2018 – Devlicious.net

Use Azure Key Vault from a Web App

prerequisites:

NuGet packages

Install-Package Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory 
Install-Package Microsoft.Azure.KeyVault

web.config

<!-- ClientId and ClientSecret refer to the web application registration with Azure Active Directory -->
<add key="ClientId" value="clientid" />
<add key="ClientSecret" value="clientsecret" />

<!-- SecretUri is the URI for the secret in Azure Key Vault -->
<add key="SecretUri" value="secreturi" />
<!-- If you aren't hosting your app as an Azure Web App, then you should use the actual ClientId, Client Secret, and Secret URI values -->

Utility code

//add these using statements
using Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Web.Configuration;

//this is an optional property to hold the secret after it is retrieved
public static string EncryptSecret { get; set; }

//the method that will be provided to the KeyVaultClient
public static async Task<string> GetToken(string authority, string resource, string scope)
{
    var authContext = new AuthenticationContext(authority);
    ClientCredential clientCred = new ClientCredential(WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ClientId"],
                WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ClientSecret"]);
    AuthenticationResult result = await authContext.AcquireTokenAsync(resource, clientCred);

    if (result == null)
        throw new InvalidOperationException("Failed to obtain the JWT token");

    return result.AccessToken;
}
// Using Client ID and Client Secret is a way to authenticate an Azure AD application.
// Using it in your web application allows for a separation of duties and more control over your key management. 
// However, it does rely on putting the Client Secret in your configuration settings.
// For some people, this can be as risky as putting the secret in your configuration settings.

Retrieve the secret on Application Start

//add these using statements
using Microsoft.Azure.KeyVault;
using System.Web.Configuration;

// I put my GetToken method in a Utils class. Change for wherever you placed your method.
var kv = new KeyVaultClient(new KeyVaultClient.AuthenticationCallback(Utils.GetToken));
var sec = await kv.GetSecretAsync(WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SecretUri"]);

//I put a variable in a Utils class to hold the secret for general application use.
Utils.EncryptSecret = sec.Value;

Setup Azure Key Vault

In this post will be simple walk through how to setup Azure Key Vault to be used from a web site not hosted on Azure. Reference

Get an Azure account

Go to http://portal.azure.com and set up an account.

Get Powershell and Azure powershell

Go to install Powershell

After installation is complete open a Powershell command prompt and run.

Install-Module -Name AzureRM

Sign in

# Import the module into the PowerShell session
Import-Module AzureRM
# Connect to Azure with an interactive dialog for sign-in
Connect-AzureRmAccount

Create a new resource group

New-AzureRmResourceGroup –Name 'MyResourceGroup' –Location 'East US'

Create an Azure Key vault

New-AzureRmKeyVault -VaultName 'MyKeyVault' -ResourceGroupName 'MyResourceGroup' -Location 'East US'

Vault URI: https://mykeyvault.vault.azure.net/. Apps the use the REST API to access the vault. Note: the vault has to have globally unique name, mykeyvault is already taken, so use something different.

Add a secret to the Azure Key Vault

$secretvalue = ConvertTo-SecureString '!Passw0rd' -AsPlainText -Force

$secret = Set-AzureKeyVaultSecret -VaultName 'MyKeyVault' -Name 'MyPassword' -SecretValue $secretvalue

Secret URI:

https://mykeyvault.vault.azure.net/secrets/MyPassword

To display the URI for this secret, type:

$secret.Id

To view your secret, type:

Get-AzureKeyVaultSecret –VaultName 'MyKeyVault'

Authorize app to access the Azure Key Vault

Note: the service principle name will be the client ID (sometimes referred to as the application ID).

To get secrets

Set-AzureRmKeyVaultAccessPolicy -VaultName 'ContosoKeyVault' -ServicePrincipalName 8f8c4bbd-485b-45fd-98f7-ec6300b7b4ed -PermissionsToSecrets Get

To access keys

Set-AzureRmKeyVaultAccessPolicy -VaultName 'ContosoKeyVault' -ServicePrincipalName 8f8c4bbd-485b-45fd-98f7-ec6300b7b4ed -PermissionsToKeys decrypt,sign

Most performant way of concatenating strings in Microsoft Dynamics AX

I was recently asked: “What is the most performant way of concatenating strings in AX?”

