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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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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Azure Virtual Machines have access to the internet by default. We can control the public IP address used for internet access with private IP’s, load balancers, and firewalls. This video looks at another option, an Azure NAT Gateway. An Azure NAT Gateway attaches to a subnet and once attached, all VM’s on that subnet use the NAT Gateway for internet access.
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Azure Compute Gallery is not just for images. We can create application packages for Windows and Linux Virtual Machines and deploy the applications as part of a deployment or install them on existing Azure VM’s. This video walks through creating the application package and adding applications to the Azure Compute Gallery, deploying them as part of a VM deployment, adding the application to an existing VM as well as using the uninstall feature to remove an application.
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This video goes of using the SnapImage.ps1 PowerShell script. This script automates the process of creating an image from an Azure VM without destroying it during the capture process. At a high-level, the following steps are taken:
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FIDO2 Security Keys are an inexpensive alternative to the Microsoft Authenticator App. In this video, we walk through configuring passwordless authentication in Azure AD, then we on-board a user and walk through the passwordless experience with the new Yubico Yubikey Bio in a web browser and logging into a new install of Windows 11.
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In this video, we use Windows Hello facial recognition to log into a Windows 11 VM running in VMware Workstation. VMWare Workstation Pro provides USB passthrough, allowing us to use the USB ports on the local host and redirect them to the client VM. We start by configuring VMware workstation for Windows 11, then install Windows 11 on the host computer. After that, we configure USB Pass-through on the local desktop to connect a Windows Hello compatible USB Camera to the client VM.
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Ever wonder why there are two virtual hardware versions for Azure VM’s, Generation 1 and Generation 2? This video goes over the difference between them and when to us one over the other. It goes on to demonstrate the differences when provisioning and changing the OS disk size on a VM.
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