Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #378

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@HowardvRooijen | @endjin

AI + Machine Learning

Covering: Anomaly detector, Azure Bot Service, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Open Datasets, Bing APIs, Cognitive Services, Computer Vision, Content moderator, Custom vision, Data Science Virtual Machines, Face, Form Recogniser, Immersive Reader, Ink Recogniser, Language Understanding (LUIS), Machine Learning Studio, Microsoft Genomics, ML.NET, Personaliser, Project Cortex, QnA Maker, Speaker Recognition, Speech-to-Text, Speech translation, Text Analytics, Text to Speech , Translator Speech, Translator Text

• The Azure Updates Team blogs about Public preview: Azure Percept DK June 2206 software update
• Greg Beaumont writes about Predictive Diagnostics using Power Apps in Teams with Azure ML

Analytics

Covering: Apache Spark for HDInsight, Apache Storm for HDInsight, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Data Share, Azure Databricks, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Synapse Analytics, Data Catalog, Data Factory, Data Lake Analytics, Event Hubs, HDInsight, .NET for Apache Spark, R Server for HDInsight, Azure Purview

• Myra Saet describes Introducing AVERA: Automated Vessel Emission and Route Analysis
• Debananda Ghosh writes about Geospatial Analytics for Connected Vehicle with Synapse Data Explorer
• Debananda Ghosh discusses Aviation flight data analytics with Azure Synapse Analytics
• Fikrat Azizov discusses Building Lakehouse Dashboards Using Azure Synapse Analytics Serverless Pool
• Michal Bar writes about Azure Data Explorer Web Explorer updates – June 2022
• Lakshmi Murthy describes Ways you can browse industry templates and add tables to create your own lake database
• On SQL Server Central, Dennes Torres talks about Azure Synapse Link for SQL: From production to a data warehouse in a few clicks
• On the Azure Medium blog, Nicholas Xuan Nguyen describes How to Use Azure Data Lake for Storage and Analysis
• On episode 141 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine discuss Adventures in data: Integrating PostgreSQL with Azure Data Lake
• Jovan Popovic (@jocapc) explains How to provide statement id in the serverless SQL pool support ticket

Compute

Covering: Azure CycleCloud, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure Functions, Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple, Batch, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances, Service Fabric, Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets

• On the Azure blog, Vijay Kanchanahalli explains how to Choose the right size for your workload with NVads A10 v5 virtual machines, now generally available
• The Azure Updates Team writes about Generally available: Azure Functions retry policy for Event Hubs and timer triggers
• Rachel Pruitt provides A quick start to benchmarking in Azure: NVIDIA Deep Learning Examples on the NC-series
• Jay Gong describes How to Migrate Schema Registry from Confluent to Azure Event Hub
• Edi Wang explains how to Connect to Windows VM on Azure without an RDP Client App

Containers

Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers

• Paolo Salvatori presents Everything you want to know about ephemeral OS disks and Azure Kubernetes Service AKS

Databases

Covering: Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for MariaDB, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Database Edge, Azure Cache for Redis, SQL Data Warehouse, SQL Server on virtual machines, SQL Server Stretch Database, Table storage

• The Azure Updates Team writes about General availability: Azure Database for PostgreSQL—Hyperscale Citus supports PostgreSQL minor versions
• Gennady Kostinsky covers Introducing support for Pgrouting and PLV8 extensions in PostgreSQL Flexible Server
• Also on Tech Community blog, Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) blogs about SQL Insider Series: Azure SQL DB – Automating scale up and down Data Exposed
• Sudheesh Narayanaswamy blogs about Cross region replication using Data-in replication with Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server
• Ebru Ersan describes How to enable and run SQL best practices assessments on multiple SQL Servers on Azure VMs

Developer Tools

Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online

• Julia Muiruri describes How to edit your power page directly on VS Code

DevOps

Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations

• On episode 200 of the Azure Devops podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Tomas Petricek to discuss Cultures of Programming
• Gerasimos Alexiou explains how to Create approvals on build and release Azure DevOps pipelines and covers Build triggers on Azure devops pipelines
• Edi Wang explains How to Add Parameters for 'npm install' in Azure DevOps

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• No content this week

Identity

Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services

• The Azure Updates Team writes about General availability: Azure Active Directory authentication for Application Insights
• Alex Simons (@Alex_A_Simons) talks about Microsoft Entra Permissions Management is now generally available
• Kristina Hotz talks about Use cloud groups in on-premises Active Directory with group writeback
• Freek Berson (@fberson) covers Parallels RAS 19 Expression based filtering and Multiple Multi-factor Authentication MFA providers
• Andreas Helland delves into Blazor Test App for Azure AD B2C Custom Policies
• Andrew Coughlin walks through Accessing Key Vault from Another Subscription Over Public Endpoint

