AzUpdate S04E03: SQL Server on Azure VMs, PowerShell, Azure Monitor and Microsoft Sentinel
Published Feb 04 2022 12:00 AM 2,678 Views
Microsoft

Welcome to my first AZ Update with Pierre Roman (@wiredcanuck). I'm two weeks in and he has decided to see if I will sink or swim.  Stay tuned to find out!

 

We have gone through the listing of new capabilities and other announcements to bring you the four we think are impactful for the IT and ops audience.

 

This week we’ll cover updates for Azure SQL VMs, PowerShell on Linux, Azure Monitor Automatic Upgrades, as well as, Diagnostic Settings for Azure Storage and Sentinel

 

Join us for the Live show on our YouTube channel or watch the replay below.

 

 

Deployment enhancements for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines

 

SQL.png

 

A great update to our Azure Marketplace image with SQL is you can now configure the instance during deployment.  Most companies have standards for their SQL instances and can now make configuration changes during deployment vs keeping the preconfigured image settings.

 

Items like moving the system database to a data disk, configuring your tempdb data and log files, configuring the amount of memory and more.  You can read the announcement here

 

Here is an example (image below) during a deployment through the Azure portal.  During your SQL VM deployment under SQL Server Settings, you have the options to change the defaults by clicking Change Configuration for storage or Change SQL Instance settings for customizing memory limits, collation, and ad hoc workloads

 

sqlsettings.png

 

To learn more about the configuration changes available for SQL on an Azure VM, read up on it on Microsoft Docs

 

PowerShell on LinuxOS in Azure Functions

powershellIcon.png

 

Azure functions now support PowerShell on Linux.  This gives you the ability to develop Azure Functions PowerShell apps locally and deploy them to Azure Functions on Linux.  Official announcement here

 

To read more on Creating a PowerShell function in Azure with Visual Studio code click here

 

Azure Monitor agent extension support for automatic upgrade extension feature

 

azuremonitor.png

 

Next update involves Azure Monitor and it is now GA for the Azure Monitor agent extension support for automatic upgrade extension feature.  What does that mean?   You can have important updates and security fixes by enabling the automatic extension upgrade feature to the agent extension when an update is published.

 

Essentially, the extension upgrades and replaces the existing version on the VM or Scale Set.  If it is successful, then the upgrade is complete. If after 5 minutes, it fails the health check the upgrade will be rolled back.

 

You can of course opt-out at any time of the automatic upgrades.


There is a walkthrough and deeper explanation 

 

Azure Monitor Diagnostic settings for Azure Storage

Finally, there is the newly released Azure Monitor Diagnostic settings for Azure Storage

You can now use metrics and logs in Azure Monitor for Azure Resource Manager storage accounts (classic storage is not supported). To collect resource logs, you must create a diagnostic setting and choose blob as the storage type for enabling logs.

 

diagnostic.png

 

The diagnostics setting allows you to set a name and select which operation you want to be logged and where they should be sent.  Read more on it here

 

Microsoft Sentinel Update

MS Learn Module of the Week

PierreRoman_4-1643346449466.png

 

This week…. 

For the Learn Module of the week we recommend checking out  Deploy SQL Server in a Virtual Machine

 

Have an amazing weekend and thanks for joining me on my first AZ update episode. Feel free to comment or reach out with any questions here or reach me on twitter - @wyrdgirl

 

Thank you!
Amy Colyer

Co-Authors
Version history
Last update:
‎Feb 04 2022 11:40 AM
Updated by: