Azure Hub and Spoke Virtual Network (VNet) with a VPN Gateway

In this video, we create a hub and spoke network in Azure by peering our spoke VNet’s to a centralized, Hub Virtual Network.  Then we use a VPN Virtual Network Gateway to enable gateway transit connectivity between the spokes.  Next, we configure routing with Azure Route Tables and User Defined Routes (UDR) to send traffic going to other spokes to the hub.  Then we log into a virtual machine and verify connectivity.

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Announcing Windows 365!

AVD

Microsoft announced Windows 365 this week at Inspire.  With this announcement comes a new way to deliver remote desktops as a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform built on Azure Virtual Desktop and is a significant addition to virtual desktop options in Azure.  There is a limited amount of information available about windows 365; in this post and accompanying video, we’ll break down what it is and how it differs from Azure Virtual Desktop.  Keep in mind that this is a new service, the information available may not be complete and change once Windows 365 is available.

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Networking Basics, the OSI Model

This is the first of a series of videos on Computer Networking Basics.  In this video, we go over the OSI model and how it aligns with TCP/IP.  This is the basic fundamental to understanding a computer network.

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Azure Point-to-Site VPN with Azure AD Authentication and MFA

This video goes over how to deploy an Azure VNet Gateway on an existing VNet and enable Point-to-Site (P2S) VPN connections using Azure AD to authenticate the client.  A P2S connection allows clients to connect securely to an Azure Gateway and access resources on the private VNet.  The video goes on to demonstrate how enable Multi-Factor Authentication with a Conditional Access policy or enforcing MFA per-user.

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Auto Start and Stop Session Hosts in Windows Virtual Desktop Spring Update (ARM) Edition with an Azure Function

I am happy to release an update to my Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) Start-Stop script for Windows Virtual Desktop updated for Spring 2020, or “WVD ARM.”  This script uses an Azure Function to starts and stops WVD Session hosts in a host pool based on the user load. 

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Azure Point-to-Site VPN with Certificate Based Authentication

This video goes over how to deploy an Azure VNet Gateway on an existing VNet and enable Point-to-Site (P2S) VPN connections.  A P2S connection allows clients to connect securely to an Azure Gateway and access resources on the private VNet.  The video goes on to demonstrate how to create a root certificate and client certificates to use for authentication.  After that, configuring the client is demonstrated as well as blocking a client by revoking a certificate.

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Automatically Start and Stop WVD VM’s with Azure Automation

One value proposition of any cloud service is consumption-based pricing, only paying for services when used.  Consumption-based pricing is an advantage of Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), Microsoft Azure-hosted remote desktop service.  Or at least it would be if there was an easy way to start and stop session hosts based on demand.

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Azure Windows Virtual Desktop Load Balancing

In this video, I go over the two options for WVD Load Balancing, Depth-First and Breadth-First.  I also demonstrate how each distributes new connections and how to change Load Balancing options and set the maximum number of connections per session host.

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