Microsoft Support & Discussions

Hello to our amazing Customers- Can you believe it's almost April, better yet, almost Spring!? Time is flying and our SDN team is hard at work in coordination with the AKS Hybrid team. The 3-15-23 AKS Hybrid release includes a number of new features designed to improve the overall experience for customers leveraging AKS in conjunction with Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Check out Sarah's blog for more details on the AKS HCI front! One of the key updates we made in this release was the ability to leverage an existing SDN Virtual Network during deployment of your management cluster. This feature is especially useful for organizations that have already i…

This will be the first article in a four-part series on building an end-to-end data analytics and machine learning solution on Azure Synapse Analytics. The dataset used in this solution is the Snapshot Serengeti dataset, which consists of a large-scale collection of camera trap images. To learn more about this dataset, please visit the following link: Snapshot Serengeti - LILA BC. By the end of this series, you will have learned how to transform and analyze the data, and use it to train a classification machine learning model capable of classifying camera trap images into one of the 48 species in the dataset. This article describes a solution that com…

You can view the full series of GraphQL on Azure articles on my website. This is the last in the three part sub-series looking at the newly launched Data API builder for Azure Databases (DAB) and while last time we looked at creating a React application, this time I wanted to look at how to do the same thing but in .NET using Blazor. So let's jump in and learn about how to use SWA Data Connections with Blazor. Oh, and for something different, let's try also use a SQL backend rather than Cosmos DB. Setting up DAB When we've looked at DAB so far, we've had to create two files, a config for DAB and a GraphQL schema containing the types. Well since we're usi…

You can view the full series of GraphQL on Azure articles on my website. In the last post I introduced you to a new project we've been working on, Data API builder for Azure Databases (DAB) and in this post I want to look at how we can use it in Azure, and that will be through one of my favourite Azure services, Azure Static Web Apps, for you see, as part of the announcement today of DAB, we've announced that it is available as a feature of SWA (called Database Connections), so let's build a React app! Local Development One of the neat things about working with SWA is that we have a CLI tool which emulates the functionality of SWA, and with today's announce…

In this episode with Anna Hoffman and David Pless, we will discuss the new foundational capability in SQL Server 2022 that leverages acceleration technologies from partners such as Intel to provide extended capabilities. At release, Intel® QuickAssist Technology (QAT) provides backup compression and hardware offloading. We will discuss the hardware, configuration, operating modes, and use cases to when database administrators would want to leverage this technology along with usage considerations. Resources: Integrated acceleration and offloading Intel® QuickAssist Technology Landing Page View/share our latest episodes on Microsoft Learn an…

You can view the full series of GraphQL on Azure articles on my website. I'm really excited because today we launched the first public preview of Data API builder for Azure Databases or DAB for short (the official name is a bit of a mouthful ;p ). The important links you'll need are: SQL announcement Cosmos announcement Docs SWA integration announcement GitHub Repo What is DAB DAB is a joint effort from the Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL and Cosmos DB teams to provide a simple and easy way to create REST and GraphQL endpoints from your existing database. Now obviously this is something that you've always been able to do, but the difference is that …

In this episode with Anna Hoffman and David Pless, we will discuss the new foundational capability in SQL Server 2022 that leverages acceleration technologies from partners such as Intel to provide extended capabilities. At release, Intel® QuickAssist Technology (QAT) provides backup compression and hardware offloading. We will discuss the hardware, configuration, operating modes, and use cases to when database administrators would want to leverage this technology along with usage considerations. Resources: Integrated acceleration and offloading Intel® QuickAssist Technology Landing Page Continue reading...

