Microsoft Support & Discussions

Building prototypes for global impact On September 14, 2023, The Ambassador Projects quarterly Demo Day took place! The event brought together rising developers from all over the world to collaborate and create innovative solutions to real-world problems. We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to the Gold Leads Vinayak Gavariya, Kenji Phang, Owagu Ugochukwu, Pascal Burume, and Bunmi Akinremi for their hard work and dedication in putting together such an amazing event and leading this past cohort of the projects program. Without their tireless efforts, this event would not have been possible The winning team was Digi Notes led by Ambassador Sub…

Welcome to this month’s newsletter. We round up the latest news, product announcements, content and community highlights – in one compact post. View the newsletter archives: This Month In SWA | Azure Static Web Apps Catch the community livestream: https://aka.ms/swa/community/standups Community Highlights Blog Posts Let's #LearnLive: Deconstruct an Enterprise-Grade Serverless Architecture running on Azure – Sep 13 Access network isolated APIs and databases from Azure Static Web Apps – Aug 15 Deployment Pipeline for NextJS with Azure SWA and GitHub Actions – Sep 18 Video Series Hack Together: JS on Azure | Build Intelligent …

Introduction ` Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have become a frequent threat, wreaking havoc on businesses and their online services. These relentless assaults overwhelm network resources, rendering websites and applications inaccessible to genuine users. One such attack vector, the UDP flood, predominantly leverages reflected amplification techniques to magnify its impact, causing not only service interruptions but also significant consumption of network resources. In this blog post, we delve into how Azure DDoS Protection serves as a formidable defense mechanism against such DDoS attacks. Azure DDoS Protection is a cloud-based service provided …

Introduction This guide provides the steps needed to create a named replica on a Zone Redundant Secondary Replica (Geo-Replica). Creating a named replica is available in the azure portal for the primary region. However, for some use cases such as offloading the read workloads due to application maintenance activities in the geo replica region during DR test it is vital to have the named replica created on top of geo replica (secondary) database. Named Replica Overview A named replica, just like an HA replica, uses the same page servers as the primary replica. Similar to HA replicas, there is no data copy needed to add a named replica. Named replicas are a key…

Segundo relatórios de investigações da Verizon Data Breach em 2020, foi constatado que 80% das violações de segurança em aplicações Web estão relacionadas a credenciadas roubadas; e 83% das aplicações hoje possuem ao menos uma vulnerabilidade de segurança. Essas brechas são grandes oportunidades para pessoas mal-intencionadas explorarem seus aplicativos e causarem grandes danos. Organizações que adotam práticas de DevSecOps (checks de segurança, busca por vulnerabilidades diariamente etc.) reduzem o tempo de recuperação para problemas de segurança em 72% em relação a organizações que rodam essas validações apenas ocasionalmente. Em ordem de suprir estes pontos de me…

Azure VMware Solution proudly introduces Public Preview of Trusted Launch for Virtual Machines. This advanced feature comprises Secure Boot, Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM), and Virtualization-based Security (VBS), collectively forming a formidable defense against modern cyber threats. In today's digitally connected world, security is paramount. Organizations rely heavily on virtual machines (VMs) to run critical workloads, and ensuring the integrity and security of these VMs is a top priority. This not only paves the way for Windows 11 compatibility by fulfilling vTPM prerequisites but also significantly elevates security and functionality for a myriad of operatin…

Recently, in one of the meetings with our CSS team (support) we realized that our customers might not be selecting the right Enterprise edition for their SQL Servers deployed on Linux. To learn more about different SQL Server editions please refer: Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2022 - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn. Thus, through this blog we would like to provide guidance on how you can identify and update the SQL Server to use the right Enterprise edition which should show up in the error log as : "Enterprise Edition: Core-based Licensing (64-bit)" and not "Enterprise Edition (64-bit)" which is only needed in case you need to follow historical licen…

We continue to expand the Azure Marketplace ecosystem. For this volume, 192 new offers successfully met the onboarding criteria and went live. See details of the new offers below: Get it now in our marketplace [attachment=51586:name] Oracle Linux 7.9: This offer from Bansir Cloud provides Oracle Linux 7.9, a reliable, enterprise-grade Linux distribution with optimized performance for running Oracle databases and applications. It offers comprehensive support options and regular updates, ensuring the reliability and security of your infrastructure. [attachment=51587:name] Docker on Ubuntu 22.04: This offer from Bansir Cloud provides Docker on Ubuntu 22.04. D…

