This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: ITOps Talk Blog articles.
A plethora of announcements was released at Microsoft Build 2021 as expected. Here is what the team will be reporting on this week: certain certifications will require yearly renewal, Sysinternal Tools Updates Announced, App Service Managed Certificates now generally available, Run App Service on Kubernetes or anywhere with Azure Arc and of course the Microsoft Learn module of the week.
Role-based and specialty certifications to be valid for one year
As of March 2021, recognized Microsoft certified individules are now able to renew thier role-based and specialty certifications by passing a free renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn. Rather than having to retake scheduled exam(s), the renewal assessment can be completed online on your own time, and anytime within six months before your certification expires. After you pass the renewal assessment, your certification is extended by one additional year from the current expiration date which can be done annually.
Starting 12 AM GMT on June 30, 2021, (5 PM PT on June 29, 2021), all newly earned role-based and specialty certifications will be valid for one year from the date the certification was earned. All required exams must be passed before 12 AM GMT on Jun 30, 2021 for certifications to remain valid for two years from the date they were earned; if the required exam(s) are passed after 12 AM GMT on June 30, 2021 certifications will be valid for 1-year from the date they were earned.
Please review the following resources for further details surrounding certification renewal:
- Is your certification expiring soon? Here what you need to know.
- Stay current with in-demand skills through free certification renewals
Sysinternal Tools Updates Announced at MS Build 2021
Announce during MS Build 2021, Sysinternals recieved a plethora of updates. Here is a quick video of Rick Claus and Mark Russinovich chatting about these updates:
Updated tools include Process Monitor v3.80, Sysmon v13.20, TCPView v4.10, Process Explorer v16.40, PSExec v2.34, Sigcheck v2.81 and WinObj v3.10. Further details surrounding the updates can be found here: Windows Sysinternals - What's New
App Service Managed Certificates now generally available
Now in general availability, App Service Managed Certificates can secure your custom domains on Linux and on Windows at no additional cost, covering both the apex domain and the sub-domain scenarios. This is a managed offering where you can just set-and-forget the certificate as the lifecycle and syncing of the certificate will be handled by App Service. This provides developers a zero-cost option to work on their dev, test, and production sites.
Further details can be found here: Add a TLS/SSL certificate in Azure App Service
Run App Service on Kubernetes or anywhere with Azure Arc
Azure App Service, now in public preview, can run against Kubernetes clusters in AKS or anywhere with Azure Arc. This preview enables the ability to run Web Apps against a range of fully managed App Service plans or choose to deploy against Azure Kubernetes Service or your own Kubernetes clusters connected through Azure Arc that are running on-premises, at the edge, or in other clouds.
App Service features like deployment slots, turn-key auth, CI/CD with GitHub Actions and domain management vastly simplify the development and management of web apps and are delivered with ARM consistency across hosting models. Customers can configure and enable any Kubernetes cluster and select those clusters as a deployment target when creating their Web App.
App Service on Kubernetes will be available for free during the preview in a limited set of regions, starting with US East and West Europe. To get started, Microsoft has provided a set of scenario-based accelerators available on GitHub, as well as step by step tutorials and Learn modules on the App Service documentation page.
Community Events
- 6 Steps to Modernizing Your Data Warehouse in the Cloud (June 8th) - Agenda includes resources on Architecture of a cloud data warehouse, Building modern hybrid ETL data pipelines, on-prem and cloud data and others
- Hello World - Special guests, content challenges, upcoming events, and daily update
MS Learn Module of the Week
Build a cloud governance strategy on Azure
Learn how access policies, resource locks, and tags, as well as Azure services such as Azure Policy and Azure Blueprints, can help you build a comprehensive cloud governance strategy.
Modules include:
- Make organizational decisions about your cloud environment by using the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure.
- Define who can access cloud resources by using Azure role-based access control.
- Apply a resource lock to prevent accidental deletion of your Azure resources.
- Apply tags to your Azure resources to help describe their purpose.
- Control and audit how your resources are created by using Azure Policy.
- Enable governance at scale across multiple Azure subscriptions by using Azure Blueprints
Learn more here: Build a cloud governance strategy on Azure
Let us know in the comments below if there are any news items you would like to see covered in the next show. Be sure to catch the next AzUpdate episode and join us in the live chat.