Where is that documentation? A tale on setting up diagnostic settings...

I’m a big fan of Azure and building infrastructure on it using IaC (Infrastructure as Code) and deploy it through pipelines (Azure DevOps) or workflows (Github). The last two years, I primarily used Bicep to build the infrastructure. This is often a very satisfying experience but in some cases it can be quite frustrating. Frustrating because I can’t find the information that I need in the MS Learn documentation at the location where I would expect it to be. Continue reading

A nightmare on FrontDoor in Bicep...

For some reason I seem to attract the most exotic scenarios when it comes to building Infrastructure as Code (IaC). This time it was no different. For a client I’m working on building an environment in which disaster recovery is a top priority. Besides being zone redundant, the client requires region redundancy as well, in case a complete Azure region gets wiped out by a disaster or a combination of disasters… My imagination gets triggered and I envision all kinds of apocalyptic movie scenarios. Continue reading

Minikube, a lightweight Kubernetes-to-go!

From time-to-time I find myself tinkering with Kubernetes. I love the idea that I can create any type of workload (e.g. a simple webapp or a backend service), pick it up and put it somewhere else to run. Not having to care if it is in the cloud or on an on-premise cluster. However developing your application, testing its core in a local docker container and then deploying it to kubernetes can sometimes be cumberstone. Continue reading

Real world mocking! Http Service testing in C# using Wiremock.Net

At Xpirit we have a culture of never ending learning. One of the best ways of learning new things, is by doing it. To take the plunge and do the deep dive. In this case my colleague Kristoff Riebbels learned me some new tricks by introducing me into the world of WireMock.Net. Together we wrote a magazine article for Xpirit Magazine #13. In this blog post I want to share this article with you. Continue reading

Over-The-Air device update - IoT with C#

Developing solutions for IoT devices can be a challenging task, this can also apply for getting a device at its final destination in order to do its job. When time passes by, it is likely that either requirements or conditions are changing and that the device is not capable anymore of doing its job. In other words, it needs to be updated. This is where the real problems may start. In many cases devices are not physically accessible or there are simply too many devices in the field to do manual updates. Continue reading

Register ESP32 to DPS & IoT hub - IoT with C#

In my previous post I flashed my ESP32 with the nanoframework.net, allowing me to write C# code in Visual Studio with all bells and whistles. As life goes… the device landed in my drawer until this week where I had some time to experiment. This time I wanted to hook up the device to Azure IoT hub using the Device Provisioning Service (DPS) which brings me one step closer to my goal, performing device updates over-the-air… Continue reading

From 0 to 100 in 30 minutes - IoT with C#

My interest for the Internet of Things (IoT) was sparked many moons ago, way before the name was born. Back in the days I wrote software for PalmOS devices, and I was intrigued by having raw processor power in my Pocket. Don’t get me wrong, back then we where talking Megahertz instead of Gigahertz and Kilobyte instead of Gigabyte. Having such limitations in processing power and memory tickled my creativity. When I had the opportunity to control hardware (gps, electronic locks etc) using the little devices I was sold. Continue reading