Category: Microsoft

Dec012020December 1, 2020December 1, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
GET-IT Azure and DevOps 1-Day Virtual Conference

Speaking at GET-IT: Azure and DevOps 1-Day Virtual Conference

Posted in Azure Arc, Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Windows Server

Today, I am honored to let you know that I will be speaking at Petri’s GET-IT: Azure and DevOps 1-Day virtual conference on December 16, 2020. This is a full day of free learning dedicated to deep technical content aimed at IT Pros and Developers who are looking to enhance their knowledge and skills for developing, deploying, managing, and scaling their operations. This free virtual conference has a fantastic lineup with speakers like Brad Sams, Aidan Finn, Ryan Irujo, Sarah Lean, and Peter Zerger. I will be speaking about how you can manage and govern your hybrid cloud servers using Azure Arc.

My Session at GET-IT: Azure and DevOps 1-Day Virtual Conference

Manage and Govern your Hybrid Servers Using Azure Arc 

12:00 pm EST / 9:00 am PDT 📅

Thomas Maurer shows you how you can manage and govern your Windows and Linux machines hosted outside of Azure on your corporate network or other cloud providers, similar to how you manage native Azure virtual machines.

Agenda:

  • Kicking off Petri’s GET-IT: Azure and DevOps 1-Day virtual conference by Brad Sams
    9:25 am EST / 6:25 am PDT
    Kicking off Petri’s GET-IT: Azure and DevOps 1-Day virtual conference and how to download all the session material.
  • Azure Networking – The First Technical Challenge by Aidan Finn
    9:30 am EST / 6:30 am PDT
    When you get done with the business requirements, assessments, and governance stuff, it’s time to start designing your Azure architecture. And that means it’s networking time because you will need to connect to your services, secure your business, and integration features. Don’t be scared if you’re not a networking person – you probably have an advantage over the network admins. In this session, I will explain how Azure networking works, explain many of the technologies and discuss some architectural concepts.
  • YAML Pipelines – Up and Running in an Hour by Ryan Irujo
    11:00 am EST / 8:00 am PDT
    YAML can be intimidating your first time out, and many never find it all that simple. In this session, you’ll learn 3 secrets for building effective and reusable YAML pipelines for Azure DevOps. Whether you’re a beginner or pro you’re sure to pick up a couple of useful tips.
  • Manage and Govern your Hybrid Servers Using Azure Arc by Thomas Maurer
    12:00 pm EST / 9:00 am PDT
    Thomas Maurer shows you how you can manage and govern your Windows and Linux machines hosted outside of Azure on your corporate network or other cloud providers, similarly to how you manage native Azure virtual machines.
  • How to Tackle Your Datacenter Transformation to the Cloud by Sarah Lean
    1:00 pm EST / 10:00 am PDT
    Have you been tasked with moving your datacentre from on-prem to the cloud? Where do you begin with such a project, where are the important milestones? In this session, I’ll walk you through a migration project from start to things you need to think about once the migration is complete and your workloads reside in the cloud.
  • Kubernetes – Up and Running in an Hour by Peter Zerger
    2:00 pm EST / 11:00 am PDT
    In this session, you’ll learn the 3 keys to deploying a production-ready Kubernetes cluster, along with a usable demo app to validate that your deployment is functional. From development environment and code management to app publishing, you’ll get the time-saving that will help you get your cluster and container app up and running quickly, even if you’re new to Kubernetes.

I am really looking forward to this event and hopefully meet you virtually at the GET-IT: Azure and DevOps 1-Day Virtual Conference! If you want to join the event for free, check out the Petri website.


Nov262020November 26, 2020November 23, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
How to monitor an Azure virtual machine with Azure Monitor

How to Monitor an Azure virtual machine with Azure Monitor

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019

This week in the Azure tip video, we are going to have a look at how to monitor an Azure virtual machine (VM) with Azure Monitor. You can use Azure Monitor to collect and analyze monitoring data from Azure virtual machines to maintain their health. Virtual machines can be monitored for availability and performance with Azure Monitor like any other Azure resource, but they’re unique from other resources since you also need to monitor the guest operating and system and the workloads that run in it.

To learn more about how to monitor Azure virtual machines (VMs) with Azure Monitor, you can check out the following links:

  • Microsoft Docs: Monitoring Azure virtual machines with Azure Monitor
  • Quickstart: Monitor an Azure virtual machine with Azure Monitor

You can also check out how you can connect Windows Server machines in hybrid environments to Azure Monitor using Windows Admin Center here. If you have any questions, comments, or another great idea for an Azure tip video, feel free to leave a comment below.


