Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #393

powered by endjin

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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

• Kate Browne describes Introducing Vision Studio, a UI-based demo interface for Computer Vision
• Rachel Pruitt blogs about how Azure Scales 530B Parameter GPT-3 Model with NVIDIA NeMo Megatron
• Andy Beatman announces that Image Analysis 4.0 with new API endpoint and OCR model in preview
• Hugo Affaticati provides A quick start guide to benchmarking LLM models in Azure: NVIDIA NeMo Megatron - Results and Steps
• Foteini Savvidou covers Serverless image classification with Azure Functions and Custom Vision – Part 4
• Jay Harel talks about the Opaque platform: Frictionless Collaborative Analytics and AI/ML on Confidential Data

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

• On the endjin blog, Barry Smart (@barry_j_a_smart) covers Techniques for populating a Synapse Analytics Database Template
• Ed Freeman (@edfreeman_) blogs about Customizing Lake Databases in Azure Synapse Analytics
• Scott Bell writes Handling UK Bank Holidays in Azure Data Factory & Synapse
• Liliam Leme covers Understand Synapse Spark basic configuration
• Arun Sethia and Arshad Ali discuss Synapse - Choosing Between Spark Notebook vs Spark Job Definition
• Penny Zhou explains how to Improved UI for Launching Azure Data Factory Studio
• Rie Merritt talks about Azure Data Community Newsletter Sept/Oct 2022
• Shaf Mahmood explains Azure Data Factory to ADX Free Cluster
• Arindam Mondal delves into Assert Transformations in Azure Data Factory
• Kruti Mehta covers ForEach Loop to CopyData and Capture Metadata in ControlTable - Part 1Environment Setup, - Part 2ADF Environment Setup and describes - Part 3ADF Pipeline Setup
• Amrinder Singh describes Working with ADF Storage Event Trigger Over SFTP
• Kun Cheng introduces a Notebook gallery image to process Geospatial data from Planetary Computer with STAC AP
• Sergio Fonseca (@FonsecaSergio) blogs about Synapse Connectivity Series Part 1 - Inbound SQL DW connections on Public Endpoints

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

• The Azure Updates Team covers Public preview: V2 programming model for Azure Functions using Python
• Jose Angel Fernandez Rodrigues walks through how to Deploy Linux workstations for 3D visualization in Azure
• Vinil Vadakkepurakkal walks through Integrating external PBS Master to CycleCloud Cloud Bursting scenario

Containers

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

• The Azure Updates Team describes Public preview: Mariner container optimized OS, writes about Generally available: AKS support for Ubuntu 22.04, writes about Generally available: CSI Extensible API for AKS, blogs about Public preview: AKS image cleaner and blogs about Dapr extension for AKS and Arc-enabled Kubernetes now support Dapr v1.9.0
• The Azure Updates Team covers Public preview: TCP support
• Michael Withrow describes Azure Kubernetes Service KubeCon NA 2022 Announcements
• Aanand Ramachandran announces Azure CNI Powered by Cilium for Azure Kubernetes Service AKS
• Ekele Asonye explains how to Enable and Operate Open Service Mesh in AKS hybrid cluster

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 describes Public preview: Improved passive geo-replication for Azure Cache for Redis, and Public preview: Read replicas for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server, and General availability: Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB data plane RBAC and Public preview: Azure Synapse Link for Azure Cosmos DB Gremlin API
• The Azure Updates Team announces Azure SQL Public preview updates for late October 2022
• The Azure Updates Team announces Azure SQL General availability updates for late October 2022
• Ricky Diep talks about Azure Cache for Redis: Whats Your Session Stability Score
• On the Data Exposed show, Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) and Karen Lopez (@datachick) discuss how to Build Confidence in Your Data with Ledger Databases and Tables Data Exposed: MVP Edition
• Greg Low covers Architecture: Software as a Service Databases – Single DB or DB per Client
• Jim Toland provides a Checklist for troubleshooting and improving MySQL database performance
• Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) covers Lesson Learned 243: Enabling ODBC connection pooling in PHP
• N V Sudhir Kumar Raparla talks about Import Export Service is now Generally Available on Azure SQL Hyperscale Database
• Sai Kondapalli explains how to Perform MySQL major version upgrades in Flexible Server with minimal downtime
• Balmukund Lakhani announces Preview of Approximate Percentile Functions for Azure SQL DB and Azure SQL MI
• On the Data Exposed show, Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) and Erin Stellato (@erinstellato) discuss How to Analyze Query Plans in Azure Data Studio
• Yochanan Rachamim (@ryochanan) explains why SSMS Performance Dashboard for Managed Instance shows different percent of CPU usage

