Windows Services

To run a Windows Service into Docker for Windows, you have to take some actions…

First you need to create the service. Use the sc.exe command. Make your service starting as auto. It will be running automatically.

If you need to start as an administrator to have admin privileges, use the sc sdset command:

RUN sc sdset SCMANAGER D:(A;;CCLCRPRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCRPWPRC;;;SY)(A;;KA;;;BA)S:(AU;FA;KA;;;WD)(AU;OIIOFA;GA;;;WD)

It’s weird and ugly but it works !

A tip & trick: ask docker to start an OS image that ships IIS to be able to see your custom log files. Else, you can’t see what’s happening…

If you run your docker image in Azure Container Instance, be carefull that your image need to be a Windows Server 1609…

So I start theses images in my various dockerfiles:

• FROM microsoft/dotnet-framework:4.6.2-runtime-windowsservercore-ltsc2016
• FROM microsoft/aspnet:4.6.2-windowsservercore-ltsc2016

My log file is written in c:\temp\logs so I make a custom WebApp on tis folder:

RUN powershell.exe New-WebVirtualDirectory -Site ‘Default Web Site’ -Name Logs -PhysicalPath ‘c:\temp\logs’

With this kind of dockerfile, I can see the log file of my Windows Service and communicate with him:

image001

image002

LMDBServiceNet coded in C# .NET

On Monday 3, I will make a demo in my company about Docker/Azure and I have decided to make a demo about C# .NET stuff because few people are interested in C++… So I have rewritten my service in C#. It was not very difficult:

• Web Server provided by CPP Rest SDK is migrated with System.Net.Http
• LMDBWindows64.dll is wrapped by LMDBNet.dll with C# bindings
• C++ syntax is the same as C# syntax so all the code rebuild ok at 90%

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using LMDBNet;
using Newtonsoft.Json;

namespace LMDBServiceNet
{
    class WebServer
    {
        HttpListener _listener;
        LMDBWrapper _wrapper;

        public WebServer(string uriPrefix)
        {
            _listener = new HttpListener();
            _listener.Prefixes.Add(uriPrefix);

            _wrapper = new LMDBWrapper();
            _wrapper.Init("cache_db");
        }
        public async void Start()
        {
            _listener.Start();
            while (true)
                try
                {
                    var context = await _listener.GetContextAsync();
                    Task.Run(() => ProcessRequestAsync(context));
                }
                catch (HttpListenerException) { break; } // Listener stopped.
                catch (InvalidOperationException) { break; } // Listener stopped.
        }
        public void Stop() { _listener.Stop(); }

        async void ProcessRequestAsync(HttpListenerContext context)
        {
            try
            {
                string request = Path.GetFileName(context.Request.RawUrl);
                string str = String.Format("you asked for: {0}", request);
                //Console.WriteLine(str);

                Dictionary<string, string> parameters = ExtractParameters(context);

                if (parameters.Count == 0)
                {
                    await WriteResponse(context, String.Empty, HttpStatusCode.OK);
                    return;
                }

                string verb;
                if ( parameters.TryGetValue("request", out verb) == false )
                {
                    await WriteResponse(context, String.Empty, HttpStatusCode.OK);
                    return;
                }

                if (context.Request.HttpMethod == "GET")
                {
                    if (verb == Constants.VerbPing)
                    {
                        await RequestVerbPing(context);
                        return;
                    }
                    else if (verb == Constants.VerbUsage)
                    {
                        await RequestUsage(context);
                        return;
                    }
                    else if (verb == Constants.VerbGetData)
                    {
                        await RequestVerbGetData(context, parameters);
                        return;
                    }
                    else if (verb == Constants.VerbSetData)
                    {
                        await RequestVerbSetData(context, parameters);
                        return;
                    }
                }

                await WriteResponse(context, String.Empty, HttpStatusCode.OK);
            }
            catch (Exception ex) { Console.WriteLine("Request error: " + ex); }
        }

        private Dictionary<string, string> ExtractParameters(HttpListenerContext context)
        {
            string request = Path.GetFileName(context.Request.RawUrl);
            string str = String.Format("Request: {0}", request);
            //Console.WriteLine(str);

            //http://192.168.175.241:7001/MyServer/LMDB/?request=set-data&key=toto0&value=toto1&name=cache2

            Dictionary<string, string> parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>();

            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(request))
                return parameters;

            var strings = request.Split('&');

            if (strings == null)
                return parameters;

            if (strings.Length >= 1)
            {
                strings[0] = strings[0].Remove(0, 1);
            }
            else
            {
                return parameters;
            }

            foreach (string s in strings)
            {
                //Console.WriteLine(s);
                var data = s.Split('=');
                if( data.Length == 2)
                {
                    string values = String.Format("{0}:{1}", data[0], data[1]);
                    //Console.WriteLine(values);

                    parameters.Add(data[0], data[1]);

                }
            }

            return parameters;

