Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #423

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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 announces Generally available: Azure OpenAI Service in UK South
• Chu Lahlou blogs about Understanding Document Hierarchical Structure with Azure Form Recognizer and XML Format Converter
• Alexandre Vilcek walks through Training and Inference of LLMs with PyTorch Fully Sharded Data Parallel and Better Transformer
• On episode 249 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Matthew Renze (@MatthewRenze) to talk about AI Ethics
• On the Azure Medium blog, Valentina Alto covers Introducing LangFlow: a GUI for LangChain and Introducing LangChain toolkits for Azure Cognitive Services

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, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Fabric

• The Azure Updates Team announces Azure HDInsight for Apache Spark 3.3 is now available for public preview and covers Azure HDinsight Spark 2.4 approaching EOL
• The Azure Updates Team announces Enhanced autoscale capabilities added to HDInsight clusters
• Jacinda Eng blogs about Missing Fields Added to Dedicated SQL pool Diagnostic Settings Logs
• Abhishek Narain (@narainabhishek) blogs about Securing outbound traffic with Azure Data Factory's outbound network rules

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 announces Public Preview: Azure Data Explorer bindings for Azure Functions, and Public Preview: Redis extension for Azure Functions, and General availability: Azure HBv4 Virtual Machines for HPC and General availability: Azure HX Virtual Machines for HPC
• On the Azure blog, Brianna McGovern announces Azure HBv4 and HX Series VMs for HPC now generally available
• Amirreza Rastegari, Jon Shelley, Scott Moe, Jie Zhang, Jithin Jose, Anshul Jain, Jyothi Venkatesh, Joe Greenseid, Fanny Ou, and Evan Burness talks about Performance & Scalability of HBv4 and HX-Series VMs with Genoa-X CPUs
• Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) talks about Azure Function: JSON Schema Validation new release
• Gregor Suttie (@gregor_suttie) blogs about AZURE VM EXTENSIONS: PART 3 Refactoring our code

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: Add-on and node image in AKS release tracker, and New Instance Types for Azure Red Hat OpenShift are now available and Generally available: Azure Monitor container insights for AKS cluster with ARM64 nodes
• Hannah Hunter covers Dapr v1.11.0 now available in the Dapr extension for AKS and Arc-enabled Kubernetes
• Noah Whitehead announces Removal of Foreign Layers from Windows Container Images
• Cormac Garvey delves intoHPC/AI Storage options for NDmv4 A100 Azure kubernetes service AKS cluster
• On the Octopus Deploy Blog, Matthew Casperson walks through Using the NGINX Docker image
• Aarthi Murugan announces Landing Zone Accelerator for Azure Container Apps

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: Troubleshooting guides for Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server, and Read replica HA enabled Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server, and Pgvector extension on Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL, and Query performance insights for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server, and 32 TB storage in Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server and MySQL extension for Azure Data Studio.
• The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview of: Azure Cosmos DB Vercel integration, and GraphQL resolvers for Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL in Azure API Management, and Azure Cache for Redis trigger for Azure Functions, and Power BI integration with Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server and Azure Cache for Redis now supports up to 30 shards
• David Engel explains how to Update: Hotfixes released for ODBC and OLE DB drivers for SQL Server
• Andrei Kamenev explains how to Expose your data from Azure Cosmos DB or Azure SQL through a GraphQL API with Azure API Management
• On the Data Exposed show, Anna Hoffman and Umachandar Jayachandran (@AnalyticAnna) discuss How do you use JSON data in Azure SQL Database & SQL Server 2022 Data Exposed
• Nikita Nallamothu covers Load testing databases with Azure Load Testing
• Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) shares more Lesson Learned: Query Antipattern and Ring Buffer in Azure SQL Database, and Connection Retry-Logic using ODBC API code, and Size NNN from table 'XYZ' cannot fit within the specified batch size of 24576KB, and SQL Server Error Code '0' and SQL state 'The connection is closed' and Playing with the ODBC tracing file: connecting to the database

Developer Tools

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

• The Azure Updates Team announces General availability: Azure Event Hubs SDK for Go
• On the Visual Studio blog, Christine Ruana covers Installing Visual Studio from an Internal Intranet Website and explains how to Configure Visual Studio policies using Microsoft Endpoint Manager Intune
• Erin Stellato (@erinstellato) talks about SQL Server Management Studio SSMS 19.1 and Recent Changes, Part 2
• On the Visual Studio blog, Taysser Gherfal (@taysser) announces Visual Studio 2022 17.7 Preview 2 is here
• Freek Berson (@fberson) talks about Bicep param files now available, upgrade to v0.18.4
• Panu Oksala talks about GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Intellisense

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 announces Microsoft Azure Load Testing - additional Azure components for server-side monitoring, and Microsoft Azure Load Testing supports setting up quick start tests using requests per second, and Retirement notice: Move to Azure Load Testing GA API versions by 10 September 2023 and Microsoft Azure Load Testing - configure auto stop criteria
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Gloridel Morales highlights June patches for Azure DevOps Server
• On the Twilio blog, Matija Vrzan walks through Creating a CI/CD Pipeline for Twilio Flex Plugins with Azure DevOps
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) walks through Using Azure Export for Terraform to import existing Azure resources into Terraform
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Silviu Andrica describes Updates to Approvals and Checks

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Tanayankar Chakraborty discusses Impact of Memory Grant Feedback on Azure SQL Managed Instance

