Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #355

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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

• Daksh Vatwani talks about Securing machine learning environments on Azure Machine Learning Machine Learning Essentials
• Szczegielniak talks about Python Machine Learning on Azure Part 1: Creating an XGBoost Model with Python, VS Code, and Azure ML
• Szczegielniak describes Python Machine Learning on Azure Part 2: Creating a PyTorch Model with Python, GitHub Codespaces, and Azure ML
• Daksh Vatwani explains how to Build Securely with Azure AI, and How to scale applications through Azure AI, and How to build a chatbot with Microsoft Azure AI Azure AI Essentials, and How to use AI to automate document processing Azure AI Essentials,and Learn how to deploy Azure Cognitive Services in Containers, and Open and interoperable machine learning with Azure Machine Learning and How to create an intelligent call center with Microsoft Azure AI
• Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan lists the Top 5 advices for users of Microsoft Cognitive Services
• Derek Legenzoff announces semantic configurations and broader availability for semantic search

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

• Joshuha Owen blogs about Introducing Map Data preview for Synapse
• Rohit Dhande talks about Log Pipeline Executions to File in Azure Data Factory

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

• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) covers Hardening Azure VMs: 5 Critical Best Practices
• Gauhar Junnarkar discusses Barracuda Virtual Reactor on Azure
• Jerry Zhang writes about Not enough disk space issue in Service Fabric cluster

Containers

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

• Sam Cogan (@samcogan) walks through Accessing a Private AKS Cluster with Additional Private Endpoints
• Jay Gordon presents an Azure Container Apps - CI/CD deployments Video Demo
• Sayed Belal writes about Continuous Profiling in Kubernetes Using Pyroscope
• Episode 407 of The Azure podcast is all about 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

• Azure Cosmos DB Conf is returning, April 19-20, 2022; Mark Brown announces Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2022 – Call for Papers
• Ahmed Mahmoud discusses Learning from Expertise 8: Why cannot move SQL database from provisioned to serverless
• Hiten Bhavsar describes Automating Azure SQL DB index and statistics maintenance using Azure Data Factory - Single Database
• Sergiu Ernu explains how to Deploy a connectivity dashboard for PostgreSQL Flexible Server
• Sudheesh Narayanaswamy writes about Bidirectional replication with Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server
• Vishal Ani talks about Azure Purview Managed Vnet, Vnet Integration Runtime and Managed Private Endpoints
• Tao Yang (@MrTaoYang) discusses Azure SQL Virtual Machines - Sharing My Code and Experience
• Mangai Murugan blogs about Overview of Azure Modern Data Warehouse

Developer Tools

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

• Denizhan Yigitbas blogs about Bringing Code Cleanup on Save To Visual Studio 2022 17.1 Preview 2
• Fernando Sibaja Araya explains how to Get a Hadoop Sandbox for testing/troubleshooting POLYBASE and Hadoop in 20 minutes.
• David Ramel writes about See What's New for Git in Latest Visual Studio 2022 Update

DevOps

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

• Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) talks about Data Science With Buck Woody - Episode 175
• Richard Fennell (@richardfennell) delves into Using Azure DevOps Stage Dependency Variables with Conditional Stage and Job Execution
• Poorna Mishra blogs about Azure Synapse Studio CICD using YAML pipelines
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) walks through Running builds and releases in Azure DevOps using an Elgato Stream Deck
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) writes about Az Module Scripts in GitHub Actions
• On episode 408 of The Azure Podcast - Azure Load Testing
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) talks about Remote Backend State with Terraform and Azure Storage

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Niko Neugebauer writes about How-to test TCP connectivity from a SQL Managed Instance
• Yasmeen Jassim covers Introducing the all-new azure stack HCI sizing tool preview

Identity

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

• Kurt Mackie writes about Continuous Access Evaluation Now Commercially Available for Azure Active Directory Users
• Akihiro Nishikawa (@Logico_jp) explains how to Configure RBAC for Cosmos DB with Managed Identity instead of Service Principal
• Alex Simons writes about Continuous Access Evaluation in Azure AD is now generally available
• Innocent Wafula writes about Single Sign On Support for authentication in Microsoft Sentinel Notebooks
• Umar Mohamed Usman walks through Protecting APIs in Azure API Management using OAuth 2.0 Client Credential Flow
• Rahul Sharma discusses Connecting Azure Authentication to Other Providers Article One: Linking Azure AD with On-Premises Active Directory, and Connecting Azure Authentication to Other Providers Article 2: Using Azure AD B2C to Enable Social Login and  Connecting Azure Authentication to Other Providers Article 3: Connecting Azure AD with AWS Cognito for Authentication

Integration

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

• Yi Yang describes Permission Level and Scope in Managed Applications

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

• Simon Waight (@simonwaight) writes about Real-time air quality monitoring and alerting with Azure and PurpleAir – Part 1

Learning

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

• Liberty Munson writes about New to Microsoft Certification exams We have something you need to try
• Learn Live: Create microservices with .NET and ASP.NET - Events starting on the 11th January.
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes How To Learn Microsoft Azure in 2022

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

• Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) blogs about Monitor Power BI Queries And Refreshes With DirectQuery On Log Analytics, Part 2: Dataset Refreshes
• Ben Brauer explains how to Do more for less with enhanced Azure Advisor recommendations for virtual machines
• Bruno Gabrielli blogs about Azure Monitor: Audit your Azure and non-Azure SQL Server
• James Eckhart talks about Getting Started with a Windows 365 POC
• Maria Zakourdaev blogs about Choosing Between Azure General Purpose or Business Critical Tiers
• Brendon Lee discusses Using Adaptive Policy Scopes to Apply M365 Retention to Shared, Resource, and Inactive Mailboxes

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

• Andreas Nesheim writes about Scanning and analyzing invoices using Xamarin.Forms and Azure

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

• Niko Neugebauer writes about How-to test failover group connectivity between primary and secondary SQL Managed Instances
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) explains how to Connect to nested Hyper-V VMs in Azure from another Virtual Network using VPN Gateway

Security

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

• On episode 64 of the AzureFunBytes podcast Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) talks with Rod Tren about Building SOC Efficiency with Azure Sentinel
• On episode 116 of the Ctrl + Alt Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine talk about  Azure Updates
• Matt Lowe explains how to Get Hands-On KQL Practice with this Microsoft Sentinel Workbook
• Tariq Rasheed Al-Qaralleh covers SQl Injection: example of SQL Injections and Recommendations to avoid it.
• Yoann Mallet explains how to Protect your Smartsheet Deployment using Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

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

• No content this week

Web

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

• Sherry Sahni describes Import a WebSocket API in API Management
• Jay Gong describes How to track requests after integrating APIM with Logic App services
• Sravani Masapalli discusses Import Logic Apps Standard into Azure API Management
• Marc Duiker shares a Vue.js and Node.js tutorial: a realtime collaboration app hosted in Azure Static Web Apps

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• Onboard Windows multi-session devices in Azure Virtual Desktop vis Microsoft Docs
• Justin Shiah talks about Azure Virtual Desktop Support for Trusted Launch Virtual Machines
• Claudia Zhou explains how to Deploy Teams media optimization with Intune Proactive Remediation to Windows 365

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"!