Azure Weekly

Issue #176 - 27th May 2018

Finally we can say goodbye to the influx of GDPR-triggered privacy policy updates we've all been receiving over the last couple of months from the services with which we are registered. The Azure team has taken the new law by the scruff-of-the-neck, highlighting Azure's New capabilities to enable robust GDPR compliance. Tom Kerkhove at Codit has also written a nice blog about Using Azure Serverless to become GDPR compliant

There has been a fair amount of announcements/updates this week, so let's take a look at those:

Aside from Microsoft's announcements, Milan Nankov has open-sourced his Azure Resource Policy Designer which aids the creation and modification of Azure resource policies. Check it out here.

Otherwise, there has been a number of engaging articles this week, some of which include: Serverless real-time notifications in Azure using Azure CosmosDB by Matias Quaranta, who uses Azure SignalR (currently in preview) along with Functions and Cosmos DB to create a real-time, serverless chat application; Taming the fire hose: Azure Stream Analytics by Vincent-Philippe Lauzon where Vincent highlights the specifics of the unsung hero of real-time data analytics; and 10 Reasons to Use Durable Functions by Mark Heath, where Mark points out the key advantages in light of the release of his new Azure Durable Functions Fundamentals Pluralsight course.

Finally, while I was at BUILD the OpenAPI.NET SDK reached v1.0, so I updated my original technical spike for converting OpenAPI documents in Visual Studio 2017, added support for the new Common Project System in VS 2017 and published the code to GitHub and an easy to install VSIX. If you want to add OpenAPI document to your Azure Functions, this extension is for you. Also, if you're interested in the topic of APIs, I can recommend the In the Mood for HTTP YouTube show hosted by Darrel Miller and Glenn Block.

⚙️ AI + Machine Learning

On TechNet, Gopi Kumar (@zenlytix) provides some Enterprise Deployment Tips for Azure Data Science Virtual Machine DSVM
Gunnar Peipman (@gpeipman) describes Automatically describing and tagging pictures on SharePoint using Azure Cognitive Services
On the Revolution Analytics blog, David Smith (@revodavid) posts a Video: speeding up R with parallel programming in the cloud
On MSDN, Jamie Dalton blogs about YOLO on Azure Deep Learning Virtual Machine DLVM – Linux
Jen Stirrup writes about the PASS Marathon: Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace with Microsoft CNTK, Tensorflow and CaffeOnSpark
On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains how you can Learn Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from AI School

🔎 Analytics

Vincent-Philippe Lauzon (@vplauzon) writes Taming the fire hose: Azure Stream Analytics
On the Power BI blog, Amanda Cofsky asks us to Help Improve Power BI
Also on the Power BI blog, Youssef Shoukry announces that the On-premises data gateway May update is now available
Also on the Power BI blog, Charles Sterling (@chass) highlights the 5/29 Webinar: Building Spectacular Power BI Dashboards with Zebra BI visuals
Devin Knight (@knight_devin) posts Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 104 – User List by CloudScope

🖥️ Compute

On the Azure blog, Will Bratton and Sebastian Max Dusch describe how to Accelerate your SAP on Azure HANA project with SUSE Microsoft Solution Templates
On MSDN, Prashant Pratap discusses Azure Durable Functions
Mark Heath (@mark_heath) writes 10 Reasons to Use Durable Functions
Thuan Soldier writes about the Inconsistent password policy when updating VM password

🚢 Containers

On the Azure blog, Rajesh Ramabathiran (@rajram) writes about the New container images in Azure Marketplace
On MSDN, Stuart Leeks (@stuartleeks) blogs about Azure Container Registry Global Webhooks–with a helping of Azure Durable Functions
On Stackify Blog, Erik Dietrich (@daedtech) talks about Azure Container Service (AKS): A Detailed Guide to Setting Up Your First Cluster with Kubernetes
Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) writes SAP HANA Express Edition – Deploy HANA Express database on ACI – Azure Container Instances
Mark Heath (@mark_heath) blogs about Integrating ACI with other Azure services

