如何将C＃套接字服务器应用程序部署到Azure VM？ 这真的是个好主意吗？

Question

I had an idea, and am trying to upload data from a Netduino to a SQL DB hosted in an Azure VM. After struggling with WCF, I have just written a simple app in C# that processes requests through Sockets (code below) and does the job -works fine on my machine/LAN. Since I still don't know much about

Azure VMs, how can I expose an IP/port to the outside world in such a way that my client application reaches the server part successfully? Currently I can't make the Azure VM to listen to the outside world. I have created an endpoint (with a name, TCP protocol, same public and private ports and checked 'enable direct server return'. To try it, I shutdown the firewall and tried it, from outside, to no avail.

Can a listener on that port be considered a secure solution?

For the sake of simplicity I thought of Sockets, but is it really a good idea ? Would you guys do differently and still keep it simple as this ?

...
Socket server = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
IPEndPoint localEndPoint = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 3211);
server.Bind(localEndPoint);
server.Listen(Int32.MaxValue);
while (true)
{
    Socket clientSocket = server.Accept();
    new ProcessClientRequest(clientSocket);
}
...


public ProcessClientRequest(Socket clientSocket)
{
    m_clientSocket = clientSocket;
    new Thread(ProcessRequest).Start();
}

private void ProcessRequest()
{
    const Int32 c_microsecondsPerSecond = 1000000;
    using (m_clientSocket)
    {
        Byte[] buffer = new Byte[1024];
        string lastRead;
        if (m_clientSocket.Poll(5 * c_microsecondsPerSecond, SelectMode.SelectRead))
        {
            if (m_clientSocket.Available == 0)
                 return;
            Int32 bytesRead = m_clientSocket.Receive(buffer, m_clientSocket.Available, SocketFlags.None);
            // Return a key to the client.
            lastRead = WriteDataToDB(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer).Replace("\0", string.Empty));
            m_clientSocket.Send(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(lastRead));
        }
    }
}    

Answer 1

Have you checked your VM's endpoint settings on https://manage.windowsazure.com/ ? Adding a rule there should allow anyone to connect to <vm-dns-name>.cloudapp.net:<public-port> . That's the DNS name, not the VM name. My Meteor app didn't need the direct server return feature.

A sufficiently hard hashing and encryption layer should be secure enough, provided the customers know your public key's fingerprint because Certificate Authorities can be compromised .