After the pandemic began, Microsoft switched the big conferences (Build and Ignite) to virtual-only events. Microsoft Ignite this year was a hybrid event delivered from Seattle with six spotlight events worldwide. Some content was pre-recorded, but most of the sessions were live. One (big) advantage of a hybrid event is that you can attend Ignite without costs, so it’s accessible for everyone! But personally, I prefer to attend the event in person.
Tip: you can earn a free Microsoft exam when completing the Microsoft Learn Cloud Skills Challenge. The challenge ends November 9th. More information is here
In this article, I will share the important announcements from my perspective from Microsoft Ignite 2022, focusing on Azure technology and news.
Azure DNS Private resolver is GA
I was waiting for this! To resolve private DNS names in Azure, you had to rely on DNS proxies and forwarders. This meant you had to deploy one or more virtual machines running in Azure with the DNS server role. Using this setup, you can route all DNS requests over to a central solution and resolve private DNS records from on-premise. Microsoft announced the new DNS private resolvers for these cases as a central PaaS option some time ago. I’ve personally installed this PaaS service for multiple customers while it was in preview, but I found it a very useful service. No more updating/patching/backup for DNS proxy servers in Azure! More information is here
Azure Firewall Basic (preview)
For some SMBs the cost of Azure Standard or Premium was at times a little bit too steep. Microsoft has now introduced Azure Firewall Basic and is currently in public preview (so don’t use it for production environments yet!) It provides essential protection for SMB customers but can also be used in branch office setup configurations for larger companies. I’m currently testing this functionality in multiple environments, and you can expect an article about my experiences in the near future. More information is here
Azure Premium SSD v2 is GA
Microsoft announced the new Premium SSD v2 resource some time ago. It offers a major improvement in performance and throughput over v1. One big limitation is that Premium SSD v2 is only supported as a data disk and not as an OS Disk. So it can unfortunately not be used in an AVD environment yet.
With Premium SSD v2, Azure customers can now provision more capacity with better performance. In addition, customers can provision disk storage capacity, IOPS, and throughput based on their workload requirements. This results in greater flexibility when managing performance and costs. In addition, customers can now store incremental snapshots for Premium SSD v2 on Standard SSD storage.
Live resize for Premium SSD and Standard SSD Disk storage
Another SSD feature… long awaited and finally here. The support for resizing existing Premium SSD and Standard SSD on running Azure VMs is now GA. With live resize, it’s possible to increase the storage capacity without any downtime or disruption.
Azure Automanage is GA
Azure Automanage provides an integrated solution to simplify IT management. With the simplicity of point and click, you can automate operations and apply consistent best practices throughout the lifecycle of Windows Server and Linux servers in Azure or hybrid environments enabled by Azure Arc. Using a central view for configuration, this is perfect for managing Azure VMs. The service itself is free of charge.
With the general availability for Azure virtual machines (VMs) and Arc-enabled servers, Microsoft adds new capabilities to further automate the configuration and management of any server, including:
- Automating recommended configuration of virtual machines in Azure or hybrid environments via Azure Arc
- Reduce risk by automating frequent, error-prone tasks, such as applying the Microsoft server security baseline to efficiently maintain operational security
- Full support for Windows 10 VMs
- Easily migrate your workloads to Azure by extending on-premises IP subnets and keeping the original private IP addresses
- Support for enabling Microsoft Antimalware
Resizing of peered networks
Until now, it was impossible to resize the address space when the VNET has paired with another one. This limitation is gone, and updating the address space for peered virtual networks is now generally available. This saves a lot of work when you must resize your subnet(s).
NSG and UDR support for private endpoints
Microsoft announced NSG and UDR support for private endpoints. This feature enhancement will make it possible to enable advanced security controls on traffic destined for a private endpoint.
Update management center (preview)
Microsoft announced the new Update Management Center as a public preview available in the Azure Portal. Update management center is an Azure service to help manage and govern updates for all your machines. The new Update Management center is fully compatible with your entire fleet of machines in Azure (including Azure Arc).
Azure Monitor agent support VM insights (preview)
Microsoft is moving away from the current Log Analytics agent to the new Azure Monitor agent. The Azure Monitor agent has more features and is fully compatible with Azure Arc. The new Azure Monitor agent replaces the existing Log Analytics agent. Microsoft now adds support for VM insights to the new solution as a public preview.
New RBAC Roles Reservation administrator and reader roles
Microsoft introduced two new roles to the Azure RBAC model called “Reservation administrator” and “Reservation reader” for managing Reserved Instance without the need for other permissions.
Database Migration Assessment now supports Oracle (preview)
The Database Migration Assessment for Oracle now offers a migration assessment for moving from Oracle Database to Azure. The assessment includes migration recommendations and an evaluation of database complexity. Through this tooling, customers can get recommendations for an Oracle Database migration.
With these changes, migration planning is simplified for Oracle customers looking to modernize their data and migrate to Azure-managed databases.
Azure Hybrid Benefit
Microsoft is expanding Azure Hybrid Benefit for customers with Azure Kubernetes Service and/or Azure stack. This gives them the option to:
- Run AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI at no additional cost with Windows SA and Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) subscriptions
- Get Azure Stack HCI at no additional cost with Windows Server Datacenter SA
Windows admin center now available in the Azure portal
Windows admin center, now generally available in the Azure portal, allows customers to configure, troubleshoot, and perform maintenance tasks with the familiar UI and functionality of the Windows admin center UI, without leaving the Azure portal.
A new price offering called “Azure savings plan for compute”
With this new offer (available later this year) customers can save across specific compute services by committing to spend a fixed hourly amount for one or three years.
As customers use the Azure compute services, their usage is covered by the plan at reduced prices, helping them get more value from their cloud budget. When customers exceed their hourly budget limit, they’re billed at the standard pay-as-you-go prices.
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