Azure Monitor Insights for Monitoring your Containers.
In the last blogpost I wrote about Microsoft Azure Arc Services and how to connect a Docker for Desktop Kubernetes Cluster for testing your DevOps solution like Container Apps, Functions, App Services in a test environment. Here you find the Link to the Installation.
One of the Microsoft Azure Arc features is Azure Monitor Insights for monitoring your Kubernetes Cluster and the Containers.
Azure Arc Insights for Kubernetes Cluster anywhere
In the following step-by-step guide we will configure Azure Monitor Insights for your Kubernetes Cluster.
I Connected my Analytics Workspace CloudMVPLab.
Click on Configure.
Onboarding your Kubernetes Cluster will take some minutes.
After a while your Kubernetes Cluster Analytics data will show in Insights.
Here you see a navigation bar with the following topics
What’s New
Cluster
Reports
Nodes
Controllers
Containers.
Insights reports of the Kubernetes Cluster
Here you can Click on default reports of your Kubernetes Cluster.
Storage Capacity and Health Status report of your Kubernetes Cluster.
Storage Capacity more in Details.
Deployments Report of your Kubernetes Cluster.
Workload details Report of your Kubernetes Cluster.
Kubelet report of your Kubernetes Cluster
Data Usage of your Kubernetes Cluster
Data Usage
Insights the Nodes of the Kubernetes Cluster
Insights of the Nodes and on the right you can view Analytics.
Here you can work with Log Analytics on your Cluster.
Insights in Controllers of your Kubernetes Cluster
Insights of your Controllers
Insights Containers of your Kubernetes Cluster
Container Insights of your Kubernetes Cluster
Container Insights with Azure Log Analytics.
So with Azure Arc Enabled Kubernetes Clusters you can monitoring your Cluster and running Containers to keep you in Control on what is happening on the Cluster but also with your Container Apps and microservices. After this you can set Alerts and notifications when something is going wrong or offline. With this running you can start running your own App services, Containers or Azure functions on your Kubernetes Cluster.
This configuration with Docker for Desktop Kubernetes Cluster is for testing purpose only and can be used for your own DevOps solutions before you deploy on Production Ready Clusters. With Azure Arc Enabled Kubernetes Clusters you get the powerful Microsoft Azure Features and solutions in a secure way on your Kubernetes Cluster. I wish you lot of success with Azure Arc Enabled Kubernetes Clusters to make Awesome Apps and IT solutions for the Business 😉
The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) gives you the most command-line tools, utilities, and applications directly on Windows. I’m using Microsoft Windows Admin Center and Windows Server Core 20H2 with Build version 19042.746 to deploy WSL 2 with Ubuntu 18.04 Linux Distro. Here you find the installation of the Windows Server Core 20H2 with Windows Admin Center
In the following steps we will install the Following :
Ubuntu 18.04 is Running in WSL2 on Windows Server Core 20H2 😉
Conclusion
First of All Microsoft Windows Admin Center is supporting me in the Installation of Windows Subsystem for Linux. We have WSL 2 Running with Ubuntu 18.04 with a lot of possibilities!
What I really like is integration, like in Windows 10 and Docker for desktop with the WSL 2 Engine. Here my Blogpost
Together with VSCode Remote WSL is Cool.
Would be awesome to run Docker Windows and Linux Containers in combination with WSL 2 integration on Windows Server Core edition. Maybe in the Future, who knows?
Working with Dapr in WSL2 Remote VSCode and Ubuntu 20.04 distro
Dapr is a portable, event-driven runtime that makes it easy for any developer to build resilient, stateless and stateful applications that run on the cloud and edge and embraces the diversity of languages and developer frameworks.
To make using Dapr more natural for different languages, it also includes language specific SDKs for Go, Java, JavaScript, .NET and Python. These SDKs expose the functionality in the Dapr building blocks, such as saving state, publishing an event or creating an actor, through a typed, language API rather than calling the http/gRPC API. This enables you to write a combination of stateless and stateful functions and actors all in the language of their choice. And because these SDKs share the Dapr runtime, you get cross-language actor and functions support.
