TypeScript 2.0 RC with Visual Studio Code

You know how much I love new, shiny things? For some odd reason, I'm compelled to try the latest and 'greatest' as soon as I know it's available. This, oftentimes, has inadvertent side effects such as breaking my machine and causing me undue stress. I also choose to do these upgrades/updates close to upcoming talking engagements. In summary, I'm a gluten for self-inflicted punishment. On the other side, I suffer so you don't have to :) Today, I decide to test the latest version of TypeScript 2.0 RC which was released only 2 days ago. I also chose to …[read more]

Run SSH with PowerShell

I'm currently working on a somewhat restricted environment where we have to run SSH commands on a Windows Server. The commands are needed to configure certain settings on a Linux machine running Puppet (the orchestration tool). This is the first time I had to use this setup so, as with everything else, I had to work out how to do it - and then blog about it! For the purpose of this post, I provisioned a small Ubuntu VM on Azure in order to be able to SSH into it and prove that it's doable through PowerShell. Consider it my …[read more]

Automate login for Azure Powershell scripts

Automation is great. It's the bedrock of any successful IT department and the default solution for any task that has to be repeated more than once. I'm a big proponent of automation and, since I spend most of my time in Azure, I try to automate as many tasks as I can. Today, I'll explain how to automate your Azure login in order to allow your scripts to run without any supervision. Disclaimer: many of these tasks should be running using the Azure Automation service because of better integration and smoother on boarding. There's a ton of ready-made RunBooks in …[read more]

Options for Migrating Azure VMs from ASM (v1) to ARM (v2)

Today, the Azure portal allows you to create 2 types of VMs. These types refer mainly to the platform atop which your VMs run. Before I continue with this post, it may be handy establishing what the terminology means: Classic/ASM Classic or v1 VMs run on top of the older Azure Service Management (ASM) technology. ASM infrastructures can be managed through both the old and the new portals and Azure PowerShell/CLI. However, some of the v1 features are not yet, and may never be, available on the new Azure Portal. New/ARM Resource Manager or v2 VMs run …[read more]

Working with TypeScript in Visual Studio Code - a pair made for each other

TypeScript is a new(ish), open source language that is a superset of JavaScript. TypeScript was designed to bring object-oriented features along with ES6 support. Any valid JavaScript is TypeScript and all TypeScript code compiles to nice, clean JavaScript. With ES6 (EcmaScript2015) officially ratified, TypeScript continues to offer great forward-compatibility with newly added features all the time and therefore, it remains a great language for developing JavaScript. This fantastic language now has a great companion: Visual Studio(VS) Code. VS Code is the new lightweight code editor from Microsoft and was in fact built with TypeScript! Consequently, it's only natural …[read more]

Entity Framework Core 1.0 - Table Valued Functions and LINQ Composition

Entity framework Core (EFCore) has been out for a few weeks now after hitting RTM on June 27th 2016. That was also the same day that ASP.NET Core was released. EFCore has brought many changes, to say the least. It was renamed to Core instead the logical continuation from Entity Framework, because it's a total rewrite. Very similar to ASP.NET Core. The rewrite brought many benefits with speed being the biggest one. EF Core is simpler and a lot more powerful, even though it's still early days and some things are not working as expected or are missing. …[read more]