Azure Weekly
Issue #506 - 9th March 2025
Highlights this week include three Azure management related posts: Azure Arc: Managing Azure Arc-enabled servers with Machine Configuration and Optimize Fortinet Traffic Logs into Microsoft Sentinel, and Azure App Service Auto-Heal: Capturing Relevant Data During Performance Issues.
In Networking: Aiden Finn has three more excellent posts: Why The Classic DMZ/Secure Zone Design Is Worthless in Azure, and Micro-Segmentation Security In Azure Networks, and Designing An Azure Hub Virtual Network. And in IOT Azure IoT Operations: Event Hub telemetry and commands.
In AI: Is your LLM-powered app providing safe answers? Evaluate it, and a really good use case for Autogen - Automating Database Migration with Autogen 0.4, and another way ACA is proving to be an awesome service - Using NVIDIA Triton Inference Server on Azure Container Apps.
Finally, in Data & Analytics: some of the excellent features of the under-appreciated OneLake: Connect to any data with Shortcuts, Mirroring and Data Factory using Microsoft Fabric.
⚙️ AI + Machine Learning
- On the Azure blog, Jessica Hawk writes about New global report: How to stand out in an AI-savvy world
- Yonatan Zunger discusses Securing generative AI models on Azure AI Foundry
- Facundo Santiago talks about DeepSeek R1: Improved Performance, Higher Limits, and Transparent Pricing
- On Visual Studio Magazine - Blogs, David Ramel (@dramel) writes about Semantic Kernel Agent Framework Graduates to Release Candidate
- Jean-Luc Verschelde covers Empowering radiologists with clinical guidance, quality standards, and scoring and assessments
- Shivam Goyal covers Unlocking the Power of AI Agents: An Introductory Guide - Part 1
- On episode 280 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) do A lap around Azure AI Foundry Agents preview
- Christian Coello talks about Unleashing Innovation: AI Agent Development with Azure AI Foundry
- Elizabeth Pappalardo writes about Hunting for opals in the Australian outback
- Muhammad Suzarilshah bin Zakaria covers Step-by-step: Integrate Ollama Web UI to use Azure Open AI API with LiteLLM Proxy and explains how to Deploy Open Web UI on Azure VM via Docker: A Step-by-Step Guide with Custom Domain Setup.
- Priyanka covers Demystifying Azure AI Foundry: A Beginner's Guide
- Pamela Fox writes Is your LLM-powered app providing safe answers? Evaluate it
- Farzad Sunavala covers RAG Time Journey 1: RAG and knowledge retrieval fundamentals
🔎 Analytics
- On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Christopher Schmidt discusses Operational Reporting with Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence
- Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) explains how to Publish a Fabric SQL Database with Pre- or Post-Deployment Scripts
- Naveed Hussain blogs about Delivering Information with Azure Synapse and Data Vault 2.0
- On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jeremy Chapman (@deployjeremy) and Maraki Ketema explain how to Connect to any data with Shortcuts, Mirroring and Data Factory using Microsoft Fabric
🖥️ Compute
- Tim Deschryver writes about Some observations while writing my first Azure Function
- Rafael Salas delves into Optimizing AI Workloads on Azure: CPU Pinning via NCCL Topology file
🚢 Containers
- On Diagrid Blog, Bilgin Ibryam (@bibryam) describes Operationalizing LLM Interactions with Dapr's New Conversation API
- Chaminda Chandrasekara discusses Using grep with kubectl logs to Filter Container/Pod Logs
- Beatriss Kovernaig explains how to Secure containers software supply chain across the SDLC
- Asma Khalid explains how to Install Docker Desktop on Windows Drive D: and Fix WSL Errors
- Ringe Chen walks through Using NVIDIA Triton Inference Server on Azure Container Apps
🗄️ Databases
- Shubhra Sinha covers Price reduction and upcoming features for Azure confidential ledger
- Djordje Jeremic explains how to Managed Instance link with SQL Server 2017 is now GA
- Shreya R. Aithal covers MySQL Discovery and Assessment in Azure Migrate - Public Preview
- Episode 15 of the Cosmos Down Under show with Greg Low (@greglow) and guest Saranya Sriram from the Cosmos DB team discussing AI and vector search is now released
- Ramkumar Chandrasekaran blogs about Preventing and recovering from accidental deletion of an Azure Database for MySQL flexible server
- Anton Slutsky covers Automating Database Migration with Autogen 0.4
🛠️ Developer Tools
- On the Visual Studio blog, Harshada Hole writes about New Debugging and Profiling Features in Visual Studio v17.13
- Mads Kristensen (@mkristensen) writes about Great new productivity features in Visual Studio
- Carlos Robles (@dbamastery) describes MSSQL Extension for VS Code: Whats new and whats next
- On Visual Studio Magazine - Blogs, David Ramel (@dramel) writes about New VS Code Release Polishes Experimental GitHub Copilot Agent Mode
- Nitya Narasimhan describes The Future of AI: Reduce AI Provisioning Effort - Jumpstart your solutions with AI App Templates
- Shreyan Fernandes writes about Prompt Engineering Simplified: AI Toolkit's Prompt Builder
- On episode 514 of the Azure podcast, the podcast team (@AzurePodcast) are joined by Mario Hewardt to discuss Sysinternals Tools on Azure
🔩 DevOps
- Shon Shah blogs about Azure Load Testing Celebrates Two Years with Two Exciting Announcements
- Luke Murray (@lukemurraynz) explains How to Use GitHub Codespaces with Azure DevOps Repositories
