Professional Azure SQL Database Administration. Equip yourself with the skills to manage and maintain data in the cloud - Second Edition

Ahmad Osama

Despite being the cloud version of SQL Server, Azure SQL Database differs in key ways when it comes to management, maintenance, and administration. This book shows you how to administer Azure SQL Database to fully benefit from its wide range of features and functionalities.Professional Azure SQL Database Administration begins by covering the architecture and explaining the difference between Azure SQL Database and the on-premise SQL Server to help you get comfortable with Azure SQL Database. You’ll perform common tasks such as migrating, backing up and restoring a SQL Server database to an Azure database. As you progress, you’ll understand how you can reduce costs, and manage and scale multiple SQL databases using elastic pools. You’ll also implement a disaster recovery solution using standard and active geo-replication. Whether it is learning different techniques to monitor and tune an Azure SQL Database or improving performance using in-memory technology, this book will enable you to make the most out of Azure SQL database features and functionality for data management solutions.By the end of this book, you’ll be well-versed with key aspects of an Azure SQL Database instance, such as migration, backup restorations, performance optimization, high availability, and disaster recovery.

Distributed .NET with Microsoft Orleans. Build robust and highly scalable distributed applications without worrying about complex programming patterns

Bhupesh Guptha Muthiyalu, Suneel Kumar Kunani, Reuben Bond

Building distributed applications in this modern era can be a tedious task as customers expect high availability, high performance, and improved resilience. With the help of this book, you'll discover how you can harness the power of Microsoft Orleans to build impressive distributed applications.Distributed .NET with Microsoft Orleans will demonstrate how to leverage Orleans to build highly scalable distributed applications step by step in the least possible time and with minimum effort. You'll explore some of the key concepts of Microsoft Orleans, including the Orleans programming model, runtime, virtual actors, hosting, and deployment. As you advance, you'll become well-versed with important Orleans assets such as grains, silos, timers, and persistence. Throughout the book, you'll create a distributed application by adding key components to the application as you progress through each chapter and explore them in detail.By the end of this book, you'll have developed the confidence and skills required to build distributed applications using Microsoft Orleans and deploy them in Microsoft Azure.

OmniGraffle 5 Diagramming Essentials. This tutorial will help you create dazzling, professional-quality diagrams using Omnigraffle. From the fundamentals through to advanced techniques, it will have you communicating information more powerfully and visually in no time

Ruben Olsen, Ove Ruben Ranum

If a picture is worth a thousand words, why settle for anything less? Creating good visualizations to substantiate your ideas is essential in today's corporate environment. Use OmniGraffle's remarkably powerful and flexible features to get your diagrams right. Although fun to use, it can get cumbersome to find out exactly how to get what you want.This book will teach you how to make stunning diagrams without spending much time and energy. No matter if you have never used OmniGraffle, or if you are using it on a daily basis, this book will teach you how to get the most out of this splendid diagramming tool. It will first teach you the basics of the program and then extend your knowledge to a higher level.The book will teach you to make eye-popping visuals using a lot of useful, step-by-step examples. It begins with covering concepts that beef up your basics of using OmniGraffle. The earlier chapters will teach you to prepare dazzling diagrams from scratch with the many stencils, shapes, and fonts that are included in OmniGraffle. As your understanding of OmniGraffle broadens, the book will go even deeper to explain the less understood features of the software. It also covers some handy time-saving techniques such as workspaces and keyboard shortcuts.By the time you reach the end of this book, you will have mastered OmniGraffle to turn your ideas into diagrams.

Instant Optimizing Embedded Systems Using BusyBox. Learn to optimize embedded systems with Busybox using practical, hands-on recipes

