Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #325

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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

• Yueying Liu highlights: Azure Neural Text-to-Speech extended to support lip sync with viseme
• The Azure Updates Team highlights that Azure Health Bot adds new regions and languages for its systems checker

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 Codit blog, Jasper Defesche talks about Invictifying Azure Data Factory
• On Channel 9, Ramya Oruganti (@ramyaoncloud) highlights that Real-time streaming is now faster and easier with Confluent Cloud on Azure
• Emma An writes about Where to run your Azure Stream Analytics job
• On the Azure blog, Tom Keane (@tomwkeane) covers Ground processing with space data 5x faster with Azure
• Clinton Ford (@clintonwford) writes about Why customers trust Azure Databricks for their mission-critical workloads
• The Azure Updates Team announces Azure Stream Analytics: 5 new regions are now generally available

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

• Brent Siglar discusses The High-performance computing SKUs in the Azure Government Virginia region
• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Ricardo Duncan discusses how to Increase Efficiency with Azure Functions and Power Platform
• Reza Rahman (@reza_rahman) discusses how to Run WebSphere Application Server on Azure Virtual Machines
• Carlos Bermúdez Lopez explains how to Install Python on a Windows node using a start task with Azure Batch

Containers

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

• On the SQL Server Blog, Amit Khandelwal highlights that Microsoft SQL Server Linux-based container images are to be available only from the Microsoft Container Registry
• Richard Hooper (@Pixel_Robots) explains how to Disable local user account (–admin) in Azure Kubernetes Service
• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Toddy Mladenov (@toddysm) covers Deprecating the Distribution of Microsoft Container Images via Docker Hub
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Donovan Brown (@DonovanBrown) and Jay Gordon discuss Helm
• Reshma Vishwanath talks about Troubleshooting Node down Scenarios in Azure Service Fabric - Part II and Part III
• The Service Fabric team discusses Azure Service Fabric 8.0 First Refresh Release

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

• Thamires Lemes talks about how to diagnose the issue: 'Lock request time out period exceeded' when connecting to the database from SSMS and walks through Troubleshooting high lock wait time and lock time-out
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Ron L'Esteve runs through Reading and Writing to Snowflake Data Warehouse from Azure Databricks using Azure Data Factory
• On SQL Server Central, Rathish Kumar provides A Step by Step Guide to the Availability Group (AG) Listener
• Jeremy Likness (@jeremylikness) describes Azure Cosmos DB With EF Core on Blazor Server

Developer Tools

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

• On the Visual Studio blog, Sachin Thakur highlights: The Visual Studio family welcomes you at Microsoft Build 2021
• Ravikanth Chaganti (@ravikanth) discusses the Bicep Visualizer and Bicep Container Image
• On Channel 9, Rob Gibbens talks about Visual Studio Code and GitHub
• Sam Cogan (@samcogan) blogs about Azure PowerShell and CLI Integrated Support for Bicep
• On Visual Studio Magazine - Blogs, David Ramel (@dramel) highlights that Microsoft Previews Azure SDK for Python (Conda) Packaging System
• John Reilly (@johnny_reilly) discusses Azurite and Table Storage in a dev container
• Paul Bullock blogs about Getting Started with Azure Shell and PnP PowerShell with Certificates

DevOps

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

• On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) blogs about CI/CD using GitHub Actions Workflow directly from Visual Studio
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Zachary Deptawa (@zdeptawa) lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community
• On the .NET Curry blog, Gouri Sohoni blogs about Customization of Work Items in Azure DevOps and Azure DevOps Server 2020
• On Channel 9, Martina Hiemstra (@mlh3636) and Damian Brady talk about Loving Azure Boards with Delivery Plans 2.0
• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Sagar Lankala discusses how SharePoint Online Team leverages DevTest Labs to create Testing Environments
• Carter Socha highlights that Work Item Integration v2 is now generally available
• On the Whizlabs blog, Vidya Ransam asks: What is Azure DevOps? and describes How to Become Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer
• Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) explains how to Create Azure DevOps or GitHub bugs from Azure Monitor logs

Hybrid

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Sasa Popovic describes Using data-tier applications BACPAC to migrate a database from Managed Instance to SQL Server, Database migration from Managed Instance to SQL Server with transactional replication and walks through Moving databases from Azure SQL Managed Instance to SQL Server
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes Azure Arc for Security Engineers
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) covers Cloud Governance Forum and Azure Arc

Identity

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

• On the Redmond magazine site, Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) describes Azure Active Directory Conditional Access and VM Management Perks Released
• Jing Li announces Active Directory Identity Improvement on AKS on Azure Stack HCI
• Sonia Cuff (@soniacuff) asks: What's the difference between Azure roles and Azure AD roles?

