Understanding Azure - rollthecloudinc/hedge GitHub Wiki

What is an azure tenant?

In the context of Microsoft Azure, an Azure tenant refers to a dedicated and isolated instance of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) that's created when you sign up for an Azure subscription. Azure AD is a cloud-based identity and access management service provided by Microsoft.

An Azure tenant serves as a secure and trusted identity provider for various Microsoft cloud services, including Azure itself. It acts as a directory for managing and organizing users, groups, applications, and other resources within the Azure environment. Each tenant has its own unique domain name in the form of <yourtenantname>.onmicrosoft.com, and it's associated with a specific Azure subscription.

When you create an Azure subscription, you automatically get an Azure AD tenant that is linked to that subscription. This tenant is used to authenticate and authorize users and applications to access Azure resources. It provides features such as single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, and more, making it easier to manage access to Azure services and resources.

Multiple Azure subscriptions can be associated with a single Azure tenant, allowing organizations to manage their resources across different subscriptions under a unified identity and access management framework. Azure tenants can also be connected to on-premises Active Directory environments using Azure AD Connect, enabling hybrid identity scenarios.

In summary, an Azure tenant is a dedicated instance of Azure AD that provides identity and access management services for Microsoft Azure and other related Microsoft cloud services.

What is an azure subscription?

An Azure subscription is a logical container or agreement that provides access to various Azure services and resources. When you sign up for Azure, you create an Azure subscription, which acts as a billing and management unit for your Azure usage.

An Azure subscription allows you to provision and manage resources within the Azure cloud environment. It serves as the basis for organizing and controlling access to Azure resources, such as virtual machines, storage accounts, databases, networking components, and more.

Here are some key points about Azure subscriptions:

  1. Billing: Azure services are typically usage-based, and an Azure subscription is associated with a billing account. The usage of Azure resources and services is billed to the payment method specified in the subscription.

  2. Resource Limits: Each Azure subscription has certain limits and quotas on the number of resources that can be provisioned. These limits may vary based on the subscription type and pricing tier.

  3. Management: An Azure subscription provides a management boundary for resources. You can define access controls, policies, and resource hierarchies within the subscription to organize and govern resources effectively.

  4. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Azure subscriptions use RBAC to control access to resources. You can assign roles to users, groups, or applications to determine their permissions and level of control over the Azure resources within the subscription.

  5. Resource Group: Within an Azure subscription, resources are typically organized into logical containers called resource groups. Resource groups allow you to manage and monitor resources as a single entity, making it easier to manage related resources.

  6. Service Availability: The availability of Azure services can vary across different Azure regions. When creating an Azure subscription, you can choose the region(s) where you want to deploy your resources.

  7. Scaling and Deployment: Azure subscriptions provide scalability and flexibility, allowing you to provision and deploy resources as needed. You can scale resources up or down, deploy resources globally, and leverage various Azure services to meet your specific requirements.

It's worth noting that an Azure tenant, as mentioned in the previous response, is associated with an Azure subscription. Multiple subscriptions can be linked to a single Azure tenant, enabling organizations to manage their resources across different subscriptions while maintaining a centralized identity and access management framework.

Can azure ad be used to federate to aws cognito?

Yes, Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) can be used to federate authentication and provide single sign-on (SSO) to AWS Cognito. Federation allows users to authenticate with their existing Azure AD credentials and access AWS resources without the need for separate authentication.

To federate Azure AD with AWS Cognito, you can follow these high-level steps:

  1. Set up Azure AD as an identity provider (IdP) in AWS Cognito:

    • In AWS Cognito, create an identity pool and configure it to use Azure AD as an identity provider.
    • Specify the Azure AD metadata endpoint URL and other relevant details during the configuration.

  2. Configure Azure AD as a relying party trust:

    • In the Azure portal, navigate to the Azure AD tenant that corresponds to your Azure subscription.
    • Configure AWS Cognito as a relying party trust in Azure AD.
    • Set up the necessary claims rules and mappings to ensure the required user attributes are sent to AWS Cognito during authentication.

