Azure Announcements (April 2023)

A man holding a megaphone - Important announcement

Microsoft Azure, being a constantly evolving, updating and changing environment. Sometimes this makes it difficult to follow all that happens around it. I will try to condense some of the announcements based on status – generally available, preview or update features.

Be aware that generally available features/updates might incur costs. Services part of a public preview, don’t incur any costs, but also does not have Service-Level Agreement (SLA).

Previous articles:

Cloud Section (Ituziast)

Blogs

Manage your APIs with Azure API Management’s self-hosted gateway v2

The blog describes the evolution of software platforms from on-premises data centers to the cloud and multi-cloud scenarios. The author highlights that not all workloads can move to the cloud and customers need resiliency across clouds and edge. The author then introduces the self-hosted gateway capabilities of Azure, which allows customers to extend their on-premises and multi-cloud APIs using the same tools they are already using for Azure-based APIs. The self-hosted gateway capabilities provide customers with role-based access controls, API policies, observability options, and management plane.

Diagram of Azure API Management instance in Azure and its building blocks

The new features include Opentelemetry metrics, new image tagging strategies, Helm chart deployment option with configurable variables, centralized Artifact Registry, and new EventGrid events. The retirement of the v1 version of the self-hosted gateway is also mentioned, and migration and production guides are provided to assist with the upgrade to v2.

Additional information:

Manage your APIs with Azure API Management’s self-hosted gateway v2 | Azure Blog and Updates | Microsoft Azure
Azure API Management – Overview and key concepts | Microsoft Learn
API Management pricing | Microsoft Azure

Inside Azure for IT: 3 cloud strategies to navigate market uncertainty

The author discusses how the saying “the only thing constant is change” is relevant in today’s market, and how cloud strategies can help businesses navigate through uncertainties.

Part one emphasizes how migrating to the cloud can provide agility and scalability to meet changing demands.

Part two focuses on optimizing IT investments and configuring workloads for efficiency and cost savings.

Part three highlights the importance of a strong security posture to protect against cybersecurity threats. The author believes that adopting the right security strategy can allow businesses to run securely and efficiently, leading to fearless innovation and focus on core competencies.

Additional information:

Inside Azure for IT: 3 cloud strategies to navigate market uncertainty | Azure Blog and Updates | Microsoft Azure
Navigate market uncertainty by migrating and modernizing with Azure | Microsoft Learn (Part 1)
Optimize IT investments to maximize efficiency and reduce cloud spend | Microsoft Learn (Part 2)
Strengthen your security to innovate fearlessly and grow your business | Microsoft Learn (Part 3)
Inside Azure for IT | Microsoft Azure


General Availability Announcements

Large disk support for disaster recovery of Hyper-V VMs using Site Recovery

ou can now enable disaster recovery for Hyper-V VMs with data disks up to 32 TB in size. This applies to Hyper-V VMs that replicate to a managed disks in any Azure region using Site Recovery. The feature is deployed in all Azure public and government clouds. 

New features:

  • Unified solution for troubleshooting all NSG, user defined routes, and blocked ports
  • Actionable insights with step-by-step guide to resolve issues
  • Identifying configuration issues impacting connectivity
  • NSG rules that are blocking traffic
  • Inability to open a socket at the specified source port
  • No servers listening on designated destination ports
  • Misconfiguration or missing routes

Additional information:

Generally available: Large disk support for disaster recovery of Hyper-V VMs using Site Recovery | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Set up Hyper-V disaster recovery by using Azure Site Recovery – Azure Site Recovery | Microsoft Learn
Support for disaster recovery of Hyper-V VMs to Azure with Azure Site Recovery – Azure Site Recovery | Microsoft Learn

App Configuration geo-replication

eo-replication is now Generally Available for Azure App Configuration.

This feature allows you to replicate your configuration store to the regions of your choice.  Changes to key-values are synchronized across each replica with eventual consistency.  This feature provides multiple advantages:

  • Added resiliency for Azure outages:  Applications consuming configuration data can rely on replicas in unaffected regions in case of an outage in one of the regions.
  • Reduced latency:  Having replicas located closer to your users leads to quicker response times and improved data flow.
  • Distributed request load: Locating replicas in multiple regions allows you to distribute the request load and reduce the risk of exhausting request limits.

