DEV Community: Emmanuel Oluajo

MICROSOFT AZURE PRICING

Emmanuel Oluajo — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 06:59:37 +0000

There’s a lot of talk about how working in the cloud has made processes easier and most importantly, cheaper.
To make that a reality, we need to be aware of the factors that influence cost of resources used in implementing cloud solutions.

Several factors can affect the cost of using Azure services and here are some of the key factors I’ve come to know about:

Resource type, size and usage (& usage patterns)
Services and features—Enterprise, WebDirect and CSP customers have varying billing periods. Also, additional services and features, such as security, monitoring, and support, can increase the cost.
Location—price for resources varies between regions. For instance, colder regions spend less on cooling datacenters and therefore, can afford to charge less.
Bandwidth—some inbound data transfers and all outbound data transfers from datacenters are priced based on zones.
Reserved Instances—purchasing 1-3 year plans upfront for multiple products can reduce costs up to 72% compared to pay-as-you-go prices.
Azure Hybrid Use Benefits—customers with software assurance can use on-premises licenses on Azure at reduced cost with Azure Hybrid Benefit.
Subscription and billing options—The choice of subscription and billing options, such as monthly or annual payments, can affect the cost.

One thing people do not realise is that they’re probably not taking full advantage of the tools made available to them in this field of cloud computing.
After all, cloud computing—with Microsoft in particular—goes beyond the webpages of the Microsoft Azure portal.

Two of such tools as mentioned earlier are Azure Pricing Calculator and Total Cost of Ownership Calculator.

Before you jump to conclusion, these tools are not exactly substitutes of the other.
While Azure Pricing Calculator is a free web-based tool that helps you estimate your costs on Azure, Azure Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator is a tool that helps estimate the cost savings of migrating workloads to Azure.
We talked about their differences, but what do they have in common?—Price/Cost/Billing Calculators.
Whatever term you decide to use, you’re right as long as they’re synonyms to those words above.

AZURE PRICING CALCULATOR

You can access Azure Pricing Calculator on a browser through this link:

Pricing Calculator | Microsoft Azure

Configure and estimate the costs for Azure products and features for your specific scenarios.

azure.microsoft.com

On the “Products” page, click “Add to estimate” under any product or resource you would like to get an estimate for.

Scroll down that same page to specify the parameters for each resource you added to the estimate.

Notice the difference in the next few images with “Pay as you go”, “3 year savings plan” + “Azure Hybrid Benefit” options selected.

You can also change the currency unit at which the bill will be calculated by scrolling below and clicking on the dropdown blade where a list is available for you to select a suitable option.

The “Save” button saves this current estimate under a provided name on the website under your Microsoft account and you can always go back to find it in there.

Whereas, the “Export” button causes a download of an Excel file that gives a breakdown of your estimate and can be shared or sent to whoever needs to have access to it.

TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP CALCULATOR

As established earlier, Azure Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator is a tool that helps estimate the cost savings of migrating workloads to Azure. In other words, it helps make contrasts between running on-premise infrastructure for cloud services and migrating to the cloud.
You can access Azure TCO Calculator on a browser through this link:

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator | Microsoft Azure

The Azure Total Cost of Ownership(TCO) Calculator is used to estimate the cost savings you can achieve by migrating your application workloads to Microsoft Azure.

azure.microsoft.com

On the homepage, you need to specify the current server, database, storage and networking infrastructure that you have on-premises.

Click on the “Next” button at the bottom of the page.

This takes you to a webpage showing Software Assurance Coverage and some others like Licensing programs, that you can specify based on the configuration of your infrastructure.

Clicking the “Next” button initiates the report generation.

Wait for a few moments and the report will be provided which you can view and filter based on Timeframe, Region and Licensing program.

The report is a numerical and graphical representation of the comparison of on-premise cost and migration costs as can be seen below.

The “Save” button saves this current report under a provided name on the website under your Microsoft account and you can always go back to find it in there.
The “Download” button initiates the download of a PDF file of the report.

The “Share” button produces a link that can be copied and shared to anyone so they can view the report on a browser.

MANAGING RESOURCE LOCKS IN MICROSOFT AZURE

Emmanuel Oluajo — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 02:53:49 +0000

Resource locks are used to protect Azure subscriptions, resource groups or resources from accidental deletions and modifications. Thus, they can be managed at subscription, resource group or resource levels.
There are two types of resource locks:

Delete: Users can read and modify/update a resource, but they can't delete it.
Read-only: Users can read a resource, but they can't delete or update it.

