This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: ITOps Talk Blog articles.
It might be snowing in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, but we won't let that stop us from sharing Azure news with you. News covered this week includes: New Azure Portal updates for November 2020, Azure Resource Manager template support for Azure file share backup, How to use Windows Admin Center on-premises to manage Azure Windows Server VMs, Multiple new features for Azure VPN Gateway now Generally Available, and our Microsoft Learn Module of the Week.
Azure Portal for November 2020
Two new updates have been applied to the Azure portal which include:
- Resource moving: the ability to navigate to a resource group and move resources to another region. The ability to add missing dependencies, customize destination properties, and track the progress of moves are also now available.
- Filter pills: bring further consistency to the filtering experience while also making it WCAG 2.1 compliant and fully accessible
Further details can be found here: Azure portal November 2020 update
ARM Template support for Azure File Share Backup
Azure Resource Manager (ARM) provides a powerful way to manage infrastructure through declarative templates. Azure Backup now supports configuring backup for existing Azure file shares via ARM templates. This enables organizations to backup existing file shares by specifying the vault and backup policy details in a JSON file which is deployable via using the Azure portal, CLI or Powershell.
Further details can be found here: ARM Template - Backup Azure File Share to Recovery Services Vault
Managing Azure Windows Server VMs via On-Premises Windows Admin Center
Currently the Windows Admin Center (WAC) add-in for the Azure Portal is in preview and it might be a while before the feature becomes generally available. Sonia Cuff and Orin Thomas share steps to spin up a WAC gateway server instance on a local VM, configure Windows Server’s built in Azure Network Adapter as a VPN connection.
Details on the steps required to complete this can be found here: Using Windows Admin Center on-premises to manage Azure Windows Server VMs
Multiple new features for Azure VPN Gateway
The following new Azure VPN Gateway features have recently been announced as generally available:
- Custom IPsec/IKE policy with DPD timeout: Setting IKE DPD (Dead Peer Detection) timeout allows organizations to adjust the IKE session timeout value based on their connection latency and traffic conditions to minimize unnecessary tunnel disconnect.
- High availability for RADIUS servers in point-to-site VPN: Organizations can now enable highly available configuration via RADIUS/AD authentication for their point-to-site VPN.
- FQDN support for site-to-site VPN: Organizations without static public IP addresses can now connect to Azure VPN gateways leveraging dynamic DNS services and their Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). Azure VPN gateways will automatically resolve and update VPN targets to establish IPsec/IKE connections.
- APIPA support for BGP speaker: Organizations with legacy VPN routers and Amazon Web Service (AWS) VGW, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) VPN which use Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) addresses as their Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) speaker IP addresses are now supported and can establish BGP sessions with Azure VPN gateways using APIPA (169.254.x.x) addresses.
Community Events
- Festive Tech Calendar - New content from different communities and people around the globe for the month of December
- Introduction to Cloud Adoption Framework - Sarah Lean investigates Microsoft's Cloud Adoption Framework offering and what is available for organizations to take advantage of
- Patch and Switch - It has been a fortnight, so Rick Claus and Joey Snow are back for another episode.
MS Learn Module of the Week
Implement Windows Server hybrid cloud management, monitoring, and security
Looking to addresses problems related to managing, monitoring, and securing a hybrid environment? This learning path provides insight on how to manage and maintain hybrid Azure and on-premises workloads.
This learning path can be completed here: Windows Server hybrid cloud management, monitoring, and security
Let us know in the comments below if there are any news items you would like to see covered in next week show. Az Update streams live every Friday so be sure to catch the next episode and join us in the live chat.