Wu Zhangjin, Cao Ziqiang

As hundreds of millions of people have started using Android smartphones, embedded Linux systems are becoming more and more popular. To get more market share, not only for hardware and function piling up, smartphone manufacturers gradually realized the importance of user experience. To improve user experience, the back-end Linux system must be optimized in many ways.Instant Optimizing Embedded System Using BusyBox is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with a number of clear, step-by-step exercises to help you take advantage of the real power behind Busybox, and give you a good grounding for using it to optimize your embedded (Android Linux) systems.Moving on from the basics, this book will teach you how to configure and compile it from source code, including cross-compiling it with static linking and dynamic linking. You will also learn how to install and use Busybox on the Android emulator. You will learn to replace the simple Android mksh console with Busybox ash console and start a telnet and HTTP service provided by Busybox. You will also build embedded Linux file system from scratch and start it on Android emulator. We will take a look at how to add functionality to Busybox based system, including adding external applets to Busybox, as well as building development environments (like Bash and C) for it manually or with the automatic Buildroot system.If want to learn how to take advantage of using Busybox applets to optimize your embedded system, then this is the book for you for it will also show you how to use the powerful applets to optimize multiple aspects of an embedded (Android Linux) system.This book will teach you how to build an embedded (Android Linux) system with Busybox, enhance its functionality to meet diverse system requirements, and optimize it to provide a better user experience for embedded products.

Working Smarter with Microsoft Project. Implement effective project control techniques to maximize efficiency and drive successful outcomes

Staci Warne

Project management is filled with various challenges, such as managing unforeseen risks, balancing priorities, and shifting project scopes, which can lead to inefficiencies. This definitive guide leverages the author’s 25+ years of industry experience to take you on a hands-on journey to unlock your full potential with Microsoft Project.This book helps you grasp the fundamental aspects of project creation, before moving on to more advanced topics, covering tracking, maintenance, and collaborative aspects for any project. You’ll find out how to track progress, optimize schedules, manage budgets, and customize reports based on business requirements by using easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations. The book taps into the author’s extensive experience as a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and Project Management Professional (PMP) to provide you with invaluable insights into managing resource overallocations, mastering advanced resource management techniques, and seamlessly integrating Microsoft Project with other tools to boost productivity and achieve success with your projects.By the end of this Microsoft Project book, you’ll be able to create professional project plans, execute projects with confidence, and consistently achieve your desired outcomes.

Mastering XenApp. Master the skills required to implement Citrix® XenApp® 7.6 to deploy a complete Citrix®-hosted application from scratch

Sunny Jha

Citrix® XenApp® is one of the leading pieces of Application delivery software that delivers Windows compatible apps to users on any device, anywhere. Citrix® XenApp® also gives administrators the ability to manage and control the freedom of mobility by increasing the security and saving costs at the same time.This book will provide you with all the knowledge required to successfully deploy and master a complete Citrix® hosted application. First, it will cover essential concepts of the architecture of XenApp®. You will then learn how to set up Hypervisor and how to set up Infrastructure components. Next you will learn how to Set up Citrix® Components, XenApp® resources, PVS, and Netscaler. We will further look at how to prepare the environment for Rollout. Additionally, you will learn how to configure the Citrix® components such as Citrix® Director. Moreover, you’ll learn about shared desktop for delivery to end users and the application of policies for effective and secure delivery. Finally, you will learn how to implement provisioning services for a Citrix® XenApp® 7.6 environment.

Flash Multiplayer Virtual Worlds. Build immersive, full-featured interactive worlds for games, online communities, and more

Makzan Makzan (Mak Seng Hin), Seng Hin Mak

Flash virtual worlds are some of the most exciting—and profitable—online business being built today. Using Flash, developers can build interactive environments where users can interact with the virtual world and one another, compete, and have fun. Creating a playful environment on an electronic network presents unique challenges as you combine a fun, upbeat frontend with some serious and complex server logic.This handy book assists you in building amazing virtual worlds in no time by implementing ActionScripts in a Flash IDE. With this book in hand, you will build virtual worlds that have avatars walking around and interacting with non playing characters, completing challenging quests, and allowing users to link with real-world friends.The fun begins with first exploring existing virtual world games such as Club Penguin, Mole, Dofus, and World of Warcraft. We will then design our virtual environment. Then we will create avatars and move the avatars in the virtual world. We will add some triggers to add amusement and life to the virtual world. We will allow the avatars to interact with other players and create a buddy list for each user. Then we will integrate buildings and other environment to the virtual world. We will also let the players interact with non-player characters to complete some tasks. Finally, we move on to add interesting quests to the virtual world, which need to be accomplished by the player to gear up to the next level of the game.This example-rich, hands-on guide sequentially develops a multiplayer virtual world—the platform, the environment, quests, avatars, non-playing characters, and interaction between them.

