Inside Azure Management (Preview) Free E-Book #Azure #Cloud #Management #MVPBuzz

Inside Azure Management

This Awesome Inside Azure Management E-book is a must have with Great content !

Chapter 1 – Intro
Chapter 2 – Implementing Governance in Azure
Chapter 3 – Migrating Workloads to Azure
Chapter 4 – Configuring Data Sources for Azure Log Analytics
Chapter 5 – Monitoring Applications
Chapter 6 – Monitoring Infrastructure
Chapter 7 – Configuring Alerting and notification
Chapter 8 – Monitor Databases
Chapter 9 – Monitoring Containers
Chapter 10 – Implementing Process Automation
Chapter 11 – Configuration Management
Chapter 12 – Monitoring Security-related Configuration
Chapter 13 – Data Backup for Azure Workloads
Chapter 14 – Implementing a Disaster Recovery Strategy
Chapter 15 – Update Management for VMs
Chapter 16 – Conclusion

It’s all about Azure Management in the Cloud written by Great Microsoft MVP’s.
Download the Free Inside Azure Management E-book here

 

Follow the Authors here :  Tao Yang, Stanislav Zhelyazkov, Pete Zerger, and Kevin Greene, along with Anders Bengtsson, CSA for Microsoft.

Thank you for all the work guys and Congrats on this Awesome E-Book ! 😉

Creating VM Cluster on Azure #Cloud with Terraform #IaC #Azure #Terraform #Linux #Winserv

Type az and you should see this Azure CLI

Type Terraform and you should see the terraform commands

 

Install and configure Terraform to provision VMs and other infrastructure into Azure

Before you begin with Terraform and deploying your solution to Microsoft Azure you have to install Azure CLI and Terraform for your OS.

In the following step-by-step guide we will deploy a VM Cluster with Terraform into Microsoft Azure Cloud Services.

First we open Powershell in Administrator mode :

You should have your Terraform script ready.

It’s great to edit your Terraform script in Visual Studio Code

Create a Terraform configuration file
In this section, you create a file that contains resource definitions for your infrastructure.
Create a new file named main.tf.
Copy following sample resource definitions into the newly created main.tf file:

---

resource “azurerm_resource_group” “test” {
name = “acctestrg”
location = “West US 2”
}

resource “azurerm_virtual_network” “test” {
name = “acctvn”
address_space = [“10.0.0.0/16”]
location = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.location}”
resource_group_name = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.name}”
}

resource “azurerm_subnet” “test” {
name = “acctsub”
resource_group_name = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.name}”
virtual_network_name = “${azurerm_virtual_network.test.name}”
address_prefix = “10.0.2.0/24”
}

resource “azurerm_public_ip” “test” {
name = “publicIPForLB”
location = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.location}”
resource_group_name = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.name}”
public_ip_address_allocation = “static”
}

resource “azurerm_lb” “test” {
name = “loadBalancer”
location = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.location}”
resource_group_name = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.name}”

frontend_ip_configuration {
name = “publicIPAddress”
public_ip_address_id = “${azurerm_public_ip.test.id}”
}
}

resource “azurerm_lb_backend_address_pool” “test” {
resource_group_name = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.name}”
loadbalancer_id = “${azurerm_lb.test.id}”
name = “BackEndAddressPool”
}

resource “azurerm_network_interface” “test” {
count = 2
name = “acctni${count.index}”
location = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.location}”
resource_group_name = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.name}”

ip_configuration {
name = “testConfiguration”
subnet_id = “${azurerm_subnet.test.id}”
private_ip_address_allocation = “dynamic”
load_balancer_backend_address_pools_ids = [“${azurerm_lb_backend_address_pool.test.id}”]
}
}

resource “azurerm_managed_disk” “test” {
count = 2
name = “datadisk_existing_${count.index}”
location = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.location}”
resource_group_name = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.name}”
storage_account_type = “Standard_LRS”
create_option = “Empty”
disk_size_gb = “1023”
}

resource “azurerm_availability_set” “avset” {
name = “avset”
location = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.location}”
resource_group_name = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.name}”
platform_fault_domain_count = 2
platform_update_domain_count = 2
managed = true
}

resource “azurerm_virtual_machine” “test” {
count = 2
name = “acctvm${count.index}”
location = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.location}”
availability_set_id = “${azurerm_availability_set.avset.id}”
resource_group_name = “${azurerm_resource_group.test.name}”
network_interface_ids = [“${element(azurerm_network_interface.test.*.id, count.index)}”]
vm_size = “Standard_DS1_v2”

