Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Backup Azure Table Storage – Quick PowerShell Script

Hi,

So I recently had to make some changes and wanted to ensure I could roll back, in the event of any issues.

Azure Storage is great at replication and availability but it doesn’t offer point in time restore, should you accidentally make some changes and want to roll back. So I wrote a quick little powershell script which uses AzCopy and the Table Storage Rest API to find all the tables in an account and then pull down a JSON file of their contents, tagged with the current time.

It uses a SAS token to limit the permissions the script has, only needing list & read, to minimize the risk if the script has an issue.

TableBackupPic

The only requirement for the script is AzCopy, an MS utility which it uses to pull down the content of each table.

(Here is a quick overview of SASTokens in Azure Storage, the Microsoft Storage Explorer offers a nice right click option to generate them – make sure you give the SASToken Permissions to access the Table Service, Read and List)

Hope it’s useful!

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Azure, Coding, How to, Uncategorized

Using LinqPad to query Azure Diagnostics (Best WAD viewing client for Devs imo)

Hi All,

Really quick and simple post. In a normal windows azure cloud service you get all your lovely eventlogs put into table storage for you to use when diagnosing issues.

Unfortunately that can be a bit daunting as there isn’t, or I didn’t think there was, a handy client to view them all in.

With the AzureTableStorage driver for LinqPad I can quickly write complex and simple queries to integrate all the WAD logs and I get lovely intellisense in a nice familiar interface.

from items in WADWindowsEventLogsTable
 where items.Timestamp > DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(-10)
 where items.Role == "ControllerRole"
 select new { time = items.Timestamp, desc = items.Description}

And I’m straight to the root of the problem, or near enough.

linqpadAzureWAD

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Uncategorized

Removal of Live Tile service supporting BBC News Mobile App

Hi,

Following the removal of the BBC News Mobile apps from the store I will be removing the service supporting the live tile functionality on Windows Phone 7.x and Windows 8.  This will be completed in two phases.

  1. To avoid confusion, on these platforms, users will receive the following in place of the live tile.
    livetilemD
  2. The service will be disabled and no further updates will be delivered to the live tiles.

If you have received this message please remove the live tile from your home screen and  disable the background task to avoid unnecessary data and battery usage on your phone. 

This is being completed as, on the older versions of the phone application, the live tiles are downloaded from a web service which I host. As part of the apps removal this service will be taken down. I have included the message to allow users time to remove the tile before the service is turned off.

This does not affect Windows Phone 8 as the tiles are generated by the app on a background service.

Lastly I’d like to say thanks to all those who have contacted me with your comments, support and jokes –  they are all much appreciated.

For reference:

https://gripdev.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/removal-of-the-bbc-news-applications-for-windows-phone-and-windows-8/

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