Nov252020November 25, 2020November 17, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Stack Hub Bordonaro IT

Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series – BORDONARO IT

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Thomas Maurer, Work

This week, Tiberiu Radu (Azure Stack Hub PM) and I, had the chance to speak with Microsoft MVP Dino Bordonaro from Azure Stack Hub Partner BORDONARO IT. BORDONARO IT is an Azure Stack Hub partner and Preferred SI that focuses on managed services. They are lead by Dino Bordonaro, who is an Azure Stack Hub MVP, and together with his team, they are delivering value to their customers by creating hybrid solutions on Azure and Azure Stack. BORDONARO IT runs the Center of Excellence where they offer Validation as a Service and PoC environments that partners and customers can use.

We created this new Azure Stack Hub Partner solution video series to show how our customers and partners use Azure Stack Hub in their Hybrid Cloud environment.  In this series, as we will meet customers that are deploying Azure Stack Hub for their own internal departments, partners that run managed services on behalf of their customers, and a wide range of in-between as we look at how our various partners are using Azure Stack Hub to bring the power of the cloud on-premises.

Links mentioned through the video:

I hope this video was helpful and you enjoyed watching it. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. If you want to learn more about the Microsoft Azure Stack portfolio, check out my blog post.


Nov242020November 24, 2020November 24, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Management - Single control plane for resources everywhere using Azure Arc

Organize Azure Arc enabled Servers

Posted in Azure Arc, Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Windows Server

In this blog post, we are going to have a look at how you can organize and manage Azure Arc enabled Servers running on-premises or at other cloud providers, using Azure as a single control plane. But before we start with that let’s first have a look at how customers are using Azure Resource Manager to manage their Azure resources today. To organize and manage Azure resources and services like virtual machines, web apps, databases, storage, and much more in Microsoft Azure, we are using Azure Resource Manager. Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is the deployment and management service for Microsoft Azure. ARM provides a management layer that enables you to create, update, and delete resources in Azure, and you can use management features, like access control, locks, and tags, to secure and organize your resources after deployment. So when we are using tools like the Azure portal, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, SDKs, and APIs, to manage our Azure resource we are basically interacting with Azure Resource Manager.

Azure Resource Manager Management Overview

Azure Resource Manager Management Overview (Source: Microsoft)

Azure Resource Manager provides us with the logic and scope to manage and organize Azure resources like management groups, subscriptions, resource groups, and resources.

Azure Management - Single control plane for Azure resources

Azure Management – Single control plane for Azure resources

Now many of our customers said, that ARM is a great way to manage Azure resources, but how about resources that are deployed outside of Azure, in on-premises datacenters, branch offices, factories, or even at other cloud providers? With Azure Arc, they can now onboard services like servers, Kubernetes clusters, databases, and more, and use Azure as a single control plane to manage and organize these resources. Azure Arc extends the Azure Resource Manager and Azure Management capabilities for resources outside of Azure.

Azure Management - Single control plane for resources everywhere using Azure Arc

Azure Management – Single control plane for resources everywhere using Azure Arc

You can onboard Linux and Windows Servers using the Azure Arc Center in the Azure portal. Here you can also get an overview of all your Azure Arc resources.

Azure Arc Center - Azure Portal

Azure Arc Center – Azure Portal

You can also find the Azure Arc enabled servers like any other Azure resources on the all resources page. This allows you to get an inventory of all your servers in your environment.

Inventory for Azure Arc enabled Servers and Azure VMs

Inventory for Azure Arc enabled Servers and Azure VMs

You can see that your Azure Arc enabled servers to show up as Azure resources. You can use the filter to limit the view to only Azure virtual machines (VMs), and Azure Arc enabled servers.

Filter for Azure VMs and Azure Arc Machines

Filter for Azure VMs and Azure Arc Machines

You can also use tags, locks, and RBAC (role-based access control) to organize and manage these resources. This makes it easy to for example list all your servers from a spesific department, project, or cost center.

Using Tags

Using Tags

Azure Arc is not only limited to the Azure portal, but you can also use the Azure APIs, CLI, PowerShell, and the Azure Resource Graph to manage your Azure Arc machines.

I hope this gives you a very quick overview of how you can use Azure Arc enabled Servers to get a glimpse of all your hybrid servers running on-premises, at the edge, and even at other cloud providers. If you want to learn more about Azure Arc and the management capabilities, check out my blogs about Azure Arc, like Azure Arc Enabled Servers Extension Management and many more. Also, make sure you check out the official Azure Arc enabled servers documentation on Microsoft Docs.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.


Nov202020November 20, 2020November 20, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Lisa At The Edge Podcast - Thomas Maurer - Career Development & Azure Arc

Lisa At The Edge Podcast – Thomas Maurer – Career Development & Azure Arc

Posted in Azure Arc, Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Virtualization, Work

This week I had the honor to be on the Lisa at the Edge podcast, where I had the chance to speak with Lisa Clark, who is an EMEA Microsoft Hybrid Cloud Business Strategist at Dell Technologies. In her podcast, we talked about Azure Arc and Azure Hybrid Cloud, as well as career development. You can watch the full episode on here and on YouTube as well as on Lisa at the Edge – Hybrid Cloud & Careers in Tech.

