Azure Weekly

Issue #226 - 26th May 2019

This week, Meng Tang has taken us through the Visual interface for Azure Machine Learning service, based on the popular drag-and-drop experience that already we know and love with Azure Machine Learning Studio. Elsewhere, Tao Yang has written a detailed three-part blog series about deploying Azure Policy definitions via Azure DevOps - read the first blog here. Finally, Carmel has reflected on A year as Apprentice II at endjin - how time has flown!

Here are this week's announcements and updates:

⚙️ AI + Machine Learning

On the Azure blog, Meng Tang writes about the Visual interface for Azure Machine Learning service

🔎 Analytics

On the Azure blog, Alicia Li describes how to Drive higher utilization of Azure HDInsight clusters with autoscale

🖥️ Compute

John Savill (@NTFAQGuy) walks through Deploying Agents to Azure IaaS VMs using the Custom Script Extension
On the Codit blog, Toon Vanhoutte covers The Devops Way to Avoid Cold Starts of Your Azure Functions
The Azure updates team highlights a few updates: Azure Virtual Machines NVv2 meter name change, Generation 2 virtual machines in Azure – Public Preview and GPU and HPC VM Price Promotion now available

🚢 Containers

On the Azure blog, Taylor Brown (@Taylorb_msft) announces the preview of Windows Server containers support in Azure Kubernetes Service
On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) talks about 60 seconds to a Linkerd service mesh on AKS with William Morgan
Mark Heath (@mark_heath) talks about Automating Azure Container Instances with PowerShell Azure Functions

🗄️ Databases

On the Azure blog, Morgan Oslake explains how to Optimize price-performance with compute auto-scaling in Azure SQL Database serverless
On the Azure SQL Database blog, Jovan Popovic (@jocapc) describes how to Take a backup of TDE protected database on Azure SQL Managed Instance, writes about Troubleshooting Database Mail issues in Azure SQL Managed Instance and and writes about Troubleshooting potential backup/restore issues on Azure SQL Managed Instance
The Azure updates team highlights the General Availability: Time zone choice for Azure SQL Database Managed Instance
On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Michael Makhlevich writes that Advanced data security for SQL Server is coming to Azure Virtual Machines
On the SQL Server Blog, Bob Ward (@bobwardms) provides A SQL Server tale of two cities

🛠️ Developer Tools

Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) writes that Visual Studio Code Remote Development may change everything
On the Visual Studio blog, Mads Kristensen (@mkristensen) writes that Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 now generally available and 16.2 Preview 1 as well and on the Visual Studio blog, covers the Updates to synchronous autoload of extensions in Visual Studio 2019
Also on the Visual Studio blog, Taysser Gherfal talks about Code Reviews Using the Visual Studio Pull Requests Extension
Richard Seroter (@rseroter) asks Which of the 295,680 platform combinations will you create on Microsoft Azure?
On Channel 9, Robert Green (@rogreen_ms) talks about Time Travel Debugging with Mark Downie
On the IoT Dev blog, Renlong Tu explains how to Debug IoT Edge C / C# Windows Module Container with Visual Studio Azure IoT Edge Tools

🔩 DevOps

On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Edward Thomson (@ethomson) lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community – 2019.05.17
On the Premier Developer blog, Vishal Saroopchand describes Using Azure DevOps REST API with Node.js to retrieve repo permissions
The Azure updates team writes Filter by target branch in pull requests - Azure DevOps Sprint 152 Update
Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Erin Dormier announces Azure DevOps Server 2019.0.1 RTW
Also on the Premier Developer blog, John Jacob blogs about Enabling DevOps in A Hybrid Cloud Environment at DoD
On the .NET Curry blog, Gouri Sohoni blogs about Security in Azure DevOps
On the Black Marble blog, Richard Fennell (@richardfennell) writes Azure DevOps Repos branch build policies not triggering when expected in PRs – Solved
Antariksh Mistry blogs about Azure DevTest Labs
On Microsoft Cloud Show, Andrew Connell and Chris Johnson (@mscloudshow) present Episode 303 | Microsoft's Jessica Deen on Azure Devops and Open Source