Locks can be set up via the Azure portal, template, Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI but in this tutorial, we will be using Azure portal.

PREREQUISITE

Working computer
Internet connection
Microsoft Azure account + active subscription

PROCEDURE

CREATE A RESOURCE GROUP

Navigate your way on the Azure portal and create a resource group by providing a resource group name and choosing a suitable region.
Click on “Review + create” button.

Click on the “Create” button after passing validation.

CREATE A READ-ONLY LOCK

After successfully creating the resource group, click on “Go to resource group”

On the resource group page, navigate to the side menu and click on the “Settings” blade. Then click on “Locks”.

On the Lock page, click “Add”. In the pop-up menu, input a lock name and select the “Read-only” lock type.

TEST THE LOCK

We’re going to test this lock by deploying a resource in the resource group.

Hint: We expect it to be unsuccessful.

DEPLOY A RESOURCE

To make this quick and easy, deploy a storage account in the resource group we created earlier.

Click on “Review + create” button.

The “Validation failed” and error message pop-ups indicate that the Read-only lock we added to our resource group is functioning properly.

CREATE A DELETE LOCK

Navigate to the lock page of the resource group.
Click on “Edit”. In the pop-up menu, select the “Delete” lock type.

TEST THE LOCK

To test this lock, we will be deploying a resource in the resource group and try deleting it later on.

Hint: We expect a successful deployment but for the deletion to be unsuccessful.

DEPLOY A RESOURCE

Deploy a storage account in the resource group we created earlier.
Click on “Review + create” button.

Click on the “Create” button after successful validation.

DELETE DEPLOYED RESOURCE

After successful deployment of the storage account, click on “Go to resource”.

On the storage account webpage, click on “Delete”.

On the menu that pops up, we get a notification as shown.

This implies a successful implementation of a Delete lock.

Navigate to the lock page of the resource group and delete the lock.

Another attempt to delete the deployed resource or resource group should be successful.

SECURING NETWORK TRAFFIC USING NETWORK SECURITY GROUP

Emmanuel Oluajo — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 23:40:10 +0000

In Azure, Network Security Groups (NSGs) are used to filter and manage network traffic entering and leaving virtual networks.
Configuring NSGs enables you to:

Based on source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols, permit or prohibit traffic.
Secure access to applications and resources on Azure
Identify security rules and priorities
Prevent malicious traffic and unauthorised access
Connect NSGs to Azure resources, NICs, or subnets.

This article will serve as a guide to deploying, setting up and running simple operations on NSGs in Azure.

PREREQUISITE

Working computer
Internet connection
Microsoft Azure account + active subscription

PROCEDURE

DEPLOY A VIRTUAL MACHINE

Using whatever method, deploy a virtual machine and open it.

CREATE A NETWORK SECURITY GROUP

On the side menu, click on “Networking” and then “Network settings”.

Click on the “Add network security group” button.

A NSG will be created in a matter or moments.

CREATE INBOUND SECURITY PORT RULE

Click on “Create port rule” and then, “Inbound port rule”.

On the pop-up menu, select “RDP” in the dropdown list for “Service”.

Under “Action”, tick “Allow” to allow inbound RDP access to the VM. Click on “Add” button.

The new inbound port rule can be seen as shown.

CREATE OUTBOUND SECURITY PORT RULE

Click on “Create port rule” and then, “Outbound port rule”.

On the pop-up menu, select “HTTP” in the dropdown list for “Service”.

Under “Action”, tick “Deny” to deny outbound internet access to the VM. Click on “Add” button.

The new outbound port rule can be seen as shown.

CREATING MULTIPLE VIRTUAL MACHINES ON A SINGLE VIRTUAL NETWORK

Emmanuel Oluajo — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 23:29:38 +0000

In this tutorial, we’re going to deploy two virtual machines on a single virtual network and configure them to allow one virtual machine to ping the other within the network—we will be testing to confirm their connection.

PREREQUISITE

Working computer
Internet connection
Microsoft Azure account + active subscription

PROCEDURE

CREATE A VIRTUAL NETWORK

Open the Azure portal and type “Virtual network” in the search bar at the top. Click on “Virtual networks” under services as seen in the image below.

On the Virtual networks service webpage that loads, click on the “Create” or “Create virtual network” button as you deem fit.

