Azure Weekly

Issue #267 - 22nd March 2020

It's been quite a quiet week in the Azure community, I suspect as everyone adjusts to working from home. Endjin went fully remote just over two years ago and we know it can be quite an adjustment!

Microsoft have announced this week that the Filesystem SDKs for Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 now generally available. This is great news for those of us developing with Azure Data Lake Gen2!

There is also a new Deploy to Azure extension for Visual Studio Code, and we've had a bit of a look at the extension for editing ARM templates, which is looking pretty good!

In line with this, Michael Crump has listed the Top 5 Visual Studio Code extensions for Azure Developers.

And, here at endjin, James has written another great blog on Azure Analysis Services – This time on how to process an asynchronous model refresh from .NET.

⚙️ AI + Machine Learning

In Azure Cognitive Services, the Azure updates team has announced that Brazilian Portuguese has been added to neural Text to Speech and Cognitive Services introduces new Neural Text to Speech voices for different styles
On the Azure podcast, Jose Medina talks about Machine Learning Options
On Channel 9, Seth Juarez (@sethjuarez) talks about Capturing telemetry to gain insights into your conversational health (Part 2 of 3)

🔎 Analytics

On the endjin blog, James Broome (@broomej) has written another blog about Azure Analysis Services – How to process an asynchronous model refresh from .NET
Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) writes about the ADF Publisher Pending Changes Blade and highlights that ADF Wait Activity Wait Time Property is Now Dynamic
On the DEV site, Cecil L. Phillip talks about Improving accessibility of health insurance in the Dominican Republic

🖥️ Compute

The Azure updates team announces that Azure Functions custom handlers are now in preview and Python 3.8 support is now generally available in Azure Functions
On the DEV site, Abhishek Gupta (@abhi_tweeter) gives us an Azure Functions tip: making sense of GSON JsonSyntaxException
On the Serverless360 blog, Nadeem Ahamed highlights Azure Functions Live
On the SQL Server Blog, the SQL Server Team (@SQLServer) explains How to provision a Linux SQL Server Virtual Machine in Azure
Thuan Nguyen writes about Quick notes in deploying Guest Configuration Extension on Azure VM
On the Azure blog, Vijay Kanchanahalli blogs about how to Power your Azure GPU workstations with flexible GPU partitioning
The Azure updates team announces the Azure Shared Disks for clustered applications preview now available, FastTrack for Azure is now generally available in MEA and that HBv2-Series VMs are Generally Available in West Europe

🚢 Containers

On the Azure blog, Reshmi Mangalore (@rmangalore) covers Azure Container Registry: Preview of customer-managed keys
The Azure updates team announces that Managed keys for Azure Container Registry is now in preview and that ACR built-in audit policies for Azure Policy is now in preview
Larry Wall describes Using the Azure Files Volume driver with multiple volumes in Service Fabric

🗄️ Databases

On the MSSQL Tips site, John Miner (@JohnMiner3) explains how to Deploy SSIS Catalog to Azure Cloudwith Part 1 and Part 2
The Azure updates team has a few announcements:
Azure Private Link for Azure Database for MariaDB is now generally available,
Azure Private Link for Azure Database for MySQL is now available,
Private Link for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server is now available,
Azure Private Link for Azure Cosmos DB is now generally available,
Azure Cache for Redis reserved capacity now available,
Azure Database for MySQL—Connection redirection support for PHP drivers
and Native Mongo shell on Azure Cosmos DB API for MongoDB is now in preview
On the SQL Server Blog, the SQL Server Team (@SQLServer) lists some Tips to select the best Azure SQL deployment option
On the DEV site, Aaron Powell (@slace) introduces FSharp.CosmosDb
Also on the DEV site, Burke Holland (@burkeholland) describes Trimming expenses on The Urlist with Azure Cosmos DB Free Tier
On the Azure SQL Database blog, Rohit Nayak covers Azure SQL Database Connectivity and Network Security improvements

🛠️ Developer Tools

On the Azure blog, Pulkit Agarwal writes about the New Deploy to Azure extension for Visual Studio Code
On the DEV site, Michael Crump (@mbcrump) lists his Top 5 Visual Studio Code extensions for Azure Developers
Also on the DEV site, Yohan Lasorsa (@sinedied) highlights the New VS Code extension to manage Azure VMs
On the Visual Studio blog, Mike Morton writes about Visual Studio Code Docker extension 1.0 – Better than Ever
On ZDNet, Liam Tung blogs about the fact that Microsoft's Windows Terminal now has mouse support for Windows Subsystem for Linux