ROS Programming: Building Powerful Robots. Design, build and simulate complex robots using the Robot Operating System

Anil Mahtani, Aaron Martinez, Enrique Fernandez Perdomo, Luis Sánchez, ...

This learning path is designed to help youprogram and build your robots using opensource ROS libraries and tools. We startwith the installation and basic concepts,then continue with the more complexmodules available in ROS, such assensor and actuator integration (drivers),navigation and mapping (so you cancreate an autonomous mobile robot),manipulation, computer vision, perceptionin 3D with PCL, and more.We then discuss advanced concepts inrobotics and how to program using ROS.You'll get a deep overview of the ROSframework, which will give you a clearidea of how ROS really works. During thecourse of the book, you will learn howto build models of complex robots, andsimulate and interface the robot using theROS MoveIt motion planning library andROS navigation stacks.We'll go through great projects such asbuilding a self-driving car, an autonomousmobile robot, and image recognitionusing deep learning and ROS. You canfind beginner, intermediate, and expertROS robotics applications inside! It includes content from the following Packt products:? Effective Robotics Programming with ROS - Third Edition? Mastering ROS for Robotics Programming? ROS Robotics Projects

Hands-On Q-Learning with Python. Practical Q-learning with OpenAI Gym, Keras, and TensorFlow

Nazia Habib

Q-learning is a machine learning algorithm used to solve optimization problems in artificial intelligence (AI). It is one of the most popular fields of study among AI researchers.This book starts off by introducing you to reinforcement learning and Q-learning, in addition to helping you become familiar with OpenAI Gym as well as libraries such as Keras and TensorFlow. A few chapters into the book, you will gain insights into model-free Q-learning and use deep Q-networks and double deep Q-networks to solve complex problems. This book will guide you in exploring use cases such as self-driving vehicles and OpenAI Gym’s CartPole problem. You will also learn how to tune and optimize Q-networks and their hyperparameters. As you progress, you will understand the reinforcement learning approach to solving real-world problems. You will also explore how to use Q-learning and related algorithms in scientific research. Toward the end, you’ll gain insight into what’s in store for reinforcement learning.By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the skills you need to solve reinforcement learning problems using Q-learning algorithms with OpenAI Gym, Keras, and TensorFlow.

Microsoft Power BI Cookbook. Gain expertise in Power BI with over 90 hands-on recipes, tips, and use cases - Second Edition

Greg Deckler, Brett Powell

The complete everyday reference guide to Power BI, written by an internationally recognized Power BI expert duo, is back with a new and updated edition.Packed with revised practical recipes, Microsoft Power BI Cookbook, Second Edition, helps you navigate Power BI tools and advanced features. It also demonstrates the use of end-to-end solutions that integrate those features to get the most out of Power BI. With the help of the recipes in this book, you’ll gain advanced design and development insight, practical tips, and guidance on enhancing existing Power BI projects.The updated recipes will equip you with everything you need to know to implement evergreen frameworks that will stay relevant as Power BI updates. You’ll familiarize yourself with Power BI development tools and services by going deep into the data connectivity, transformation, modeling, visualization, and analytical capabilities of Power BI. By the end of this book, you’ll make the most of Power BI’s functional programming languages of DAX and M and deliver powerful solutions to common business intelligence challenges.

Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM. Find out how to improve business processes with jBPM, and discover how you can begin making a transformative impact as a business analyst in your organization

Matt Cumberlidge, Tom Baeyens

JBoss jBPM is a free, open-source, business process management solution. It enables users to create business processes that coordinate people, applications, and services.A business process is a sequence of activities triggered by a certain input that results in a valuable output. Business Process Management is about analyzing those activities in a structured way and eventually supporting their execution with a workflow application. This allows for the following results:Better management visibility of their business: improved decision makingLow cost of inputs: de-skilled labor requirements, less waste, standardized componentsBetter outputs: consistent quality, more customer satisfactionBusinesses have always tried to manage their processes, but software such as jBPM brings the methodology and management theory to practical life.JBoss jBPM offers the following key features:Graphical process definitionFlexibility to integrate code into the graphical process definitionA customizable web-based workflow application that runs the process you’ve definedEasy programming model to extend the graphical process definitionA process-oriented programming model (jPDL) that blends the best of process definition languages and Java.Easy to integrate with other systems through the JBoss middleware suite.

