Azure Weekly

Issue #282 - 5th July 2020

This week, Kaiser Larsen has listed five reasons that you should watch the Azure Synapse: How it Works event, and we agree! You can watch Jess' contributon on the event here. Ian Griffiths has also published the next video in his Azure Synapse "hands-on" series - this time covering running a Scala custom Spark job.

On the Azure blog, the updates team have announces that Durable Functions now supports Python, and highlighted the Azure Firewall July 2020 update.

Elsewhere, Ryan Kennedy has provided a great walkthrough of Getting Started with Azure Databricks, and David O'Brien has highlighted a new preview feature - you can now answer the question: What if I deployed this Azure ARM Template?

There are also some great posts around JulyOT - A month dedicated to learning and building IoT Projects, including some fun IoT projects to do at home.

And finally, the Azure updates team have made a few exciting announcements around Azure Data Lake Storage: Archive tier is now generally available, Immutable storage is now in preview, File snapshots are now in preview and, Static website now in preview!

⚙️ AI + Machine Learning

On the Azure blog, Mark Russinovich (@markrussinovich) covers how Microsoft are Advancing Azure service quality with artificial intelligence: AIOps
The Azure updates team announces that Azure Speech Services REST API v3.0 is now available
On Azure Medium, John 'JG' Chirapurath (@OriginalJGC) describes The next frontier in machine learning: driving responsible practices
On Azure Tips and Tricks, Michael Crump (@mbcrump) explores Microsoft Power Virtual Agents based off Microsoft Bot Framework

🔎 Analytics

On the Azure blog, Kaiser Larsen (@kaiserlarsen) gives Five reasons to watch the Azure Synapse Analytics virtual event
On the modern data & AI blog, Dave Ruijter (@daveruijter) writes about How To Trigger A Power BI Dataset Refresh Using An Azure Data Factory Web Activity
Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) delves into Configuring and Managing ADF Azure-SSIS Integration Runtimes and describes Using the Azure Data Factory ForEach Activity
On Azure Medium, Inderjit Rana provides some Practical Tips on Polybase data load to Azure Synapse

🖥️ Compute

On the Azure blog, Mayank Nayar explains how to Build, distribute, and deploy application updates to Azure virtual machine scale sets
The Azure updates team announces that Durable Functions now supports Python, that Ephemeral OS disks for Azure Virtual Machines VMs now support additional VM sizes and that Automatic image upgrades for custom images are now available in Virtual machine scale sets
On Microsoft + Open Source, Jeff Hollan And Mark Fussell announces the Azure Functions extension for Dapr
On the Serverless360 blog, Nadeem Ahamed (@Nadeem_ahamed_r) gives us the highlights from Azure Functions Live (June 2020)
Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) discuss Running background jobs in the cloud
On the MSSQL Tips site, Ryan Kennedy describes Getting Started with Azure Databricks

🚢 Containers

Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) blogs about how to Run Azure Container Instances from the Docker CLI
On the Azure blog, Mike Morton (@BigMorty) explains how to Deploy to Azure Container Instances with Docker Desktop
Also on the Azure blog, Reshmi Mangalore (@rmangalore) highlights the new features around Securing container workflows with Azure Container Registry
The Azure updates team announces that Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) support for proximity placement groups is now available
On Channel 9, Brady Gaster (@bradygaster) talks about Deploying your Microservice to Azure Container Instances
On the Whizlabs blog, Neeru Jain provides a Webinar on Introduction to Serverless and Container Services in Azure
On Microsoft + Open Source, Sakthi Vetrivel (@SakthiVetrivel) announces Azure Service Operator for Kubernetes

🗄️ Databases

The Azure updates team has made a few announcements:
Azure Cosmos DB transport layer security TLS 1.2 enforcement starts on July 29, 2020,
Database engine auditing for Azure Database for MariaDB is now available,
Database engine auditing for Azure Database for MySQL is now available,
Case-insensitive string functions with Azure Cosmos DB now available
and Wildcard indexes in Azure Cosmos DB's API for MongoDB
On the DEV site, Abhishek Gupta (@abhi_tweeter) provides a tutorial on How to use MongoDB Change Streams (Part 1)
On Channel 9, Kate Smith (@KateSmithSQL) talks about Elastic Jobs in Azure SQL Database - Part 2
On the Azure SQL Database blog, Marisa Brasile highlights Private Link for Azure SQL Database - Part 1 and Part 2
On the MSSQL Tips site, Ron L'Esteve explains How to Ace an Azure Data Engineer Interview
Also on the MSSQL Tips site, Atul Gaikwad explains How to Restore Azure SQL LTR Backup After Azure SQL Instance Deleted
On the SQL Server Blog, Kevin Farlee covers how to Unlock your free Azure replica for SQL Server with DH2i
Also on the MSSQL Tips site, Mohammed Moinudheen explains how to Restore File Shares using Azure Recovery Services Vault
Also on Channel 9, Anna Hoffman and Davide Mauri discuss Why Azure SQL is Best For Developers - Part 1