🗄️ Databases

On the Azure blog, Kuber Sharma describes how to Accelerate data warehouse modernization with Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services for Azure
Also on the Azure blog, Casey Karst describes how to Load confidently with SQL Data Warehouse PolyBase Rejected Row Location
Also on the Azure blog, the Azure updates team writes about General availability: Data-in Replication for Azure Database for MySQL
On MSDN, Mohamed Baioumy writes Tips & Tricks : What you need to do to creat SQL Login to authenticate to Azure SQL DBs members in Auto-Failover Group

🛠️ Developer Tools

Bill Zack (@WilliamHZack) blogs about his Azure Platform Technical Overview in Nashville
On MSDN, Cheng-Bin Tham explains how to Activate Free Azure Cloud Credits – Visual Studio Dev Essentials
On TechNet, Richard Spitz explains How to study for the 70-535: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions certification
On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) writes about the Azure Cloud Shell in Visual Studio Code and explains how to Deploy Azure Web Apps from Visual Studio Code using Azure Cloud Shell
On the Visual Studio blog, Deborah Chen (@ChenDeborah) writes about Snapshots on Exceptions while debugging with IntelliTrace
On Channel 9, Burke Holland (@burkeholland) presents Episode 17: Five VS Code Extensions You Should Know About with Elijah Manor
Also on Channel 9, Robert Green talks about the Hot Extensions with Justin Clareburt

🔩 DevOps

On MSDN, Tanmayee Kamath describes Importing virtual machines across labs
On Microsoft + Open Source, Elena Neroslavskaya posts a Tutorial: CI/CD for Azure using Terraform, Ansible and VSTS, describes How to create a custom VSTS agent on Azure ACI with Terraform and writes another Tutorial: Immutable infrastructure for Azure, using VSTS, Terraform, Packer and Ansible
On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Ewald Hofman announces the Announcing the deprecation of the WIT and Test Client OM at Jan 1, 2020
Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Willy-P. Schaub (@wpschaub) lists the Top stories from the VSTS community – 2018.05.18
Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Alex Mullans (@alexmullans) explains how to Use packages reliably with upstreams for VSTS feeds
Also on MSDN, Mark Meadows and Everett Yang write about Assigning Work Items to a Group in Visual Studio Team Services
Also on MSDN, Wesam Darwish describes Getting Started with DevOps and Continuous Delivery of Value

🎭 Identity

On MSDN, Deva writes Azure/Office 365 Graph API developer: RefreshToken, AccessToken, IdentityToken
Also on MSDN, Frank Hu describes Using Postman to Call the Microsoft Graph API Using Client Credentials and describes Finding the Correct Permissions for a Microsoft or Azure Active Directory Graph Call
John Savill explains how to Understand the authentication pros and cons with Azure AD
On Code Project, Tahir Naushad covers Azure AD with ASP.NET Core 2.0 and talks about Azure AD B2C with ASP.NET Core 2.0
On the Perficient blog, Quynh Bui describes Setting up SAML SSO with Azure AD and Oracle EPBCS/PBCS

🔌 Integration

On the Azure blog, Rajesh Ramabathiran (@rajram) writes that Transact capabilities for SaaS apps now available in Azure Marketplace
On MSDN, David Burg (@david_burg) writes about Which SAP NCo version to pick for Azure Logic Apps SAP Connector
Also on MSDN, Timothy Warner (@TechTrainerTim) explains how to Create Your First No Code Logic App in Microsoft Azure
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 124 - Creating the Azure Logic App for our IoT Button and Part 125 - Using Azure Function to call our Logic App with the IoT Button
On the Codit blog, Tom Kerkhove (@TomKerkhove) describes Using Azure Serverless to become GDPR compliant
On Channel 9, Barry Luijbregts (@azurebarry) talks about How I choose which services to use in Azure with Scott Hanselman

