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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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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Azure NAT Gateway

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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VM Applications with Azure Compute Gallery

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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Use PowerShell to Create a Snapshot Based Image of an Azure Virtual Machine

PowerShell Image Snapshot

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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