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Figure 1 The Azure Blockchain Workbench in the Azure Marketplace
to build an end-to-end blockchain application, packaged with a sample Web UI. The generated application includes a Web application, REST API, off-chain storage and the like. Rather than spending hours build- ing out and configuring the services needed to integrate with a block- chain network, the Azure team has automated these time-consuming pieces so you can focus on building
Azure Blockchain Workbench provides code assets and ARM template-driven deployment for all the scaffolding needed for block- chain POCs, including the blockchain network, a gateway API, a responsive Web application, Azure Active Directory integration, Azure Key Vault integration, a SQL DB configured for collecting on-chain data, and a set of supporting services for data hashing and signing. The tool also makes it possible to create a Web front end without writing any code. It uses metadata provided for smart contracts to dynamically deliver a contextual UX for participants. Because the framework populates SQL DB as an off-chain store, it enables an organization to leverage existing skills and tools to light up additional capabilities.
The result: Azure Blockchain Workbench reduces time and cost for proof-of-concept (POC) projects. It enables customers to focus on creating innovative applications that demonstrate the potential of blockchain, by spending less time and resources on integration tasks that are required to stand up a basic POC.
Azure Blockchain Workbench is available on the Azure Market- place (aka.ms/tryworkbench), and a video of Workbench in action is available by the Microsoft Mechanics team at aka.ms/workbenchdemo.
Deploy Azure Blockchain Workbench
The deployment of Azure Blockchain Workbench requires the following prerequisite steps:
1. An Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant to host the necessary Azure AD and Key Vault apps.
2. Registration of an Azure AD app and a Key Vault val- ue to be referenced during the deployment of Azure Blockchain Workbench.
You may want to create a new Azure AD tenant for setting up test users or registering applications in a different Azure AD tenant than your corporate Azure AD tenant. Detailed instruc- tions on these configuration steps are reported in the official Azure Blockchain Workbench documentation at aka.ms/workbenchdocs.
Once the prerequisite steps have been completed, the Work- bench can be deployed. Sign in to the Azure portal and add a new resource from the Azure Marketplace, shown in Figure 1. Search for and select Azure Blockchain Workbench to start the provisioning process.
This solution template is designed to ease deployment and integration of the services needed to build an application on a blockchain network. With a handful of user inputs and a single- click deployment through the Azure portal, you can deploy a blockchain ledger along with the relevant Azure services needed msdnmagazine.com
out your scenarios. Through the Azure Blockchain Workbench Web application, you can generate an end-to-end UX for your business workflows based on smart contracts.
Provisioning Azure Blockchain Workbench requires six steps, with the first two establishing configuration parameters, and the next two addressing network capacity and monitoring. Step 1 requires some basic settings, depicted in Figure 2, which include:
• A unique identifier as a prefix for naming all Azure resources provisioned as part of this template.
• The admin username for all provisioned virtual machines (VMs). • An SSH public key used for connecting to the VMs. Copy and paste an RSA public key in the single-line format (starting with “ssh-rsa”) or the multi-line PEM format. You can generate SSH keys using ssh-keygen on Linux and
macOS, or PuTTYGen on Windows.
• A password to protect access to the database included as
part of the Workbench deployment.
• The Azure subscription you wish to use for your deployment.
Remember, use of Azure Blockchain Workbench is free of any license cost, but you pay for the provisioned Azure com- puting, storage and network resources.
Figure 2 Getting Started Provisioning Azure Blockchain Workbench June 2018 23