VMware vSphere 6.7 Cookbook. Practical recipes to deploy, configure, and manage VMware vSphere 6.7 components - Fourth Edition

Abhilash G B

VMware vSphere is the most comprehensive core suite of SDDC solutions on the market. It helps transform data centers into simplified on-premises private cloud infrastructures. This edition of the book focuses on the latest version, vSphere 6.7. The books starts with chapters covering the greenfield deployment of vSphere 6.7 components and the upgrade of existing vSphere components to 6.7. You will then learn how to configure storage and network access for a vSphere environment. Get to grips with optimizing your vSphere environment for resource distribution and utilization using features such as DRS and DPM, along with enabling high availability for vSphere components using vSphere HA, VMware FT, and VCHA. Then, you will learn how to facilitate large-scale deployment of stateless/stateful ESXi hosts using Auto Deploy. Finally, you will explore how to upgrade/patch a vSphere environment using vSphere Update Manager, secure it using SSL certificates, and then monitor its performance with tools such as vSphere Performance Charts and esxtop. By the end of this book, you'll be well versed in the core functionalities of vSphere 6.7 and be able to effectively deploy, manage, secure, and monitor your environment.

PHP and MongoDB Web Development Beginner's Guide. Combine the power of PHP and MongoDB to build dynamic web 2.0 applications

Rahbirul Islam Rubayeet Rubayeet, Rubayeet Islam, MongoDB

With the rise of Web 2.0, the need for a highly scalable database, capable of storing diverse user-generated content is increasing. MongoDB, an open-source, non-relational database has stepped up to meet this demand and is being used in some of the most popular websites in the world. MongoDB is one of the NoSQL databases which is gaining popularity for developing PHP Web 2.0 applications.PHP and MongoDB Web Development Beginner’s Guide is a fast-paced, hands-on guide to get started with web application development using PHP and MongoDB. The book follows a “Code first, explain later” approach, using practical examples in PHP to demonstrate unique features of MongoDB. It does not overwhelm you with information (or starve you of it), but gives you enough to get a solid practical grasp on the concepts.The book starts by introducing the underlying concepts of MongoDB. Each chapter contains practical examples in PHP that teache specific features of the database.The book teaches you to build a blogging application, handle user sessions and authentication, and perform aggregation with MapReduce. You will learn unique MongoDB features and solve interesting problems like real-time analytics, location-aware web apps etc. You will be guided to use MongoDB alongside MySQL to build a diverse data back-end.With its concise coverage of concepts and numerous practical examples, PHP and MongoDB Web Development Beginner’s Guide is the right choice for the PHP developer to get started with learning MongoDB.

Gradle Dependency Management

Hubert Klein Ikkink

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c Advanced Administration Cookbook. If you want to extend your capabilities in administering Oracle WebLogic Server, this is the helping hand you’ve been looking for. With 70 recipes covering both basic and advanced topics, it will provide a new level of expertise

Dalton Iwazaki

Microsoft Intune Cookbook. Over 75 recipes for configuring, managing, and automating your identities, apps, and endpoint devices

Andrew Taylor

Microsoft Intune is a powerful cloud-managed mobile device management (MDM) tool that empowers you to manage your end-user device estate across various platforms. While it is an excellent platform, the initial setup and configuration can be a daunting process, and mistakes made early on can be more challenging to resolve later. This book addresses these issues by guiding you through the end-to-end configuration of an Intune environment, incorporating best practices and utilizing the latest functionalities.In addition to setting up your environment, you’ll delve into the Microsoft Graph platform to understand the underlying mechanisms behind the web GUI. This knowledge will enable you to automate a significant portion of your daily tasks using PowerShell.By the end of this book, you’ll have established an Intune environment that supports Windows, Apple iOS, Apple macOS, and Android devices. You’ll possess the expertise to add new configurations, policies, and applications, tailoring an environment to your specific requirements. Additionally, you’ll have the ability to troubleshoot any issues that may arise and package and deploy your company applications. Overall, this book is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn how to use Microsoft Intune to manage their organization's end-user devices.