You will be directed to the “Basics” page.
The first part of the “Basics” page is the “Project details” section where you are asked to select the subscription and resource group under which you want to create the virtual network.
Create a new resource group by clicking on “Create new” and entering a suitable name for the new resource group.
The next section is “Instance details” where you can input a virtual network name of choice and select a region.
Afterwards, click on “IP addresses”.

On that page, click on “Delete address space” to delete the current IPv4 address space.

Click on the “Add IPv4 address space” button.

Change the new address space to 10.1.0.0/16.
Click on “Add a subnet”

Leave everything as default and click on the “Add” button.
Click “Review + create”.

When a notification depicting Validation passed is displayed, click on the “Create” button to deploy the virtual network.

CREATE VIRTUAL MACHINES

After the deployment is complete, click on the “Go to resource” button.

Click on the menu and select “Virtual machines”.

Click on the “Create” button and then click on “Azure virtual machine” on the pop-up menu.

You will be directed to the “Basics” page.
The first part of the “Basics” page is the “Project details” section.
Select your subscription and the resource group created earlier.
The next section is “Instance details” where you are to input a VM name of choice.

Under “Image”, select “Windows Server 2019 Datacenter - ×64 Gen2”.

Scrolling down, we get to “Administrator account” section where you are required to provide a username and password.
This will be used to log in to the account so, keep a record or use a password you won’t forget.
At the “Inbound port rules” section, select “Allow selected ports” under “Public inbound ports” and select “RDP (3389)” from the drop-down list provided when you click on the box for “Select inbound ports”.

Since this is just a trial, we would be leaving most of the settings as default and skip to only those that need to be attended to personally.

Scroll back to the top and click on “Networking”.
Make sure that the VM is placed on the previously created vNet and subnet.
Click on “Review + create.

After successful validation, click on the “Create” button. There will be a pop-up at the top right showing the status of the deployment.

You will be directed to a “CreateVm” page which goes through several phases that you might need to be patient for.

After successful deployment, repeat the process to create a second VM with a different name and public IP address.

TEST CONNECTION

Open the first VM.
On the resource page, click on “Connect”.

Click on the “Download RDP file”.

Load the downloaded file and click on “Connect” on the window that pops up.

Input your username and password in the next window and affirm.

You should have a Windows VM running on your computer right about now.

Click on the start menu and type “Firewall” in the search bar.
Open “Windows Defender Firewall”.

Click on “Turn Windows Defender Firewall on or off”.

Turn off Windows Defender Firewall under both private and public network settings.
Click “OK”.

Repeat these steps for the second VM.

Head back to the first VM.
Click on the start menu and type “PowerShell” in the search bar.
Open “Windows PowerShell”.

Type in a command in this format:
ping nameofsecondvm. That is, “ping vMdemo2” in this case.

As can be seen, the second VM was successfully pinged from the first VM indicating a connection between them.

IMPLEMENTING AZURE KEY VAULT

Emmanuel Oluajo — Sat, 06 Jul 2024 01:36:22 +0000

Azure Key Vault (AKV) is a cloud-based security service that provides secure storage, management, and deployment of sensitive data, such as:

Encryption and Cryptographic keys
Certificates (SSL/TLS, Azure, etc.)
Secrets (passwords, credentials, etc.)

AKV offers:

Secure storage in a Hardware Security Module (HSM)
Centralised management and organisation
Access control and authentication
Encryption and decryption services
Key rotation and revocation
Auditing and logging
Integration with Azure services and applications

In this tutorial, I will be demonstrating how to access Azure Key Vault and utilising one of its capabilities to add a secret to the vault.

PREREQUISITE

Working computer
Internet connection
Microsoft Azure account + active subscription

PROCEDURE

LOCATE THE AZURE KEY VAULT SERVICE

Open the Azure portal and type “Key Vault” in the search bar at the top. Click on “Key vaults” under services as seen in the image below.

CREATE AN AZURE KEY VAULT

On the Key Vault service webpage that loads, click on the “Create” or “Create key vault” button as you deem fit.

You will be directed to the “Basics” page.

The first part of the “Basics” page is the “Project details” section where you are asked to select the subscription and resource group under which you want to create the key Vault.
PS: In case you want a new resource group, creating a resource group just requires you to provide a name in the input box provided after clicking on “Create new” beneath the “Resource group” input box.
The next section is “Instance details” where you can input a Key Vault name of choice, select a region and pricing tier as required.
Afterwards, click on the “Review + create” button.

