Hello folks, this week jay Gordon (@jayDestro) and I are discussing some news around the world of Azure and Microsoft. Mort specifically we will discuss Availability Zones support for Azure App Service, the preview of on-demand capacity reservations for Azure Virtual Machines, and the retirement of all 1.x versions of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Connect.
Won’t you join us?
Azure App Service support for Availability Zones
As of September 3rd, Azure App Service now support for Availability Zones. That means that Azure App Service can be deployed into Availability Zones (AZ) which enables high availability for your apps. This type of architecture is also known as zone redundancy and this benefits operations by ensuring that the infrastructure underpinning your company’s apps is redundant and robust.
An app lives in an App Service plan (ASP), and the App Service plan exists in a single scale unit. When an App Service is configured to be zone redundant, the platform automatically spreads the VM instances in the App Service plan across all three zones in the selected region. If a capacity larger than three is specified and the number of instances is divisible by three, the instances will be spread evenly. Otherwise, instance counts beyond 3*N will get spread across the remaining one or two zones
On-demand capacity reservations for Azure Virtual Machines
Many of you rely on Azure to host mission-critical workloads and services and use the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) to host them. However, in some situations, customers need specific assurances:
- Business-critical applications—certain business processes can be disrupted even by a temporary interruption.
- Disaster recovery (DR)—in the event of a natural disaster, businesses require capacity guarantees to recover and resume operations in a different location.
- Special events—sometimes a substantial surge in capacity is expected, like Black Friday for example. Obtaining capacity assurance can ensure that business performance remains at the highest levels.
Until now, the only way to obtain Azure Virtual Machines capacity has been to deploy actual virtual machines (VM), whether running or stopped.
Now, On-demand capacity reservations for Azure Virtual Machines enables you to reserve the compute capacity for a VM size. The reservation can be for any length of time in any public Azure region or Availability Zone and supports most VM series.
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Connect Retirement
Azure AD Connect is the tool designed to manage
- Password hash
- Pass-through authentication
- Federation integration
- Synchronization
- Health Monitoring
All 1.x versions of this tool include SQL Server 2012 components that will no longer be supported therefore, Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Connect will be retired in favor of a newer version.
Windows Server 2022 availability
On September 1st we announced that Windows Server 2022 is now generally available. With Windows Server 2022, you can continue to securely run your workloads, enable new hybrid cloud scenarios, and modernize your applications to meet evolving business requirements.
To get your first in-depth look at Windows Server 2022. (If you haven’t already) you can register for the Windows Server Summit, a free digital event and get a thorough understanding of how to use the newest Windows Server innovations to modernize your IT environment and simplify management.
- Get the latest news and announcements about Windows Server 2022.
- See hybrid infrastructure solutions in action with product demos.
- Learn how to maximize your existing investments with Azure—the trusted cloud for Windows Server.
- Get answers to your questions from product experts during the live Q&A
MS Learn Module of the Week
This week Jay suggested that we should take a different approach to the MS Learn Module of the week. I thought it was a great idea and we are proud to suggest the Start in tech as an intern learn Module. It will teach folks looking to get into a tech career valuable skills.
That’s it for this week! Let us know in the comments below if there are any items you would like to see covered in the next show.
Be sure to catch the next AzUpdate episode and join us in the live chat.
Cheers!
Pierre Roman