Developing Microservices with Containers, Docker and Microsoft Azure

Containers

What is this Container-thing developers are talking about. And why should you use it ? In this module you will get an overview of what containers are, and how to use them on and with Windows.

• Why Containers ?
• Containers vs Virtual Machines
• Windows and Hyper-V Containers
• Container Orchestration

Docker

A container needs to be hosted and run on a container runtime. Multiple options exist here like rkt, CloudFoundry cr, ... In this course we will focus on the most popular one: Docker. You will learn how to create, run and scale containers using Docker.

• Docker Terminology
• Docker Engine on Windows Server 2016/Windows 10
• Containers, Images and Registries
• Docker-compose
• Docker Swarm

Add ASP.NET Applications to Containers

Now that you know what a container is, how do you get your applications in a container ? You will learn how to create Docker containers with your application in it. We will start by migrating existing applications, and then move to creating multiple services orchestrated for working together.

• .NET or .NET Core ?
• Migrating existing applications
• Creating and deploying .NET microservices on containers
• Official .NET Docker containers

Azure for Container Overview

Azure has many constructs that have to do with containers and microservices. It's a bit overwheliming, really. This topic will help you separate the sheeps from the goats, to figure out exactly what you need.

• Azure Container Registry
• Hosting Containers: ACS, AKS, Container Instances
• Service Fabric
• Azure Batch and Functions

Microservice Architecture

How do you chop your application into multiple smaller component, called "microservices", and why would you do that ? We will show how to create microservice-applications, and introduce you to some of the intrinsicalities of microservices as dataisolation, resiliency and communication.

• Benefits and Disadvantages
• Containerizing monolithic applications
• Data Isolation per microservice
• Communication: client-microservice, service-service, event-based
• Resiliency and high availibility
• Securing microservices

Service Fabric

Service Fabric is a distributes systems platform that makes creating microservice-applications somewhat simpler. Service Fabric is being used by many Microsoft services, like Azure SQL, Skype for Business, Dynamics 365,... and maybe by your service in the near future.

• What is Service Fabric ?
• Types of Service Fabric services
• Stateless and statefull services
• Actor Services
• Using Docker in Service Fabric

Kubernetes

When using containers for microservices, you will end up with many containers on many machines. Kubernetes is a open-source endeavour for handling for this job. In this topic we dive into this popular orchestrator.

• Pods, Services, Deployments, Nodes
• Kubectl
• Communication
• Scaling and Updates
• Health Monitoring

Azure Container Service (AKS)

After creating your microservice application, you need to get it in the cloud. Using Azure we have several ways of doing this, but Azure Container Service (ACS/AKS) offers the most possibilities. In this module you learn how to use Container Services.

• Putting a Kubernetes Cluster in Azure
• AKS Features
• Using Helm Charts
• Using Draft to Effiently Create, Push and Deploy your Code

Event-Based Communication

In this module, you will learn what event-based communication is and why it's such a great fit for microservices.

• Communication Patterns
• Event-Based Communication
• Event Bus
• Integration Events
• Eventual Consistency

Azure Service Bus

Service Bus is the foundation for asynchronous reliable communication on Azure. In this module you'll learn all about it.

• Service Bus Queues
• Service Bus Topics and Subscriptions
• Actions for Topics/Subscriptions
• Storage Queues versus Service Bus Queues

API Gateways

This module will give you some insights how to create an API Gateway for your microservices. Using an API Gateway makes building an client application a lot easier.

• API Gateways
• Kubernetes Ingress
• Azure API Management