Question

I want to list all the hosted services using Azure service Management REST Api. And the msdn hlep explains a way to list hosted services. I have attached the example code given in msdn.

In the code they have used Version, Thumbprint and SubscriptionId.

In windows azure portal we can see a subcription has a subcription Id. And a certificate has a Thumbprint. There may be many hosted services in one subcription so many certificates as well. So what is the thumbprint the following code has mentioned..?
Should it checked with all the thumbprints of a subcription , to list all the hosted services in a subcription.

Why can’t we get all the hosted services just using the subcriptionId (is it not secured?) Or is there a common certificate(so there is a thumbprint) for a subcription?

Please guide me,

Thanks.

namespace Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceManagementRESTAPI.Samples
{
    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Net;
    using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
    using System.Xml;
    using System.Xml.Linq;

    public class Program
    {
        // Set these constants with your values to run the sample.
        private const string Version = "2011-10-01";
        private const string Thumbprint = "management-certificate-thumbprint";
        private const string SubscriptionId = "subscription-id";

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                // Obtain the certificate with the specified thumbprint
                X509Certificate2 certificate = GetStoreCertificate(Thumbprint);
                ListHostedServicesExample(SubscriptionId, certificate, Version);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Exception caught in Main:");
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
            }

            Console.Write("Press any key to continue:");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }

        public static void ListHostedServicesExample(
            string subscriptionId,
            X509Certificate2 certificate,
            string version)
        {
            string uriFormat = "https://management.core.windows.net/{0}/" +
                "services/hostedservices";
            Uri uri = new Uri(String.Format(uriFormat, subscriptionId));

            HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(uri);
            request.Method = "GET";
            request.Headers.Add("x-ms-version", version);
            request.ClientCertificates.Add(certificate);
            request.ContentType = "application/xml";

            XDocument responseBody = null;
            HttpStatusCode statusCode;
            HttpWebResponse response;
            try
            {
                response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
            }
            catch (WebException ex)
            {
                // GetResponse throws a WebException for 400 and 500 status codes
                response = (HttpWebResponse)ex.Response;
            }
            statusCode = response.StatusCode;
            if (response.ContentLength > 0)
            {
                using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(response.GetResponseStream()))
                {
                    responseBody = XDocument.Load(reader);
                }
            }
            response.Close();
            if (statusCode.Equals(HttpStatusCode.OK))
            {
                XNamespace wa = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure";
                XElement hostedServices = responseBody.Element(wa + "HostedServices");
                Console.WriteLine(
                    "Hosted Services for Subscription ID {0}:{1}{2}",
                    subscriptionId,
                    Environment.NewLine,
                    hostedServices.ToString(SaveOptions.OmitDuplicateNamespaces));
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Call to List Hosted Services returned an error:");
                Console.WriteLine("Status Code: {0} ({1}):{2}{3}",
                    (int)statusCode, statusCode, Environment.NewLine,
                    responseBody.ToString(SaveOptions.OmitDuplicateNamespaces));
            }
            return;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the certificate matching the thumbprint from the local store.
        /// Throws an ArgumentException if a matching certificate is not found.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="thumbprint">The thumbprint of the certificate to find.</param>
        /// <returns>The certificate with the specified thumbprint.</returns>
        private static X509Certificate2 GetStoreCertificate(string thumbprint)
        {
            List<StoreLocation> locations = new List<StoreLocation> 
            { 
                StoreLocation.CurrentUser, 
                StoreLocation.LocalMachine 
            };

            foreach (var location in locations)
            {
                X509Store store = new X509Store("My", location);
                try
                {
                    store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly | OpenFlags.OpenExistingOnly);
                    X509Certificate2Collection certificates = store.Certificates.Find(
                        X509FindType.FindByThumbprint, thumbprint, false);
                    if (certificates.Count == 1)
                    {
                        return certificates[0];
                    }
                }
                finally
                {
                    store.Close();
                }
            }

            throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
                "A Certificate with Thumbprint '{0}' could not be located.",
                thumbprint));
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

The certificate that you would want to use is the “Management Certificate“. Here’s the process for doing that:

1. Create a self-signed certificate on your computer (pfx file format). You may find this link useful: http://consultingblogs.emc.com/gracemollison/archive/2010/02/19/creating-and-using-self-signed-certificates-for-use-with-azure-service-management-api.aspx
2. Install that certificate in your local certificate store (preferably CurrentUser\My).
3. Export that certificate from your local certificate store on your computer in .cer file format.
4. Upload this certificate under management certificates section in the portal. To do so, login into Windows Azure portal (https://manage.windowsazure.com) and then click on “SETTINGS” tab and then click on “UPLOAD” button to choose and upload this file.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. You can have as many as 10 management certificates per subscription.
2. If you want your colleagues to use the same certificate, please share the pfx file created in step 1 and have them install the certificate in the certificate store of their local computer. Please don’t give them .cer file created in step 3 as it does not have certificate’s private data.

Hope this helps.