🛠️ Developer Tools

On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains how to Create and Manage Azure VMs from Visual Studio Code and How to use the editor in Azure Cloud Shell
The Azure updates team announces Azure SDK for embedded devices, highlights the Azure CLI June 2020 update and announces that Visual Studio Online meter names will change on August 1, 2020
Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) talks about Understanding Azure Policies with Visual Studio Code

🔩 DevOps

Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) speaks with Chris Patterson on GitHub Actions
On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) discusses Setting up Continuous Delivery with Azure DevOps directly from Azure VMs
On the MSSQL Tips site, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) explains How to Add SQL Server Integration Services Projects to Azure Devops for Version Control
On the .NET Curry blog, Gouri Sohoni provides 4 different scenarios for Migrating Code to Azure DevOps Repos
Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) describes How your team should access Azure DevOps
The Azure updates team announces that you can now Create a formula in Azure DevTest Labs using a shared image gallery image and that Azure Pipelines now supports Linux/ARM64
On the Black Marble blog, Richard Fennell (@richardfennell) talks about Timeout Errors 'Extracting Schema' when running SQLPackage for a Migration to Azure DevOps Services
On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Gloridel Morales announces Azure DevOps Server 2020 RC1
On the Premier Developer blog, Amin Lakhani spotlights 5 Super Useful Azure DevOps Extensions
Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) blogs about the fact that Force push permission is required to delete branches in Azure DevOps, covers Collaborative development of ADF pipelines using Azure DevOps and writes All about publish branch adfpublish in Azure Data Factory
On Channel 9, Abel Wang and Neil Peterson discuss Creating Your First ARM Template
On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Tanmayee Kamath talks about Specialized shared image gallery images in DevTest Labs

🧬 Hybrid

Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) covers some Extensions for Azure Arc enabled Servers
Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Protect SQL Servers Running On-Premises With Azure Security Center
James van Den Berg covers how to use Microsoft Azure ARC for Hybrid Infrastructure Management
The Azure updates team announces Azure Automation updated DNS records

🎭 Identity

The Azure updates team announces that Company branding feature is now available on your organization's Azure AD sign-in page and that Azure Active Directory B2C meter IDs will change on August 1, 2020
David O'Brien (@david_obrien) talks about Using Microsoft Graph in Python
On the DEV site, Abhishek Gupta (@abhi_tweeter) showcases Azure Event Hubs "Role Based Access Control" in action
Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) describes Azure B2B vs. B2C
On Code Project, Jishan Kapadia describes a Secure Azure WebJob API with Azure AD Authentication
On Azure Medium, Inderjit Rana describes Azure Custom Role Guidance and the Azure Data Factory Custom Operator Role

🔌 Integration

Also on the MSSQL Tips site, Fikrat Azizov explains how to Terminate Long Running Azure Analysis Services Refresh Using Logic Apps - Part 4
Gyanendra Kumar Gautam gives a Weekly Update on Microsoft Integration Platform & Azure iPaaS

💡 Internet of Things

On Geeks with Blogs, Jeremy Morgan explains how to Get and Store Temperature from a Raspberry Pi with Go
On the Azure blog, Ines Khelifi blogs about how Azure Digital Twins is Powering the next generation of IoT connected solutions
The Azure updates team announces some Updates for monitoring and troubleshooting Azure IoT Hub message routing, that Azure Sphere OS quality update 20.06 is now available, Azure Maps private atlas meter names will change on August 1, 2020 and highlights that Disabling public network access for Azure IoT Hub will disable access to built-in Azure Event Hub endpoint on September 30, 2020
On the DEV site, Paul DeCarlo talks about JulyOT - A month dedicated to learning and building IoT Projects, describes Intelligent Home Security with NVIDIA Jetson and discusses Artificial Intelligence at the Edge
On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) discusses Bentley iTwin and iModel.js Integration with Azure Digital Twins and provides a Preview of Azure Digital Twins New Capabilities
On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Morgan Mitchell (@livelovegeek) discusses some Fun IoT projects to do at home during JulyOT