A page as shown should appear showing the specifications selected and the details of the key vault.
Click on the “Create” button.

There will be a pop-up at the top right showing the status of the deployment.

You will be directed to a key vault deployment page which goes through several phases that you might need to be patient for.

When deployment has been completed, click on “Go to resource”.

The key vault resource page loads.

ADD ROLE ASSIGNMENTS

On the resource page, click on “Access control (IAM)” on the side menu.

On the page that loads, click on “Add” then, “Add role assignment”

The “Role” page loads. Click on a suitable role (in this case, Key Vault Administrator) and then, click on the “Next” button.

On “Members” page, click on “Select members”.

On the pop-up window, select member by clicking on the user and then the “Select” button.

Click on “Review + assign” button.
There will be a pop-up at the top right showing the progress.

CREATE SECRET

Once it is added, navigate to the menu and click on “Objects”, then “Secrets”.

On the “Secrets” page, click on “Generate/Import”.

On the page that loads, input secret name and value (password), set activation and expiry dates. Click on “Create”.

You should have a newly created secret in your azure key vault right about now.

CREATING AN IOT HUB IN AZURE PORTAL

Emmanuel Oluajo — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 16:48:30 +0000

The aim of this walkthrough is to create an IoT hub in Azure portal and configure the hub to authenticate a connection to an IoT device using the Raspberry Pi device simulator.

PREREQUISITE

Working computer
Internet connection
Microsoft Azure account + active subscription

PROCEDURE

LOCATE THE IOT HUB SERVICE

Open the Azure portal and type “IoT” in the search bar at the top. Click on “IoT Hub” under services as seen in the image below.

CREATE AN IOT HUB

On the IoT Hub service webpage that loads, click on the “Create” or “Create IoT hub” button as you deem fit.

You will be directed to the “Basics” page.

The first part of the “Basics” page is the “Project details” section where you are asked to select the subscription and resource group under which you want to create the IoT hub.
PS: In case you want a new resource group, creating a resource group just requires you to provide a name in the input box provided after clicking on “Create new” beneath the “Resource group” input box.
The next section is “Instance details” where you can input an IoT hub name of choice, select a region, tier and daily message limit as required.
Afterwards, click on the “Review + create” button.

A page as shown should appear showing the pricing for the IoT hub specifications selected and the details of the hub.
Click on the “Create” button.

There will be a pop-up at the top right showing the status of the deployment.

You will be directed to an IoT hub deployment page which goes through several phases that you might need to be patient for.

When deployment has been completed, click on “Go to resource”.

The IoT hub resource page loads.

Scroll down to the “Usage” section and take note of “IoT Hub Usage”, which contains messages used and IoT devices—they should have values of 0 at the moment.

ADD IOT DEVICE

On the side menu bar, click on “Device management” and then, “Devices”.

On the Devices webpage that loads, click on “Add Device”.

“Create a device” webpage loads, where a “Device ID” can be inputted. Then, click on the “Save” button.

When that is completed, a notification is sent and the newly created device is listed on the “Devices” webpage.

TEST THE IOT DEVICE

Open the new device and copy the “Primary connection string”—as it will be used to link the device to Raspberry Pi device simulator.

Access the Raspberry Pi device simulator on another webpage using this link: https://azure-samples.github.io/raspberry-pi-web-simulator/
Take note of the unblinking LED which symbolises that a connection to a device has not been established.

In the sample code, locate the line that reads “const connectionString = ‘[Your IoT hub device connection string]’” (line 15).
Replace the quoted section with the primary connection string that was copied earlier and run the code.

The terminal should have alternating lines of “Sending message” and “Message sent to Azure IoT Hub”.
Also, take note of the blinking diode to depict device connection.

Heading back to “IoT Hub Usage” on the Azure portal should give new details showing the number of connected IoT devices and a message count that should coincide with the “messageID” in the simulator terminal.

That’s all folks!

CREATING A VIRTUAL MACHINE USING AZURE CLI

Emmanuel Oluajo — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 16:23:25 +0000

We already established that there are several routes that can be taken to achieve the deployment of resources and services on Azure.
For today, I will be using the Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to create a virtual machine on Azure.

PREREQUISITE

Working computer
Internet connection
Microsoft Azure account + active subscription
PowerShell application

PROCEDURE

INSTALL AZURE CLI

Regardless of which OS runs on your computer, click on this link (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/) to get guidelines on how to set up Azure CLI on your computer.

