What is Azure Firewall Basic and How to Deploy One

What is Azure Firewall Basic and How to Deploy One

Azure now has three SKUs for the firewall project: Premium, Standard, and recently GA, Basic.  Azure Firewall Basic offers many of the same features as the Premium and Standard firewall but at a reduced cost.  Azure Firewall Basic is a good option for small and medium businesses or application-specific deployments where internet or East and West traffic needs to be controlled.  In this video, we start with an overview of Azure Firewall Basic and how it differs from Premium and Standard.  Then we examine the requirements to deploy it and move into the Azure portal to deploy it.

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Windows 365 Enterprise and Intune Management Training Course Now Available!

I am happy to announce a new Microsoft training course for Windows 365 Enterprise and Intune Management is now available at Udemy.com.  I collaborated with Dean Ellerby (@dean_ellerby) to create this course.  It covers everything needed to implement and manage Windows 365 Enterprise with Intune. 

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SFTP with Azure Storage is now Generally Availability

Azure Storage SFTP

SSH File Transfer protocol (SFTP), sometimes called Secure FTP, provides the ability to transfer files between autonomous systems.  Azure Storage standard V2 and Premium now supports SFPT access to blob containers.  This video goes over how to enable SFTP on a new storage account, then we add local users and connect with SFTP and the WinSCP client. 

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Save Money with an Azure Savings Plan for Compute

Microsoft provide a few options to save money in Azure.  Reserved Instances, Hybrid Benefits, Spot Instances and now Azure Savings Plan for Compute.  This video goes over Azure Savings Plan for Compute, what it is and how it compares to existing cost reduction options.  Then we review details of the Savings Plan and some considerations you should know before implementing Azure Savings Plan for Compute.

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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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Start an Azure Automation Runbook with a Schedule or PowerShell

Azure Automation Schedule and PowerShell

This video goes over the steps to create a shared scheduled on Azure Automation.  We review options available to create and edit a schedule.  Then we link the schedule to a runbook to automatically start a runbook based on a schedule.  Next, we view the Azure Automation and Runbook settings with PowerShell, then run and view the progress of a job.

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Link Azure Automation to Log Analytics

Azure Automation Log Analytics

Log Analytics is a great tool for storing and searching log data.  We can link an Azure Automation account to a Log Analytics workspace, but the process may not be as obvious as one would think.  In this video, we create a Log Analytics workspace then link it to Azure Automation account. Next, we configure the Automation account to send diagnostic data to a Log Analytics workspace and verify data goes to the workspace.

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Manage Azure Automation Runbooks with Git Source Control

Storing important automation scripts on a file share or local hard drive?  There is a better way with Azure Automation and Source Control integration.  In this video, we review how to enable source control integration with an Azure Automation account.  We look at the options, then walk-through configuring Source Control with Azure DevOps, identifying where we can specify to use GitHub instead.  Finally, we add, modify, and delete an Azure Automation runbook.

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