This blog describes the areas that will need inspection and further action to reference newer API versions in your application architecture. Customers who are using older control plane API versions (2014-09-01, 2015-08-01, 2016-07-01) to interact with resources need to reference to Api version (2021-11-01) or newer to experience a regionally resilient platform and make sure of newer features that were introduced into the platform. The following section describes the version upgrade instructions depending on the modes you use to interact with Azure Service Bus, Azure Event Hubs and Azure Relay resources (only control plane or management operations). If you…

Version 3 of the “Activity Book for Postgres” is hot off the press. And you can get your own copy if you come say hello at the Microsoft booth at the PGConf NYC and PGConf EU conferences in 2023. The Activity Book will also be available at other Postgres meetups and smaller PGDay events that our team attends throughout the year (and it was one of the giveaways at earlier this year, too.) Whether you have kids, or nieces, or nephews—or perhaps you yourself find coloring a useful way to distract your hands while your mind tackles complex problems—you can likely put the book to good use. And who doesn’t like a good bad database joke? In this post, you’ll find…

In the version of Azure Lab Services that uses lab plans, you have the option for students to use a non-admin account on their VMs. With a non-admin account, students don’t have full control over the VM and instead only have privileges to perform general computing tasks. We recommend that you follow the principle of least privilege by having students use a non-admin account unless they need to perform tasks that require admin privileges. Here are a few excerpts that best describe the principle of least privilege: “The principle states that all users should log on with a user account that has the absolute minimum permissions necessary to complete the current tas…

Background In this blog post, we will explore the use of the SAP CDC connector within Azure Data Factory/Azure Synapse Analytics to extract data from different SAP Frameworks by leveraging metadata tables. In the following example, we will extract data from the S4 HANA Finance system and save it as a delta table in ADLS Gen2. To read and report on the delta table, we will explore the capabilities of Microsoft Fabric. Table of Contents Introduction to SAP CDC Connector Different SAP Frameworks and SAP CDC connector support Important Concepts Checkpoint Change type indicator. Staging location Run Mode Demo: Metadata-driven pip…

Backup retention is part if business continuity and disaster recovery strategy. You can configure backup retention using Azure portal , Azure CLI, PowerShell and Res API. For instructions on changing automated backup settings, you can refer to the following resources: Change automated backup settings - Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft Learn Long-term backup retention - Azure SQL Database & Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft Learn To help you on this task here you have sample script that will assist you in adjusting the Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) and Long-Term Retention (LTR) settings for all Managed Instance Databases under your su…

We’re pleased to announce support for the Microsoft Lists – MSA Preview within Microsoft Lists for iOS and Android – now available. You can sign into Microsoft Lists with multiple accounts for Microsoft 365 work and school and a single Microsoft account (MSA*). Download the list app (iOS or Android) and join today: https://lists.live.com (Sign up, sign in, enjoy). *MSA stands for Microsoft account – the same account you use to log into Outlook.com or Xbox Live. You can access Microsoft Lists – MSA Preview for iOS or Android for free using your MSA account. If you don’t have an MSA, they’re free to create. A stylized graphic of the Microsoft Lists mobi…

Do you work in files frequently as part of your job? If so, you probably know some of the benefits of using OneDrive such as autosave, anywhere access, and file backup. OneDrive Sync powers many of these features, seamlessly synchronizing your files between your local computer and OneDrive, working diligently behind the scenes. It’s the engine behind PC Folder Backup which provides a back-up version of your local files in the cloud. It also enables version history, sharing, real-time collaboration, and more. Let’s take a look at what’s new in OneDrive Sync for work and school customers. Preventing accidental deletions We’ve all been in a situation where the…

A Zero Trust breach prevention strategy based on user risk is critical for organizations in today's digital landscape. However, managing user risks in hybrid environments has posed several challenges. Today, we’re making it easier to manage user risk in hybrid environments in Microsoft Entra ID Protection (formerly Azure AD Identity Protection) – on-premises password change can now automatically remediate user risk! While we recommend mastering password changes in Entra ID to take advantage of Password Protection, hybrid customers who do password changes on-premises found it challenging to enable user risk policies. Users would get blocked when becoming risky and c…