Episode 21: Lisa At The Edge Podcast – Thomas Maurer – Career Development & Azure Arc

Thomas is a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft for Azure focused on Azure and Hybrid and former MVP. Thomas runs a very successful blog jam-packed with useful content on Azure Certification Guides, Windows Server, Azure IaaS, and more. He is a successful speaker and I was extremely lucky to have him on the podcast. In this episode, we talk about Thomas’s career path from apprentice to landing a dream role at Microsoft. We also discuss Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud terminology and then get stuck into the hot topic of the moment: Azure Arc.

About the Lisa at the Edge Podcast

“On the Lisa at the Edge Podcast, you will find all kinds of interesting topics as I speak to amazing people from across the global tech community.

I started this podcast at the beginning of lockdown here in Scotland as Covid-19 took over and changed our world. Podcasting and blogging are activities I had always wanted to try but for one reason (excuse) or another, I never got started. I decided lockdown was the perfect opportunity to give it a go! It is a way for me to stay connected to the tech community and learn new skills. I haven’t ruled any topics out and I haven’t stuck to the advice of ‘find your niche’ because that’s just not me! However, there will be a heavy focus on two of my favorite topics: Careers in Tech and Microsoft Hybrid Cloud.”

Learn more about Cloud Computing and Microsoft Azure

I hope you enjoyed that episode as much as I did. If you want to learn more about Microsoft Azure and Cloud Computing, check out my blog post, in which I summarized a couple of useful links.


Nov182020November 18, 2020November 9, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series – Cloud Assert

Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series – Cloud Assert

Posted in Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Thomas Maurer

This week, Tiberiu Radu (Azure Stack Hub PM @rctibi) and I, had the chance to speak to Azure Stack Hub Partner Cloud Assert. Cloud Assert is an Azure Stack Hub partner that helps provide value to both Enterprises and Service Providers. Their solutions cover aspects from billing and approvals all the way to multi-Azure Stack Hub stamp management. Join the Cloud Assert team as we explore the many ways their solutions provide value and help Service Providers and Enterprises in their journey with Azure Stack Hub.

They have several solutions for customers and partners like Azure Stack Hub Multi-Stamp management. Azure Stack Hub Multi-Stamp management enables you to manage and take actions across multiple stamp instances from a single Azure Stack Hub portal with one-pane of glass experience. It provides a holistic way for operators and administrators to perform many of their scenarios from a single portal without switching between various stamp portals. This is a comprehensive solution from Cloud Assert leveraging Cloud Assert VConnect and Usage and billing resource providers for Azure Stack Hub.

We created this new Azure Stack Hub Partner solution video series to show how our customers and partners use Azure Stack Hub in their Hybrid Cloud environment.  In this series, as we will meet customers that are deploying Azure Stack Hub for their own internal departments, partners that run managed services on behalf of their customers, and a wide range of in-between as we look at how our various partners are using Azure Stack Hub to bring the power of the cloud on-premises.

Links mentioned through the video:

I hope this video was helpful and you enjoyed watching it. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. If you want to learn more about the Microsoft Azure Stack portfolio, check out my blog post.


Nov172020November 17, 2020November 17, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Manage updates and patches for your Azure VMs

Manage updates and patches for your Azure VMs

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Thomas Maurer, Virtualization, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019

In this week’s Azure tip video we are going to have a look at how to manage updates and patches for your Azure virtual machines (VMs). After watching this video, you’ll be able to enable Azure Update Management, deploy updates, review an update assessment, and manage updates for your Azure VMs.

You can use Update Management in Azure Automation to manage operating system updates for your Windows and Linux machines in Azure, in on-premises environments, and in other cloud environments. You can quickly assess the status of available updates on all agent machines and manage the process of installing required updates for servers. If you want to learn more, check out my blog post on how to manage updates on Azure VMs. Also, make sure you check out a new feature called Azure Automatic VM Guest OS patching. To learn more about that feature, check out my blog post: How to configure Azure Automatic VM guest OS patching

To learn more about Azure Update management for your Azure virtual machines, check out the following links:

I hope this video was help full when it comes to managing updates and patches for your Azure VMs. If you have any questions, comments, or another great idea for an Azure tip video, feel free to leave a comment below.



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    Thomas Maurer

    My name is Thomas Maurer. I am a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. I am part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI) and engage with the community and customers around the world. I am located in Switzerland. I am focusing on Microsoft technologies, especially cloud and datacenter solutions based on Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack and Windows Server. Opinions are my own.

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