  3. Set up SSO and user provisioning:

    • Configure SSO settings in both Azure AD and AWS Cognito to establish trust and enable SSO between the two systems.
    • Determine the user provisioning mechanism based on your requirements. You can choose to provision users in AWS Cognito directly or synchronize users from Azure AD to AWS Cognito using custom logic or automation.

  4. Test and verify the federation:

    • Test the federation by attempting to authenticate to AWS Cognito using Azure AD credentials.
    • Verify that the authentication flow is successful and the user can access AWS resources.

By setting up Azure AD as a federated identity provider in AWS Cognito, you can leverage Azure AD's authentication capabilities and provide a seamless login experience for users accessing AWS resources. Users can use their Azure AD credentials to sign in to AWS Cognito-enabled applications and services, eliminating the need for separate credentials and reducing the administrative overhead of managing multiple user directories.

Does azure ad support federated authentication with aws cognito as the provider?

As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, Azure AD does not provide built-in support for federated authentication with AWS Cognito as the identity provider (IdP). Azure AD primarily integrates with other Azure services and supports federation with various standards-based IdPs, such as Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), SAML-based IdPs, and OpenID Connect (OIDC) providers.

However, you can set up a custom federation solution between Azure AD and AWS Cognito by configuring Azure AD as an IdP for AWS Cognito using the OIDC protocol. The general process involves configuring Azure AD as a custom OIDC provider in AWS Cognito and setting up the necessary trust relationships, claims mappings, and authentication flows.

Here are the high-level steps for setting up custom federation between Azure AD and AWS Cognito using OIDC:

  1. Configure AWS Cognito as an OIDC application in Azure AD:

    • Register AWS Cognito as an application in Azure AD and obtain the necessary client ID and redirect URI.

  2. Configure Azure AD as an OIDC provider in AWS Cognito:

    • In AWS Cognito, create an identity pool and configure Azure AD as a custom OIDC provider, specifying the Azure AD metadata endpoint URL, client ID, and redirect URI.

  3. Set up trust and claims mappings:

    • Configure the necessary trust relationships and claims mappings between Azure AD and AWS Cognito to establish the federation.

  4. Implement the authentication flow:

    • Customize the authentication flow in your application to redirect users to Azure AD for authentication and handle the OIDC authentication response to establish a session with AWS Cognito.

It's important to note that setting up custom federation between Azure AD and AWS Cognito using OIDC requires additional configuration and custom development work to handle the authentication flow and claims mapping. You may need to implement custom logic or use frameworks/libraries that facilitate the OIDC integration between Azure AD and AWS Cognito.

Please note that the availability of features and integrations may have evolved since my knowledge cutoff in September 2021. It's always recommended to refer to the official documentation of both Azure AD and AWS Cognito for the most up-to-date information on their capabilities and integration options.

What is an azure service principle?

An Azure service principal is a security identity that you can use to authenticate and authorize applications, services, and automation tools to access Azure resources. It provides a way to grant specific permissions to applications or services without requiring user credentials.

Here are some key points about Azure service principals:

  1. Identity and Authentication: A service principal is essentially a non-human identity in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). It has its own credentials (client ID and client secret) or can use a certificate for authentication.

  2. Application Integration: Service principals are typically used to enable applications and services to access Azure resources programmatically. They can be used by scripts, automation tools, or other services to authenticate and access resources on behalf of the application or service.

  3. Authorization and Access Control: Service principals can be assigned specific roles or permissions to control the level of access they have to Azure resources. This allows fine-grained control over what the application or service can do within the Azure environment.

  4. Secure Communication: Service principals authenticate with Azure AD and acquire a token that can be used to access Azure resources securely. This token-based authentication ensures that only authorized applications or services can access the resources.

  5. Lifecycle and Management: Service principals can be created, updated, and deleted programmatically using Azure CLI, PowerShell, Azure SDKs, or through the Azure portal. They can also be assigned to resource groups or individual resources to control access at a granular level.

  6. Application Scenarios: Service principals are commonly used in scenarios such as application-to-application authentication, automated deployment and provisioning of Azure resources, and integration with Azure management APIs.