Developer Tools

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

• On Visual Studio Magazine, David Ramel (@dramel) writes about With Java 19, VS Code Now Does Virtual Threads While Debugging, and Visual Studio Dev Requests Code Copying with Proper Indentation, Mads K. Delivers and Microsoft Previews 'Vision Studio' for Working with Azure Computer Vision API
• On the Visual Studio blog, Mads Kristensen (@mkristensen) discusses Copy with proper indentation

DevOps

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

• On episode 216 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Isaac Abraham to discuss Farmer for Azure Deployments
• Christian Weiss (@cwe1ss) writes Deploy from GitHub to Azure without any secrets using managed identities
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Dan Hellem writes about New Boards Hub, Sprint 212 Update
• Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Gloridel Morales discusses Azure DevOps Server 2022 RC2 now available
• Gerasimos Alexiou covers Manual user approval for pipeline execution
• Daniel Krzyczkowski (@DKrzyczkowski) blogs about DevSecOps on Azure - part9: Improve the security of Azure environment and DevOps platforms
• Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) covers Azure DevOps – Tips and Tricks – 15 – Working with the Magic folders a, b and s in the Azure DevOps Agents and 16 – How to search for code in branches using Code Search Extension
• April Edwards (@TheAprilEdwards) covers Azure DevOps for the ITPro
• Chad Voelker writes about Continuous Integration via GitHub Actions
• Antti K. Koskela (@koskila) covers Azure DevOps fails with Error: The path /home/vsts/work/1/s/your-repo does not exist even though the repository is there for sure

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• On the Azure blog, Omar Khan blogs about Forrester Total Economic Impact study: Azure Arc delivers 206 percent ROI over 3 years
• Anirban Paul talks about Tag based Segmentation with Azure Stack HCI
• Aurnov Chattopadhyay shows how to Consistently upgrade your server TLS protocol using Azure Arc and Automanage Machine Configuration
• Mike Kostersitz writes about 10 areas of impact on AKS hybrid when using Group Policy

Identity

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

• Alex Weinert blogs about Empowering SOCs with Azure AD Identity Protection in Microsoft 365 Defender, explains how to Advanced Microsoft Authenticator security features are now generally available and talks about Public Preview: Conditional Access filters for apps
• David Giard (@DavidGiard) covers Creating a new Active Directory User, talks about Generating a Client Secret for an Azure Application and describes Creating a JWT Bearer Token
• Bappaditya Banerjee covers Azure AD B2C: User Journey Time Out through Custom Policy
• Bobi Bao describes how to Use managed identity instead of AzureWebJobsStorage to connect a function app to a storage account

Integration

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

• The Azure Updates Team writes about Generally available: Azure Communication Services short code functionality for SMS, discusses Public preview: ASO makes it easy to manage database and connection and blogs about Public preview: SAP S/4HANA events are now available on Azure Event Grid
• The Azure Updates Team writes about Generally available: Azure Communication Services short code functionality for SMS
• Abu Arisheh blogs about Retention in Logic Apps Standard - Including the retention of Storage Container Logs
• Wagner Silveira walks through Parameterizing Managed Connections with Logic Apps Standard

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 Sphere Team writes about General availability: Azure Sphere OS version 22.10
• iabanham discusses IoT Edge v1.1 EoL: What does that mean for me

