Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #412

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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

• On the Azure blog, Jessica Hawk describes Whats new in Azure Data & AI: Azure is built for generative AI apps
• Chris McNulty writes 'Springtime is Syntex time: - join us at AIIM23, Microsoft 365 Conference, and DSF'
• Marco Aurelio Cardoso discusses How ChatGPT Plugins could work
• Jesse Lopez blogs about Training large AI models on Azure using CycleCloud + Slurm
• Bea Stollnitz writes about Faster training and inference using the Azure Container for PyTorch in Azure ML
• On the Azure Medium blog, Valentina delves into Azure OpenAI and LangChain
• David de Matheu explains how to Get insights from customer interactions with Azure Communication Services and Azure OpenAI Service
• Scarlett Liu explains How the Search Service Authenticates to Access an Azure SQL Database

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

• The Azure Updates Team writes about Generally available: Resource governance for client applications in Azure Event Hubs, covers HDInsight, blogs about Azure HDInsight for Apache Kafka 3.2.0 is now available for public preview. and covers Azure HDInsight for Apache Kafka 3.2.0 is now available for public preview.
• Pawel Potasinski (@pawelpotasinski) covers Azure Synapse MVP Corner - February 2023
• David Callaghan covers Integrating SAP Datasphere and Databricks Lakehouse for Unified Analytics
• Alvaro Videla Godoy (@old_sound) walks through Importing Data from RabbitMQ into Azure Data Explorer via Event Hubs
• Nick Salch explains how to Create alerts for your Synapse Dedicated SQL Pool
• Bartosz Jarkowski covers SAP CDC Connector and SLT Part 1 - Overview and architecture and Part 2 - Initial Configuration

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

• Carlos Mendible (@cmendibl3) covers Azure Function HTTP Trigger with Golang
• Radhu Sharma describes how to Scale-up a primary Nodetype using Powershell
• Lily Ma discusses Azure Functions: Version 4 of the Node.js programming model is in preview
• The Azure Updates Team announces Azure Service Fabric 9.1 Second Refresh Release
• Jeffrey Jarry talks about Service Fabric Explorer SFX web client CVE-2023-23383 spoofing vulnerability

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 announces Public preview: AKS support for Kubernetes 1.26 release and Azure Image Builder Portal Functionality now available
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) explains how to Install Kubernetes on Windows 10 and Windows 11 with AKS Edge Essentials

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 announces the General Availability of Microsoft Purview DevOps policies for Azure SQL Database, and Migration feature with Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server and Azure SQL—General availability updates for late-March 2023
• The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview: Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore
• Sunil Agarwal covers Retiring Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server in 2025
• Ian Griffiths (@idg10) session from Cosmos DB Conf 2023: Building Large-Scale Multi-Tenant SaaS Systems with Azure Cosmos DB
• Mark Kromer (@kromerbigdata) discusses a preview feature - Capture Changed Data From your Cosmos DB analytical store
• On the Data Exposed show, Rie Merrit and Grant Fritchey talk about Capturing Query Metrics in Azure SQL Database
• Juan Pablo Salgado Davila writes Let's make it easy How to read System Health and spserverdiagnostics
• On the Data Exposed show, Muazma Zahid, Davide Mauri, David Pless, Pam Lahoud, Mladen Andzic, Andreas Wolter, Jes Schultz, Arvind Shyamsundar, and Joachim Hammer present Azure SQL March 2023 AMA Live
• Shriram Muthukrishnan announces Single Server to Flexible Server Migration tool is GA in Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Developer Tools

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

• On the GitHub blog, Christopher Schleiden announces the GitHub Actions extension for VS Code
• Nehemiah Emmanuel writes GitHub Codespaces for Students and Educators: Just Wow

DevOps

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

• The Azure Updates Team covers Public Preview: Azure Chaos Studio is now available in Brazil South region
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Angel Wong talks about Introduces Service Principal and Managed Identity support on Azure DevOps
• Joshua Murari explains how to Automated Secure Infrastructure for Self Hosted Integration Runtime in Azure Data Factory Terraform
• Vinod Soni blogs about Integration between Azure DevOps and ServiceNow Agile Development, Change Management
• Antti K. Koskela (@koskila) describes how to Automatically get version number from project dependencies in Azure DevOps
• Vinicius Apolinario (@vrapolinario) announces the ITOpsTalk GitHub repo – A central location for IT/Ops related samples
• Pranab Paul discusses Codename Project Bose: Part 2 - how to implement the codebase from GitHub repo

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• On the Azure blog, Pang Ngernsupaluck explains how to Enhanced Azure Arc integration with Datadog simplifies hybrid and multicloud observability
• Judy Liu announces the 3-year retirement of Windows Server 2019 on Azure Kubernetes Service and AKS hybrid
• Arthur Clares discusses Managing and Optimizing Your Azure Hybrid Benefit Usage With tools
• Julia Wang writes about Now Open Source: nxtools, managing Linux IaC just got simpler using Automanage machine configuration
• Zoran Rilak writes about Private endpoints for Azure SQL Managed Instance

Identity

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

• The Azure Updates Team announce GA: Azure Active Directory workload identity with AKS
• Alessandro Cesarini blogs about Custom attributes for Azure Active Directory Domain Services now in Public Preview
• Alex Simons (@Alex_A_Simons) writes about 2023 State of Cloud Permissions Risks report now published
• Damien Bowden (@damien_bod) blogs about Azure AD cross-tenant synchronization
• Meagan Longoria (@mmarie) explains How to Change the Browser Used by SSMS for AAD Auth
• David Giard (@DavidGiard) covers Azure Active Directory Bulk User Operations
• Claudia Zhou describes how to Provision Azure AD Joined Windows 365 for users with special scenarios
• Mauricio Tamayo Ortega asks Why De-privileging?