I’m using Windows Insider Build version 21277-RS with Docker for Windows Edge and Visual Studio Code.
Docker for Windows Edge Version Running.
Because Docker for Windows Edge support WSL2 Engine and Visual Studio Code too, brought me to an idea to build dapr into Ubuntu 20.04 WSL Distro on my Windows Insiders 21277 RS version on my Surface Book 3. There for you must activate the WSL2 integration with my default WSL distro Ubuntu-20.04.
Dapr init ( in the Ubuntu-20.04 WSL2 Linux distro )
Here you find the Dapr dev environment installation types for Dapr init, I did the standalone version. Dapr makes then the following containers :
Dapr Containers.
Then we have the following running :
Dapr Dashboard
Zipkin
Zipkin is a distributed tracing system. It helps gather timing data needed to troubleshoot latency problems in service architectures. Features include both the collection and lookup of this data.
Zipkin Traces
Dapr Dashboard
Now we have Dapr running in the WSL2 Ubuntu-20.04 distro, you can use Visual Studio Code on Windows Insiders using Remote WSL and work with your favourite dapr SDK like the list above 😉
From here you can work with your dapr application.
In this guide dapr is running with Docker containers, but you can also install it on Kubernetes or K8s, AKS, Azure any where, see this overview :
Dapr with Kubenetes Containers.
Dapr Overview.
Important Note : Dapr is now production ready with version 1.0 ! Developers, DevOps, AzOps, you can start with it and Build and Test your own microservices and Container apps ! Hope you are having fun with it too 😉
In the following steps we install Docker for Windows enterprise on a Windows Server 2019 which is running on a hypervisor platform in this case VMware to run a Linux container in the Datacenter.
When you are on a virtualization platform like Hyper-V or VMware and you have installed de Virtual machine with Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard edition, you must make the virtual processors ready for virtualization.
(Nested Virtualization) otherwise you can’t install Hyper-V on VMware.
This is the error you get.
Enable this feature for virtualization to the guest OS for VMware.
Now we have all the prerequisites installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2019, we can begin with Docker for Windows Enterprise via Powershell in Administrators modus :
Now we have Docker EE version 19.03.5 installed for Windows Server 2019.
It’s ready for Windows Containers.
But we want to run linux containers,
Now that we have Docker installed, we need to make some changes to the default configuration to enable support for Linux Containers. This involves setting an Environment variable and creating a docker daemon configuration file.
This blogpost is about the Microsoft Azure Migrate tool in the Cloud doing Azure Migrate assessments to see if your on-premises Datacenter is ready for Azure Cloud Services. Before you migrate your workloads with Azure Migrate to the Microsoft Azure Cloud, you want to know the costs before the migration and what your options are in the transition. For example when you have hardware in your on-premises Datacenter which is too high qua hardware specs like Memory, CPU and storage and you can do with less Compute power, then the performance assessments are really interesting. From here you see a step-by-step guide for VMWare workload assessment(s) to Azure Cloud.
Azure Migrate preparation for VMware workload
When you search for ‘Azure Migrate’in your Azure Subscription and click on the services you will see the Azure Migrate Overview screen. When you don’t have a Microsoft Azure subscription yet, you can get one here
Click on Assess and Migrate Servers.
Before we go further with the server migration assessments for VMware, there are more Azure Migration tools available to do assessments and migrations like the following goals :
For Databases Microsoft Azure Migrate uses the Data Migration Assistant for the Assessment and the Data migration to Azure SQL Cloud.
The Data Migration Assistant (DMA) helps you upgrade to a modern data platform by detecting compatibility issues that can impact database functionality in your new version of SQL Server or Azure SQL Database. DMA recommends performance and reliability improvements for your target environment and allows you to move your schema, data, and uncontained objects from your source server to your target server.