Identity

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

• James Mantu describes Action required: Last chance to migrate ADAL apps
• Kristopher Bash writes about Important: Azure AD Graph Retirement and Powershell Module Deprecation
• The Azure Updates Team writes about Generally Available: Managed identity authentication in Azure Monitor container insights
• The Intune Support Team walks through Configuring Microsoft Intune just-in-time admin access with Azure AD PIM for Groups and explains how to Update to enrollment pre-requisites for Windows devices managed by Defender for Endpoint with Intune
• Brooke Lynn Weenig and Sean Metcalf (@PyroTek3) discuss Strategies for securing identities in Azure Active Directory with Sean Metcalf
• Bas van Bennekom describes how to Use Azure Functions to Remove Unauthorized Role Assignments

Integration

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

• On Code Project, Leszek Koc writes about Automatic Subscription of Azure Functions to Event Grid
• Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) covers Logic App Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks: 30 How to validate if a JSON structure is an Array or a single object and 31 Specifying JSON Schema elements nullable
• Also, Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) writes about Natural Language Message Validation with Logic Apps and ChatGPT, explains How to Create an Integration Account Project in Visual Studio 2019 and covers Microsoft Integration and Azure Stencils Pack for Visio: New version available v8.0.0

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 writes about General availability: Azure Sphere version 23.05 is delayed to 20 June, and the updated OS has been issued to Retail Eval

Learning

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

• Angie Chen provides a Skilling snack: Do more with Microsoft Graph

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 Generally Available: Azure Monitor Alert resources now visible in the Azure portal and GA: Application Insights Distributed tracing support for Java Function Apps
• The Azure Updates Team talks about Public Preview: IT Service Management Connector ITSMC is now certified with ServiceNow Utah version, and Public preview: Assess impact of service retirements workbook template in Azure Advisor and Swati Devgan covers Public Preview: Windows Services & Daemons support for Change Tracking & Inventory with AMA
• Tom Moser discusses Encryption algorithm changes in Microsoft Purview Information Protection
• Werner Rall delves into Avoiding Disk Export and VHD Download in Azure
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Daniel Hidalgo covers Fixes & Reporting Multicloud Vulnerability Detection with Microsoft Purview
• Elliot Pearl-Sacks announces multicloud assessments in Compliance Manager
• Erin Miyake announces  a new Purview feature and explains how to Manage insider risks in multicloud environments
• On Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag and Ben Stegink (@msclouditpro) present Episode 338 – Wrangle your inbox after vacation
• JeremyhMS announces the public preview of Service Retirement Workbook in Azure Advisor

Media

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

• Farrukh Ghaffar talks about Azure Communication Services Virtual Rooms is now Generally Available
• Lola Bryan blogs about Whats new in Windows Holographic, version 23H1
• The Azure Updates Team announces Available: Reduced pricing for Azure Video Indexer
• David Giard (@DavidGiard) and Nikki Conley discuss Video Indexer

Migration

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

• The Azure Updates Team announces General Availability: Online migrations for Azure Database for MySQL instances
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) talks about Azure Cloud management in the Cloud Adoption Framework

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

• The Azure Updates Team announces the General Availability of: Azure Front Door upgrade from standard to premium, and Azure Front Door Migration from classic to standard/premium and Azure Front Door integration with managed identities
• Jessie Jia announces Azure Front Door Migration Tool General Available
• Eliran Azulai announces Azure Firewall Upgrade/Downgrade General Availability and Azure Firewall Structured Logs General Availability
• The Azure Updates Team writes 'Azure DNS is zero-day resilient with a diverse, multi-stack DNS infrastructure platforms.'
• On the Redmond magazine site, Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) blogs about Azure Firewall Gets Easier Product Upgrades and Structured Logs
• Wired for Hybrid - Deep Dive 3 - Michael Bender (@MichaelBender) and Andrea Michael take a deep dive on Azure Virtual Network Manager
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) explains how to Verify Azure IP Flow with Azure Network Watcher

Security

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

• Episode 190 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast with Tobias Zimmergren Jussi Roine - Let's take Defender for APIs for a spin
• Ryan Hausknecht talks about Detection Engineering in Azure & Introducing AzDetectSuite
• Shilpa Bothra announces a new Purview feature and explains how to Prevent data leak through web apps with Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention
• Paul Bergson, Matt Lopinto, and Brian Delaney walk through Introducing the Microsoft Sentinel Triage Assistant STAT

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 Azure Blob Storage SDK for Go and Azure Queue Storage SDK for Go
• The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Azure NetApp Files Availability zone volume placement enhancement – Populate existing volume

Web

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

• The Azure Updates Team discusses Public Preview: App Service support for .NET 8
• David San Filippo writes Skip the Sitecore Upgrade, Go Straight to XM Cloud
• Damien Bowden (@damien_bod) explains how to Reset user account passwords using Microsoft Graph and application permissions in ASP.NET Core
• On the Azure Medium blog, Ala Raddaoui talks about Securing Client-Server Communication: Choosing the Right Cipher Suite for Your Web Application and Azure Services
• Pablo Lopes explains How to Easily Make Web Applications with Code-to-Cloud, Getting Apps in the Cloud

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• The Azure Updates Team announces Azure Virtual Desktop Insights Powered by the Azure Monitor Agent, and Public preview: Custom Image Templates for Azure Virtual Desktop and Public preview: Confidential Virtual Machines VM support in 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"!