Compiling a checklist for creating an Azure Virtual Machine - source MS

Compiling a checklist for creating an Azure Virtual Machine

• Start with the network
• Name the VM
• Decide the location for the VM
• Determine the size of the VM
• Understanding the pricing model
• Storage for the VM
• Select an operating system

Azure reserves the first four addresses and the last address in each subnet for its use.

take an inventory:

• What does the server communicate with?
• Which ports are open?
• Which OS is used?
• How much disk space is in use?
• What kind of data does this use? Are there restrictions (legal or otherwise) with not having it on-premises?
• What sort of CPU, memory, and disk I/O load does the server have? Is there burst traffic to account for?

You can specify a name of up to 15 characters on a Windows VM and 64 characters on a Linux VM.

This name also defines a manageable Azure resource, and it's not trivial to change later.

 A good convention is to include the following information in the name:

Element	Example	Notes
Environment	dev, prod, QA	Identifies the environment for the resource
Location	uw (US West), ue (US East)	Identifies the region into which the resource is deployed
Instance	01, 02	For resources that have more than one named instance (web servers, etc.)
Product or Service	service	Identifies the product, application, or service that the resource supports
Role	sql, web, messaging	Identifies the role of the associated resource An Azure resource is a manageable item in Azure The VM itself Storage account for the disks Virtual network (shared with other VMs and services) Network interface to communicate on the network Network Security Group(s) to secure the network traffic Public Internet address (optional) If Azure creates the resource, it will use the VM name to generate a resource name - another reason to be very consistent with your VM names! Option Description General purpose General-purpose VMs are designed to have a balanced CPU-to-memory ratio. Ideal for testing and development, small to medium databases, and low to medium traffic web servers. Compute optimized Compute optimized VMs are designed to have a high CPU-to-memory ratio. Suitable for medium traffic web servers, network appliances, batch processes, and application servers. Memory optimized Memory optimized VMs are designed to have a high memory-to-CPU ratio. Great for relational database servers, medium to large caches, and in-memory analytics. Storage optimized Storage optimized VMs are designed to have high disk throughput and IO. Ideal for VMs running databases. GPU GPU VMs are specialized virtual machines targeted for heavy graphics rendering and video editing. These VMs are ideal options for model training and inferencing with deep learning. High performance computes High performance compute is the fastest and most powerful CPU virtual machines with optional high-throughput network interfaces. There are two separate costs the subscription will be charged for every VM: compute and storage. By separating these costs, you scale them independently and only pay for what you need. pay-as-you-go Reserved Virtual Machine Instances - pay in advance Virtual disks can be backed by either Standard or Premium Storage accounts When you create disks, unmanaged disks or managed disks Azure only supports 64-bit operating systems

Azure VMs: some guidelines based on the scenario you are targeting ... source MS

What are you doing?	Consider these sizes
General use computing / web Testing and development, small to medium databases, or low to medium traffic web servers.	B, Dsv3, Dv3, DSv2, Dv2
Heavy computational tasks Medium traffic web servers, network appliances, batch processes, and application servers.	Fsv2, Fs, F
Large memory usage Relational database servers, medium to large caches, and in-memory analytics.	Esv3, Ev3, M, GS, G, DSv2, Dv2
Data storage and processing Big Data, SQL, and NoSQL databases, which need high disk throughput and IO.	Ls
Heavy graphics rendering or video editing, as well as model training and inferencing (ND) with deep learning.	NV, NC, NCv2, NCv3, ND
High-performance computing (HPC) If you need the fastest and most powerful CPU virtual machines with optional high-throughput network interfaces.	H

storage options: traditional platter-based hard disk drive (HDD) or a more modern solid-state drive (SSD).  There are two levels of SSD storage available: standard and premium. Choose Standard SSD disks if you have normal workloads but want better performance. Choose Premium SSD disks if you have I/O intensive workloads or mission-critical systems that need to process data very quickly.

unmanaged or managed disks

With unmanaged disks, you are responsible for the storage accounts that are used to hold the VHDs that correspond to your VM disks. You pay the storage account rates for the amount of space you use.A single storage account has a fixed rate limit of 20,000 I/O operations/sec. This means that a single storage account is capable of supporting 40 standard virtual hard disks at full throttle. If you need to scale out, then you need more than one storage account, which can get complicated.