# Uncomment this line to delete the OS disk automatically when deleting the VM
# delete_os_disk_on_termination = true

# Uncomment this line to delete the data disks automatically when deleting the VM
# delete_data_disks_on_termination = true

storage_image_reference {
publisher = “Canonical”
offer = “UbuntuServer”
sku = “16.04-LTS”
version = “latest”
}

storage_os_disk {
name = “myosdisk${count.index}”
caching = “ReadWrite”
create_option = “FromImage”
managed_disk_type = “Standard_LRS”
}

# Optional data disks
storage_data_disk {
name = “datadisk_new_${count.index}”
managed_disk_type = “Standard_LRS”
create_option = “Empty”
lun = 0
disk_size_gb = “1023”
}

storage_data_disk {
name = “${element(azurerm_managed_disk.test.*.name, count.index)}”
managed_disk_id = “${element(azurerm_managed_disk.test.*.id, count.index)}”
create_option = “Attach”
lun = 1
disk_size_gb = “${element(azurerm_managed_disk.test.*.disk_size_gb, count.index)}”
}

os_profile {
computer_name = “hostname”
admin_username = “testadmin”
admin_password = “Password1234!”
}

os_profile_linux_config {
disable_password_authentication = false
}

tags {
environment = “staging”
}
}

---

Type : terraform init

You should see this screen.

Type : az login

We now logging into Microsoft Azure subscription.

https://microsoft.com/devicelogin

Insert the code from your Powershell screen.

Now we have the Terraform INIT running and we are connected to our Azure Subscription 😉

Type : terraform plan

It will refreshing the state and getting ready for deployment.

Type : terraform apply

and then type : yes <enter>

Terraform is now creating the azure resources

Azure resource group acctestrg is made

Terraform deployment VM Cluster on Azure is Ready 😉

Azure VM Cluster is running.

When you want to remove the complete Azure VM Cluster with terraform, it’s really easy :

Type : terraform destroy

and then type : yes <enter>

Azure resources are being deleted via terraform script

Terraform destroyed the Azure VM Cluster

All Azure Resources of the VM Cluster are removed.

Hope this step-by-step guide deploying infrastructure as Code with terraform will help you with your own Cloud solutions in Microsoft azure.

Ps. don’t forget to install Visual Studio Code Azure Terraform extension and play !

#MVPbuzz

What is New in Microsoft System Center version 1801 #Sysctr #SCOM #SCVMM #SCDPM

What is New in Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager version 1801 ?

• Nested virtualization
• Migration of VMware VM (EFI firmware-based VM) to Hyper-V VM
• Performance improvement in host refresher
• Enhanced console session in VMM

Networking :

• Configuration of guest clusters in SDN through VMM
• Configuration of SLB VIPs through VMM service templates
• Configuration of encrypted VM networks through VMM

Security :

• Support to Linux shielded VM
• Configuration of fallback HGS

Azure Integration :

• Management of ARM-based and region-specific Azure subscriptions

SCVMM 1801 supports management of ARM-based VMs, Azure Active Directory (AD) based authentication that is created by using the new Azure portal and region-specific Azure subscriptions (namely, Germany, China, US Government Azure regions).

Download here System Center Virtual Machine Manager version 1801 VHD

What is New in System Center Data Protection Manager version 1801 ?

The following features are either new to DPM, or are improved for DPM 2016.

Modern Backup Storage – Using Resilient File System (ReFS) block-cloning technology to store incremental backups, DPM 2016 dramatically improves storage utilization and performance. The storage consumed by backups grows and shrinks with the production data source, and there is no over-allocation of storage.
Resilient change tracking (RCT) – DPM uses RCT (the native change tracking in Hyper-V), which removes the need for time-consuming consistency checks. RCT provides better resiliency than the change tracking provided by VSS snapshot-based backups. DPM also uses RCT for incremental backup. It identifies VHD changes for virtual machines, and transfers only those blocks that are indicated by the change tracker.
Continued protection during cluster aware updates – Windows Server 2016 comes with the cluster OS rolling update, where a cluster can be upgraded to Windows Server 2016 without bringing it down. DPM 2016 continues to protect VMs during the upgrade, maintaining the backup service level agreement (SLA).
Shielded VM Backups – Shielded VMs in Windows Server 2016 help protect sensitive VMs from inspection, tampering, and data theft by malware and malicious administrators. DPM 2016 backups retain the protections provided by shielded VMs to ensure they can be recovered seamlessly and securely.
Hyper-V with Storage Spaces Direct – DPM recognizes and protects Hyper-V VMs deployed on Storage Spaces Direct, delivering seamless backup and recovery of VMs in disaggregated and hyper-converged scenarios.
Hyper-V with ReFS SOFS Cluster – DPM 2016 can back up Hyper-V VMs deployed on ReFS-based SOFS clusters. Backup and recovery of RCT-based VMs and non-RCT VMs is supported.
Upgrading a DPM production server to 2016 doesn’t require a reboot – When you upgrade to DPM 2016, you are not required to reboot the production server. To avoid rebooting the production server, upgrade to DPM 2016 and upgrade the DPM agent on the production servers. Backups continue and you reboot the production server when you want.

