Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #312

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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 Microsoft + Open Source, Sarah Bird, Besmira Nushi and Mehrnoosh Sameki discuss Enabling responsible AI development with new open source capabilities
• The Azure Updates Team announces that Azure Machine Learning updates for native terminal are generally available
• Krishna Doss highlights that Translator announces Document Translation (Preview)

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 MSSQL Tips site, Fikrat Azizov explains how to Analyze data skew issues with Azure Synapse Analytics
• Also on the MSSQL Tips site, Ron L'Esteve writes about Incrementally Upsert data using Azure Data Factory's Mapping Data Flows
• On the Hanu blog, Dave Sasson describes How to Succeed with Big Data and Microsoft Azure in 2021
• Meagan Longoria (@mmarie) discusses Azure Data Factory Activity Failures and Pipeline Outcomes
• On Tech Community blog, Charl Roux (@charl0204) explains Spark Table to Serverless Pool Metadata Sync
• On the Microsoft BI Tools blog, Joost van Rossum (@ssisjoost) walks through Scaling Azure Analysis Services with ADF only
• The Azure updates team announces that .NET Core support for Analysis Services client libraries is generally available
• Luis Soares delves into Azure Synapse SQL Pools Auto DR

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 that Automatic Azure VM extension upgrade capabilities are now in public preview, Azure Dav4-series VMs are available in Azure HDInsight and that Cross Region Restore of Azure VMs are now generally available
• Andrew Coughlin covers how to Upload Custom Linux Hyper-V Image for Gen 2 VM in Azure

Containers

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

• On the Dapr Blog, the Dapr Maintainers (@daprdev) are excited to Announce Dapr v1.0 - this is a fantastic project for anyone looking to build distributed (micro-service) applications on-prem and in any cloud. Congratulations Team! 👏👏👏
• Robert Smit (@Clustermvp) explains how to Distributed Application Runtime Dapr version 1.0
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) discusses Dapr on Azure
• The Azure Updates Team announces that Azure Red Hat OpenShift support for OpenShift 4.6 is generally available
• Srini Padala blogs about Container Image builds on Kubernetes clusters with Containerd and Azure DevOps self-hosted agents
• Peter Groenewegen (@pgroene) walks through Getting memory dump from .Net core Linux container on AKS
• Peter Pogorski highlights the Service Fabric managed clusters 2021-01-01-preview release
• Peter Pogorski talks about Azure Service Fabric Sixth Refresh Release
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) walks through How to use Deployment Slots in Azure App Service for Containers

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 that More ways to use composite indexes in Azure Cosmos DB are now generally available and and Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Hyperscale Citus audit logging via pgAudit now in public preview
• Dandan Zhang blogs about Investigating connection issues with Azure Database for MySQL
• On Channel 9, Silvano Coriani (@scoriani) explains How Azure SQL Enables Real-time Operational Analytics (HTAP)
• On the Azure blog, Rahul Ajmera highlights that the Apache Spark Connector for SQL Server and Azure SQL now compatible with Spark 3.0
• On the DEV site, Davide Mauri (@mauridb) talks about The insert if not exists challenge: a solution
• Liliam Leme discusses Troubleshooting Performance on SQL On-demand or Serverless

Developer Tools

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

• On Channel 9, Brigit Murtaugh (@BrigitMurtaugh) talks about Remote dev with Containers & Codespaces
• Lomis Chen writes about the Latest improvements to the Azure CLI experience
• Luise Freese describes How to send Adaptive Cards with CLI Microsoft 365
• Maxime Rouiller (@MaximRouiller) writes: From classic Command Prompt to fully customizable Terminal
• Callon Campbell (@flying_maverick) explains why you should Stop using ARM templates! Use the Azure CLI instead

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 that Application Insights work item integration for Azure DevOps & GitHub is in public preview
• Carter Socha discusses the Updated Work Item Integration
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Vijay Machiraju highlights a Change in Azure Pipelines Grant for Public Projects
• On the Microsoft BI Tools blog, Joost van Rossum (@ssisjoost) provides a quick intro to the Keyboard Shortcuts YAML editor
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) blogs about how to Remove the need to hard-code in Azure DevOps Pipelines
• Kevin Chant runs through some Experiments to use Azure DevOps with Azure Synapse Analytics SQL Pools
• Angel Wong highlights that Billing and Token Management events are now available in Auditing
• On the DEV site, Abel Wang (@abelsquidhead) discusses Agile Development
• Steve Buchanan (@buchatech) talks about Cloud Native, DevOps, GitOps, Kubernetes, and Azure

Hybrid

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) discusses Secure Hybrid Cloud with Azure Arc
• On Azure Friday, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) talks about Building modern hybrid applications with Azure Arc and Azure Stack
• On the Azure blog, Jaspreet Kaur runs through Azure Automation 2020 recap and whats new
• Vijay Kumar covers how Customers unify hybrid and multicloud IT operations with Azure Arc
• The Azure Updates Team announces Machine Learning on Azure SQL Managed Instance now available and Log Replay Service for Azure SQL Managed Instance in public preview
• Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) writes: Cannot show requested dialog obtaining properties database in Managed Instance
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) explains how to Manage Certificates on your Hybrid Servers using Azure Arc Key Vault Extension

Identity

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

• Anuj Chaudhary provides a PowerShell sample for Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
• Vlad Dancescu discusses Restricting API Management access to users through AAD
• On the Codit blog, Gonçalo Chaves describes OAuth1.0 Authentication for Azure Functions with RestSharp
• Damien Bowden (@damien_bod) describes Adding ASP.NET Core authorization for an Azure Blob Storage and Azure AD users using role assignments