CONNECT TO AZURE ACCOUNT

To achieve this, type in this command az login in the command line interface.
You either have a sign-in webpage or a sign-in pop-up window appearing on your screen after entering that command.
Select the Azure account you want to log in with and click on “Continue” as shown below.

A list of available subscriptions you have and their respective IDs will be generated.

Select the one you require following the onscreen instruction.

CREATE A RESOURCE GROUP

Create a resource group by entering a command in the interface following the format below:
az group create --name **resourcegroupname** --location **regionname**
NB: The asterisked sections are to be customised to suit your requirements.
A message informing users of the success will be displayed on the following lines.

The newly created resource group can also be located on the Azure portal for further verification.

CREATE A VIRTUAL MACHINE

In a manner similar to how a resource group was created, a virtual machine can also be created but in this case, providing more specifications as we would on the Azure portal when creating a VM.
Enter a command in the CLI following the format below:
az vm create --resource-group **resourcegroupname** --name **vmname** --image operatingsystemname --admin-username username --admin-password '**password0!**' --size **vmsize** --subnet **subnetname** --vnet-name **vnetname** --nsg **nsgname** --no-wait
NB: The asterisked sections are to be customised to suit your requirements.

The created VM can be located on the Azure portal for further verification.
Open the VM resource on the portal.

On the VM page, click on “Settings” and then, “Advisor recommendations” to see if the VM and other resources are not running at optimal states.

CREATING A VIRTUAL MACHINE ON AZURE USING POWERSHELL

Emmanuel Oluajo — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 16:05:30 +0000

There are several routes that can be taken to achieve the deployment of resources and services on Azure. Whether it be through clicking and selecting resources directly on Azure portal or using scripting tools like PowerShell, Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.
For today, I will be using the PowerShell application to create a virtual machine on Azure.

PREREQUISITE

Working computer
Internet connection
Microsoft Azure account + active subscription
PowerShell application

PROCEDURE

INSTALL AZURE POWERSHELL MODULE

Regardless of which OS runs on your computer, click on this link (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/azure/?view=azps-12.0.0) to get guidelines on how to install or update the latest Azure PowerShell module.

CONNECT THE POWERSHELL MODULE TO AZURE

To achieve this, type in this command Connect-AzAccount in the PowerShell interface.
You either have a sign-in webpage or a sign-in pop-up window appearing on your screen after entering that command.
Select the Azure account you want to log in with and click on “Continue” as shown below.

A list of subscriptions you have available will be generated. Select the one you require and we will be on our way.

CREATE A RESOURCE GROUP

A virtual machine is a resource hence, it needs a resource group to house it.
Create a resource group by entering a command in PowerShell following the format below:
New-AzResourceGroup -Name "ResourceGroupName" -Location "Region Name"
NB: The quoted words are to be customised to suit your requirements.
A message informing users of the success will be displayed on the following line.

The newly created resource group can also be located on the Azure portal for further verification.

CREATE A VIRTUAL MACHINE

In a manner similar to how a resource group was created, a virtual machine can also be created but in this case, providing more specifications as we would on the Azure portal when creating a VM.
Enter a command in PowerShell following the format below:
New-AzVm -ResourceGroupName "ResourceGroupName" -Name "VMName" -Location "Region Name" -VirtualNetworkName "VNetName" -SubnetName "SubnetName" -SecurityGroupName "NSGName" -PublicIpAddressName "PublicIPName" -OpenPorts 80,3389 -Size "VMSize" -Credential (New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ("username", (ConvertTo-SecureString "password0!" -AsPlainText -Force))) -Image "OperatingSystemName"
NB: The quoted words are to be customised to suit your requirements.
A message of this format will appear: Creating Azure resources [4% ]

When completed, a list will be generated containing the resource group name, VM name and ID, location, provisioning state, time created and many more.

As done earlier, the VM can be located on the Azure portal for further verification.
Open the VM resource on the portal.

On the VM page, click on “Settings” and then, “Advisor recommendations” to see if any part of the VM and other resources isn’t optimal.

CREATING A VIRTUAL MACHINE USING AZURE QUICKSTART TEMPLATE

Emmanuel Oluajo — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 19:28:56 +0000

Azure QuickStart templates serve as a foundation for installing particular solutions or applications on Azure. They are pre-configured Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates. These templates offer a pre-defined configuration that can be quickly customised to match unique needs, saving time and making the deployment process simpler.

