Azure Weekly Issue 171: 22nd April 2018

We hope that anyone involved in the global Azure bootcamp yesterday had a fun and beneficial time. We hope that the organizers, volunteers and sponsors got the recognition they deserved - these events can't happen without them. We, at endjin, were otherwise engaged yesterday at DDD South West in Bristol, UK, where we hosted a couple of talks on CosmosDB and Data Lake, and sponsored the event as part of a wider company initiative to support and contribute more deeply to the developer community. We'd like to take the time to thank all of our subscribers for taking the time to read our newsletter, especially the new subscribers we reeled in from the event yesterday! You've come to the best place to receive your weekly fix of Azure news. Let's crack on and begin this week's edition...

In one of the most interesting pieces of news this week we see Microsoft embracing a Linux kernel for its new IoT security solution: Introducing Microsoft Azure Sphere: Secure and power the intelligent edge. How times change!

There has been a barrage of GUID/Name alterations to numerous Azure services this week. Let's start by explicitly pointing all these out for those who may be affected:

• GUID migration: Linux support
• GUID migration: Zone Redundant Storage
• Name changes: Azure SQL Database long-term backup retention and simliarly for the US Government regions
• Name changes: Cosmos DB and US Government regions
• GUID migration: Azure Redis Cache and US Government regions
• GUID migration: Azure Security Center and US Government regions

Now onto the more interesting announcements:

• Announcing the launch of Azure M-series VMs with up to 4TB RAM in USGov Virginia region
• Azure DDoS Protection for virtual networks generally available
• What's new in Azure DNS - Metrics and alerting
• Region expansion: Global VNet Peering
• Azure Backup now supports storage accounts secured with Azure Storage Firewalls and Virtual Networks
• Recovery Services vault limit increased to 500 vaults per subscription per region
• Azure Service Fabric - announcing Reliable Services on Linux and RHEL support
• Configuration of TLS versions in App Service and Functions apps now available
• Transparent Data Encryption with customer managed keys in Azure SQL Database generally available
• Spring Data Azure Cosmos DB now available: NoSQL data access on Azure
• Announcing new Azure Security Center capabilities at RSA 2018
• Data Subject Request (DSR) processing capability in the Azure portal soon to come, streamlining GDPR requests
• Preview: programmatically create Azure enterprise subscriptions using ARM APIs
• What's new in Azure Log Analytics - April 2018
• Alerts created in the Operations Management Suite portal can extend into Azure
• Updates to global subscription filtering

In last week's edition we congratulated the winning team of the Imagine cup who created a Bot that helps with job interviews. This week another finalist's work was detailed. Team Soothey created an RNN-Powered Mental Healthcare Bot using the Microsoft Bot framework along with various other tools. A brilliant submission.

Ever wondered how the VSTS team does branching? Edward Thomson answers that question in this intriging article. Elsewhere, John Downs has nicely demystified Managed Service Identities on Azure.

Finally, here's an update on Azure Saturday 2018 if you're planning to attend!

AI + Machine Learning

Covering: Azure Batch AI, Azure Bot Service, Microsoft Genomics, Machine Learning services, Machine Learning Studio, Cognitive Services, Bing APIs, Computer Vision API, Content moderator, Custom Services, Emotion API, Face API, Language Understanding (LUIS), Linguistic Analysis API, QnA Maker API, Speaker Recognition API, Text Analytics API, Translator Speech API, Translator Text API, Web Language Model API

• On MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) writes about An RNN-Powered Mental Healthcare Bot – Team Soothey from Oxford University Imagine Cup 2018 Finalists
• Also on MSDN, Jennifer Marsman (@jennifermarsman) writes about A new challenge: Joining the AI for Earth team at Microsoft
• On Channel 9, Anna Thomas and Rodrigo Souza present Learn AI-Bootcamp for Emerging AI Developers: Computer Vision API, Custom Vision Service, LUIS Part 1/2 on the AI Show
• On the Azure podcast, the Azure podcast team and guest Sonya Koptyev present Episode 224 - The AI Platform
• On Code Project, Andy Edmonds writes about the Instant Conversational Bots with the MS Bot Service and DARL

Analytics

Covering: Azure Databricks, HDInsight, Data Factory, Stream Analytics, Data Lake Analytics, Event Hubs, Power BI, Azure Analysis Services, Apache Spark for HDInsight, Apache Storm for HDInsight, R Server for HDInsight, Data Catalog