Integration

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

• Mohammed Barqawi explains how to Build ActiveMQ trigger for Logic App Preview
• Yanbo Deng explains How to use Logic Apps to get/send outlook item (i.e. .msg)
• On the Serverless360 blog, Srihari Senthil explains how to Build Automated, Scalable Enterprise Integration Workflows by Using the Enterprise Integration Pack (EIP) with Azure Logic Apps

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 highlights that Azure Sphere 21.05 will not be released - 21.06 coming in June, and announces General availability: IoT Hub service API support for Azure Active Directory based access control and Public Preview: Azure Percept DK May 2105 software update is available
• Sander van de Velde highlights the Build 2021 IoT related sessions
• Olivier Bloch (@obloch) runs through IoT at Microsoft Build 2021
• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Ricardo Duncan covers how to Unlock the Future of Azure IoT through Power Platform

Learning

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

• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Mark Winters discusses how to Plan your Microsoft Azure experience at Microsoft Build
• Lee Stott (@lee_stott) writes: Interested in Learning more about Azure and Cloud Computing? See Azure Charts for your EntryPoint

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

• Billy York covers Azure Resource Graph: Zero to Hero
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) walks through Getting Started with Azure Bicep
• Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) discuss So, where is my data?
• Cameron Gardiner discusses the SAP on Azure General Update
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) explains how to Modify or edit remote Terraform state file in Azure
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) blogs about an Error when deploying an Azure Landing Zone template
• arter Socha writes about Private Testing Guidance for Availability in Application Insights

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

• On the Azure blog, Michael Yen-Chi Ho explains how to Enable your mission-critical workloads with SUSE on Azure and covers Search made simple: native Elastic integration with Azure—now in preview
• Jasmine Henry explains how to Discover and Assess SQL Server deployments for migration to Azure SQL with Azure Migrate
• Alexandra Ciortea and Xiao Yu discuss Migrating to SQL: Validate Migrated Objects Using SSMA
• On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) covers The fastest way to get started with Microsoft Azure
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) walks through How to migrate your MySQL database to the cloud

Mobile

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

• On Channel 9, Stephan Kieburg talks about EnumToIntConverter
• Heiko Ra explains how to Build an application that transcribes speech

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 that VNET peering support for Azure Bastion is generally available and the Public preview of Azure VPN Client for macOS
• Camila Martins provides some Azure Network Security Ninja Training
• Stefan Röll (@stefanroell) blogs about Microsoft Endpoint Manager and Delivery Optimization

Security

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

• On the Azure blog, Pradeep Nair highlights that Azure gains 100th compliance offering—protecting data with EU Cloud Code of Conduct
• The Azure Updates Team announces that the Azure Key Vault SLA has been raised to 99.99%
• On Microsoft Security blog, Emma Jones covers Protecting SAP applications with the new Azure Sentinel SAP threat monitoring solution
• Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) explains how to Discover sensitive Key Vault operations with Azure Sentinel
• Abhishek Narain discusses Azure Data Factory Security

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

• Jose Moreno (@erjosito) talks about Using Trident to Automate Azure NetApp Files from OpenShift
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) writes about Attribute-Based Access Control for Azure Blob Storage
• On the Serverless360 blog, Amrita Varsihini describes Boost Productivity Through Optimized Azure Storage Management

Web

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

• On the DEV site, Ayşegül Yönet (@AysSomething) collates Everything you need to know to deploy an Azure Static Web App
• On Visual Studio Magazine - Blogs, David Ramel (@dramel) highlights: Azure Static Web Apps Goes GA

Windows Virtual Desktop

Covering: Windows Virtual Desktop

• The Azure Updates Team highlights that Windows Virtual Desktop web client to end support for Internet Explorer 11 on September 30, 2021

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"!