Additional information:

General Availability: App Configuration geo-replication | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Geo-replication in Azure App Configuration | Microsoft Learn
Enable geo-replication | Microsoft Learn

Improved scaling model for Azure Functions with Target Based Scaling

Scaling improvement for Service Bus, Event Hubs, Storage Queue, and Cosmos DB is now available for the Azure Functions Consumption and Premium plans.

Additional information:

General availability: Improved scaling model for Azure Functions with Target Based Scaling | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Azure Functions documentation | Microsoft Learn
Target-based scaling in Azure Functions | Microsoft Learn

Azure DevOps 2023 Q1

In Q1 Microsoft delivered multiple features across our services. These included improvements on security and new features that have been prioritized based on customer feedback.

In addition to security investments, we delivered new features across our multiple services. Some of these features include:

  • General availability of templates support in YAML editor
  • Search for stages in side panel
  • Prevent editing of shareable picklists fields
  • Card resize logic in Delivery Plans
  • Support for sub-pages table in wiki
  • Added extension permissions to extension settings

Additional information:

General availability: Azure DevOps 2023 Q1 | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
New usability features for Boards, Pipelines and Reporting | Microsoft Learn

Use Stream Analytics to process exported data from Application Insights

Azure Stream Analytics is the ideal tool for processing data exported from Application Insights. You can input your data from your event hubs or blob storage into Azure Stream Analytics to transform and filter the data and then route it to various sinks. 

For event hub, you can configure your Azure Stream Analytics job to read from the event hub resource that you are exporting the data to from Application Insights just like another event hub input adapter.

For blob, Azure Stream Analytics allows you to configure your AppInsights input with a pre-defined path pattern that Application Insights uses to write to blob storage in the Azure Portal.

Additional information:

Use Stream Analytics to process exported data from Application Insights | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Export using Stream Analytics from Azure Application Insights | Microsoft Learn

Manage your APIs with Azure API Management’s self-hosted gateway v2

New features now available in GA include the ability to visualize time-series models accurately over time, and deploy a compute cluster or compute instance without any public IP addresses. Additionally, you can now deploy your models to batch endpoints and run them on top of your Kubernetes clusters, and control and restrict data access so that sensitive data can only be accessed when working on compute instance.

These features are:

  • Visualize forecasting horizon metrics for AutoML.
  • Secure your compute cluster and Compute Instance with No Public IP.
  • Kubernetes support for Batch Endpoints.
  • Create compute instance with Managed Identity.

Additional information:

Azure Machine Learning – Generally availability updates for March 2023 | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Evaluate automated machine learning experiment results
Secure an Azure Machine Learning training environment with virtual networks
Use batch endpoints for batch scoring
Create and manage an Azure Machine Learning compute instance

Azure App Service – New Premium v3 Offerings

Introducing two new offerings in the Premium v3 (Pv3) service tier on Azure App Service.

Additional information:

Generally available: Azure Site Recovery – Migrate Azure Automation account’s authentication from Run As accounts to Managed Identity | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
New Azure App Service plans fuel greater choice and savings | Azure Blog and Updates | Microsoft Azure

Azure Image Builder Portal Functionality now available

Azure Image Builder service offers unification and simplification for your image building process across Azure and Azure Stack with an automated image building pipeline. Use Azure Image Builder to help ensure the security—including patching and updating—and full control of your custom images.

Additional information:

Generally Available: Azure App Service – New Premium v3 Offerings | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
New Azure App Service plans fuel greater choice and savings | Azure Blog and Updates | Microsoft Azure
Configure PremiumV3 tier – Azure App Service | Microsoft Learn

Azure Active Directory workload identity with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

In Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) today, a preview feature allows you to assign managed identities at the pod-level. This pod-managed identity allows the hosted workload or application access to resources through Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).

his authentication method is now replaced with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) workload identities, which integrate with the Kubernetes native capabilities to federate with any external identity providers. This approach is simpler to use and deploy, and overcomes several limitations in Azure AD pod-managed identity.

Additional information

GA: Azure Active Directory workload identity with AKS | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Learn about MSAL – Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Learn
Download Azure SDKs and Tools | Microsoft Azure
Application model – Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Learn
Use an Azure AD workload identities on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) – Azure Kubernetes Service | Microsoft Learn

Support for Linux clients to use identity-based access to Azure file shares over SMB

Linux SMB clients can now use Azure Files identity based authentication and authorization. This capability is available to devices that are domain joined to either customer-managed Microsoft AD DS or Azure AD DS.

In order to leverage identity based authentication and authorization, the clients need to be domain joined to one of the following Domain Services:

  1. On-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
  2. Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD DS).

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Kerberos for hybrid identities is NOT supported yet for Linux clients.

Additional information:

General Availability: Support for Linux clients to use identity-based access to Azure file shares over SMB | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Overview – Azure Files identity-based authentication | Microsoft Learn
Use on-premises Active Directory Domain Services or Azure Active Directory Domain Services to authorize access to Azure Files over SMB for Linux clients using Kerberos authentication | Microsoft Learn

Public Preview

Azure Functions V4 programming model for Node.js

Version 4 of the Node.js programming model is now available in preview. This programming model is part of Azure Function’s larger effort to provide an intuitive and idiomatic experience for all supported languages. 

Additional information:

Public preview: Azure Functions V4 programming model for Node.js | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Azure Functions: Version 4 of the Node.js programming model is in preview – Microsoft Community Hub
Create a TypeScript function using Visual Studio Code – Azure Functions | Microsoft Learn
Create a JavaScript function using Visual Studio Code – Azure Functions | Microsoft Learn
Upgrade to v4 of the Node.js model for Azure Functions | Microsoft Learn

Public Preview of query performance insight for Azure Database for PostgreSQL- Flexible Server

The Public Preview of query performance insight in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server has been announced. This new feature enables users to get detailed insights into query performance, identify and optimize slow-running queries, and improve the overall performance of their database. Query performance insights is enabled by a related feature, query store, which collects and stores query execution statistics and wait event information. The feature provides users with a user-friendly interface that enables them to quickly explore and analyze their data without needing extensive technical knowledge.

Additional information:

Public Preview of query performance insight for Azure Database for PostgreSQL- Flexible Server | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Query Performance Insight – Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible server | Microsoft Learn

Hotpatch is now available on preview images of Windows Server VMs on Azure with the Desktop Experience installation mode

Microsoft announces that the Hotpatch feature is now available for preview images of Windows Server Azure Edition VMs running the Desktop Experience installation mode, which allows users to patch and install updates to Windows Server Azure Edition virtual machines on Azure without requiring a reboot. The feature provides lower workload impact with fewer reboots, faster deployment of updates, and better protection as the hotpatch update packages are scoped to Windows security updates that install faster without rebooting.

Additional information:

Hotpatch is now available on preview images of Windows Server VMs on Azure with the Desktop Experience installation mode | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Hotpatching is now available in preview for Windows Server VMs on Azure with Desktop Experience – Microsoft Community Hub
Hotpatch for Windows Server Azure Edition | Microsoft Learn

Session affinity for Azure Container Apps

Azure Container Apps now offers session affinity for HTTP-based workloads. In public preview, this feature enables routing all requests from a client to the same replica to maintain stateful workloads. Container apps in single revision mode now support session affinity, automatically adding a cookie to HTTP responses to track the client’s used replica.

Additional information:

Public preview: Session affinity for Azure Container Apps | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
Session Affinity in Azure Container Apps | Microsoft Learn

Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL Data Encryption with Customer Managed Keys

The Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL cluster automatically encrypts data with Microsoft-managed keys, but users can add an extra layer of security with customer-managed keys. With this feature, users have full control over the key’s lifecycle, permissions, and auditing of key operations. Data is encrypted at the server level, including backups and temporary files created while running queries.

Additional information:

Public Preview : Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL Data Encryption with Customer Managed Keys | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
How to enable encryption with customer managed keys in Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL. | Microsoft Learn
About Dimitar Grozdanov 36 Articles
Engineer. 25+ years “in the field”. Cloud Solution Architect. Trainer, Consultant. Co-founder/Supporter of Tech Communities. Speaker. Blogger. Parent. Passionate about craft beer tasting and hanging out with family and friends.

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