• On MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) discusses Microsoft Azure Data Bricks–Collaborative Apache Spark Analytics Platform
• Vincent-Philippe Lauzon (@vplauzon) writes about the Python Version in Databricks
• On the Azure blog, Gaurav Malhotra, Program Manager - Azure Data Factory, writes about Iterative development and debugging using Data Factory and on Channel 9, Scott Hanselman talks about Continuous integration and deployment using Azure Data Factory with Gaurav Malhotra on Azure Friday
• Devin Knight (@knight_devin) presents Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 99 – Drill-Down Donut Chart
• On the Power BI blog, Charles Sterling (@chass) writes Last Chance for the Data & BI Summit 24-26 April in Dublin Ireland and Corina Radovanovocih writes that USAFacts breaks down government financial data with Power BI
• On TechNet, Rachel Mason highlights some Data Platform & Analytics technical webinars & consultations – April, May & June

Compute

Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances

• On MSDN, Kyle Deeds announces the launch of Azure M-series VMs with up to 4TB RAM in USGov Virginia region
• Richard Seroter (@rseroter) walks through Creating an Azure VM Scale Set from a legacy, file-sharing, ASP.NET app
• On the risual blog, Jamie Hunt describes Azure Backup Failing for Linux VM with VMSnapshotLinux Extension in Transitioning State
• Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) walks through Using HTTPS with Azure Functions in local development
• On Code Project, Sarmaad Amin (@sarmaad) provides an Azure Functions Tutorial – SQL Database
• On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) describes How to quickly copy Azure Functions between Azure Tenants and implement Run From Zip

Containers

Covering: Container Registry, Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Web App for Containers

• On the Azure blog, Subramanian Ramaswamy writes about Azure Service Fabric – announcing Reliable Services on Linux and RHEL support
• On Channel 9, Alena Hall (@lenadroid) presents Part 2 of 4: Use Azure Resource Manager to create managed Kubernetes cluster on the Open Source Show
• On MSDN, Monu Bambroo writes Docker Blog Series Part 6 – How to use Service Fabric Reverse Proxy for container services
• Also on MSDN, Freddy Kristiansen (@freddydk) writes Which Docker Image is the right for you?

Databases

Covering: Azure SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB, SQL Data Warehouse, Redis Cache, SQL Server Stretch Database, SQL Server on virtual machines, Table storage, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Database for MySQL

• On the Azure blog, Alice Kupcik announces that Transparent Data Encryption with customer managed keys in Azure SQL Database generally available
• Also on the Azure blog, Yitao Dong writes about Spring Data Azure Cosmos DB: NoSQL data access on Azure
• Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) writes about Read-only replicas - Taking advantage of free DTUs
• On MSDN, Karim Moussa (@kmoussa) writes about Getting SQLSTATE[28000] [1045] Access denied for 'user'@'IPaddress' (using password: YES) when trying to restore mySQL dump to Azure MySQL DB PaaS
• On the MSSQL Tips site, John Martin (@SQLDiplomat) blogs about Migrating SQL Server Databases to Azure Managed Instances with Native Backups
• On Channel 9, Cecil Phillip and Chris Anderson speak about Using resource tokens with Azure Cosmos DB
• Also on Channel 9, Donovan Brown (@DonovanBrown) explains how to Deploy Bitnami Node.js HA Cluster with Azure Cosmos DB with Rick Spencer
• Also on Channel 9, Damian Brady covers Moving your Data Warehouse to the Cloud with Deepak Kaushik

Developer Tools

Covering: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Developer tool integrations, CLIs, Blockchain Workbench

• On the Azure blog, the Azure updates team highlights the VSTS Sprint 133 Update - Deployment for Azure MySQL, Kubernetes Helm, and Ruby
• On MSDN, Alex Nichols describes What's new in VSTS Sprint 132 Update
• Also on MSDN, Edward Thomson writes about Release Flow: How We Do Branching on the VSTSTeam
• On the Black Marble blog, Richard Fennel (@richardfennell) writes Opps, I made that test VSTS extension public by mistake, what do I do now
• Also on MSDN, Rui Melo blogs about VSTS Gems – Marketplace, the one stop location for added functionality
• Also on MSDN, Willy-P. Schaub lists the Top stories from the VSTS community – 2018.04.13
• On Code Project, John Kuriakose writes about the Step by Step Process to Deploy Web Application to Azure with VSTS-CI/CD Pipeline
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 115 - Remove Azure Secrets committed to GitHub
• On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains how to Learn to interact with Azure services through code – Azure Code Samples and points to some Azure Solution Reference Architectures

DevOps

Covering: Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations, Azure DevOps Projects, Azure Lab Services