- Giulio Astori discusses Integrating Security into DevOps Workflows with Microsoft Defender CSPM
- John Folberth (@j_folberth) provides a Technical Walkthrough: Deploying a SQL DB like it's Terraform
- Nagarjuna Vipparthi explains how to Run Locust-based Tests in Azure Load Testing
- Antti K. Koskela (@koskila) explains How to output the value of a secret variable in Azure DevOps
- Stanislav Zhelyazkov (@StanZhelyazkov) covers Passing Resources between Azure Bicep modules
- David Giard (@DavidGiard) and Mark Tinderholt discuss GitHub AT-AT and Terraform
⚙️ Hybrid + Multicloud
- Kiana Harris describes Arc Jumpstart Newsletter: February 2025 Edition
- Jake Walsh (@jakewalsh90) discusses Azure Spring Clean 2025 – A Foundation for Hybrid Cloud – how Landing Zones change with Hybrid Cloud
- Wim Matthyssen (@wmatthyssen) delves into Azure Arc: Managing Azure Arc-enabled servers with Machine Configuration
- Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) writes about Advanced Windows Server Management Enabled by Azure Arc
- Dileep-G blogs about Unlocking the multicloud advantage: AWS to Azure service comparisons
🎭 Identity
- Darryl Kegg talks about Converting Active Directory Groups to Cloud-Only with ADGMS
- Farooque Mohammad walks through Entra ID SAML Federation with an External Identity Provider
- Sankara Narayanan delves into ADSS TSync vs Entra Cross-Tenant Sync: A Comprehensive Comparison
🔌 Integration
- Wagner Silveira talks about Logic Apps Aviators Newsletter - March 2025
- Richard Fennell (@richardfennell) walks through Parsing CSV files in Azure Logic Apps
- Shree Divya discusses Scaling mechanism in hybrid deployment model for Azure Logic Apps Standard
- Yingjie Shi covers Sending Messages to Confluent Cloud topic using Logic App
💡 Internet of Things
- Sander van de Velde (@svelde) blogs about Azure IoT Operations: Event Hub telemetry and commands
📚 Learning
- Chris Noring (@chris_noring) talks about Introducing a new curriculum: Generative AI with JavaScript and describes Introducing a new curriculum: Generative AI with JavaScript
- On episode 339 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) and Dustin Campbell talk about C# 13
⚖️ Management and Governance
- Annie Fang announces the General Availability of Azure Load Balancer Health Event Logs
- Michael Flanakin discusses Microsoft Cost Management updates—February 2025 summary
- Shannon Hicks blogs about Removal of Azure Policy aliases for Microsoft.Insights/alertRules
- Vinod Soni talks about Implementing Disaster Recovery for Azure App Service Web Applications
- On the Azure blog, Julie Brill And Paul Lorimer covers Microsoft completes landmark EU Data Boundary, offering enhanced data residency and transparency
- Tyson Paul talks about Check This Out CTO Guide Mar 2025
- Aresh Sarkari delves into Cloud PC Maintenance Windows: Scheduling Resize Operations for Maximum Efficiency + Bonus Microsoft Graph Powershell way of implementation
- Chaminda Chandrasekara walks through Setting Up Alert for AKS Pod Restarts Using Log Analytics Workspace and Grafana
- Sep Beheshti covers Patch Perfect: Mastering Azure Update Manager for Worry-Free VM Maintenance – Part 1
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Optimize Fortinet Traffic Logs into Microsoft Sentinel
- Andy Rivas explains how to Optimize Windows Autopilot bandwidth use with Connected Cache
- Michael Flanakin covers Learning FOCUS: Service columns
🌐 Networking
- The Azure Updates Team announces Launched Generally Available: Edit Network Features for Azure NetApp Files with No Downtime
- Andrea Michael blogs about Lab: Manage Virtual Networks at Scale with Azure Virtual Network Manager AVNM
- Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) discusses Micro-Segmentation Security In Azure Networks, writes about Why The Classic DMZ/Secure Zone Design Is Worthless in Azure and covers Designing An Azure Hub Virtual Network
- Alan Kinane (@Azure_Alan) explores Network Security Perimeters in Azure
- Hannes Lagler-Gruener discusses Central network management in Azure
🔐 Security
- Oke Bamgbose talks about Microsoft 365 E5 Security is now available as an add-on to Microsoft 365 Business Premium
- Yura Lee talks about Microsoft Defender for Cloud Customer Newsletter
- Josh Watson writes Everything Old Is New Again: Hardening the Trust Boundary of VBS Enclaves
- Xinye Tang writes about Empowering Security Copilot with NL2KQL: Transforming Natural Language into Insightful KQL queries
- Anshu Verma covers Cloud security in the fast lane: Navigating PaaS challenges
- Santosh Pargi explains how to Automate enabling Defender for servers P1 at resource group or individual machines using Tags.
📦 Storage
- The Azure Updates Team announces Launched Generally Available: Vaulted Backup Support for Azure Files Standard Shares
🔗 Web
- Elio Struyf (@eliostruyf) covers Integrating Azure Functions into your Astro site, discusses Authentication for Astro with Azure Static Web Apps and explains how to Check your Azure Static Web App storage usage
- Benjamin Perkins explains how to Capture .NET Profiler Trace on the Azure App Service platform
- hieunhu talks about Azure APIM Cost Rate Limiting with Cosmos & Flex Functions
- Shagni Hotri covers Azure App Service Auto-Heal: Capturing Relevant Data During Performance Issues
- John Kilmister (@johnkilmister) talks about Migrating ASP.NET Apps on Azure App Service Plans from Windows to Linux
- Sai Nathreddy explains How to Properly Configure IIS Reverse Proxy for ASP.NET Core Applications Secured with Entra ID