Learning

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

• Lee Stott (@lee_stott) blogs about Creating your Microsoft Learn Profile and combine your student to personal profile and describes a Simulation game designed to train students to handle a bankruptcy case using Power Platform
• Tzvia Gitlin Troyna (@tzvia) introduces MS Learn module: Create dashboards in Azure Data Explorer
• On the Visual Studio blog, Jessie Houghton presents a Learning Series: Get started with GitHub in Visual Studio
• Penny Zhou introduces the Learning Center to Azure Data Factory Studio
• Shirleyse Haley covers The 2-Minute Recap: Everything new with security, compliance, and identity on Microsoft Learn
• Japhlet Nwamu covers Kickoff and Get Started with the 30 Days of Microsoft Graph Tuesday 1st Nov 3pm UTC
• Alexandra Roland explains how to Become a Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence Ninja: The complete level 400 training
• Sarahzin Chowdhury announces The Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention Ninja Training is here

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 Intune Support Team talks about Understanding the Intune device object and User Principal Name
• Surabhi Calla explains how to Get the most out of expedited Windows quality updates
• The Azure Updates Team covers Public preview: New metrics capabilities in OpenTelemetry-based Application Insights
• Ankit Gupta writes about New machine learning classifiers in Microsoft Purview Governance
• On the Azure blog, Michael Flanakin (@flanakin) talks about Microsoft Cost Management updates—October 2022
• On Microsoft Security blog, Christine Barrett describes How businesses are gaining integrated data protection with Microsoft Purview
• Utsav Raghuvanshi covers Public preview: Immutable vaults with Azure Backup
• On episode 157 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure Podcast, Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine look at the recent Azure Updates
• Franck Mercier discusses Data curation: Discover more with data estate insights in Microsoft Purview
• Helder Pinto covers Estimating Azure Diagnostics Cost
• Sidney Cirqueira discusses Monitoring serverless SQL ended requests by using Log Analytics.
• On episode 305 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Ben Stegink and Scott Hoag cover Azure Savings Plans for compute
• On the Azure Medium blog, Ala Raddaoui writes about In the journey of digital transformation - Application modernization goals and Strategies
• Angie Chen writes Try Windows Update for Business with Microsoft Graph

Media

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

• No content this week

Migration

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

• No content this week

Mobile

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

• Walter Aguilar asks So You Want to Migrate a Xamarin.Forms App to .NET MAUI

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

• The Azure Updates Team talks about Public preview: IPVS load balancer support in AKS and covers Public preview: Azure CNI Powered by Cilium
• On episode 443 of The Azure Podcast, the podcast team (@AzurePodcast) are joined byCesar De la Torre Llorente to discuss 5G Modern Connected Apps

Security

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

• Idan Pelleg covers Identity Protection alerts are coming to Microsoft 365 Defender
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Enable Microsoft Sentinel Analytics Rules at Scale
• Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) writes about Favorite security-focused open-source workbooks for Azure Monitor and Microsoft Sentinel
• Edi Lahav describes Upcoming changes to the CommonSecurityLog table

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 talks about Public preview: Availability zone volume placement for Azure NetApp Files, about Generally available: Azure Storage — Attribute-based access control for standard storage accounts and  Generally available: Premium SSD v2 disks available on Azure Disk CSI driver
• Mike Holden writes about Easily overcome file transfer issues in the cloud via Azure Marketplace
• Sudipta Chakraborty explains how to Enable SFTP on Azure File Share using ARM Template and upload files using WinScp

Web

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

• The Azure Updates Team describes Public preview: Azure Load Testing in West Europe, and Public preview: Azure Load Testing is now HITRUST certified and Public preview: Azure Load Testing supports authenticating with client certificates
• Jose Moreno (@erjosito) presents Yet Another Demo App

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• David Belanger, Paul McDaniel and Rinku Dalwani talk about Azure Virtual Desktop security, reliability, and resilience
• Ben Murphy, Paul McDaniel and Killian McCoy discuss Optimizing Costs with Azure Virtual Desktop

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"!