Managed disks are the newer and recommended disk storage model. They elegantly solve this complexity by putting the burden of managing the storage accounts onto Azure.

azure powershell - az replace AzureRM

You may have seen or used Azure PowerShell commands that used a -AzureRM format. In October 2018 we announced the replacement of the AzureRM module with the Az module. This new module has several features, notably a shortened cmdlet noun prefix of -Az instead of -AzureRM. The Az module ships with backwards compatibility with the AzureRM module so the -AzureRM cmdlet format will work, but you should transition to the Az module and use the -Az commands going forward.

- source Microsoft

lesson: clustering windows 2012 R2 and clustering windows server 2016

windows server 2012 R2 clustering mixed mode

the level is 8

windows server 2016 clustering level is 9

windows server 2012 R2 does not support second level vm, server 2016 does

windows server 2016 Credential Guard Remote Credential Guard Device Guard

windows server 2016 Credential Guard Remote Credential Guard Device Guard

Credential Guard

Remote Credential Guard

- source Microsoft 

Credential Guard helps prevent Pass-the-Hash attacks. Windows systems have long used credential derivatives like NTLM hash or Kerberos tickets so that raw passwords are never sent over the network; however, these credential derivatives are susceptible to credential theft attacks such as Pass-the-Hash or Pass-the-tickets. Credential Guard in Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 uses virtualization-based security to isolate secrets so that only privileged system software can access them, and prevents these credential theft attacks.

once enabled , it encrypts ntlm hash -- to combat mimikatz

Device Guard is  Code Integrity  to prevent un-authorized program from running

 Device Guard is a combination of enterprise-related hardware and software security features that, when configured together, will lock a device so that it can only run trusted applications.

What is cloud computing? public, private, or hybrid cloud

Cloud computing is the provisioning of services and applications on demand over the internet. Servers, applications, data, and other resources are provided as a service.

source - Microsoft

windows server 2019 new features --- it has built-in point-to-site vpn connection to azure

windows server 2019 new features --- it has built-in point-to-site vpn connection to azure

azure replication
azure backup
azure site recovery
azure file sync

here are the official ones

Windows Admin Center.

Storage Migration Services

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) and Windows Server Software-Defined Datacenter (WSSD)

System Insights, It’s a new predictive analytics feature in Windows Server 2019 which uses a machine-learning model – to locally analyze Windows Server system data, like the performance counters and events of your servers.  It will provide insight into the functioning of your servers and help you address issues in your environment proactively.

Linux on Windows Server 2019

Building Support for Kubernetes

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started-19/whats-new-19
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ITOps-Talk-Blog/My-top-5-Features-in-Windows-Server-2019/ba-p/299378

WI-FI 6, the BIGGEST update to Wi-Fi EVER! - 802.11ax

WI-FI 6, the BIGGEST update to Wi-Fi EVER! - 802.11ax

https://www.networkworld.com/article/3258807/what-is-802-11ax-wi-fi-and-what-will-it-mean-for-802-11ac.html

quote
802.11ax is designed specifically for high-density public environments, like trains, stadiums and airports

some O365 URL -- like https://teams.microsoft.com.

https://teams.microsoft.com.

https://admin.microsoft.com.

Gmail outage --- I could not open email pdf attachment yesterday

Gmail outage --- I could not open email pdf attachment yesterday

could not open pdf in new emails, then saw the news that gmail had an outage

Use tags to organize your Azure resources

Not all resource types support tags.

Tags are not inherited. You need to apply tags to every supported resource that you need tagged.

Windows 7 and Office 2010 End of Support : on January 14, 2020 and October 13, 2020

The end of support for Windows 7 and Office 2010 will be on January 14, 2020 and October 13, 2020 respectively.