⚖️ Management and Governance

On the Azure blog, Michael Flanakin (@flanakin) highlights the Azure Cost Management + Billing updates
The Azure updates team announces Improvements to Azure Monitor log alerts include new links and added dimensions
David O'Brien (@david_obrien) highlights that you can now answer the question: What if I deployed this Azure ARM Template?
On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains How to Move an Azure Subscription to a different Management Group, covers Application Insights Telemetry Contrast trends using Pin Multiple Entry, Exploring App Service Diagnostics in Azure Portal, Getting Diagnostic Dumps for Azure App Service and explains How to check resources deployment operation details for Azure Services
Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) blogs about Application Insights and behavior analytics
On the Azure blog, Ganga Narayanan (@ganganarayanan7) discusses the Azure Support API: Create and manage Azure support tickets programmatically
On Channel 9, Geoff Langfield talks about How Fidelity Investments enabled Azure at scale for their developers
On the Sharegate blog, Elle Crosby discusses Azure governance: The first steps to creating an organized cloud infrastructure
Marcel Zehner (@marcelzehner) asks: Are you really ready to use Azure?
On the Tallan blog, Joseph Tonski blogs about Cloud Development with Microservices in Azure

🚌 Migration

On the Azure blog, Rashi Joshi discusses how to Plan your migration to Azure VMware solution using Azure Migrate
On the Azure SQL Database blog, Marisa Brasile writes about the Best Options for Database Migration into Azure

📱 Mobile

On Channel 9, Don Syme and Timothé Larivière talk about F# Fabulous - Beyond MVU Basics and Matthew Robbins discusses MFractor for Windows

🌐 Networking

Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) blogs about Rethinking Firewall Management With Azure Firewall Manager
On the Azure blog, Suren Jamiyanaa highlights some New Azure Firewall features
On the Azure blog, Erich Robinson-Tillenburg introduces New Azure Load Balancer insights using Azure Monitor for Networks
Also on the Azure blog, Gopikrishna Kannan highlights that Azure Firewall Manager is now generally available
The Azure updates team talks about Azure Content Delivery Network standard rules engine is now available, blogs about Azure Front Door rules engine now generally available, covers Azure Firewall July 2020 update and describes Azure Firewall Manager is now generally available
Also on the Azure blog, Reshmi Yandapalli explains how to Streamline connectivity and improve efficiency for remote work using Azure Virtual WAN
On the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Ben Stegink and Scott Hoad (@msclouditpro) discuss Microsoft 365 Network Monitoring Goodness

🔐 Security

On the Azure blog, Devrim Iyigun talks about how you can Stay ahead of attacks with Azure Security Center
The Azure updates team announces that Azure Monitor for Key Vault is now in preview and highlights the Azure Security Center news and updates for June 2020
On the Sharegate blog, Elle Crosby has rounded up Jussi Roine's answers on Azure security best practices
Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) discuss All things Security with Sami Laiho
On the Microsoft site, a reporter describes how Allica Bank does business banking with a personal touch on Microsoft Azure

📦 Storage

The Azure updates team has made a lot of announcements:
Azure Storage 200 TB block blob size is now in preview,
Azure Data Lake Storage archive tier is now generally available,
Azure Data Lake Storage immutable storage is now in preview,
Azure Data Lake Storage file snapshots are now in preview
and Azure Data Lake Storage static website now in preview

🔗 Web

Rahul Nath (@rahulpnath) describes How To Continuously Deploy Your .NET Core Azure WebJobs
Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) covers Setting up Managed Identities for ASP.NET Core web app running on Azure App Service
On the DEV site, Jen Looper (@jenlooper) provides a walkthrough of Unraveling the Azure Maya Mystery and Building A World
On the Azure Medium blog, Jaunius Urbonas writes about how to share From Jupyter Notebook to Azure Web App in 5 Easy Steps
On the Azure blog, Aaron Hogue talks about How Azure.com operates on Azure - Part 1: Design principles and best practices and Part 2: Technology and architecture
On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) blogs about Adding Extensions for Azure App Service
On the Premier Developer blog, Chris Hanna discusses Azure Private Link vs. Azure Service Endpoint for App Services

📚 Learning

On the Premier Developer blog, Robin Smith discusses How Microsoft helps customers adopt Azure through developer education
Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) talks about Azure Fundamental Exams
On the Whizlabs blog, Neeru Jain highlights AI-900 and DP-900: New Additions in Azure Certification List
Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes Passing AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam
and Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) also discusses how he Passed AZ-104 Exam: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate

💻 Windows Virtual Desktop

Freek Berson (@fberson) discusses Getting started with REST API for WVD ARM release
Christiaan Brinkhoff (@Brinkhoff_C) covers Delivering remote desktops and apps from Azure with Windows Virtual Desktop