QuickStart templates can be used for web applications, databases, virtual machines, networking configurations, IoT and more solutions in Microsoft Azure.
For today, we will be using a QuickStart template to create a Windows VM.

PREREQUISITE

Working computer
Internet connection
Microsoft Azure account + active subscription

PROCEDURE

LOCATE THE CUSTOM DEPLOYMENT SERVICE

Open the Azure portal and type “QuickStart template” in the search bar at the top. Click on “Deploy a custom template” as seen in the image below.

SPECIFYING VM BASIC DETAILS

On the Custom deployment webpage that loads, select a template as shown in the image below.

Enter basic VM details like resource group, region, admin username and password in the “Basic” section. Leave all other parameters as default. Move to the “Review + create” section by clicking on the button that says “Review + create”.

Wait for final validation. After successful validation, scroll downwards and click on the “Create” button. There will be a pop-up at the top right showing the status of the deployment.

You will be directed to a “Microsoft.Template” page which goes through several phases that you might need to be patient for.

Click on “Go to resource group”.

CONNECT TO THE VM RESOURCE

On the resource group page, you can view the list of deployed resources in your resource group.
Search for the virtual machine resource in the list and click on it to view.

On the VM resource page, click on “Connect”.

After the Connect page loads, click on “Select”. You should notice a pop-up on the right hand side of the screen.

Wait for the box beneath “Public IP address XXX.XX.XXX.XXX” to transition from “Validating” to “Configured”. Then download the RDP file-this will be used to load the Windows VM.

Load the downloaded file and click on “Connect” on the window that pops up.

Input your password in the next window and affirm on the next couple of windows.

At this point, a VM should be running on your computer.

We will be going further by installing a Web server role on this VM using PowerShell.
In the VM, click on the Start Menu icon and search for “Windows PowerShell”.

Input this command Install-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server -IncludeManagementTools in the PowerShell environment. You should get results as shown in the image below.

To test this, head back to the “Connect” page of the VM on Azure portal and copy the “Public IP address” as it will come in handy soon.

Navigate to the network settings of the VM as shown.

On the loaded page, create an inbound port rule using a destination port range of “80” (as we will be trying to connect to a HTTP protocol). Click on “Add”.

Open a blank browser window and input the “Public IP address” that was copied earlier. Then, search.

You should have a Windows Server IIS page loaded as shown below.

Quick and easy, isn't it??

CREATING A WINDOWS 11 VIRTUAL MACHINE ON MICROSOFT AZURE PORTAL

Emmanuel Oluajo — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 16:46:30 +0000

Virtual machines offer flexibility and isolation, making them a great tool for various use cases.

This time, we will be deploying a Windows-based VM—precisely, Windows 11.

With this Windows 11 VM, users can:

run Windows operating systems on a non-Windows host computer (e.g., macOS, Linux) and access Windows-exclusive features or tools for work or personal projects.
run legacy Windows applications or games that aren't compatible with older OS versions.
test Windows software or applications without affecting your main machine.

PREREQUISITE

Working computer
Internet connection
Microsoft Azure account + subscription

PROCEDURE

SIGN IN

After signing in to Azure, you’re presented with a dashboard that looks somewhat like this.

LOCATE THE VIRTUAL MACHINE SERVICE

There are several ways to access the Virtual machine service.

Locate it under recent Azure services as displayed on the dashboard.

Click on the menu icon (3 dashes at the top left corner). A pop-up window appears and locate Virtual machines under the “Favorites” tab or the “All services” tab.

Search directly for the resource you would like to locate in the search bar at the top of the screen.

Whatever route chosen leads to the same destination that looks like this.

Click on the “Create” button and then click on “Azure virtual machine” on the pop-up menu.
You will be directed to the “Basics” page.

SPECIFYING VM DETAILS AND REQUIREMENTS

The first part of the “Basics” page is the “Project details” section where you are asked to select the subscription and resource group under which you want to create the VM. Don’t forget the straightforward parent-child hierarchy in Azure—Resources are stored in Resource Groups, which are then stored under Subscriptions.

PS: In case you haven’t created one previously, creating a resource group just requires you to provide a name in the input box provided after clicking on “Create new” beneath the “Resource group” input box as shown.

The next section is “Instance details” where you can input a VM name of choice, select a region and availability zones as required.

Under “Images”, we get to specify the particular operating system that we want to use for our VM from the provided list. For this, we need a Windows 11 VM. Therefore, select “Windows 11 Pro, version 22H2 - ×64”.