To identify the right Azure SQL Database / Managed Instance SKU for your on-premises Database you can use the CLI with a Script :
When you have a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure on-premises and you want to migrate to Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) you can use this Azure Migrate tool :
ISV Lakeside with SysTrack
You can vote for the tools or scenarios that you would like to be integrated with Azure Migrate via this Online form
When you are in the beginning of your Cloud Transition journey, what will go first to the Cloud?
On-premises mail to Microsoft Office 365
File Server Clusters to Office 365 into Teams, Onedrive for Business
From Apps On-premises to SaaS or Paas solutions
From On-premises Websites to Azure Cloud Solutions like Azure Web App.
From SQL Clusters On-Premises to Azure SQL Managed Instances in the Cloud
And at last Migrate Servers to Azure IaaS
Of course there are much more scenarios like Lift and Shift or modernize your workload in the Cloud like moving to Azure Kubernetes Servicesfor example instead of IaaS Virtual Machines.
So when you want to start moving your On-premises Website(s) or WebApp, Microsoft Azure Migrate Services has a tool for that too :
At last when you have to move a big enterprise On-premises Datacenter to the Azure Cloud with a lot of Servers for example 10.000, you can use Azure Data Box Migration The Microsoft Azure Data Box cloud solution lets you send terabytes of data into Azure in a quick, inexpensive, and reliable way. The secure data transfer is accelerated by shipping you a proprietary Data Box storage device. Each storage device has a maximum usable storage capacity of 80 TB and is transported to your datacenter through a regional carrier. The device has a rugged casing to protect and secure data during the transit.
Microsoft Azure Migrate assessment for VMware platform
First we make the Azure Migrate Project ready in the Microsoft Azure Portal.
Select the right Azure Subscription and Resource group to collect the metadata reported by your On-premises environment. Give your Migrate project a name and select the geography.
Here you can select from different Assessment Tools Select Azure Migrate Server Assessment
Here you can select from different Migration Tools Select Azure Migrate Server Migration
Add your Tools in the Azure Portal.
Here you see both Microsoft Azure Migrate tools for the Assessment and the Migration as well.
We are going for the Assessment quick start, so click on discover
From here we select with VMware vShere Hypervisor, so you can download the Azure Migrate Appliance for VMware ( 12GB Ova file).
You can also work with an Import CSV file but that’s Preview.
When you have installed the Microsoft Azure Migrate Virtual Appliance for VMware successfully in your environment and has access to all the Virtual Machines then you can run the setup in the Appliance to make connectivity with your Azure subscription.
This will check all the prerequisites and get the updates.
Getting access to vCenter Server with the right permissions.
Now when your Azure Migrate Virtual Appliance for VMware is ready and collecting metadata, we see in the Microsoft Azure Portal the discovery running :
Discovery is in Progress.
After a view minutes we have discovered the Servers running on VMware platform On-premises.
Discovered Servers
Now we have the Servers in our metadata, we can do the Assessment(s) to get all the information we want for preparing to migrate to Azure Cloud Services. Click on Assess.
From here you give the Assessment a name and then you go to the properties of the assessment by clicking on View All
Here you can set the parameters for the assessment for example based on :
Reserved instances
Storage types
Sizing criterion like Performance-Based
Percentile Utilization
Azure VM series to use
Discount
VM Uptime
Offer pricing like Enterprise Agreement Support or Pay-As-You-Go
Hybrid Benefit offer.
Here I made different Azure Migrate Assessment groups with different parameters to see the difference in Costs.
Here you see for example Migrate As Is On-Premises and Performance-Based, but also an Azure Migrate Assessment without SQL Cluster Nodes. In this way you can make your own Azure Migrate Assessment with all your Servers or just a view Servers of your On-premises solution which you want to Migrate to Azure Cloud Services.