Integration

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

• Ashish Chhabria announces general availability for Java Message Service JMS 2.0 API on Azure Service Bus Premium.
• Paul Lee explains How to send messages to or receive from Service Bus/Event Hub with Service Bus Explorer
• Gregor Suttie (@gregor_suttie) describes Azure Durable Functions – Support Caller

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 that the Azure IoT Edge 1.1.0 release is now generally available and that the Azure Sphere OS version 21.02 is now available for evaluation

Learning

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

• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Nitya Narasimhan (@ntiya) provides A Visual Introduction To Azure Fundamentals
• Joe Carlyle (@wedoAzure) provides an AZ-500 (Microsoft Azure Security Technologies) Study Guide
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) provides a AZ-140 Exam Study Guide: Configuring and Operating Windows Virtual Desktop on Microsoft Azure

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 has made a few announcements:
  Azure Cost Management now available for Azure Government Pay-As-You-Go subscriptions,
  Public preview: Azure Cost Management + Billings cost allocation now available in Azure Government,
  Azure Purview available in public preview in South Central US and Canada Central,
  Application Insights availability troubleshooting report for URL tests,
  Generally available: Application Insights synthetic monitoring SLA report template,
  Public preview: Application Insights auto-instrumentation for .NET5 App Services
  and New disk burning metrics in Azure Monitor
• Carter Socha writes about how to Easily calculate SLA, downtime, and outages of your App Insights Availability Webtests
• Halaa Menasy discusses Azure Logging and Monitoring for ISVs
• On SQL Server Central, Johan Hln writes about Getting Started with Azure Purview
• Also on SQL Server Central, Ron L'Esteve runs through Azure Data Factory Pipeline Logging Error Details
• Leo Li explains how to Analyze root cause and impact using ADF ETL lineage in Azure Purview
• Zeinab Mokhtarian Koorabbasloo explains how to Apply M365 Sensitivity Labels across your data assets in Azure Purview
• Goran Condric explains how to Optimize your Azure Costs by Automating SAP System Start – Stop
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) highlights the One Ops Question Video Series
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) covers Azure Policy
• Dave Ruijter (@daveruijter) describes How to colorize each Azure Databricks workspace differently
• Srihari Senthil disusses the Top 3 approaches to monitor the health status of Azure Event Hubs
• On The Azure Podcast, Matthew Garrett and Tyler Peterson talk about Bellhop
• Itay Podhajcer (@ItayPodhajcer) walks through a Simple Terraform Wrapper Module for Deploying an Azure Blockchain Service

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

• Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) writes about SQL migration to Azure with near-zero downtime
• On Channel 9, Matt Basile, Jobi George and Thomas Ganka discuss Ingesting and migrating data the DataOps way
• Also on Channel 9, Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) talks about Azure Migrate
• Simon Timms (@stimms) discusses Microservices Architecture
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Steven Murawski (@StevenMurawski) discusses On Prem To The Cloud: Getting Started
• Danimir Ljepava (@danimir) explains how to Migrate databases from SQL Server to SQL Managed Instance using Log Replay Service

Mobile

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

• On Channel 9, Steven Thewissen (@devnl) talks about MultiConverter & VariableMultiValueConverter

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

• On the Azure blog, Eliran Azulai highlights: Azure Firewall Premium now in preview
• The Azure Updates Team announces that Standard Load Balancer and IP addresses metadata are now available through Azure Instance Metadata Service IMDS and that Azure Firewall Premium is now in public preview
• On Channel 9, Christian Kuhtz (@ckuhtz) talks about How to get better outbound connectivity using Azure NAT Gateway
• Akihiro Nishikawa (@Logico_jp) discusses an issue: Unable to access SQL Database connected via Service Endpoint after database failover occurs
• Jithin Jose discusses Accelerated Networking on HB, HC, HBv2 and NDv2
• Yousef Khalidi (@YousefkAzure) writes about how to Future-proof your network with Azure for Operators

Security

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

• The Azure Updates Team announces that Azure role-based access control RBAC for Azure Key Vault data plane authorization is now generally available
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Get Azure Overall Secure Score from REST API
• Or Serok-Jeppa runs through how to Continuously Export Secure Score for Over-Time Tracking and Reporting (Preview)
• On Azure Sentinel blog, Lia Tlishaa covers The Toolkit for Data-Driven SOCs
• Also on Azure Sentinel blog, Rijuta Kapoor covers how to Use Microsoft Azure Sentinel and Anomali Match for actionable threat detection
• On the DEV site, Justin Yoo (@justinchronicle) talks about KeyVault Secrets Rotation Management in Bulk
• On the Azure blog, Amit Srivastava talks about how Azure Front Door enhances secure cloud CDN with intelligent threat protection

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 a Volume hard quota change in Azure NetApp Files

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 that API Management Diagnostics now available in public preview
• Joe Lurie highlights Endpoint management deep dives + Q&A in March

Windows Virtual Desktop

Covering: Windows Virtual Desktop

• Robert Smit (@Clustermvp) highlights that Windows Virtual Desktop metadata is now available in West Europe
• Nicole Haugen covers Choosing Between Azure Lab Services and Windows Virtual Desktop for Your Educational Scenarios

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.
• A-Z of the Azure ecosystem - a slide deck outlining current Azure services.
• 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"!