Today we introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot, which combines the power of large language models with your data in Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 apps to turn words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet. Meeting Microsoft’s standards for Data Security and Privacy The new Copilot experiences do not change Microsoft’s commitment and principles for data security and privacy. Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 and automatically inherits all your company’s valuable security, compliance, and privacy policies and processes. Whether you are working with our AI solutions in Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, or other Micro…

Today Microsoft Microsoft 365 Copilot was announced for commercial customers. Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with organizational data in the Microsoft Graph – calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and more – and the Microsoft 365 apps. Microsoft 365 Copilot services are not available to education customers at this time. We are listening to feedback and collaborating with the education community to further fine-tune AI powered experiences in educational scenarios. During the initial private preview, Copilot services will be available by invite only to commercial customers. As these services become more broadly available, we w…

Author(s): Sarath Sasidharan is a Program Manager in Azure Synapse Customer Success Engineering (CSE) team. Introduction: Understanding Query Lifecycle to Maximize Performance Synapse Dedicated pools have been battle tested at enterprise customers across the globe. We deal with data in the magnitude of PetaBytes. Synapse can provide you with the scale of the cloud and the high performance required for your enterprise-grade requirements. The key to maximizing your performance is to follow best practices, check out best practices for dedicated SQL pools in Azure Synapse Analytics Failure to do so causes performance issues. In such scenarios, is it impor…

In May 2022, custom named entity recognition and custom text classification were announced as generally available features under Language Cognitive Services. The features allowed you to create your own custom models to classify and extract domain specific information from your documents. A key component of building out a quality model lies in the data you provide. Today we're excited to announce the ability to automatically label your documents with GPT models using Azure Open AI. Now, the most time-consuming part of the process, labelling, can be reduced significantly with this new feature. Let’s walk through how to auto-label your documents using custom na…

As technology continues to have an important role in education, educators have asked for help in staying current on the latest developments and resources in order to provide their students with the best tools and platforms available. The Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) conference brings together educators from K-12 to college and university to discuss the most recent research, developments, and best practices in computer science education. Microsoft recognizes the importance of this conference, participates in panels and discussions, and offers a variety of resources to assist educators. Here is a collection of the top Microsoft tools for hel…

Hello Folks, Microsoft introduced support for IPv6 in our operating systems starting with Windows XP Service Pack 1 in 2002. However, it wasn't until Windows Vista in 2006 that Microsoft offered full support for IPv6. In 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the last blocks of available IPv4 addresses, which triggered a greater sense of urgency to transition to IPv6, which offers a much larger address space than IPv4 and can support the continued growth of the internet. It is widely expected that we will use both IPv4 and IPv6 for the near future. Now, we’re finally bringing IPv6 support to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), t…

The 2nd cumulative update release for SQL Server 2022 RTM is now available for download at the Microsoft Downloads site. Please note that registration is no longer required to download Cumulative updates. To learn more about the release or servicing model, please visit: • CU2 KB Article: KB5023127 - Cumulative Update 2 for SQL Server 2022 - Microsoft Support Starting with SQL Server 2017, we adopted a new modern servicing model. Please refer to our blog for more details on Modern Servicing Model for SQL Server • Microsoft® SQL Server® 2022 RTM Latest Cumulative Update: Download SQL Server® 2022 for Microsoft® Windows Latest Cumulative Update from Official Microsoft…

What is an Ingress Controller Kubernetes Ingress is a resource object in the Kubernetes API that provides a way to manage external access to services within a Kubernetes cluster. In essence, Ingress is a layer of abstraction that allows you to route traffic to different services based on the URL path or host. It provides a way to expose HTTP and HTTPS routes from outside the cluster to services within the cluster. In Kubernetes, a Service is used to expose a set of pods as a network service, while an Ingress provides a way to route traffic to those services based on rules that you define. This allows you to create a more fine-grained routing scheme than what is p…

Hello everyone, This a release everyone running AKS on Azure Stack HCI or Windows Server will appreciate - it is full of quality improvements for long-running deployments. We are also delighted to share Windows Server 22 container support! Before getting into the update details, we have a few Announcements: We are deprecating K8s 1.22 in conjunction with the upstream Kubernetes community (k8s supported versions). This release has two changes which could impact automation. The way we assign an IP address and FQDN to the cloud agent service during first installation. The default Kubernetes version for a target cluster is now the latest available versio…

Starting today, customers can use Azure Monitor – Container Insights to collect Syslog from Linux nodes in their Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters. Syslog collection enables customers to monitor security and health events for their containerized workloads. Syslog collection when combined with SIEM systems like Microsoft Sentinel and monitoring tools like Azure Monitor provides comprehensive observability. Why collect syslog? Syslog is a popular message logging standard that can be used across a variety of devices like servers, virtual machines, routers, and other devices. By collecting syslog from AKS nodes, customers get Improved observability – Sy…