Overview of your Azure Migrate Assessment
Server is ready for migration
Server Ready but with conditions
Microsoft Azure Migrate gives you all the information to make the right decisions to migrate you workload from VMware to Microsoft Azure Cloud. When the Azure Migrate Assessment(s) are ready you can make a CSV export file to check the information before you migrate.
Overview of the Azure Migrate Assessment
Azure Migrate Assessment based on Performance for the VM
and there is a separated tab for Storage.
When your assessment is done, you can do the migration by replicating them to Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft Azure Migrate gives you insight information about your own On-Premises Datacenter by doing assessments to get the right migration information to move to Microsoft Azure Cloud. It gives you Azure Cloud costs before you do any migration at all, based on Total Cost of Owner (TCO) ship you can calculate if your solution in the Microsoft Azure Cloud is cheaper or not. Realize that’s it is not always about the money but also :
Innovations
Time to market
New Features
Flexibility
Scalability
Availability
Not owning hardware anymore
Less management (Hardware)
Hope this blog post helps you by your transition journey to Microsoft Azure Cloud
About Hands-On Linux Administration on Azure, Second Edition
Thanks to its flexibility in delivering scalable cloud solutions, Microsoft Azure is a
suitable platform for managing all your workloads. You can use it to implement Linux
virtual machines and containers, and to create applications in open source languages
with open APIs.
This Linux administration book first takes you through the fundamentals of Linux and
Azure to prepare you for the more advanced Linux features in later chapters. With the
help of real-world examples, you’ll learn how to deploy virtual machines (VMs) in Azure,
expand their capabilities, and manage them efficiently. You will manage containers
and use them to run applications reliably, and in the concluding chapter, you’ll explore
troubleshooting techniques using a variety of open source tools.
By the end of this book, you’ll be proficient in administering Linux on Azure and
leveraging the tools required for deployment.
The world of data is moving and changing a lot with new IT technologies coming up like leaves on a tree.
Data is everywhere, on Servers, workstations, BYOD Devices in the Cloud but how do you keep your data save and protected for your business today and in the future? There are a lot of reasons why you should Backup your data :
One of your employees accidentally deleted important files for example.
Your data got compromised by a virus.
Your Server crashed
You have to save your data for a period of time by Law
 And there will be more reasons why you should do backup…………….
A lot of Enterprise organizations are moving to the Cloud with workloads for the Business, but how is your Backup and Disaster Recovery managed today? A lot of data transitions are made but what if your Backup and Disaster Recovery solution is out dated or reaching end of Life? You can have a lot of Questions like :
What data should I backup?
Should I just upgrade the Backup Solution?
How can I make my Data Management Backup -DR Solution Cheaper and ready for the future?
How can I make my new Backup-DR Solution independent? ( Vendor Lockin)
And there will be more questions when you are in this scenario where you have to renew your Backup – DR Solution.
Here we have the following Great Backup Solution from 2014 :
Offsite Microsoft DPM Backup Solution since 2014
Here we have 3 System Center Data Protection Manager Backup Pods with a Tape library and One DPM pod connected with a Microsoft Azure Backup Vault in the Cloud. You do the Security updates and the Rollups for Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 to keep the Solution save and running.
Long Time Protection to Tape
DPM 2012 Server with direct attached Storage for Short time protection
The four DPM Backup Pods have the same Storage configuration for short time protection with a retention time of 15 days. After that Longtime protection is needed with Backup to tape and Backup to Microsoft Azure Backup Vault.
Since 2014 the Backup data is depending on these solution configurations.
Tape Management cost a lot of time and money
The fourth DPM Backup pod got a Azure Backup Vault in the Cloud to save Tape Management time.
DPM Backup to Microsoft Azure Cloud Backup Vault.
So this is the Start of the Journey to a New Data Management Backup – DR Solution transformation. The next Couple of weeks I will search for the different scenarios and solutions on the Internet and talk with the Community looking for Best Practices. I will do Polls on Social Media and a Serie of blogposts for the Data Management Backup – DR Solution to keep the business continuity.