DPM to Azure Backup Vault.

Download here System Center Data Protection Manager version 1801 VHD

What is New in System Center Operations Manager version 1801 ?

• Enter product key from the Operation Console
• Linux monitoring
• Improved HTML5 dashboarding experience
• System Center Visual Studio Authoring Extension (VSAE) support for Visual Studio 2017
• Enhanced SDK Client performance
• Updates and recommendations for third-party Management Packs
• Linux Kerberos support
• Service Map integration

Microsoft Service Map automatically discovers application components on Windows and Linux systems and maps the communication between services. It automatically builds a common reference map of dependencies across your servers, processes, and third-party services. Integration between Service Map and System Center Operations Manager allows you to automatically create distributed application diagrams in Operations Manager that are based on the dynamic dependency maps in Service Map.

The Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Team published a great blogpost on the New SCOM Web Console version 1801

Download here System Center Operations Manager version 1801 VHD

Download here System Center Orchestrator version 1801 VHD

Download here System Center Service Manager version 1801 VHD

 

Here you find more information about System Center version 1801

Test today the new features of System Center version 1801 with the Evaluation VHD’s 😉

#Microsoft Operations Management Suite #Automation and Control #MSOMS #Azure

Learn how OMS Automation gives you control across your IT environment to automate repetitive and complex tasks, create workflows and runbooks.

Here you can sign in for your free OMS subscription to try it your self

Here you can find the Microsoft Technical Documentation of MSOMS

Hybrid Infrastructure #Automation with Azure Resource Manager Templates #Azure #AzureStack #ARM #DSC

If you’ve ever had to set up a test or production environment for something like SharePoint, you know there are several pieces to set up – like Active Directory, SQL for your backend data, and then your SharePoint servers. While it’s possible to automate this with advanced scripting or level 400 task sequencer skills, imagine just choosing a template or manifest file and clicking go to spin up a dozen or so VMs all wired together and talking to each other. That is effectively what Azure Resource Manager templates do and what Corey Sanders lead engineer for Azure compute, demonstrates on the show. He also steps back to illustrate how they work as a unified resource automation model for both Microsoft Azure Cloud resources and on premises with the upcoming Azure Stack.

Microsoft Datacenter vNext Preview: Bringing Azure to Your Datacenter (MVA Learning)

#Microsoft System Center Orchestrator Integration Modules and #Azure #Automation

The System Center Orchestrator Integration Modules are converted from the Microsoft supported Integration Packs for Orchestrator. They support the migration of Orchestrator runbooks to Azure Automation and Service Management Automation. The modules include activities to connect against:

• System Center Virtual Machine Manager
• System Center Data Protection Manager
• FTP
• Exchange Admin
• Exchange User
• SharePoint
• REST
• Active Directory
• Azure
• VMware vSphere
• HP Operations Manager

For more information, please refer to the documentation.

System Center Orchestrator Integration Modules Beta version

UPDATED #Microsoft Azure Resource Manager overview #Cloud #HybridCloud #Azure #Automation

The infrastructure for your application is typically made up of many components – maybe a virtual machine, storage account, and virtual network, or a web app, database, database server, and 3rd party services. You do not see these components as separate entities, instead you see them as related and interdependent parts of a single entity. You want to deploy, manage, and monitor them as a group. Azure Resource Manager enables you to work with the resources in your solution as a group. You can deploy, update or delete all of the resources for your solution in a single, coordinated operation. You use a template for deployment and that template can work for different environments such as testing, staging and production. Resource Manager provides security, auditing, and tagging features to help you manage your resources after deployment.

The benefits of using Resource Manager

Resource Manager provides several benefits:

• You can deploy, manage, and monitor all of the resources for your solution as a group, rather than handling these resources individually.
• You can repeatedly deploy your solution throughout the development lifecycle and have confidence your resources are deployed in a consistent state.
• You can use declarative templates to define your deployment.
• You can define the dependencies between resources so they are deployed in the correct order.
• You can apply access control to all services in your resource group because Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is natively integrated into the management platform.
• You can apply tags to resources to logically organize all of the resources in your subscription.
• You can clarify billing for your organization by viewing the rolled-up costs for the entire group or for a group of resources sharing the same tag.

Resource Manager provides a new way to deploy and manage your solutions. If you used the earlier deployment model and want to learn about the changes, see Understanding Resource Manager deployment and classic deployment.

