For the next post in this series around using Azure DevOps and WVD, I wanted continue focusing on Azure NetApp Files. Continuing on from Part 1 in this series, I will be covering the setup of Azure NetApp Files (ANF) within an Azure DevOps Pipeline, but this time using Terraform to deploy ANF. In Part 1, Azure CLI was used – both are perfectly valid methods, but have slightly different configurations and uses, so can be used as required based […]
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For the next post in this series around using Azure DevOps and WVD, I wanted to focus on Azure NetApp Files. Azure NetApp Files (ANF) is often used for hosting both application and profile data, and in particular is used when rapid access and high IO throughput are required. This is often the case with User Profiles in a VDI environment. As part of my series on setting up the required components to support Windows Virtual Desktop, within Azure DevOps, […]
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Recently I’ve been using Packer to create images for use with Citrix Cloud and Windows Virtual Desktop, and building this into a DevOps Pipeline, to automate creation of images based on a JSON template. Within Azure DevOps this is a really simple process – and great for creating VM images within your Pipelines, or for Lab/Testing environments too. I use this for my Citrix/WVD Lab, which I often spin up/down on demand for demos/testing. This also means every time I […]
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For a while I have been deploying infrastructure using Azure DevOps, and in particular deploying demo environments which need to be spun up and torn down again, but also to demonstrate the power of Infrastructure as Code. One issue I’ve faced with a pure ARM/Bicep or Terraform deployment is the promotion of a Domain Controller… it is straightforward to deploy the necessary roles to a VM via something like a custom script extension, but the actual promotion of a Domain […]
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Recently I’ve been introduced to Ansible, and have therefore been seeing what I can automate with it. I know that when testing things out and learning new things if there are challenges I have faced, or issues getting a test environment setup, having the setup stage automated can really help out. This means you can focus on learning the basics of operation, and then go from there. So this post is exactly that – a quick lab environment that gets […]
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Recently I have been exploring Azure Bicep and the benefits it provides. Azure Bicep is a Domain Specific Language that allows the rapid creation of ARM Templates, in an easier manner. I’ve previously found ARM templates challenging, especially with the complexity that can arrive with deployment at scale. Bicep aims to improve this, providing a simpler way of authoring templates, with additional benefits like dependency resolution, and flexibility in where we declare parameters, variables, and resources. Getting Started: To install […]
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This week I presented at the UK Windows Virtual Desktop User Group February Meeting. My presentation focused on Landing Zones (and their importance) and considerations around Scale for Windows Virtual Desktop. Thanks to Neil and Kirk for organising the meetup! My slides are available here.
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Recently I have been working more and more with Terraform – and seeing the benefits to what I can do in a short space of time within Azure, using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) methodologies. I’m now using Terraform for all my Azure lab needs – it’s so fast and easy to deploy just what I need, and tweak from there or test new features/requirements out. The speed and ease of deployment means I often spin up a brand new lab […]
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One area that always need focus is around security and managing credentials. Using Terraform, and the method in this blog post, you can help build Azure Key Vault and create a secure secret to use when creating VMs, automatically. To keep things secure, my method uses a combination of randomised password values, and Azure Key Vault. This post explains how to automate the creation of both of these, and use the Secret when setting up a Virtual Machine. This code […]
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For some time, I have been using Terraform to create environments – and it’s something I rely on heavily for my own Azure lab environment. My lab is an ever changing picture – and thus I regularly create and destroy resources and environments, to test new things. I usually just run Terraform locally and have it spin up specific lab environments as and when I need them. One thing I often do to make my lab environments easy to access […]
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