Identity

Covering: Azure Active Directory, Multi-factor Authentication, Azure Active Directory Domain Services, Azure Active Directory B2C

• On the Azure blog, Gilad Elyashar announces the new Azure Security Center capabilities at RSA 2018
• Also on the Azure blog, Arpan Shah (@arpanshah) discusses The 3 ways Azure improves your security
• On the Kloud blog, John Downs demystifies Managed Service Identities on Azure
• On MSDN, Bac Hoang writes about the Query String is not allowed in redirect_uri for Azure AD

Integration

Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid

• On the Azure blog, John Lian writes about the Preview: programmatically create Azure enterprise subscriptions using ARM APIs
• On MSDN, Vlad Vinogradsky provides the Azure API Management Release notes – April 18, 2018
• On the Codit blog, Tom Kerkhove (@TomKerkhove) writes about the Changes to OpenAPI interpretation in Azure API Management
• On MSDN, Sanjeev Gogna and Charles Ofori write about Azure Rapid Response and benefits for Premier customers

Internet of Things

Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Suite, IoT Edge, IoT Central, IoT solution accelerators, Time Series Insights, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere

• On the Azure blog, Galen Hunt introduces Microsoft Azure Sphere: Secure and power the intelligent edge
• Tim Anderson (@timanderson) writes What is Azure Sphere
• On MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) writes about the Microsoft Azure Sphere and teaching students about the next generation of security for MicroControllers
• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) talks about Retry logic in device SDKs for Azure IoT Hub with Pierre Cauchois on the Internet of Things Show
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 114 - Send JSON to Azure IoT Hub with C
• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) provides an Introduction to the new IoT Workbench extension for VS Code with Liya Du

Management and Governance

Covering: Backup, Site Recovery, App Insights, Azure Advisor, Sceduler, Automation, Log Analytics, Azure Monitor, Security & Compliance, Protection & Recovery, Automation & Control, Insight & Analytics, Azure Service Health, Microsoft Azure portal, Azure Resource Manager, Cloud Shell, the Azure mobile app, Azure Policy, Cost Management, Azure Managed Applications

• On the Azure blog, the Azure updates team talks about What's new in Azure Log Analytics - April 2018 and writes that Alerts created in the Operations Management Suite portal can extend into Azure
• On MSDN, 'CliveW' writes that The most basic basic of OMS / Log Analytics is...
• On the Azure blog, Tom Keane blogs about Streamlining GDPR requests with the Azure portal
• Also on TechNet, Dale Kirby talks about Azure Migrate: Simplifying VMWare to Azure Migrations
• On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) describes How to quickly refer all available Azure services
• Also on TechNet, Anthony Watherston describes Azure Service Principal in Jenkins

Media

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

Microsoft Azure Stack

Covering: Azure Stack

• On TechNet, Ed Baker (@edbaker1965) writes about Azure Stack – What, why, and how
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) writes that he is Speaking about Azure Stack and Hyper-V at Techorama 2018 in Antwerp Belgium

Migration

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

Mobile

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

Networking

Covering: ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Virtual Network, Traffic Manager, Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Application Gateway, Network Watcher

• On the Azure blog, Anupam Vij announces that Azure DDoS Protection for virtual networks generally available
• On the Azure blog, the Azure updates writes about What's new in Azure DNS - Metrics and alerting and highlights the Region expansion: Global VNet Peering
• On the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Ben Stegink and Scott Hoag present Episode 59 – Azure Network Security

Security

Covering: Azure Information Protection, Key Vault, Security Center, Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Advanced Threat Protection

Storage

Covering: Storage, StorSimple, Data Lake Store, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, File Storage, Storage Explorer, Archive Storage

• On the Azure blog, Sonia Gupta announces that the Recovery Services vault limit increased to 500 vaults per subscription per region and announces that Azure Backup now supports storage accounts secured with Azure Storage Firewalls and Virtual Networks

Web

Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service

• On the Azure blog, the Azure updates team announces that the Configuration of TLS versions in App Service and Functions apps now available
• On MSDN, Ben Perkins (@csharpguitar) blogs about Web Server Logging, IIS logs, deployment slots and swaps, describes How to disable/enable HTTP/2, Azure App Service and explains how to Make changes to Azure App Service setting using Postman
• Also on MSDN, Michael S. Hansen writes about the iTop (ITSM) in Azure Web App with AAD Authentication and describes Reverse Proxy with Basic Authentication in Azure Web App
• Also on MSDN, B Surabhi writes about the Azure App service: Using Custom domain with Azure Traffic Manager
• On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) explains How to quickly copy an Azure Web App between Azure Tenants using Zip Push Deploy