Category: Microsoft

Azure Cross-Region (Global) Load Balancer – Demo Environment

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As you may have seen, the Cross-Region (Global) Azure Load Balancer has recently become Generally Available (10th July 2023) – https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-s-crossregion-load-balancer-is-now-generally-available/. I decided therefore to create a test and demo environment for it – whereby a quick example can be deployed to get started. ✅ For a detailed overview of Cross-Region Load Balancer, please see here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/cross-region-overview  Overview The Cross-Region […]

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EUC Forum July 2023 Meeting – Resources and Slides

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This week I had the pleasure of presenting at the EUC Forum Meeting, which was hosted in Manchester. Alongside my friend and fellow MVP Jon Jarvis, we presented the session “Unleashing the Power of Code-Driven Virtual Desktop Deployments for AVD & Windows 365“.  Click here to find out more about the awesome EUC Forum! This session focused on the tooling required […]

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Azure Lab Services – Azure Compute Gallery Integration, and Custom Images using Packer

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As a follow on from my last post, I wanted to explore using Packer to create images for Azure Lab Services in more detail. Specifically, how images created using Packer could be imported into Azure Lab Services. If you’re new to Azure Lab Services, I’d recommend reading my previous post on it. Why use Packer with Azure Lab Services? This […]

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Azure Lab Services – An Overview, Setup, Terraform, and more!

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Creating the Lab

Overview Recently I have been using Azure Lab Services to prepare Lab Environments for testing and training scenarios, and also using various tools to help create and customise these environments as I need. Azure Lab Services provides on-demand or scheduled access to virtual machines to support various scenarios. A summary of the key points is below: Provide access to Virtual […]

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Cloud Chat Monthly – March 2023 Writeup

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On Friday last week Jon Jarvis and myself hosted our first Cloud Chat Monthly Session. As this was our first session, we started off with an introduction to Cloud Chat Monthly, talked about our goals and objectives, and then went into our first technical session – “Unleashing the Power of Code-Driven Virtual Desktop Deployments: AVD & Windows 365“. Upcoming April […]

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Azure Elastic SAN – Now in Preview!

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Elastic SAN Resources

Please note – Elastic SAN is a Preview Service – so expect changes and updates! As you may be aware, Azure Elastic SAN is now in Public Preview. Elastic SAN aims to solve the challenge of workload optimization and integration between large scale databases and performance-intensive mission-critical applications. The Elastic SAN Preview simplifies deployment, scaling, management, and configuration of a […]

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How I deploy my Azure Lab Environments

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A recent topic of conversation with colleagues, friends in the technical community, and customers I work with, has been how I manage and deploy lab environments. I have to regularly deploy lab environments both for my own use (learning, training, etc.), and for customer demos – and often need to spin up/down these environments with little notice, relying on as […]

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Introducing – Single Region Azure BaseLab V2

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As you may know, I maintain a range of Terraform environments for Azure, which can be used for Demos, Labs, Learning and Testing. These are maintained within my GitHub Repo, and I have occasionally also blogged about updates to these environments: https://jakewalsh.co.uk/updates-to-my-terraform-azure-base-lab-environments/. ✅ Just want the Code or Module? Click here: Code / Module Overview: I’ve recently been updating one […]

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Cloud done the right way – Start with a Foundation

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Within any Cloud Environment, a solid Cloud Foundation is an essential part of the journey. The creation of a suitable foundation should ideally occur well before any workload is onboarded or any service provisioned. In my role as an Architect, I regularly engage with customers and organizations looking to progress or begin a Cloud Journey, and therefore I am regularly […]

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Exploring the Azure Chaos Studio Preview

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⚠ Please note – Chaos Studio is a Preview Service – so expect changes and updates! Introduction Chaos Engineering is the process of testing a solution and its ability to withstand problems and faults whilst maintaining the required level of service or uptime. Chaos Testing is carried out to provide a level of comfort that the solution undergoing testing will […]

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Using Packer to create Azure Machine Images

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Using a programmatic approach to creating images is a great way to ensure consistency and standardise your approach. By using a tool like Packer, we can do this reliably, and integrate the build process into existing DevOps Pipelines and deployments. At the current time, there are two Packer Azure Builders; azure-arm and azure-chroot – for this post, we will use […]

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