Elastic Cloud (Elasticsearch) – An Azure native ISV service is a cloud native deep integration experience for all Azure and Elastic joint customers to power their digital transformation. Using this service, customers can quickly setup their Elastic deployments right from within Azure experiences for their Elasticsearch, observability or security needs. The service can easily be managed using clients such as Azure portal, Command-line interfaces (CLI) and Software Development Kits (SDKs) without requiring any custom code or connectors. To further enhance the customer experience, we have introduced the following new features: ‘QuickStart template’ in the Code Sam…

Universal Print is a modern print solution that you can use to manage your organization’s print infrastructure through cloud services from Microsoft. It’s a subscription-based service that runs on Microsoft Azure and can be used with Microsoft Graph API. We’re mixing up some introductory appetizers with a heavy dose of practical steps to get you using Universal Print like a pro in under two hours. Time to learn: 89 minutes [attachment=51499:name]WATCH Introduction to Universal Print Learn what Universal Print is and how it works. Start by checking the requirements, as well as security and privacy details. Get an inside look with demos for IT administr…

A new era of high availability and scalability If you're running distributed applications on JBoss EAP, you know that clustering is essential for data consistency and fault tolerance. We've taken this a step further on Azure App Service. Now, when you integrate JBoss EAP with an Azure Virtual Network (VNet), clustering isn't just an option; it's a built-in feature that kicks in automatically. What does this mean for your apps? For starters, it improves fault tolerance and enables more efficient data sharing across multiple instances. Your application can now handle traffic spikes and server failures better. The service scales based on your configured settings …

As a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), I can say from experience that if you want to improve your skills, expand your knowledge, and advance your career, Microsoft Learn can be an essential resource for you. This family of skill-building offerings brings together all Microsoft technical content, learning tools, and resources, providing practical learning materials both for professionals and beginners. Among the many features that Microsoft Learn offers, four of my favourites are collections, career path training, Practice Assessments, and exam prep videos. 1. Collections Collections let you customise your own l…

Written in collaboration between @andrewmathu and @gusmodena Introduction In today's ever-evolving realm of the present IT infrastructure, where virtualization and cloud computing have become standard practices, the orchestration of firewall rules has evolved into a delicate balancing act between security and adaptability. Traditionally, firewall rules have relied heavily on the use of IP addresses to control access, which, while effective, often proves to be a complex and labor-intensive approach. The moment has arrived to adopt a more streamlined and effective approach that not only bolsters security but also streamlines the management procedure. This enta…

Sync your teeth into the latest episode of the Sync Up podcast! This week, Stephen Rice and Arvind Mishra talk with OneDrive Sync experts Gaia Carini and Andrey Espiov about all the latest improvements to the OneDrive desktop experience! From new features that will knock your socks off to improvements on tried and true fundamentals, there's a lot to learn in this jam-packed episode! If you want to learn more about what's coming for OneDrive, be sure to join us for OneDrive: The Future of File Management on October 3rd! You can learn more about the event here. As always, thank you for listening to the Sync Up Podcast! If you've got questions you'd like to see us tackle…

We’re happy to introduce a number of new security features available for video content in Microsoft 365. These features are available to customers using Stream (on SharePoint), the enterprise video solution included with Microsoft 365. Let’s take a look at the robust video protection and content security available for in Microsoft 365.1 Block the download of Teams meeting recordings from SharePoint or OneDrive You can block the download of Teams meeting recording files from SharePoint or OneDrive via SharePoint Online Management Shell. This can help your organization reduce the risk of accidental data loss. When enabled, end-users have browser-only access to p…

Automating processes and using AI is all the rage at the moment. But there’s still some question over whether it’s a fad or of genuine use. When it comes to Teams, there are generative AI features coming that are sure to make meeting catchups and non-attendance improve to the nth degree. But what about the non-AI elements that can help your business save genuine time and cold, hard cash? I’m not talking about asking AI to run programs in the background, although it’s a little bit like that. I’m also not talking about using ChatGPT to create you anything, although, at a stretch, it’s a little bit like that too. What I’m talking about is the concept …