Ever wanted to get a list of all Azure Resources, Virtual Machines or Web Apps (Web Sites) that you have in Azure across both ASM (Classic) and ARM (Azure Resource Manager)? Now you can get a report fully automatically using a PowerShell script I whipped up. The script exports all information to .CSV files. The other good thing is that this script will gradually work its way through all Azure subscriptions that the account has access to. First thing you need to do is logon to Azure (at the top of the script), this part can be automatic if you are…
Azure News 2016 – Week 24
Previous News | Next News This weeks Azure updates & news. This time around I think the most popular item is the fact that Azure keeps evolving by offering a brand new family of virtual machines available globally, this time aimed at the lower end of the market with lower pricing. Don’t forget, Azure news can also be heard on the ‘Need to Know‘ podcast with Robert Crane and myself. Here is the audio only version of this news: Password length for Azure Virtual Machines Something that has snuck in quietly in the background when using the Azure Portal, they have changed…
Azure News 2016 – Week 22
Next News This weeks Azure updates & news. The biggest news is SQL Server 2016, it’s what Azure started out with. Don’t forget, Azure news can also be heard on the ‘Need to Know‘ podcast. Here is the audio only version of this news: Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Microsoft is touting SQL Server 2016 as one of its biggest product releases. “It’s a wrap” is what people are saying about the new SQL Server 2016, a few cool points: Stretch Database, a technology that aims to reduce storage costs while keeping large amounts of historical data available for querying in Azure JSON…
Azure Enterprise Enrollment – Hierarchy
I wanted to write this post to clear up any confusion about the process of managing an Azure EA, the Enrollment, Department, Account and Subscription. Look at the entire hierarchy and work down through the levels that is Microsoft Azure. The Enrollment Managed using http://ea.azure.com At the very top-level from a licensing perspective, you can have multiple Azure Enrollments, here you can select the enrollment you want to work with. You need to be an Enterprise Administrator to access this. There can be an unlimited number of Enterprise Administrators. The other thing you need to do is change the Enrollment…
Azure Site Recovery Demo – (ARM)
This is a demo I did with ARM (Azure Resource Manager) based Azure Site Recovery. Azure Site Recovery has been around for a while in the old area of Azure – ASM (Azure Service Management), or the ‘classic’ portal, which ever you want to call it. With Site Recovery, it has two uses, firstly it’s a DR/BC tool that allows for test and un-planned failovers of VM workloads. The other major selling point of Azure Site Recovery is it’s ability to migrate existing servers, any physical and any virtual servers to Azure. The best part is it’s completely FREE (up…
Azure Vs Azure AD – Accounts / Tenants / Subscriptions
This post aims to add some sense to the whole Azure account, subscription, tenant, directory layout as well as Azure AD (Azure Active Directory) across both ASM (Classic) and ARM. I will discuss the different administrator roles from an ASM (Azure Service Management) perspective and then take a look at the new changed/updated administrator roles with ARM (Azure Resource Manager). Access control in Azure starts from a billing perspective. The actual owner of an Azure account – accessed by visiting the Azure Accounts Center – is the Account Administrator (AA). Subscriptions are a container for billing, but they also act as a…
Use PowerShell to install Windows Updates
PowerShell for Windows updates? Why would you want to do this other than the fact that it’s a cool thing to do? Well it’s fairly easy to do and can be easilly automated. Firstly you will need version 5 of PowerShell which is apart of Windows 10. Since version 5 you can now download and install modules online from the PowerShell Gallery. First thing you need to do is confirm the version of PowerShell you have: If version 5 or above, confirm you are running PowerShell as administrator and continue with: Then you will need to register to use the…
Windows Server disk striping & disk performance in Azure – IOPS
A little while ago I had problems with a virtual machine and the disk performance in particular. On this occaision, this was for an Azure VM, however the following can be used on any Windows server physical or virtual server / public cloud or private cloud. I called Microsoft Support who helped me navigate through the popular disk performance tool Iometer, below are the screenshots which can be used as an example. Take note of the settings of the screenshots, it’s handy to use as a guide and a kick start if you are not familiar with Iometer. Disk Targets…
Azure Resource Manager – Multiple VMs behind a load balancer
This post is part 4 of a small series and stems from this post https://marckean.com/2016/05/17/azure-resource-groups-networks/ This post focuses on creating a two virtual machines into the Internal subnet of the target example architecture diagram below. These VMs will utilise inbound NAT rules from the load balancer. Remember, that the subnet based NSG rule/s will also be applied as the NICs of both machines will live on the Internal subnet which has an NSG attached to it. The PowerShell below, just simply edit / check the variables to suit before running it. This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted…
Azure Resource Manager – Single VM with an NSG
This post is part 3 of a small series and stems from this post https://marckean.com/2016/05/17/azure-resource-groups-networks/ This post focuses on creating a single virtual machine into the DMZ subnet of the target example architecture diagram below. This VM will have an NSG attached to its NIC. Remember, that the subnet based NSG rule/s will be applied first, so if there’s a match then the NIC based NSG will effectively be ignored. This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden…
Marc Kean 
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