Select the size of your virtual machine from the drop-down list or click on "See all sizes" to see other specifications that may suit your requirements.

At the “Inbound port rules” section, select “RDP (3389)” from the drop-down list provided when you click on the box for “Select inbound ports”.
Further down, tick the check box under “Licensing”.

Since this is just a trial, we would be leaving most of the settings as default and skip to only those that need to be attended to personally.
Scroll back to the top and click on “Monitoring”.

The webpage below loads.

Disable boot diagnostics.
Next, click on Tags.
Tags provide metadata or additional information that helps in managing, organizing, and tracking resources within a cloud infrastructure.
Decide tag descriptions and values as shown.
When you’re satisfied, click on the “Review + create” button.

If you get a ribbon depicting validation failure, don’t panic yet. Find the section that has the issue as notified. In this case, “Basics”. Find the error and correct it following the prompts.

Afterwards, click on the “Review + create” button again. A page as shown should appear showing the pricing for the VM size selected and the details of the VM.

Click on the “Create” button. There will be a pop-up at the top right showing the status of the deployment.

You will be directed to a “CreateVm” page which goes through several phases that you might need to be patient for.

Click on “Go to resource”.

CONNECT TO THE VM RESOURCE

On the resource page, click on “Connect”.

After the Connect page loads, click on “Select” as shown.

You should notice a pop-up on the right hand side of the screen.

Wait for the box beneath “Public IP address XXX.XX.XXX.XXX” to transition from “Validating” to “Configured”. Then download the RDP file-this will be used to load the Windows VM.

Load the downloaded file and click on “Connect” on the window that pops up.

Input your username and password in the next window and affirm.

Voilà! You should have a Windows 11 VM running on your computer right about now.

Now, you are connected to your Windows 11 Pro regardless of which OS currently runs on your computer.

SIMILAR TERMS USED IN CLOUD COMPUTING

Emmanuel Oluajo — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 08:58:47 +0000

Hello there. Time for a quick break.

Over the past weeks I realised I have been using certain terms in the wrong contexts and decided to make a post about this in case there are others in the same shoes.

PROVISIONING VS DEPLOYMENT

PROVISIONING

process of setting up and configuring the necessary infrastructure and resources for a solution or application.
includes creating virtual machines, storage accounts, databases, and other resources.
involves installing and configuring software, services, and agents on the provisioned resources.

DEPLOYMENT

process of releasing and making a solution or application available for use.
involves installing and configuring the solution or application on the provisioned resources.
includes configuring networking, security, and other settings to make the solution or application accessible and usable.

In summary, provisioning is the process of setting up the necessary resources and infrastructure, while deployment is the process of releasing and making the solution or application available on those resources.

DATABASE VS STORAGE

Data structure: Storage focuses on unstructured data, while databases manage structured data.
Data retrieval: Storage provides direct access to data, while databases enable querying and filtering.
Data consistency: Databases enforce data consistency and transactions, while storage focuses on data durability.
Scalability: Both storage and databases can scale, but databases require more complex scaling strategies.

AUTOMATION VS ORCHESTRATION

Automation refers to the use of software or tools to execute repetitive tasks or processes without human intervention. It focuses on automating individual tasks or workflows.
Orchestration, on the other hand, refers to the coordination and management of multiple automated tasks or workflows across different systems, services, or applications. It focuses on managing the entire lifecycle of complex processes, ensuring that multiple tasks are executed in the correct order, and handling dependencies, errors, and rollbacks.

In other words, automation is about executing a specific task, while orchestration is about managing the entire process, including multiple tasks, dependencies, and workflows while automation is a key aspect of orchestration, orchestration is a broader concept that encompasses automation, coordination, and management of complex processes and workflows.

Now our more experienced colleagues can’t tell that we’re near-noobs, right¿

MICROSOFT AZURE CORE SERVICES

Emmanuel Oluajo — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:38:27 +0000

Azure Core Services are the primary offerings of Microsoft Azure.

Services refer to individual offerings or capabilities provided by CSPs.
Solutions are integrated packages that bring together multiple services to solve a specific need.