🎭 Identity

On the Kloud blog, Chiru Adapa talks about Extracting a list of Azure AD App Proxy applications with PowerShell
Vincent-Philippe Lauzon (@vplauzon) describes Authenticating an Azure service principal
On the MSSQL Tips site, John Miner (@JohnMiner3) explains how to Improve Security with an Azure Service Principal
On the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Ben Stegink and Scott Hoag (@msclouditpro) present Episode 126 – Privileged Accounts In Azure AD The Right Way

🔌 Integration

Simon Waight (@simonwaight) explains how to Integrate Meetup announcements with Microsoft Teams using Azure Logic Apps and Adaptive Cards
On Channel 9, Chris Segura (@IoTHybridCloud) talks about Cosmos DB data in a smart contract with Logic Apps

💡 Internet of Things

On the Azure blog, Phil Koretz describes Securing the pharmaceutical supply chain with Azure IoT
Also on the Azure blog, Peter Cooper explains How you can use IoT to power Industry 4.0 innovation
On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) presents Meet our IoT partners: Wipro with Anita Ganti and Calvin Smith

⚖️ Management and Governance

On the Azure podcast, The Azure podcast team (@AzurePodcast) presents Episode 280 - ARM Templates and Azure Policy with Satya Vel
Steve Buchanan (@buchatech) explains how to Enhance Azure ARM Template Authoring in VS Code
On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) writes about Azure AD Log Analytics KQL queries via API with PowerShell
Daniel Örneling (@DanielOrneling) writes about Azure Monitor – Getting started with alerting
The Azure updates team posts a number of updates: Azure Monitor Dynamic Threshold meter name change, Now available: PowerShell cmdlets for Azure Monitor metric and log alerts, Azure Monitor classic alerts retirement date extended to August 31st, 2019 and Azure log integration tool deprecation
On the Azure blog, Meir Mendelovich (@MMendelovich) walks through Transforming Azure Monitor Logs for DevOps, granular access control, and improved Azure integration
James van Den Berg describes using the Microsoft Azure CloudShell for Management tasks
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) posts Tip 198 - PowerShell Core on Linux is now integrated with Azure Cloud Shell
On the Azure blog, Lily Kim writes that All US Azure regions now approved for FedRAMP High impact level
On the Azure Citadel blog, Richard Cheney (@RichCheneyAzure) writes that Terraform 0.12 has finally gone GA
On the Catapult Systems blog, Matthew Dowst (@MDowst) talks about Azure Update Management – Fix Failed to Start Status
Tao Yang (@MrTaoYang) writes about Deploying Azure Policy Definitions via Azure DevOps (Part 1), Deploying Azure Policy Definitions via Azure DevOps (Part 2) and Deploying Azure Policy Definitions via Azure DevOps (Part 3)

⚙️ Microsoft Azure Stack

Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) provides a (Solution) Failed To Load The App Service Extension in Azure Stack

📱 Mobile

On the Xamarin blog, David Ortinau (@davidortinau) writes Welcome to the Shell Era: Xamarin.Forms 4.0 Released
Also on the Xamarin blog, James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) discusses Managing HTTP & Cleartext Traffic on Android with Network Security Configuration and on Channel 9, provides a Xamarin.Forms 101: Dynamic Resources
On the Kloud blog, Pulkit Sethi writes about Reactive Properties in Xamarin Forms

🔐 Security

The Azure updates team writes about the Azure Security Center new Azure Linux analytics agent and highlights the General Availability: Azure DDoS Protection Standard introduces DDoS Alert integration with Azure Security Center

📦 Storage

The Azure updates team highlights the Azure NetApp Files Resource GUID change
On the MSSQL Tips site, Fikrat Azizov describes how to Transfer On-Premises Files to Azure Blob Storage

🔗 Web

Rahul Nath (@rahulpnath) describes How to Authenticate and Authorize Azure Function with Azure Web App Using Managed Service Identity MSI
The Azure updates team highlights the Azure Search Basic Unit and Standard Unit Resource GUID change, the Azure Search Document Cracking Image Extraction Resource GUID name change and the Azure App Service Basic, Standard, Premium v2 Plans Resource GUID change
On the Premier Developer blog, Casey Kriutzfield (@ckriutzfield) describes How Microsoft Tracks Santa