It's worth noting that a service principal is similar to a user account but is meant for application-level authentication rather than individual user authentication. By using service principals, you can grant appropriate permissions to applications and services without sharing user credentials and provide a more secure and controlled approach to resource access in Azure.

What is the difference between an azure function and function app?

In Azure, "Azure Function" and "Function App" are related but distinct concepts.

  1. Azure Function: Azure Function is a serverless compute service provided by Microsoft Azure. It allows you to write and execute code in the cloud without the need to provision or manage infrastructure. Azure Functions are event-driven and can be triggered by various events, such as HTTP requests, timers, messages from queues, data changes in Azure Cosmos DB, and more. You can write functions using different programming languages, such as C#, JavaScript, Python, and others. Azure Functions are designed to perform small, individual tasks (functions) and scale automatically based on demand.

  2. Function App: A Function App is a logical container that hosts one or more Azure Functions. It provides an execution environment for running and managing your functions. A Function App is a platform feature in Azure that allows you to group related functions together, manage their configurations, and control their deployment and execution. It provides the necessary infrastructure and resources for running the functions, such as a hosting plan, networking configuration, and storage. Within a Function App, you can organize your functions into individual function files, which can be written in different languages.

In summary, Azure Function is the individual unit of code that performs a specific task, triggered by an event, while a Function App is a container that hosts and manages multiple Azure Functions. Function Apps provide the infrastructure and management capabilities for deploying, scaling, and monitoring your functions, allowing you to manage and organize them within a single entity.

Does azure function app support golang runtime?

As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, Azure Function App does not have built-in support for the Go programming language runtime. At that time, Azure Functions officially supported languages such as C#, JavaScript, PowerShell, Python, and TypeScript.

However, Azure Functions supports custom handlers through the use of the "Custom Handler" feature. This feature allows you to use any programming language to write your functions by providing a custom runtime that can handle the communication between the Azure Functions host and your function code.

Using the Custom Handler feature, it is possible to create a Go function in Azure Functions by writing a custom runtime to handle the Go code execution. The custom runtime acts as a bridge between the Azure Functions host and the Go function code, enabling it to receive events, execute the Go code, and return the results.

To use Go with Azure Functions, you would need to develop and configure a custom runtime specifically for Go. This involves building a layer of abstraction that adheres to the Azure Functions host communication protocol and can execute Go functions accordingly.

It's important to note that the availability of language runtimes in Azure Functions may have evolved since my knowledge cutoff. I recommend referring to the official Azure Functions documentation or the Azure portal for the most up-to-date information on supported languages and runtimes.

What are the native azure function triggers?

Azure Functions provides various native triggers that can be used to initiate the execution of functions based on different events or inputs. Some of the commonly used native triggers in Azure Functions are:

  1. HTTP Trigger: Allows you to invoke a function via an HTTP request. Functions can respond to HTTP GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and other HTTP methods.

  2. Timer Trigger: Executes a function on a predefined schedule or time interval, such as every minute, hourly, daily, or according to a specific cron expression.

  3. Blob Trigger: Triggers a function when a new or updated blob is added to a specified Azure Blob storage container.

  4. Queue Trigger: Listens to messages in an Azure Storage queue and triggers a function when a new message arrives.

  5. Event Grid Trigger: Reacts to events published by Azure Event Grid. You can configure the trigger to respond to specific events from various Azure services, such as Azure Storage, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure IoT Hub, and more.

  6. Service Bus Trigger: Listens to messages in an Azure Service Bus queue or topic and triggers a function when a new message arrives.

  7. Cosmos DB Trigger: Listens to changes in an Azure Cosmos DB collection and triggers a function when new documents are added or modified.

  8. Event Hub Trigger: Consumes events from an Azure Event Hub and triggers a function when new events are received.

  9. SignalR Trigger: Triggers a function when a client sends a message to an Azure SignalR Service hub.

These are just a few examples of the native triggers available in Azure Functions. Each trigger type is designed to respond to specific events or inputs, allowing you to build serverless workflows and execute functions based on real-time events or scheduled intervals.