Locally installed BP pointing to Azure hosted App & DB server

[HarikrishnaMura]

Hi All,

I have BP env setup on azure and we use VMs on Azure to build. I am currently trying to see if i can install BP on my local and point the connection to Azure. No success there!

Has anyone tried this? BP has mentioned that they have not tried it yet.


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-Hari
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[chris.mcgowan · Accepted solution]

Hi Harikrishna,

When you say install BP on your local and point the connection to Azure, what will the local install of BP be used for? Will it be in a development or an interactive client role? It is best practice for all Blue Prism components (Database Servers, Application Servers, Runtime Resources, Interactive Clients, Development Machines) to be geographically as close as possible to one another to reduce network latency and ensure optimal performance of the Blue Prism solution. Having said this it is entirely possible to have on premises components connected with components in Azure providing the network is configured correctly to allow the traffic. I've included a Microsoft guide on how to connect an on-premises network to a Microsoft Azure virtual network below;

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/connect-an-on-premises-network-to-a-microsoft-azure-virtual-network

It is also worth reading the Testing Connectivity guide on the Blue Prism portal, link below;

https://portal.blueprism.com/system/files/documents/Testing%20Connectivity%20Guide.pdf

I hope this helps.

Regards

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Chris McGowan
Senior Technical Consultant
Blue Prism
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[dcternes]

Hi Hari,

I've have this exact setup and it works fine. It's just my personal demo environment so I'm not running massive volumes of process, objects and runtime resources, but it certainly does work.

Cheers
Dan

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Dan Ternes
CTO APJ
Blue Prism
Asia/Hong_Kong
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[dcternes]

Hari,

Did you open up the ports on the App Server's NSG to enable communication between your local instance and the app server?

I also configured Azure to use a fixed IP so that I can set my local HOSTS file correctly.

Other than those things, there's not much to it.

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Dan Ternes
CTO APJ
Blue Prism
Asia/Hong_Kong
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[DhanajiK]

Hello Dan,

Is VPN necessary for such deployments? we are facing the same problem. From browser http://<server>:8080/bpserver this returns some info about service but when we try to connect Blue Prism client it gives error - 

System.ServiceModel.ServerTooBusyException: The HTTP service located at http://<server>:8080/bpserver is unavailable.  This could be because the service is too busy or because no endpoint was found listening at the specified address. Please ensure that the address is correct and try accessing the service again later. ---> System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (503) Server Unavailable.
   at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory`1.HttpRequestChannel.HttpChannelRequest.WaitForReply(TimeSpan timeout)

Do you know cause of this error? Thank you for assitance.

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Dhanaji K

[dcternes]

Hi Dhanaji

I don't have any VPN configured between my Azure setup and my local machine.

I have two connections to Azure.
(a) SQL Server (SQL Authentication) - connects directly from BP Client (local) to Azure SQL (remote). 
(b) Blue Prism Server - connects from BP Client (local) to BP Server (remote on Azure). 

Both connections work fine for me without any VPN.

One thing to note... my system is just a simple demo system so I've not configured the BP Server connection to use Message or Transport Encryption. I don't know whether that would make a difference re the VPN.

I hope that helps.

Cheers
Dan

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Dan Ternes
CTO APJ
Blue Prism
Asia/Hong_Kong
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[Reny.jacobreji]

Hi Dan , 

I have been trying to setup a demo environment by using the exact same system architecture as mentioned in this thread where the Application Server/Database server resides in Azure. However while trying to connect my Interactive Client(resides on my local laptop) to the Application Server(VM in Azure)  , I get the error message "Ensure that the specified server address matches the binding configured on the server"

Are there any Network changes that needs to be done to make the connection successful ? Any help to resolve this issue helps immensely, would be great if you can please share a screenshot of your interactive client "Configure Connection" window masking out the Server details.

Thank you so much,

Reny

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Reny Jacob Reji
Senior Business Analyst
Burnie Group
America/Toronto
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[dcternes]

Hi Rennie

As requested, below are various screenshots of my Interactive Client's "Configure Connection" screen.

This is the connection to the BP App Server running on an Azure instance.

I've got WCF: Insecure configured because I don't have any Active Directory, etc., setup in my environment. It's a demo environment only.

And here is the hosts file on Interactive Client's machine.
The IP addresses point to the various Azure instances acting as App Server or Runtime Resource.

And this one is for when I bypass the BP App Server (so I don't have to spin up the Azure instance and incur additional costs) and instead connect directly to my Azure SQL database.

One more thing Reny. Your error message often indicates that the BP App Server and the Interactive Client are configured with different connection modes. Maybe your App Server is configured for WCF: Message Encryption while your IC is configured for WCF: Transport Encryption. You have to make sure they both match.

Maybe try with WCF:Insecure in the first instance to rule out other connectivity problems then if that works switch over to one of the encrypted methods.

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Dan Ternes
CTO APJ
Blue Prism
Asia/Hong_Kong
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[Reny.jacobreji]

Thank you Dan for this, it is helpful. I will provide an update once I review my settings and if I am successful with the connection or not.

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Reny Jacob Reji
Senior Business Analyst
Burnie Group
America/Toronto
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[Reny.jacobreji]

Hi Dan, 

Thanks - today I was able to successfully connect from a remote interactive client to a Blueprism Server on Azure. The issue for me was that Firewall on the VM in Azure was blocking port 8199. After adding an exception for 8199 , it worked for me. 🙂 

Thanks,
Reny

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Reny Jacob Reji
Senior Business Analyst
Burnie Group
America/Toronto
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