Will it be a Cloud Backup – DR Solution?
Will it be a Hybrid Cloud Backup – DR Solution?
Everything in One Management Console?
Or More then One Backup -DR Solution for the right Job?
We will see what the journey will bring us based on Best Practices 😉
Microsoft Azure Cloud Services is evolving really fast with New solutions and features every day for your business. In the following step-by-step guide we will see all the options and features when you create a virtual machine in the Azure Cloud. For this you need a Microsoft Azure subscription to start. When you are in the Azure Portal you begin with + Create a Resource and from there you see all the create items. Click on Computeand you will see the picture above what you can create. I’m going to create a Windows Server 2019 datacenter edition Virtual Machine in the Microsoft Azure Cloud. In the Azure Portal is a step by step wizard to help you with your choices.
Basic tab
We start by selecting the right Azure subscription ( if you have Multiple) like a Hub-Spoke model design
you can choose for your deployment. Then select a Resource Group or Create New. I made a new Resource Group called RSG-Winserv.
When you go further down, you must give your Virtual Machine a name and select the Microsoft Azure region where your VM will run. I Choose West Europe because I life in the Netherlands. For availability options of the Virtual Machine you can choose out of three options :
No infrastructure redundancy required
Availability zone
Availability set
Availability Zones is a high-availability offering that protects your applications and data from datacenter failures. Availability Zones are unique physical locations within an Azure region. Each zone is made up of one or more datacenters equipped with independent power, cooling, and networking
An Availability Set is a logical grouping capability that you can use in Azure to ensure that the VM resources you place within it are isolated from each other when they are deployed within an Azure datacenter. Azure ensures that the VMs you place within an Availability Set run across multiple physical servers, compute racks, storage units, and network switches
Microsoft Azure got a lot of software operating images, I installed Windows Server 2019 Datacenter but have a look at Browse all Public and Private images :
Small Disk Images
More images like Kali and Red Hat
The next step is the VM Size, the “hardware” requirements of the Virtual Machine. When you choose your VM size you have to know the possibilities and feature set of the Virtual Machine. This articledescribes the available sizes and options for the Azure virtual machines you can use to run your Windows apps and workloads. It also provides deployment considerations to be aware of when you’re planning to use these resources.
Here is Microsoft Azure showing 250 different VM sizes
In this window you see the following items of the Virtual Machine specs :
VM Size
Offering
Family
vCPUs
Memory RAM
Data Disks
Max IOPS
Temporary Storage
 Premium Disks (Yes or No)
Cost / Month Estimated
So pick the right VM Size for your solution to do the job.
Allow Public Internet Inbound Port Rules
If you need this for example a website, then you can set it right away, but you can set it on None and change the Network Security Group (NSG) or Azure App Gateway or Azure Firewall later and keep it Closed for now. I will show this in the NSG later to get RDP access.
Hybrid Benefit
You can enable great savings in Azure with Windows Server Software Assurance by using Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server. Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server allows you to use your on-premises Windows Server licenses and run Windows virtual machines in Microsoft Azure at a reduced cost (i.e. at Linux rates). You can use your licenses for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016. The Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server is applicable to Windows Server Standard and Datacenter editions as well as other versions obtained via custom images. With Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server, you can save 40 percent or more1 on Windows Server virtual machines by paying only the base compute2 rates—adding value to your Software Assurance investments. The benefit is available across all Azure regions. Read more here
Disks tab
Disk storage is important for performance, that’s why you can choose for Standard HDD, Standard SSD or
Premium SSD for your OS Disk. When your server need a Data disk, you can add it here or later on.
Here you can read more on Managed disks What disk types are available in Azure?
Networking tab
Here you create your Virtual Network / subnet with a public IP. You can see here when you choose for a specific Virtual machine, you can not use accelerated networking because It’s not supported by the VM size selection.
