Azure Weekly Issue 408: 5th March 2023

We're starting to see the confidential computing hardware efforts appear in more "higher level" services. My hope is that these are all steps towards providing hard multi-tenancy across all PaaS offerings in Azure, meaning that it's possible to create high-density, cost-effective, secure multi-tenant SaaS applications (even for regulated industries), so that orgs don't have to struggle with "environment per tenant" type scenarios (which don't scale up from an operational or cost perspective). Two interesting posts are: Serverless meets confidential computing with confidential containers on Azure Container Instances and the more detailed: public preview of confidential containers on Azure Container Instances which highlights an AI workload usecase.

If your organisation is managing hybrid working, this episode of Microsoft Mechanics is very much worth watching. I've forwarded it to a number of customers this week; New Microsoft Intune Suite with Privilege Management, Advanced Analytics, Remote Help & App VPN.

Two interesting DevOps posts - if you are looking to migrate from Azure DevOps, CircleCI, GitLab, Jenkins, and Travis CI to GitHub Actions, this is worth a read: GitHub Actions Importer is now generally available. If you want to move your load testing into Azure, this is a good getting started guide: Putting Your Application to the Test with Azure Load Test.

Finally three articles I enjoyed reading this week: Onboarding users in ASP.NET Core using Azure AD Temporary Access Pass and Microsoft Graph, a Serverless URL Shortener (which I think could be simplified by using Azure Container Apps + YARP), and What is MQTT?.

AI + Machine Learning

Covering: Anomaly detector, Azure Bot Service, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Open Datasets, Bing APIs, Cognitive Services, Computer Vision, Content moderator, Custom vision, Data Science Virtual Machines, Face, Form Recogniser, Immersive Reader, Ink Recogniser, Language Understanding (LUIS), Machine Learning Studio, Microsoft Genomics, ML.NET, Personaliser, Project Cortex, QnA Maker, Speaker Recognition, Speech-to-Text, Speech translation, Text Analytics, Text to Speech , Translator Speech, Translator Text

• Ruth Yakubu discusses Getting started with Azure Machine Learning Responsible AI components - Part 1
• On the Azure blog, Jessica Hawk shares What's new in Azure Data & AI: Azure is the best place to build and run AI workloads
• Thomas Costers walks through Using OpenAI GPT in Synapse Analytics

Analytics

Covering: Apache Spark for HDInsight, Apache Storm for HDInsight, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Data Share, Azure Databricks, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Synapse Analytics, Data Catalog, Data Factory, Data Lake Analytics, Event Hubs, HDInsight, .NET for Apache Spark, R Server for HDInsight, Azure Purview

• Pawel Potasinski (@pawelpotasinski) covers Azure Synapse MVP Corner - January 2023
• Michal Bar writes about ADX Web UI updates - February 2023
• Noelle Li covers Introducing Dark Mode for ADF Studio
• Arun Sethia talks about HDInsight - Iceberg Open-Source Table Format and covers Azure Synapse Spark Notebook – Unit Testing
• Dany Hoter asks What's wrong with 1:M relationships between ADX tables In Power BI?
• Lee Stott (@lee_stott) talks about Generating Test Data with Azure OpenAI GPT-3 in Spark
• Arindam Mondal walks through Understanding Azure Synapse Analytics Pricing
• Sergio Fonseca (@FonsecaSergio) presents Synapse Connectivity Series Part 3 - Synapse Managed VNET and Managed Private Endpoints
• Freddie Santos describes Creating a custom disaster recovery plan for your Synapse workspace Part 1

Compute

Covering: Azure CycleCloud, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure Functions, Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple, Batch, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances, Service Fabric, Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets

• Jon Shelley describes Reducing cost and time to solution for Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software on Azures HB-series VMs
• Craig Moyle describes how to Boost Your Performance with Azures New General-Purpose VMs: Dlsv5 and Dldsv5
• Anthony Bartolo (@WirelessLife) provides a Step-By-Step: How to Create a Windows 11 VM on Hyper-V via PowerShell
• Vinil Vadakkepurakkal describes Authenticating Active Directory users to an Azure CycleCloud HPC cluster
• Mutasem Hamad discusses Azure Functions - Part 1 - Hosting and Networking Options

Containers

Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers

• The Azure Updates Team discusses Public preview: AKS NodeOSUpgrade channel and talks about Public preview: Pod sandboxing in AKS
• Pawan Khandavilli (@khpawan) blogs about Serverless meets confidential computing with confidential containers on Azure Container Instances
• Peter Pogorski announces the public preview of confidential containers on Azure Container Instances
• Future Kortor describes Leveraging Defender for Containers to simplify policy management in your Kubernetes Clusters