Traditionally there have been two approaches to build and/or format strings in AX, strFmt and + ing, but you can also leverage the .NET libraries like System.String.Concat and System.Text.StringBuilder.

In this scenario, the goal was to build up a string of a fixed set of elements:

strFmt

str ss = strFmt('Context=%1, Activity=%2, ActivityId=%3, Type=Stop, Tag1=%6, Tag2=%7, Tag3=%8, Tag4=%9', context, activity, activityId, tag1, tag2, tag3, tag4);

+ ing

str ss = 'Context=' + context + ', Activity=' + activity + ', ActivityId=' + activityId + ', Type=Stop, Tag1=' + tag1 + ', Tag2=' + tag2 + ', Tag3=' + tag3 + ', Tag4=' + tag4;

System.String::Concat

System.String s1 = System.String::Concat('Context=', context, ', Activity=', activity);
System.String s2 = System.String::Concat(', ActivityId=', activityId, 'Type=Stop, tag1=%', tag1);
System.String s3 = System.String::Concat(', tag2=', tag2, ', tag3=', tag3);
System.String s4 = System.String::Concat(s2, s3, ', tag4=', tag4);
str s5 = System.String::Concat(s1, s4);

System.Text.StringBuilder

System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
   
sb.Append("Context=");
sb.Append(context);
sb.Append(", Activity=");
sb.Append(activity);
sb.Append(", ActivityId=");
sb.Append(activityId);
sb.Append(", Type=Stop, tag1=");
sb.Append(tag1);
sb.Append(", tag2=");
sb.Append(tag2);
sb.Append(", tag3=");
sb.Append(tag3);
sb.Append(", tag4=");
sb.Append(tag4);

str result = sb.ToString();

And the results …

1000000 strFmt took 0.00 milliseconds in average, in total 3398
1000000 +ing took 0.00 milliseconds in average, in total 1843
1000000 System.String::Concat took 0.00 milliseconds in average, in total 655
1000000 System.Text.StringBuilder took 0.00 milliseconds in average, in total 896

This way this was measured, was that the code segments were each executed 1.000.000 times, to get an average time and a total time. As you can see, each approach is under 0.00 milliseconds, but when you look at the totals the System.String::Concat is the winner. This will deviate a bit, some times the System.Text.StringBuilder will actually win.

Measurement code:

        const int cnt = 1000000;

        str context = classStr(ProdInstrumentationActivities);
        str activity = methodStr(ProdInstrumentationActivities, MultiBOMCalculation);
        str activityId = '1';
        str tag1 = menuItemActionStr(AssetAssignBarcode);
        str tag2 = 'sdfaf';
        str tag3 = 'lkjlkjkj';
        str tag4 = 'hhhassd';

        System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch s = System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch::StartNew();

        for (int i = 0; i < cnt; i++)
        {
            str ss = strFmt('Context=%1, Activity=%2, ActivityId=%3, Type=Stop, Tag1=%6, Tag2=%7, Tag3=%8, Tag4=%9', context, activity, activityId, tag1, tag2, tag3, tag4);
        }

        s.Stop();

        info(strFmt('%1 strFmt took %2 milliseconds in average, in total %3', cnt, s.ElapsedMilliseconds/cnt, s.ElapsedMilliseconds));

Unboxing Dell u3417w Widescreen (3440 x 1440, 21:9)

After having lived in our new house for more than a year, I have finally gotten around to setup the home office.

For that I needed a decent desk and monitor setup. For the past 13 years at work I have been using a dual or triple monitor setup, so this was my initial thought for the home office as well.

However when I started researching the market, I came across these “new” widescreen monitors with 3440 x 1440 solution and a 21:9 format.

To cut to the chase I ended up with buying the Dell u3417w, due to budget and Dell’s 3 year warranty.

In the coming months I will be using for professional development and write a review based on my experience.

Limit MS SQL Server memory

USE master
EXEC sp_configure ‘show advanced options’, 1
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE
EXEC sp_configure ‘max server memory (MB)’, 4096
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE
EXEC sp_configure ‘show advanced options’, 0
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE

Create MS SQL database backup

CREATE DATABASE my_backup_db ON

( NAME = my_db,

FILENAME = 'c:\mybakup.bak' )

AS SNAPSHOT OF my_production_db

No SQL data modeling

If you are getting started with No SQL, you should read this article on MSDN.

It gives as good introduction to document data modeling.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/modeling-data