Here you can choose for a Load Balancer or a Application Gateway
Azure Application Gatewayis a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 – TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.
Azure Application Gateway
With Azure Load Balancer, you can scale your applications and create high availability for your services. Load Balancer supports inbound and outbound scenarios, provides low latency and high throughput, and scales up to millions of flows for all TCP and UDP applications.
Load Balancer distributes new inbound flows that arrive on the Load Balancer’s frontend to backend pool instances, according to rules and health probes.
Additionally, a public Load Balancer can provide outbound connections for virtual machines (VMs) inside your virtual network by translating their private IP addresses to public IP addresses.
Azure Load Balancer is available in two SKUs: Basic and Standard. There are differences in scale, features, and pricing. Any scenario that’s possible with Basic Load Balancer can also be created with Standard Load Balancer, although the approaches might differ slightly. As you learn about Load Balancer, it is important to familiarize yourself with the fundamentals and SKU-specific differences.
Management tab
When you have deployed your virtual machine, you want to manage it like monitoring and backup for example.
You can do these options also after the Virtual Machine deployment.
Backup of the Virtual Machine can be added when you deploy the VM.
I have a existing Backup Vault called WACvault1
From here you can create your own backup recovery Vault with your Own backup policy and retention times.
The feature provides Azure services with an automatically managed identity in Azure AD. You can use the identity to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD authentication, including Key Vault, without any credentials in your code. What is managed identities for Azure resources?
Advanced tab
In the advanced tab you can select extensions for your Virtual Machine. These are add-ons and will installed during the deployment. You can now also select Gen 2 VM in Preview. Microsoft Azure has a lot of extensions for your Virtual machine :
List of extensions for your VM
Click on Create for adding Microsoft Antimalware on your VM
Select the options and exclusions
Tags tab
Here you can Tag your deployment
After you apply tags, you can retrieve all the resources in your subscription with that tag name and value. Tags enable you to retrieve related resources from different resource groups. This approach is helpful when you need to organize resources for billing or management. Read more on Tags here
At this moment the validation has passed for deployment with all your settings, but don’t forget to have a look at “Download a template for Automation” before you hit Create.
Here you can download or save the JSON ARM Template
When you you go Back and click on Create the Virtual Machine, this will deploy the VM in Minutes.
The following Azure items are deployed in RSG-Winserv
Now your Virtual Machine is deployed in Microsoft Azure Cloud and is running, you can have a look at all the features of the Virtual Machine in the Portal.
To connect to the Virtual Machine you have to Manage access for your RDP session via the NSG in my case:
Double click on the NSG
I added a new rule to give my IP-address access to the VM
From here you can access the Windows Server 2019 Datacenter Virtual Machine in Microsoft Azure Cloud.
Management of your Virtual Machine
When your Azure Virtual Machine with Windows Server 2019 is running, you want to monitor the VM and see what is happening inside the Virtual Machine. Azure Monitor Insights can help you with this.
Health State of the VM
Connections
When Microsoft Azure Monitoring is on and running you want have important alerts on your Mobile by sms or
via E-mail notification to take action.
Alerts on Winserv2019 VM
High CPU Alert
Here we make an Alert about the CPU which is going higher then 80% average.
Making an Action group for email notification of the Alert
Action Group made
Alert made for the VM
Alert details
Alert rule is set and running for this Virtual Machine.
Conclusion
You can create every virtual machine you want for your business, Windows Server or Linux..
You can mange your own performance for the VM on demand by selecting the right VM Size.
You can set Networking and High Availability
You can set Disk Performance for your IOPS
You can configure your management settings and dashboard for Monitoring.
Security can be set on different levels.
Backup of the Virtual Machine can be set with the right policy before deployment.
and more…….
And keep watching your Azure Advisor for better changes :
New Advise will come !
and of course there are more features and options on this Virtual Machine, Have a look :