Databases

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

• The Azure Updates Team announces the General Availability of: Burstable compute for single node configurations for Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL, and Power BI with Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server, and 4 TiB, 8 TiB, and 16 TiB storage per node for Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL
• The Azure Updates Team announces Azure SQL - General availability updates for early March 2023, and Generally available updates for early March 2023 and General Availability of Approximate Percentile Functions for Azure SQL DB and MI
• The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Auto vacuum metrics for Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server
• On the Data Exposed show, Rob Farley talks about Calling REST endpoints from T-SQL
• Vlad Rodriguez presents an Inexpensive solution for managing access to SQL health, performance and security information
• Tanayankar Chakraborty explains How to prevent Page corruption scenarios while restoring SQL DB backup from On-prem to Azure SQL MI

Developer Tools

Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online

• Marian Luparu (@mluparu) says Try Visual Studio 2022 v17.6 Preview 1
• David Ramel (@dramel) blogs about Generative AI VS Code Tool Now Does Unit Testing, writes about Visual Studio Devs Love New Brace Pair Colorization in v17.6 Preview 1 and writes about VS Code Update Boosts Python IntelliSense
• On the Visual Studio blog, Mads Kristensen (@mkristensen) blogs about GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio 2022
• Kevin Gatimu describes How to Use GitHub Copilot Labs to improve your Code Quality and Productivity
• Ruth Yakubu explains How Copilot helps developers generate code for a Form Recognizer application
• Maia Kelner explains how to Build Better Extensions with VisualStudio.Extensibility Preview 3
• On the Visual Studio blog, Grace Taylor talks about The fastest way to add files and folders

DevOps

Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations

• Roshni Vachhani blogs about App confidence: Optimize app validation with Test Base
• On the GitHub blog, Dawit Gebregziabher announces GitHub Actions Importer is now generally available
• Panu Oksala explains how to Empower Your Azure DevOps Usage with Azdoutil
• Vinod Soni blogs about using OpenAIsGPT-3 to Triage Azure DevOps Bugs
• Kevin Chant blogs provides some Thoughts about disabling classic pipelines in Azure DevOps
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Damon Stoddard covers Retrospectives: The Hidden Gem Enabling Teams to Thrive – Part 1
• April Edwards (@TheAprilEdwards) describes How To Easily Generate Terraform or Bicep Files
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) describes Importing Azure Resource To Terraform State After Timed Out Pipeline and explains how to Get The Diagnostics Logs Names For An Azure Resource
• Vinod Soni describes Unlocking the Power of Open AI – Azure DevOps Backlogs from Images/PDFs
• On episode 234 of the Azure DevOps Podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Christian Clausen to discuss When to Refactor
  

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• On the Azure blog, Martin Lund talks about Azure private MEC delivers modern connected applications for industries
• James van Den Berg covers Azure Arc enabled Server Insights AzureHybrid AzureArc Winserv Azure and writes about AKS Edge Essentials Architecture and Use Cases Azure AKS AzureHybrid
• Aurnov Chattopadhyay describes how to Organize and report on your heterogeneous compute with Azure Arc-enabled Infrastructure
• Yousef Khalidi walks through Introducing Azure Operator Nexus
• Nicole Singh covers Azure Operator Voicemail: Take the first step to move voice workloads to the cloud
• On the Azure blog, Jason Zander (@jlzander), Corporate Vice President of Development for the Windows Azure team, talks about Empowering operators and enterprises with the next wave of Azure for Operators services shaping the future of cloud
• Ricardo Villarreal talks about Azure Programmable Connectivity Powers Network-Aware Applications
• Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) blogs about Microsoft Expands Azure Services for 5G Wireless Operators

Identity

Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services

• Damien Bowden (@damien_bod) walks through Onboarding users in ASP.NET Core using Azure AD Temporary Access Pass and Microsoft Graph
• David Giard (@DavidGiard) presents GCast 143: Invite External Users to Azure Active Directory
• Matt Zorich (@reprise_99) blogs about Total Identity Compromise: DART lessons on securing Active Directory

Integration

Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus

• James Yu blogs about Function App - Service Bus triggered throughput decrease with message session
• Kalyani Dhanda writes about Static IP of Logic App Standard using NAT Gateway
• On episode 323 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Ben Stegink (@benstegink) and Scott Hoag (@ciphertxt) cover Managed Identities, Azure Automation, and the Microsoft Graph

Internet of Things

Covering: Azure Digital Twins, Azure IoT Central, Azure IoT Edge, Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT solution accelerators, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere, Azure Time Series Insights, IoT DevKit, WildernessLabs, Windows 10 IoT Core Services

• Martin Tuip explains how to Join Microsoft at Embedded World 2023
• Ricardo Minguez (@ridomin) writes about Digital Twins Definition Language DTDL updates
• Sergio Castro explains How can digital twins make smart grids a reality
• Tobias Goebel asks What is MQTT?