Integration

Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus

• Manohar Patel Seshapur blogs about Workflow expression function xml behavior when converting numbers with decimal in Logic Apps
• Yingjie Shi describes How to create API connection Logic App consumption using ARM REST API

Internet of Things

Covering: Azure Digital Twins, Azure IoT Central, Azure IoT Edge, Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT solution accelerators, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere, Azure Time Series Insights, IoT DevKit, WildernessLabs, Windows 10 IoT Core Services

• The Azure Updates Team announces Generally available: Azure Digital Twins Data history and Public preview: 2022-06-30 Azure IoT Central REST API release is now live

Learning

Covering: Microsoft Certifications, Azure Certifications, Microsoft Learning Paths, Certification Pathway Information

• Bethany Jepchumba presents Introduction to clustering models by using R and Tidymodels - part 4 of 4
• Bethany Jepchumba presents Data Science and Machine Learning using regression models
• In his lesson learned series, Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) explains How redirect connection policy type works, discusses What do I need to do in case of high LOGRATEGOVERNOR wait time and What do I need to do in case of high CPU wait time

Management and Governance

Covering: Automation, Azure Advisor, Azure Backup, Azure Blueprints, Azure Lighthouse, Azure Managed Applications, Azure mobile app, Azure Monitor, Azure Policy, Azure Resource Manager, Azure Service Health, Azure Site Recovery, Cloud Shell, Cost Management, Microsoft Azure portal, Scheduler, Azure Purview

• The Azure Updates Team writes about General availability: Application Insights standard test for synthetic monitoring
• The Azure Updates Team blogs about Public preview: User-assigned Managed Identity support for Azure Monitor Agent
• On the Azure blog, Asir Selvasingh (@asirselvasingh) describes How to choose the right Azure services for your applications—Its not A or B
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) discusses Dealing With Azure Capacity Shortages

Media

Covering: Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Media Analytics, Media Services, Video Indexer

• Chris Palmer discusses Public Preview - Raw Media Access for Voice & Video Calling

Migration

Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box

• The Azure Updates Team discusses Public preview: Migration tools for Azure Monitor Agent
• Balasubramanian Delli presents Configuration Manager technical preview version 2207

Mobile

Covering: App Service (Mobile), Mobile apps, Notification Hubs, Visual Studio App Centre, Xamarin

• No content this week

Networking

Covering: Application Gateway, Azure Bastion, Azure DNS, Azure ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, Azure Firewall Manager, Azure Front Door, Azure Internet Analyzer, Azure Private Link, Content Delivery Network, Load Balancer, Network Watcher, Traffic Manager, Virtual Network, Virtual WAN, VPN Gateway, Web Application Firewall

• Pierre Roman (@pierreroman) explains how to Connect to your on-prem server from anywhere

Security

Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center

• Andrew Lomakin walks through Deploying Microsoft Sentinel Threat Monitoring for SAP agent into an AKS/Kubernetes cluster
• Liana Tomescu covers Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC Series - Multicloud with GCP
• Lior Tamir talks about Whats new: Centrally manage automated response to alerts with automation rules in Microsoft Sentinel
• Benjamin Kovacevic presents Microsoft Sentinel Automation Tips & Tricks – Part 2

Storage

Covering: Archive Storage, Avere vFXT for Azure, Azure Data Lake Store, Azure FXT Edge Filer, Azure HPC Cache, Azure NetApp Files, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, Storage Accounts, Storage Explorer, StorSimple

• The Azure Updates Team writes about General availability: Azure Archive Storage now available in South Africa North
• Arindam Mondal discusses Monitoring Azure Blob Storage
• The Azure Updates Team writes about Limited preview: Smart tiering to vault-archive tier for Azure Backup

Web

Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps

• On episode 430 of the Azure podcast, the team (@AzurePodcast) are joined by Arsen Vladimirskiy and John Downs to talk about Multi-tenant Architectures
• Manoj Srinivas presents Azure Tips and Tricks - How to test application performance with Azure Load Testing