💡 Internet of Things

On the Azure blog, Tim Laverty writes about the Azure IoT Reference Architecture update
On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) blogs about Exporting IoT Device Information from Azure IoT Hubs using PowerShell
On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) presents IoT White Boarded for the Top Floor with Tom Davis and talks about Azure Maps intro for developers with Ricky Brundritt
On TechNet, Basim Majeed blogs about Using Query APIs to Unlock the Power of Azure Time Series Insights Part 2: The Aggregates APIs

⚖️ Management and Governance

On the Azure blog, Danny Maertens writes about the Changes coming to PowerShell (preview) in Azure Cloud Shell
Also on the Azure blog, Tommy Nguyen writes about the Create enterprise subscription experience in Azure portal public preview
Also on the Azure blog, Jeremy Winter explains how to Do more with Chef and Microsoft Azure
On the Azure blog, the Azure updates team writes that Enterprise administrators can view reserved instances in the Azure portal, writes about the General availability: Log alerts for Application Insights, writes about the Public preview: Query across applications in log alerts and writes about the Deprecation of older versions of the Azure Site Recovery REST API
Also on the Azure blog, Jose Lara Silva describes how to Control Azure Data Lake costs using Log Analytics to create service alerts
On MSDN, Clive Watson writes Azure Log Analytics: Disk Space Usage Part 3
On the Kloud blog, Ward van Besien walks through Creating your own PowerShell modules for Azure Automation – Part 1 and Part 2
On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains how to Configure Azure Portal auto logout after period of inactivity, writes about Quick Navigation using Azure Portal Keyboard Shortcuts, describes how to Import Azure Portal Dashboard and explains how to Browse all Azure Portal Dashboards
On the New Venture Software blog, Milan Nankov (@milannankov) announces that the Azure Resource Policy Designer is now Open-source

⚙️ Microsoft Azure Stack

On MSDN, Andrew Westgarth writes that Azure App Service on Azure Stack Update Two Released
Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) writes that he will be Speaking about Azure Stack at IT Camp 2018 in Cluj-Napoca

🚌 Migration

On MSDN, Shau Phang explains How to seamlessly migrate MySQL and PostgreSQL apps to Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL with minimum downtime
On the Azure podcast, the Azure podcast team and guests Paul Yuknewicz and Cesar De La Torre (@AzurePodcast) describes Episode 230 - Moving apps to Azure

🌐 Networking

On the Azure blog, Dilip Lukose writes about Blue-Green deployments using Azure Traffic Manager
On MSDN, Michael S. Hansen discusses Using Azure Traffic Manager for Private Endpoint Failover – Manual Method and Using Azure Traffic Manager for Private Endpoint Failover – Automation

🔐 Security

On the Azure blog, Tom Keane writes about the New capabilities to enable robust GDPR compliance

📦 Storage

On the Azure blog, Lavanya Kasarabada announces that Azure AD Authentication for Azure Storage now in public preview
Also on the Azure blog, Catherine Wang writes about the New updates for Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer
Also on the Azure blog, Tad Brockway writes An update on the integration of Avere Systems into the Azure family
On TechNet, Luke Brennan writes Azure – PowerShell setting Blob Tiers

🔗 Web

On the Azure blog, Matias Quaranta writes about Serverless real-time notifications in Azure using Azure CosmosDB
On MSDN, Andrew Hall (@AndrewBrianHall) writes Exploring Azure App Service – Web Apps and SQL Azure
Also on MSDN, Finbar Ryan (@FinVamp1) walks through Investigating issues using Web Deploy for Azure App Service
Also on MSDN, Paras Patidar blogs about Web App Instance Name and ARR affinity Mapping using Function App – Part-1, Part-2, Part-3 and Part-4
Also on MSDN, Yi Wang MS Oss explains how to Configure WordPress Database Connection on Azure App Services