Learning

Covering: Microsoft Certifications, Azure Certifications, Microsoft Learning Paths, Certification Pathway Information

• Hung Dang provides a Skilling snack: Windows Autopilot
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) explains how to Learn Terraform and deploy to Azure using self-led GitHub Repository
• On episode 175 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure Podcast, Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine discuss Azure Landing Zones with Dom Allen
  

Management and Governance

Covering: Automation, Azure Advisor, Azure Backup, Azure Blueprints, Azure Lighthouse, Azure Managed Applications, Azure mobile app, Azure Monitor, Azure Policy, Azure Resource Manager, Azure Service Health, Azure Site Recovery, Cloud Shell, Cost Management, Microsoft Azure portal, Scheduler, Azure Purview

• The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Azure Monitor container insights offers customizable cost optimization settings, and Now Available: Azure Monitor Ingestion client libraries and Generally Available: Azure Monitor Logs now supports Availability Zones in Canada Central, France Central and Japan East
• On the Azure blog, Michael Flanakin (@flanakin) blogs about Microsoft Cost Management updates - February 2023
• Kat Martin blogs about Enabling partners to scale across their SMB customers with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse
• Zachary Cavanell writes about New Microsoft Intune Suite with Privilege Management, Advanced Analytics, Remote Help & App VPN
• Jessica Guindi describes how Microsoft Purview Secures Your Most Important Asset: Your Data
• Jesse Loudon provides 5 Tips To Automate Your Cloud Compliance
• Stanislav Zhelyazkov (@StanZhelyazkov) discusses Azure Log Alert scoped to resource that sends logs to more than one Log Analytics workspace
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) discusses Cut Cost, Improve Security, Reliability, and Performance with Azure Advisor
• Amrita Varsihini discusses Azure Monitor Pros and Cons
• Arunprabhu Muthusamy writes about 10 Ways to Optimize your Azure cost
• James Dumont describes how to Track IP addresses consumption with Azure Application Insights – Part1 and Part2

Media

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

• Nicole Singh delves into Azure Communications Gateway: Rapidly connect to Microsoft Teams

Migration

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

• The Azure Updates Team covers Public preview: Login and TDE-enabled database migrations with Azure Database Migration Service and Public preview: Azure PostgreSQL migration extension for Azure Data Studio
• On the Azure blog, Brett Tanzer announces that Azure VMware Solution in Microsoft Azure Government streamlines migration efforts
• Aditya Duvuri writes about New PostgreSQL migration extension for Azure Data Studio now in Public Preview
• Carlos Robles talks about Introducing Login and TDE-enabled database migrations for the Azure SQL Migration extension
• RK Iyer discusses Migrating from AWS RDS for MySQL to Azure Database for MySQL - Considerations and Approaches

Mobile

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

• Josh Lai writes about Introducing Azure Communication Services UI Library to Xamarin & .NET MAUI

Networking

Covering: Application Gateway, Azure Bastion, Azure DNS, Azure ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, Azure Firewall Manager, Azure Front Door, Azure Internet Analyzer, Azure Private Link, Content Delivery Network, Load Balancer, Network Watcher, Traffic Manager, Virtual Network, Virtual WAN, VPN Gateway, Web Application Firewall

• The Azure Updates Team writes about General availability: Scale improvements and metrics enhancements on Azures regional WAF, and Azure Virtual Network Manager Event Logging now in public preview and General availability: New enhanced connection troubleshoot
• On the Azure blog, Sowmya Mahadevaiah covers Azure WAF guided investigation Notebook using Microsoft Sentinel for automated false positive tuning
• Alan Kinane (@Azure_Alan) describes Routing hub & spoke virtual networks through a network virtual appliance
• Sowmya Mahadevaiah presents Tutorial: Get started with Azure WAF investigation Notebook
• Wim Matthyssen (@wmatthyssen) blogs about Connecting to an Azure Windows VM using an Azure PowerShell script and native client via Azure Bastion
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) delves into Connecting To A Third-Party Network From Azure Using NAT
• Daniel Larsen explains How to test Azure Front Door origins for valid HTTP range-request behavior

Security

Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center

• Tomer Reisner covers Premium capabilities in Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management are now generally available
• Farah Chamseddine discusses ACSC Essential 8 – Health Report in Microsoft Sentinel
• Dagmar Heidecker describes The Nightmare of Validating Certificate Requests

Storage

Covering: Archive Storage, Avere vFXT for Azure, Azure Data Lake Store, Azure FXT Edge Filer, Azure HPC Cache, Azure NetApp Files, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, Storage Accounts, Storage Explorer, StorSimple

• The Azure Updates Team announces Public preview: Tiering capability for premium block blob storage and General availability: Azure Archive Storage now available in West US 3
• Deeksha S A delves into Leveraging Blob Inventory Report for calculating Storage Capacity with the help of Azure Synapse

Web

Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps

• Prakash Palanisamy talks about Serverless URL Shortener
• John Kilmister (@johnkilmister) walks through Putting Your Application to the Test with Azure Load Test
• MJ Schanne blogs about Creating a Notification Service and Components in Blazor with Bootstrap
• Raven Zhang explains how to Choose Your Best Authentication Solutions in Azure App Service
• David Giard (@DavidGiard) covers Creating an Azure Spring Apps Service and describes Adding an Azure Spring App to an Azure Spring App Service
• Emma Yen writes about Unable to move app service to an existing app service plan

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• Kawula Dave walks through Troubleshooting EventID 8198 0xC00F074 KMS Activation on Azure Virtual Dekstop with Azure Firewall