Integration

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

• Lior Arviv explains how to Improved experience for managing the default Azure security policies
• Luis Henrique Demetrio covers Maximizing Feedback: Integrating Adaptive Cards with Microsoft Teams for ServiceNow Ticket Surveys
• Rohitha Hewawasam covers Extending Logic Apps App Insight integration with Azure Workbooks
• Shreevijayakumar Nayak describes Handling Server Errors\Internal Server Errors\HTTP 500 Errors for Service Bus and Event Hubs.
• Mark Brimble (@BrimbleMark) talks about BOM in Azure Logic Apps
• Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) covers Logic App Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks: 26 Call Asynchronous child Logic Apps
• Kevin Gatimu provides An Introduction to Microsoft Graph SDK and How to Create a To-Do List Using JavaScript
• Archer Zhao explains how to Transcribe audio to text from blob storage without writing any code using Power Automate

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

• No content this week

Learning

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

• Rie Merritt announces Microsoft Learn: Programming Databases with Transact-SQL for Beginners
• Dave Glover (@dglover) writes Supercharge your AI skills with 30DaysOfAzureAI launching today with daily posts throughout April
• Dave Glover (@dglover) announces Mastering Azure AI: 30DaysOfAzureAI Launches March 27th with Daily Posts Throughout April
• Lee Stott (@lee_stott) talks about Teams Toolkit Tuesday 4th April TeamsElite Build apps using Teams Toolkit for Microsoft Teams
• Chris Morrissey provides a Skilling snack: Windows monthly updates
• Shirleyse Haley writes The Microsoft Secure 2023 Learn Live series is still underway Join in real-time or watch on demand.

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 announces the General Availability of: New Azure Monitor audit logging policy released, and Azure Monitor Alerts now support duplicating alert rules, and Simpler way to renaming Network Interface NIC and Disks for protected VMs in Azure Site Recovery, and Azure Site Recovery - Migrate Azure Automation account's authentication from Run As accounts to Managed Identity and Immutable vaults with Azure Backup
• Daniel Hidalgo explains how to Streamline your multi-cloud assessments with Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
• Erica Toelle discusses using a new purview feature to Simplify the lifecycle of sensitive data
• Arunprabhu Muthusamy discusses What does CloudCheckr offer for Azure Cost Optimization and its Considerations
• On episode 179 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure Podcast, Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine discuss Azure Updates
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) describes how to Monitor Microsoft Intune With Microsoft Sentinel – Comprehensive Guide

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

• 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

• Lauren Dunlap presents Network architectures and topologies with Lab Plans
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) covers What is Azure Firewall Basic and How to Deploy One
• Matt Shadbolt (@ConfigMgrDogs) discusses Using Alternate ANCs in Windows 365
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) providies a Step-by-Step – How To Get and Export The Azure VPN Connection Pre-Shared Key

Security

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

• Israel Aloni explains how to What's new with Microsoft Sentinel at Secure
• Mike Browning explains how to What's New at Microsoft Secure
• On the Azure Medium blog, Antonio Formato talks about Microsoft Sentinel - Azure OpenAI Incident Response Playbook
• Anna Chiang writes Learn how Microsoft Purview Information Protection discovers and protects your most sensitive data
• Arun Singh writes Employees open 28% of business email compromise attacks – Learn why and how to boost your security
• Gilad Elyashar (@GiladElyashar) announces Defender CSPM GA & new data security capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Cloud
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Tony Themelis describes how to Automatically Classify & Protect Documents & Data Microsoft Purview Information Protection
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jeremy Chapman and Rob Lefferts talk about Multi-cloud Cyberattack Response How Microsoft's SIEM & XDR work together
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jeremy Chapman and Lou Manousos explain how to Get Ahead of Cyberattacks with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence
• Billy York describes how to Monitor Key Vault Certificates
• Will King describes Whats new: Sentinel Solution for SAP BTP
• Yaniv Shasha covers What's New: APIs in Microsoft Graph
• Sean Wesonga covers What's New: MDTI Microsoft Sentinel Playbooks
• Shilpa Bothra provides A proactive and comprehensive approach to data security with Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

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 announces the General Availability of: nconnect support for Azure Files NFS v4.1 shares, and Mount Azure Files and ephemeral storage in Azure Container Apps, and Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage in East US 2, North Europe and West US 2 and announces the Public Preview: Storage in-place sharing in Microsoft Purview in additional regions

Web

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

• The Azure Updates Team announces the General Availability of Larger SKUs for App Service Environment v3
• The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview of Azure Migrate - Discover ASP.NET & Java web apps and assess ASP.NET in all environments
• Shivam Maralay talks about Custom plugin creation and integration with JMeter and Azure Load Testing
• Vinod Kumar describes how to Steps to install Drush on Azure App Service.
• On episode 238 of the Azure DevOps Podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) and Chris Sainty (@chris_sainty) discuss Blazor in Action

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"!