COMPUTE

Azure Compute is a cloud computing service that offers a range of services and features to support various computing needs, from virtual machines to serverless and containerized applications, enabling users to build, deploy, and manage applications and workloads in the cloud.
With Azure Compute, users can:

run applications and workloads in the cloud—provides a range of options for running applications and workloads, including:
- Virtual Machines (VMs)
- Container Instances
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Azure Functions
- Azure Virtual Desktop
- Azure App Services
- Azure Batch
- Azure Automanage
- Azure CycleCloud
migrate on-premises workloads to the cloud.
develop and deploy cloud-native applications.
take advantage of serverless and containerized computing.
optimise costs and performance.

NETWORKING

Azure Networking Services provide secure, scalable, and high-performance networking capabilities to support a wide range of applications and services. Some of the key services include:

Virtual Network (VNet): allows users to create a virtual network in Azure, providing a secure and isolated environment for user resources to communicate with each other, the internet and on-premises network.
Subnets
Network Security Groups (NSGs): filter incoming and outgoing network traffic based on rules.
Load Balancer: distributes incoming traffic across multiple resources to improve responsiveness and availability.
Application Gateway: a web application firewall and load balancer for web applications.
Azure DNS: A cloud-based Domain Name System (DNS) service.

DNS is a critical infrastructure of the internet that enables us to access websites and other online resources using easy-to-remember domain names instead of difficult-to-remember IP addresses.

Azure Firewall: a managed, cloud-based network security service.
ExpressRoute: extends on-premise networks into Azure over a private connection that is facilitated by a connectivity provider.
Virtual Private Network (VPN) Gateway: used to send encrypted traffic between an Azure VNet and on-premises infrastructure over the public internet.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Azure Bastion: provide secure, RDP/SSH access to VMs without public IP addresses.
- RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and SSH (Secure Shell) are two popular protocols used for remote access and management of computers and servers.
- RDP provides a graphical interface (GI), can provide fast performance especially over local networks and is relatively easy to set up and use, especially for Windows users, while SSH provides a command-line interface (CLI) and is considered more secure than RDP due to its encryption and flexible authentication mechanisms (including password, key-based, and multi-factor authentication).
- RDP is native to Windows and is widely used for remote access to Windows machines for administrative tasks or user support and remote desktop connections for employees or contractors, while SSH is available on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux and is ideal for secure, command-line access to multiple platforms or servers, especially for administrative and development tasks and secure file transfer and management between systems.
Azure Private Link: access Azure services without exposing them to the public internet.

These services enable users to:

create a secure and isolated environment for your resources.
filter and control network traffic.
improve application performance and availability.
establish secure connections between Azure and on-premises infrastructure.
deliver content efficiently across multiple locations.
access resources securely without public IP addresses.

STORAGE

Azure Storage Services is a cloud-based storage solution offered by Microsoft Azure, providing secure, durable, and scalable storage for various data types, making it a versatile and reliable option for various use cases. The services include:

Blob Storage: for storing unstructured data like images, videos, audio files, documents, texts and binary.
File Storage: for storing and sharing files in a hierarchical structure, like a file system.
Queue Storage: for passing messages between applications and services.
Disk Storage: for attaching data disks to VMs and other applications.

Azure has 4 (blob) storage access tiers which users can switch between at any time:

Hot tier: an online tier optimized for storing data that is accessed or modified frequently. The hot tier has the highest storage costs, but the lowest access costs.
Cool tier: an online tier optimized for storing data that is less frequently accessed or modified. Data in the cool tier should be stored for a minimum of 30 days. The cool tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the hot tier.
Cold tier: an online tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed or modified, but still requires fast retrieval. Data in the cold tier should be stored for a minimum of 90 days. The cold tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the cool tier.
Archive tier: an offline tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed, and that has flexible latency requirements, on the order of hours. Data in the archive tier should be stored for a minimum of 180 days.

DATABASE

Azure Database Services offer a range of fully managed database solutions, allowing you to focus on application development without worrying about database management. The services include:

Azure SQL Database
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Azure Database for MySQL
Azure Database for MariaDB
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly Azure SQL Data Warehouse)

The benefits of Azure Database Services include:

reduced administrative burden as Azure handles database management tasks.
increased scalability and performance.
built-in security features and compliance certifications.
cost-effectiveness as users pay only for the resources used.

Azure Database Services are applied in several use cases such as:

As backend for web and mobile application development.
Azure Synapse Analytics for data warehousing and analytics.
Migrating existing databases to Azure for improved scalability and performance.

AZURE MARKETPLACE

Azure Marketplace is an online store that allows users find, try, purchase and provision solutions, applications and services that are built on or built for Azure by other leading service providers and are all certified to run on Azure.