Welcome back to another episode of Armchair Architects as part of the Azure Enablement Show. Today we will be discussing how do you get meaning from your data? Our hosts will be David Blank-Edelman and our armchair architects Uli Homann and Eric Charran. What is usually missing raw data is context. I am swimming in data, there's some over there and some over there and then there’s some data in this other repository. I have so much data, I don't know how to make meaning out of it all. How do you think about getting meaning from your data? This topic is near and dear to Eric’s heart because this is something he is doing right now for multiple teams here…

This month we’re introducing several new features to Microsoft Stream that will help you do more with video at work or on the go. These enhancements to video curation, playback and our mobile app make Stream (on SharePoint) a more robust platform for your videos needs. Let’s take a look at the new video organization, playback and viewing options across Microsoft 365. Playlists Stream recently launched Playlists, a new feature that allows you to curate video or audio collections within Microsoft 365. Playlists combines the ease of use of Microsoft Lists with the value of video. With playlists you can create and share an organized collection of related content such …

Microsoft Student Summit 2023 Kenya Student Summit Watch Party 21 March, 2023, from 2:00pm Strathmore University, Nairobi. Looking to gain expertise in today's cutting-edge technology? Attend the Microsoft Student Summit 2023 at Strathmore University, Nairobi on March 21, 2023, from 2:00 pm. Meet and greet Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors and Cloud Advocates at the in-person watch party https://aka.ms/SSWPKE or join virtually at Student Summit - Start and Accelerate Your Career in Tech - Events. Discover the cutting edge of Application Development, Low Code/ No-Code / Fusion Development, and AI, Data, and Machine Learning, and get career advice from …

Authored by: Aimee Garcia, PM AI Benchmarking, Rick Shahid, Azure HPC Rendering Specialist, and Jon Shelley, Principal TPM Manager MoonRay is an open-source Monte Carlo Ray Tracing (MCRT) renderer that was developed by DreamWorks and has been utilized in all in-house feature films since How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, including the recently released Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, as well as future titles. MoonRay has the capability to deliver a broad range of images while maintaining a focus on efficiency and scalability and includes a robust library of shaders and features, as well as a distributed computation framework which provides multi-machine ren…

Hello everyone, I’m Basel Kablawi, PM on the Azure Edge and Platform - Core Networking team, here to announce the latest updates to the physical network switch requirements! Our ecosystem of physical switches is designed to help ensure the compatibility and reliability of network switches with Azure Stack HCI, Microsoft's hyperconverged infrastructure solution. By participating in this program, vendors can validate that their physical switches meet the network requirements for rock-solid interoperability with Azure Stack HCI solutions. In this blog, we’ll discuss how we’re reclassifying the physical network switches that meet the requirements of Azure Stac…

Companies and organizations in the healthcare industry require geospatial services to achieve location intelligence and perform spatial analysis. Imagine knowing there was an accident or disease outbreak but not knowing where it was? Location information can be critical to many health outcomes, not just for individuals but for whole communities as well. Azure provides a solution environment allowing healthcare and health insurance providers to meet their strictest data compliance obligations, as Azure Maps complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). While Azure Maps enables companies and organizations across every industry to bui…

Currently devices on the Windows Server platform don’t support mobile device management (MDM) and can’t enroll in Intune. With the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Security Management feature, Windows Servers can receive security management policies from Intune as outlined in Use Intune to manage Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Security on devices not enrolled with Microsoft Intune. Today, Windows Servers are labeled as “Windows” for the attributes that refer to its operating system (OS) platform. This non-specific label makes it difficult to manage these devices when it comes to granular visibility and targeting. Keep reading to see how we’re making improvements an…

The Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) is an ecosystem of independent software vendors and managed security service providers that have integrated their solutions to better defend against a world of increasing threats. Learn more about an offer from MISA partner DeepSurface in the Azure Marketplace: [attachment=34866:name] DeepSurface Risk Analyzer: DeepSurface's automated vulnerability insights platform quickly scans and analyzes all assets in your environment and creates a comprehensive and personalized map of your risk exposure. Your cybersecurity team can then tackle top-level threat mitigation. Learn how you can protect your data estate whil…