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• No content this week

Useful Links

• Azure Resource Inventory - Azure Resource Inventory is a powerful script written in PowerShell to generate an Excel report of any Azure Environment you have read access
• Azure Quickstart Templates - Learn how to deploy to Azure using ARM Templates. Over 850 examples in this repo.
• Azure CNAB Quickstarts Library - You can deploy to the Cloud, on Prem and on the Edge using CNAB & Porter. This library provides a number of quickstart templates to help you get started, fast!
• Power BI Weekly - Interested in Power BI? Sign up to our sister newsletter Power BI Weekly to receive all the week's Power BI news.
• Azure Resources - A fantastic collection of resources contained in this repo. Issue a PR if you have resources to share. Managed by Azure MVP Gregor Suttie.
• Azure Charts - Azure Charts is a set of auto-rebuilt charts to keep you updated on Azure changes, news, stats. Public updates, RSS channels and web pages are used as data sources
• The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure (2nd Edition) - ebook from Microsoft showcasing architectural approaches and common design patterns you face when building modern applications.
• Azure Virtual Datacenter - ebook from Microsoft highlighting an approach to isolation, security, and trust in the Microsoft cloud.
• Cyber Security Demystified - ebook from Microsoft describing how to keep your organisation safe.
• Microsoft's What is Azure poster - a visual overview of Azure's services and features.
• Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure - a free ebook from Microsoft Press, by Michael S. Collier and Robin E. Shahan.
• Data Science in the Cloud with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and R - a free ebook on Azure Machine Learning, by Stephen F. Elston.
• Protecting Data in Microsoft Azure - a whitepaper that describes the various mechanism you can you can leverage for managing sensitive data in the Azure platform.
• Azure Architecture Center - guidance from the Patterns & Practices team covering API Design, API implementation, Autoscaling, Background jobs, CDN, Caching, Data partitioning, Monitoring and diagnostics, Retry, Scalability and availability.
• Azure Architect's Reference - if you are an architect responsible for building an application on Azure, or are trying to figure out how you could migrate an application and need to dig deep into the workload, cost, security, capacity, availability, deployment and operational modelling this invaluable resource should be your first stop. An open source project, with contributions from several experienced architects, it gathers data from many different references into a single, useful guide that is constantly updated by the community.
• Azure Table Storage Design Guide - a guide from the storage team.
• Azure infrastructure services implementation guidelines - key design and implementation guidelines for deploying an IT workload in Azure infrastructure services.
• Azure Speed Test - a simple web tool that measures the latency between you and Azure Datacenters to suggest which might be fastest for you location.
• Azure Websites Cheatsheet - everything you need to know about configuring & managing Azure Websites on a single page.
• Data Migration Assistant - enables you to upgrade to a modern data platform by detecting compatibility issues that can impact database functionality on your new version of SQL Server and Azure SQL Database. It recommends performance and reliability improvements for your target environment.
• Azure SQL DTU Calculator - a tool to help you determine the number of DTUs for your existing SQL Server database(s) as well as a recommendation of the minimum performance level and service tier that you need before you migrate to Azure SQL Database.
• Microsoft Azure Symbol/Icon Set - a set of Visio and PowerPoint shapes for use in architecture diagrams / presentations.
• Service Bus Explorer - a free and open source tool for managing and exploring Azure Service Bus(including Event Hubs).
• Best practices for designing Azure Resource Manager Templates - guidance based on the whitepaper 'World Class ARM Templates Considerations and Proven Practices'.
• Microsoft Cloud Networking for Enterprise Architects - a downloadable guide to Azure networking, covering topics such as cloud migration and networking for PaaS and SaaS services
• Whitepapers for Power BI - numerous whitepapers ranging various Power BI topics
• Azure Serverless Computing Cookbook - ebook from Microsoft, including use cases, hands-on steps, and tutorials for quickly configuring your own serverless environments.
• Executive Summary: Enterprise Cloud Strategy - executive summary of the 140-page e-book from Microsoft. Learn about the basics of adopting a cloud computing strategy for your enterprise.
• Migrating SQL Server to Azure SQL Database Managed Instance—A Step-by-Step Guide - ebook from Microsoft providing breakdown of tactical steps for implementing a quick, simple, and low-impact data migration with Azure SQL Database Managed Instance.
• Azure Backup Deep Dive Whitepaper - a deep dive by Adin Ermie and Charbel Nemnom describing Azure Backup
• Azure Stack: An extension of Azure - whitepaper from Microsoft detailing how you can extend Azure Stack to make Azure services available on-premises
• Azure Strategy and Implementation Guide - For Azure users - ebook from Microsoft outlining recommended general architecture and cloud design principles, DevOps, approaches to service management, and overall governance.
• Azure Data Factory: SSIS in the Cloud - eBook from Microsoft explaining why you would want to migrate your existing SSIS workloads to Azure Data Factory and addressing common considerations and concerns. Includes technical details of creating an Azure-SSIS IR and then walk-throughs of how to upload, execute, and monitor your packages through Azure Data Factory
• Parallel Virtual File Systems on Microsoft Azure - ebook from Microsoft documenting the results of a series of performance tests on Azure to see how scalable Lustre, GlusterFS, and BeeGFS are
• Build and deploy a multi-container application in Azure Service Fabric - ebook from Microsoft which shows how to create a sample multi-container application using ASP.NET Core and Docker and deploy it on an Azure Service Fabric cluster.
• Azure ebook/whitepaper resources - White papers, analyst reports, and e-books landing page with an abundance of extra resources.
• Farmer - This is a DSL for ARM template creation - "Making repeatable Azure deployments easy"!