Getting the IP Address of the client in a Windows Azure Role

Are que getting null or empty with some Request.ServerVariables

When you convert your ASP application to run on Windows Azure it is a good
to put attention to the methods that are used to get the user IP Address.
Normally the recommendation will be to use Request.UserHostAddress however
our friend Alex has found that this property can return null or empty.

After some research Alex found that there are several scenarios under which
you must check both the REMOTE_ADDR and the HTTP_X_FORWARD_FOR server variables:

More info:
http://forums.asp.net/t/1138908.aspx and
http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/AnonymousProxy

A possible code snipped that can provide a value for the client address can be:

public static string ReturnIP()
        {
            var request = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request;
            var ServerVariables_HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = (String)request.ServerVariables["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"];
            var ServerVariables_REMOTE_ADDR = (String)request.ServerVariables["REMOTE_ADDR"];
            string ip = "127.0.0.1";
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(ServerVariables_HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR) && 
                !ServerVariables_HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR.ToLower().Contains("unknown"))
            {
                ServerVariables_HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = ServerVariables_HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR.Trim();
                string[] ipRange = ServerVariables_HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR.Split(',');
                ip = ipRange[0];
            }
            else if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(ServerVariables_REMOTE_ADDR))
            {
                ServerVariables_REMOTE_ADDR = ServerVariables_REMOTE_ADDR.Trim();
                ip = ServerVariables_REMOTE_ADDR;
            }
            return ip;
       }

In the previous code the HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR value is examined first and if it is not null or unknown then ip address of the client
is gotten from there.

Windows Azure and Websites in a Flux

Windows Azure is a great platform and the escalatity oportunities are great,
and deployment time is also great.
You can have all your website up and running in just 10-15minutes.

But… and yes there is always a but.

Sometimes you can have a WebSite that is not that static, that as a matter of fact
you are changing its views constantly. Specially if some ideas are not finished.
And yes you can test locally, but there is also a situation where you might want to have that flexibility.

Well looking around I found a very interesting solution by
Maatern Balliauw. http://blog.maartenballiauw.be/post/2009/06/09/A-view-from-the-cloud-(or-locate-your-ASPNET-MVC-views-on-Windows-Azure-Blob-Storage).aspx

What he proposes is to use windows azure storage as a virtual file system, so you can with simple tools
like the Windows Azure Explorer modify your web pages without the need of going through a lengthy republish process.

So go ahead and keep enyoing Azure

Running Coldfusion on a Web Server Role

I have been playing around with one of my test Azure Web Roles to determine
if it is possible to run it inside Azure, using a Web Role not just a VM Role.

So far I have been able to run Coldfusion 8 in a Web Role, but I have not been able to fully automate this task,
I had to do a remote desktop to the Web Role and perform the following tasks:

• Add Features to the Web Roles particulary II6 Management Compatibility
• Make sure that the Handlers for CFM, CFML, CFC are inplace

• And make sure that the ISAPI is ok:
  
• Once all that is set you can run Coldfusion 8 in your Web Role. Now we just need to automate all the CF8 installation in a Web Role,
  but that will be something another post