Your Guide to Azure Community Activations at Microsoft Ignite 2025
Microsoft Ignite 2025 is right around the corner! From November 18–21 in San Francisco, we’re excited to bring the Azure community together for four days of learning, connection, and fun! Whether you’re joining us onsite at the Moscone Center or tuning in online, the Community Space will be buzzing with MVP meetups, interactive theater sessions, and plenty of opportunities to network. This is the first in a series of posts highlighting what you can expect at Microsoft Ignite. Today, we’re spotlighting Azure Community activations across Infrastructure, AI, Data, and MVP programs. In upcoming posts, we’ll dive deeper into sessions tailored for IT professionals, developers, and even first-time attendees. Azure Infrastructure Microsoft Ignite is packed with practical insights to help you migrate, modernize, and secure workloads. Learn how to Troubleshoot AKS networking with Agentic AI and strengthen your AI workload resiliency with Azure’s networking stack. Dive into migration best practices with sessions on moving data for analytics, lessons from Azure MVPs, and community insights from real-world projects. And don’t miss the fan favorite: Learn Infrastructure-as-Code through Minecraft —where cloud automation meets creativity. AI & Agents If you’re passionate about AI, the community sessions will put you at the center of what’s next. Connect with peers at the Global AI Community meetup. Get a sneak peek at what’s coming with Azure AI Insiders. Hear directly from MVPs and Microsoft leaders on shaping the future of Azure AI Foundry and how AI is transforming customer innovation. Azure Data For those focused on data, Microsoft Ignite is your chance to learn, influence, and connect. Share your feedback on SQL Server Management Studio and Copilot in SSMS. Bring your toughest questions to a Q&A with Azure Data Leadership. And join the community to explore real-world data intelligence solutions and career-building opportunities across the data ecosystem. MVP Program Interested in becoming a Microsoft MVP or expanding your community impact? Learn how to get nominated and grow your influence in So you want to become an MVP? Join program leads and MVPs to hear their stories in Becoming an MVP in Azure, AI, or the Data Platform. These sessions are the perfect place to start if you’re looking to give back and level up your community journey. Stay Connected Year-Round The conversations doesn't stop after Microsoft Ignite. Join the communities that keep the learning going: AKS Community (Infrastructure) Azure AI Foundry (AI) Global AI Community (AI) Fabric Community (Data) Azure Data Community (Data) Fellow Developers And this is just the beginning. Microsoft Ignite is packed with opportunities to learn from experts, connect with peers, and explore what’s next with Azure. Stay tuned for our upcoming posts, where we’ll share curated session highlights designed for different audiences to help you make the most of your Microsoft Ignite experience. 👉 Be sure to mark your calendar, start building your schedule, and get ready to be inspired at Microsoft Ignite 2025Custom Windows Server Standard VM on Azure: It Works, But Is It Licensing Compliant?
Hi everyone, I wanted to share a recent technical experience where I successfully created and deployed a Windows Server Standard VM on Azure using a fully custom image. I started by downloading the official Windows Server Standard Evaluation ISO. I created a Generation 2 VM in Hyper-V and completed the OS setup using the Desktop Experience edition. Once the configuration was done, I ran sysprep to generalize the image. After that, I converted the disk from VHDX to VHD in fixed format, which turned out to be a critical step because Azure does not accept dynamic disks. The resulting file was around 127 GB, so I uploaded it to a premium storage account container to ensure performance. From there, I created a Generation 2 image in Azure and deployed a new VM from it. I then activated the Standard edition with a valid product key. Everything worked smoothly, but I’m still unsure whether this method is fully compliant with Microsoft’s licensing policies. Specifically, I’m trying to understand if going from an Evaluation ISO to sysprep, upload, deployment, and activation in Azure is a valid and compliant scenario when not using BYOL with Software Assurance or a CSP license. Has anyone gone through this process or has any insights on the compliance aspect? Thanks in advance for any guidance or clarification.
