AzUpdate: Sysinternal Updates, MS Certs renewal, App service on Kubernetes on Azure Arc and more
A plethora of announcements was released at Microsoft Build 2021 as expected. Here is what the team will be reporting on this week: certain certifications will require yearly renewal, Sysinternal Tools Updates Announced, App Service Managed Certificates now generally available, Run App Service on Kubernetes or anywhere with Azure Arc and of course the Microsoft Learn module of the week.Essential Microsoft Resources for MVPs & the Tech Community from the AI Tour
Unlock the power of Microsoft AI with redeliverable technical presentations, hands-on workshops, and open-source curriculum from the Microsoft AI Tour! Whether you’re a Microsoft MVP, Developer, or IT Professional, these expertly crafted resources empower you to teach, train, and lead AI adoption in your community. Explore top breakout sessions covering GitHub Copilot, Azure AI, Generative AI, and security best practices—designed to simplify AI integration and accelerate digital transformation. Dive into interactive workshops that provide real-world applications of AI technologies. Take it a step further with Microsoft’s Open-Source AI Curriculum, offering beginner-friendly courses on AI, Machine Learning, Data Science, Cybersecurity, and GitHub Copilot—perfect for upskilling teams and fostering innovation. Don’t just learn—lead. Access these resources, host impactful training sessions, and drive AI adoption in your organization. Start sharing today! Explore now: Microsoft AI Tour Resources.How to Master GitHub Copilot: Build, Prompt, Deploy Smarter
Mastering GitHub Copilot: Build, Prompt, Deploy Smarter is a free, hands-on workshop designed to help developers go beyond autocomplete and unlock the true power of AI-assisted coding. Instead of toy examples, this course walks you through real-world software engineering challenges: messy codebases, multi-language projects, cloud deployments, and legacy system upgrades. You’ll learn practical skills like prompt engineering, advanced Copilot features, and AI pair programming techniques that make you faster, sharper, and more creative. Whether you’re a junior developer or a seasoned architect, mastering GitHub Copilot will help you: Reduce cognitive load and focus on system design Accelerate onboarding for new engineers Write cleaner, more consistent code Automate repetitive tasks to free up time for innovation AI coding tools like GitHub Copilot are no longer optional—they’re essential. This workshop gives you the skills to collaborate with Copilot effectively and stay competitive in the age of AI-powered development.Step-By-Step: Migrating The Active Directory Certificate Service From Windows Server 2008 R2 to 2019
End of support for Windows Server 2008 R2 has been slated by Microsoft for January 14th 2020. Said announcement increased interest in a previous post detailing steps on Active Directory Certificate Service migration from server versions older than 2008 R2. Many subscribers of ITOpsTalk.com have reached out asking for an update of the steps to reflect Active Directory Certificate Service migration from 2008 R2 to 2016 / 2019 and of course our team is happy to oblige.AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Study Guide
The AZ-500 certification provides professionals with the skills and knowledge needed to secure Azure infrastructure, services, and data. The exam covers identity and access management, data protection, platform security, and governance in Azure. Learners can prepare for the exam with Microsoft's self-paced curriculum, instructor-led course, and documentation. The certification measures the learner’s knowledge of managing, monitoring, and implementing security for resources in Azure, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. Azure Firewall, Key Vault, and Azure Active Directory are some of the topics covered in the exam.PowerShell Basics: How To Unlock A User In Active Directory via PowerShell
Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes end users forget their passwords and lock themselves out of their Active Directory access. Administrators can unlock these accounts via the Windows GUI, but what if there was a quicker way. The PowerShell Active Directory module can save administrators time in governing end users and can also provide automation if required. This example will highlight how to unlock an end user account in minimal steps via PowerShell and the Active Directory module.Step-By-Step: Enabling Advanced Security Audit Policy via Directory Services Access
Active Directory is one of the more impactful services within an organization. Even small changes in Organization’s AD can cause a major business impact. Preventing any unauthorized access and unplanned changes in an AD environment should be top of mind for any system administrator. Would you have enough information to answer questions such as what has changed should changes or unauthorized access happen within your AD environment?Step-By-Step: Manually Removing A Domain Controller Server
Use of DCPROMO is still the proper way to remove a DC server in an Active Directory infrastructure. Certain situations, such as server crash or failure of the DCPROMO option, require manual removal of the DC from the system by cleaning up the servers metadata. This blog post will help you accomplish this.Step-By-Step: Creating a SQL Server Always On Availability Group
One of the most requested features in SQL, from as far back as SQL 2012, has been Always On Availability Groups. This takes disaster recovery and high availability to a new level by enabling multiple copies of the database to be highly available, enabling the possibility of Read-Only workloads and enabling the ability of offloading management tasks such as backups. Unlike database mirroring, Always On Availability Groups allow for failover of a group of databases in a single SQL Server instance. This step-by-step details the creation of a SQL Server 2016 / 2017 Always On Availability Group to ensure high availability of mission-critical databases.Step-By-Step: Getting Started with Azure Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) study and use is on the rise. Tools to enable AI are becoming more readily available, simpler to use and easier to implement. What's more is that the definition of AI itself has been broken down into ingredients that, when later applied into a recipe (or process), can provide multiple desired outcomes. One of the more important ingredients used in most recipes is Machine Learning. Machine Learning in essence is a way of teaching computers to provide more accurate predictions on provided data. These predictions can also make apps and devices smarter by providing recommendations as an outcome to the data.
