Not exactly. I am going on a trip for work to St Louis and Nashville and since meetup.com is an awesome, global service I reached out to the local groups. They welcomed me and now I have two sessions lined up. Very Happy!

The session: Api management 101

The topic An introduction to how Azure API management can help you take control of your organization’s APIs. APIs are built and published everywhere, they can handle different data, authentication, and paths, making your APIs easier to use and re-use. Security, documentation, users, even sign-up can be handled directly.

Who is this aimed at? Developers or architects working in a mid-to-large organization that uses APIs to exchange data internally or externally. You do not need any prior knowledge about Azure API management.

Friday, December 9th St Louis

Hosted by St Louis Azure User Group

Microsoft Technology Center – @4220 4220 Duncan Ave #501 · St. Louis, MO

Sign up here.

Tuesday, December 13 Nashville

Jointly hosted by Nashville .Net User Group and The Nashville Microsoft Azure Users Group

Vaco Nashville 5501 Virginia Way Suite 120 · Brentwood, TN

Sign up here

The code and labs

All the code shown in the sessions can be found in this handly GitHub Rep.

Whenever I generated a SAS key for allowing access to a storage I have always wondered what all the different parts actually mean, today I found out.

(Source: MS Learn I added some information)

Lets look at this generated key: <a href="https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/?restype=service&amp;comp=properties&amp;sv=2021-06-08&amp;ss=bf&amp;st=2015-04-29T22%3A18%3A26Z&amp;se=2015-04-30T02%3A23%3A26Z&amp;srt=s&amp;sp=rw&amp;sip=168.1.5.60-168.1.5.70&amp;spr=https&amp;sig=F%6GRVAZ5Cdj2Pw4tgU7IlSTkWgn7bUkkAg8P6HESXwmf%4B">https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/?restype=service&amp;comp=properties&amp;sv=2021-06-08&amp;ss=bf&amp;st=2015-04-29T22%3A18%3A26Z&amp;se=2015-04-30T02%3A23%3A26Z&amp;srt=s&amp;sp=rw&amp;sip=168.1.5.60-168.1.5.70&amp;spr=https&amp;sig=F%6GRVAZ5Cdj2Pw4tgU7IlSTkWgn7bUkkAg8P6HESXwmf%4B</a>

Parameter	Example	Description
Resource URI	https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/?restype=service&comp=properties	Defines the Azure Storage endpoint and other parameters. This example defines an endpoint for Blob Storage and indicates that the SAS applies to service-level operations. When the URI is used with GET, the Storage properties are retrieved. When the URI is used with SET, the Storage properties are configured
Storage version	sv=2015-04-05	For Azure Storage version 2012-02-12 and later, this parameter indicates the version to use. This example indicates that version 2015-04-05 (April 5, 2015) should be used.
Storage service	ss=bf	Specifies the Azure Storage to which the SAS applies. This example indicates that the SAS applies to Blob Storage (b) and Azure Files (f). Also available are Queue (q) and Table (t)
Start time	st=2015-04-29T22%3A18%3A26Z	(Optional) Specifies the start time for the SAS in UTC time. This example sets the start time as April 29, 2015 22:18:26 UTC. If you want the SAS to be valid immediately, omit the start time.
Expiry time	se=2015-04-30T02%3A23%3A26Z	Specifies the expiration time for the SAS in UTC time. This example sets the expiry time as April 30, 2015 02:23:26 UTC.
Allowed resource type	srt=s	Specifies which resource types are accessible via the SAS. This example specifies that the accessible resource is in Blob Storage. Service (s), Container (c) and Object (o).
Permissions	sp=rw	Lists the permissions to grant. This example grants access to read (r) and write (w) operations.
IP range	sip=168.1.5.60-168.1.5.70	Specifies a range of IP addresses from which a request is accepted. This example defines the IP address range 168.1.5.60 through 168.1.5.70.
Protocol	spr=https	Specifies the protocols from which Azure Storage accepts the SAS. This example indicates that only requests by using HTTPS are accepted, and why should you accept anything else?
Signature	sig=F%6GRVAZ5Cdj2Pw4tgU7IlSTkWgn7bUkkAg8P6HESXwmf%4B	Specifies that access to the resource is authenticated by using an HMAC signature. The signature is computed over a string-to-sign with a key by using the SHA256 algorithm, and encoded by using Base64 encoding.

Since permissions (sp) is a little more complex I listed them in a separate table.

Allowed persmission	Description
r	Read
w	Write
d	Delete
l	List
a	Add
c	Create
u	Update
p	Process
i	Immutable storage
y	Permanently delete
x	Enable deletion of versions
t	Read/Write blob index
f	Filter Blog index

Now I can finally decrypt a signature to find out which access rights have been assigned.

I was tasked with setting up a Function environment. The Function was supposed to be hosted as a version 4 (~4) and was written in .net 6. No problem, right? Wrong!

The error

This was the error I got:

Your app is pinned to an unsupported runtime version for '~4'. For better performance, we recommend using one of our supported versions instead: ~3.

To me that seems like a you problem but as ever Azure says it’s mine.

The hunt

I used Bicep to deploy the Azure function, but in order to find all the settings that might be needed I opened the JSON view of the Function in the Azure Portal. The Function was pushed to development by the developer and it was up to me to deploy it in TEST and PROD.

The JSON view is an awesome feature. On the overview page of almost all services, you will find it up and to the right. It’s just a link: If you click it, you get the JSON/ARM representation of the service:

You can find all the settings that you might want to look up, such as Always On or which server farm it is connected to.

The find

I found this article from Microsoft, which I recommend, but at the same time it should not have to exists. It addresses all kinds of issues you can encounter when using Azure Functions 4.

The solution

You need to tell Azure what version of dotnet you are using. This only needs to be done when using version 4 and .net 6. Add this setting to your Bicep:

properties: {
     siteConfig: {
         netFrameworkVersion: 'v6.0'
     }
 }

Then redeploy and the error message dissappears.

The grief

Now the pitfall part is that if you look into the JSON view of the Function and try to find that setting … it is null. Even after your redeploy.

So, how are we supposed to know that needs to be set?

Boo! Boo I say.

Bicep and static web apps

In my experience, static web apps is almost too easy. Setting up one is really easy and deploying code is only one single step! This too easy approach is found in setting up custom domains.

There is a really good and easy to follow article in the official docs. There is even a video showing you the process. It does not, however, show you how to do it using Bicep.

My Bicep for provisioning the static app

Here is the Bicep I use to provision a new staticweb app:

var webappName = 'Identifier-${env}-stapp'

resource staticwebApplication 'Microsoft.Web/staticSites@2021-03-01' = {
  name: webappName
  location: location
  properties:{
    stagingEnvironmentPolicy:'Enabled'
    allowConfigFileUpdates: true
  }
  sku: {
    tier: 'Free'
    name: 'Free'
  }

  tags: resourceGroup().tags
}

How to add a custom domain using Bicep

The steps for adding a custom domain are outlined in the documentation linked above, but the steps are these:

1. Find your static web app’s autogenerated URL.
2. Update your DNS with a CNAME-record pointing your domain to that autogenerated URL.
3. Update the Custom Domain setting. (Run the Bicep update)

Step 1 and 2 has to be done before running the Bicep update.

The Bicep

The official documentation is very limited I am sorry to say. That is the reason I wrote this post.

Here is my Bicep for setting a custom domain:

var domain = {
  PROD: {
    fqdn: 'smart.workdomain.com'
  }
  TEST: {
    fqdn: 'test-smart.workdomain.com'
  }
  DEV: {
    fqdn: 'dev-smart.workdomain.com'
  }
}

resource staticwebApplicationDomain 'Microsoft.Web/staticSites/customDomains@2022-03-01' = {
  name: domain[env].fqdn
  parent: staticwebApplication
}

A couple of things to point out.

• The parent is the static web app created above.
• You do not need to add your SSL-cert, Azure takes care of that for you. Almost too simple.
• The name is the domain you need to add.
• Adding the domain takes about 10-15 minutes. So don’t give up.

At work I always get new Azure Services to deploy and I always use Bicep. Here is how to manage network settings for PostgrSQL flexible server. This is the service one, not the “run on a Linux VM one”. ALWAYS use the service flavor.

Basic PostgreSQL bicep

Getting the Bicep from an existing Azure resource is super simple. Use VS code and the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift P) and type Bicep: Insert Resource. Bom! There is your Bicep code and to understand it, here is the documentation reference.

Network settings

These are not found in the export and you have to add them manually (not great), but that is because it is a subtype. It is a separate type but can only exist when connected to another type. The definition is not hard to find:

resource symbolicname 'Microsoft.DBforPostgreSQL/flexibleServers/firewallRules@2022-01-20-preview' = {
  name: 'string'
  parent: resourceSymbolicName
  properties: {
    endIpAddress: 'string'
    startIpAddress: 'string'
  }
}

These are the same settings that you would use for an Azure SQL Server, it is just connected to a DBforPostgreSQL flexible server. Simply add all the IP-ranges you need to allow. Such as “the office in Stockholm” or “the consultant”.

Allow Azure Services

This is a special case and you need to configure a specific rule for it, allowing the IP-range 0.0.0.0 to 0.0.0.0.

resource AllowAzureServices 'Microsoft.DBforPostgreSQL/flexibleServers/firewallRules@2022-01-20-preview' = {
  parent: PostgreSQLDB
  name: 'AllowAllAzureIps'
  properties: {
    endIpAddress: '0.0.0.0'
    startIpAddress: '0.0.0.0'
  }
}