🔩 DevOps

On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Jimson Chalissery (@jimsonc) blogs about Supporting SHA-2 algorithm in SSH on Azure DevOps
Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Steven Murawski lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community
On the Premier Developer blog, Guru Satish Piduru and Aaron Perry walk through Converting Classic Azure DevOps Pipelines to YAML
Sam Cogan (@samcogan) covers Using Terraform Modules from Git in Azure DevOps

🧬 Hybrid

On the Azure blog, David Kurth helps us Learn new strategies and technologies to optimize your hybrid cloud
Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) describes how to Onboard On-Premises Servers To Azure ARC From Windows Admin Center
On Channel 9, Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) talks about how to Manage and govern your hybrid servers using Azure Arc

🎭 Identity

Nicolas Bonnet (@nico_bonnet) covers Azure AD Connect Cloud Provisionning

🔌 Integration

On the Planet Geek blog, Daniel Marbach (@danielmarbach) delves into Azure Serivice bus, focusing on Receiving a message and Sender, receiver and abstractions
The Azure updates team announces that Azure Service Fabric 7.0 fourth refresh release is now rolling out, Event Grid Premium tier is now in preview, Azure Private Link is Generally Available for Azure Services and highlights 101 services at FedRAMP High as Azure Government continues expanding capacity
On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Jeffrey Chilberto delves into Azure Event Grid
Mariano Gomez talks about Using Azure Text Analytics to monitor Coronavirus COVID-19 updates with Power Apps

💡 Internet of Things

The Azure updates team announces that Azure IoT Edge 1.0.9 release is now available
On Channel 9, Caitie McCaffrey provides an Introduction to the Azure Sphere Security Service
On the DEV site, Jim Bennett writes about An IoT Busy light for folks working from home

⚖️ Management and Governance

On the Azure blog, Scott Kinghorn announces the general availability of Azure Monitor for virtual machines
The Azure updates team highlight an Action Required—Log Analytics agent for Windows will enforce SHA-2 signing on May 18, 2020, and announces that Azure Cloud Shell now supports additional storage regions and describes Log Analytics Agent for Windows March 2020 release is now available
On the DEV site, Frank Boucher explains How to know how much your application is consuming on Azure
Yung Chou (@yungchou) walks through Creating Azure Managed Disk with VHD Using PowerShell
The Azure updates team announces that Multi-organization billing for Azure DevOps is now available
On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Tanmayee Kamath announces that Azure DevTest Labs is enforcing TLS 1.2 starting May 01 2020.
Deepak Kaushik (@ThinkForDeepak) discusses Azure -Disaster Recovery for SAP HANA Systems
Rafael Rivera (@WithinRafael) covers Typing text on a virtual machine keyboard via PowerShell CIM Cmdlets

🚌 Migration

On the Premier Developer blog, Tim Omta asks: How do I get data from SQL CE to Azure DB?
Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) talks about how to Start your datacentre transformation with Azure Migrate

📱 Mobile

On Channel 9, James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) talks about Text-to-Speech - Xamarin.Essentials API of the Week

🌐 Networking

On the Azure blog, Viny Nigam highlights that Unified network monitoring with Connection Monitor now in preview
The Azure updates team has several updates:
Azure Data Explorer deployment into Azure Virtual Networks now generally available,
Http Raw logs for Azure Content Delivery Network, Private Link for Azure SQL Database is now available,
Azure Web Application Firewall integration with Azure Content Delivery Network service now in preview,
Azure Front Door—March 2020 updates
and Azure Web Application Firewall for Azure Content Delivery Network is in preview
The Azure updates team announces that App Service regional Virtual Network integration is now available

🔐 Security

Thuan Nguyen gives us a Quick look at new Azure Sentinel Incident API
The Azure updates team announces that Azure Sentinel generally available in Azure Government, and Azure Security Center—Protection for Azure Kubernetes Service is now available and highlights how to Onboard on-prem servers to Security Center from Windows Admin Center
On the Tallan blog, Byron Branning covers Azure Governance – Part 3 Azure Blueprints
Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) are Talking about Azure Sentinel with Maarten Goet

📦 Storage

The Azure updates team announces that Append Blob immutability support now generally available in Azure Storage
On the Azure blog, Priya Shetty announces that Filesystem SDKs for Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 now generally available
The Azure updates team announces that Private Endpoints for Azure Storage are now Generally Available

🔗 Web

Shahed C talks about Key Vault for ASP .NET Core 3.1 Web Apps
On the DEV site, Julien Dubois (@juliendubois) describes using Spring Boot, JHipster and Azure Spring Cloud together

💻 Windows Virtual Desktop

Roelf Zomerman walks through several concepts with Windows Virtual Desktop:
An overview
Reusing your template VM,
Profile Management with Azure files & FSLogix,
AutoDeploy FSLogix
and Expanding and renewing