Here you can find  Up-to-Date Microsoft Azure Resource Manager Overview Documentation to make your Live Easy 😉

#Microsoft Azure Resource Manager Preview SDKs Available #ARM #Azure #Cloud

Microsoft is happy to announce Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Preview SDKs are available for multiple languages and platforms. These include Java, Python, Go and Ruby SDKs. Each of these language implementations are available through their ecosystem package managers and GitHub, and they’re ready for a test drive! The SDKs are preview, so consumers of the SDKs should expect some upcoming changes before their full release. However, even though there will likely be some upcoming change, we’re excited and believe the code is ready for use!

Azure is rapidly growing, adding new features and services constantly. This expansion of features and services empowers Azure customers with astonishing new functionality at an astounding pace. The pace of which has been a challenge to parallel across all of Azure’s supported languages and platforms with the same level of fidelity and consistency. The effort required to produce hand-written SDKs at the pace and scale of Azure’s evolution is intractable. To that effect, we’ve been transitioning to a generated code model across all our SDKs to enable our SDKs to scale at the same pace as Azure.

The code in each of these SDKs is generated from Azure RESTful API specifications. These specifications are open source and based on the Swagger v2 specification. The SDK code is generated code via an open source project called AutoRest. AutoRest transforms these RESTful API specifications into client libraries in multiple languages. If there are any aspects of the generated code in the SDKs you would like to improve, the entire set of tools to create the SDKs are open, freely available and based in widely adopted API specification format.

Getting Started: ARM Authentication

Before using the Azure Resource Manager SDKs, you need to understand how the SDKs authenticate and authorize requests. All of the preview SDKs require developers using the SDKs to authenticate via Azure Active Directory to get a bearer token often using OAuth2. While OAuth2 provides many advantages over certificates, programmatic use, such as for scripts on headless servers, requires understanding and creating one or more Service Principals. This can be one of the more difficult concepts for developers getting started with the SDKs. For a reference on setting up a service principal from the command line, see Authenticating a service principal with Azure Resource Manager. For a more robust explanation of authentication in Azure, see Developer’s guide to auth with Azure Resource Manager API.

After creating the service principal, you should have three pieces of information, a client id (GUID), client secret (string), and tenant id (GUID) or domain name (string).

Getting Started: ARM Java SDK Preview

Getting started with the Azure Java SDK is as simple as adding the Azure SDK artifacts via maven to your Java project. The maven artifacts are the simplest way to ensure you have all of the required dependencies for the Java SDK.

After adding the artifacts to your project, check out one of our collections of Getting Started samples in the Azure SDK for Java GitHub repository. These samples will show you how to deploy templates or create virtual machines. There are also several utilities and helpers you will find useful for common tasks in the azure-mgmt-utilities.

Getting Started: ARM Python SDK Preview

The Azure Python SDK is available via PyPI and supports Python 2.7, 3.3 and 3.4. To get started, you can install the entire package via `pip install azure` or the individual packages per the documentation.

After installing the pip packages, try out the sample for creating a resource group or creating a virtual machine.

Getting Started: ARM Go SDK Preview

The Azure Go SDK is designed to be easy to use, out of the box. It should be “clone and go” for straightforward use. To get started, install the Azure Resource Manager packages for the Go through `go get`. You can find a listing of the packages here.

After installing the Go packages, try out the simple example for checking name availability within Azure or creating a new Azure Storage account.

Getting Started: ARM Ruby SDK Preview

To get started with the Azure Ruby SDK, add the published gems to your Ruby Gemfile or install directly via Gem Install. You can find a listing of all of the available Ruby SDK gems via Rubygems.

After installing the Azure Resource Manager gems, try out the sample for creating a storage account or creating a virtual machine sample.

Future of the Azure SDKs

Microsoft will be continuing to release more ARM functionality as more API specifications are available and as the AutoRest project matures. All of this work will be taking place in GitHub, and will be open for feedback from the community. If you would like to get involved in any of the projects, please open an issue or submit a pull request. We look forward to coding with you!

All these Azure SDKs are from the Microsoft Azure Blogsite

Deploy and Manage Virtual Machines using #Azure Resource Manager Templates and #PowerShell

This article shows you how to use Azure Resource Manager templates and PowerShell to automate common tasks for deploying and managing Azure Virtual Machines. For more templates you can use, see Azure Quickstart Templates and App Frameworks.

• Deploy a Windows VM
• Create a custom VM image
• Deploy a multi-VM application that uses a virtual network and an external load balancer
• Log on to a virtual machine
• Start a virtual machine
• Stop a virtual machine

Before you get started, make sure you have Azure PowerShell ready to go.

Here you can Read the complete Blogpost for using Azure Resource Manager