        }

        private async Task WriteResponse(HttpListenerContext context, string message, HttpStatusCode code)
        {
            Logger.LogInfo(message);

            var enc = Encoding.UTF8;
            byte[] msg = enc.GetBytes(message);

            context.Response.StatusCode = (int)code;

            context.Response.ContentLength64 = msg.Length;
            using (Stream s = context.Response.OutputStream)
                await s.WriteAsync(msg, 0, msg.Length);
        }

        private async Task RequestUsage(HttpListenerContext context)
        {

            DataUsage usage = new DataUsage();
            usage.company = "NEOS-SDI";
            usage.developer = "Christophe Pichaud";
            usage.version = "August 2008 BETA 0.3 .NET C#";

            string str = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(usage);

            await WriteResponse(context, str, HttpStatusCode.OK);
        }

        private async Task RequestVerbPing(HttpListenerContext context)
        {
            DataPing ping = new DataPing();
            ping.ip = "localhost";
            ping.port = Constants.MasterNodePort;
            ping.server = Environment.MachineName;

            string str = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(ping);

            await WriteResponse(context, str, HttpStatusCode.OK);
        }

        private async Task RequestVerbSetData(HttpListenerContext context, Dictionary<string, string> parameters)
        {
            string key;
            string value;

            if (parameters.TryGetValue("key", out key) == false ||
                parameters.TryGetValue("value", out value) == false)
            {
                await WriteResponse(context, String.Empty, HttpStatusCode.OK);
                return;
            }

            _wrapper.SetData(key, value);

            Data data = new Data();
            data.Key = key;
            data.Value = value;

            string str = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(data);
            await WriteResponse(context, str, HttpStatusCode.OK);
        }

        private async Task RequestVerbGetData(HttpListenerContext context, Dictionary<string, string> parameters)
        {
            string key;
            string value;

            if (parameters.TryGetValue("key", out key) == false)
            {
                await WriteResponse(context, String.Empty, HttpStatusCode.OK);
                return;
            }

            _wrapper.GetData(key, out value);

            Data data = new Data();
            data.Key = key;
            data.Value = value;

            string str = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(data);
            await WriteResponse(context, str, HttpStatusCode.OK);
        }
    }
}

Running LMDBService WS NoSQL in Azure Container Instance

Now that LMDBService runs in a docker image, it is possible to run it into Azure Container Instance.

Here are the steps to follow:

• Build the docker image locally with its dockerfile
  • docker image build –tag mydocker/myserver d:\dev\docker
• Create a Repository in Azure Repository
• Connect in docker shell to the repo
  • docker login lmdbwsprod.azurecr.io -u lmdbwsprod -p xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Tag the prod repository
  • docker tag mydocker/myserver lmdbwsprod.azurecr.io/prod
• Push the docker image to the Azure repository
• Go to Azure portal and choose Azure Repository
  • Choose prod repository
  • Check tags and choose latest
  • Click Run Instance in […] button
  • Open port 7001
  • Click OK
• Go to Azure Container Instance
  • choose the container and click Overview
  • Retrieve the IP address

Test the URL : http://40.114.209.198:7001/MyServer/LMDB/?request=set-data&key=Key_v99&value=Value_v99&name=cache_NET

 

LMDB – I love that stuff !

Since few months, I work on LMDB for Azure stuff. First, I have:

• migrated the library from Linux to Windows x64
• adapted the .NET Layer Interop
• made custom clients code

Now, I have setup the Azure Web App Svc for hosting a simple file uploader where files will be stored in LMDB NoSQL database. The way of using it is so simple :

        private static void StoreFile(string path)
        {
            string key = path;
            string value = String.Empty;
            byte[] buffer = File.ReadAllBytes(path);

            LMDBEnvironment _env;
            string dir = "c:\\temp\\cache_net10B";
            _env = new LMDBEnvironment(dir);
            _env.MaxDatabases = 2;
            _env.MapSize = 10485760 * 100;
            _env.Open();

            DateTime dtStart = DateTime.Now;
            var tx = _env.BeginTransaction();
            var db = tx.OpenDatabase("DB", new DatabaseConfiguration { Flags = DatabaseOpenFlags.Create });
            var enc = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
            tx.Put(db, enc.GetBytes(key), buffer);
            tx.Commit();
            db.Dispose();

            DateTime dtStop = DateTime.Now;
            TimeSpan ts = dtStop - dtStart;
            string str = String.Format("Time elapsed for set:{0} ms", ts.TotalMilliseconds);
            Logger.LogInfo(str);

            _env.Dispose();
        }

 

If you want to test LMDB in your environement, download that stuff:

Download the LMDB Windows DLL and console_app.Exe
Download the LMDB Windows DLL, the .NET WRapper DLL and console_app.Exe

Programming IoT with Azure and MXCHIP device

I recently have done a 2 days event in MS Office about programming MXCHIP and Azure IoT stuff. It’s amazing what that kind of little hardware can achieve. For now, I have to make a demo for my managers.

The code and compilers are included into VSCode extensions and SDK Kit.

Everything is simple in the demo mode. But in real, you spend a lot of time… :)