This blog post will show you how to find all active “Azure classic subscription administrators” across any of your Azure Subscriptions using either the Azure Portal or an Azure PowerShell script. For those who may not be aware, Microsoft is set to retire the Cloud Services (classic) deployment model along with all classic administrators on 31 August 2024*. *You can find all the details about this announcement made by Microsoft here. Currently, there aren’t many companies still using the classic deployment model. However, if you happen to be one of them, you are also still using the classic s ..read more

In this blog post, I will delve into various methods of utilizing Azure Policy to ensure consistent governance across your hybrid and multi-cloud resources via Azure Arc. As you look outside, you’ll notice that spring has arrived once more! Continuing their tradition, Joe Carlyle and Thomas Thornton are leading Azure Spring Clean, a community-driven initiative promoting well-managed Azure tenants. You can check out all the other blog posts or videos that can guide you with best practices, lessons learned, or help you with some of the more difficult Azure Management topics at https://www.azure ..read more

This blog post will guide you through the process of combining two USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapters and utilizing them as an external virtual switch in Hyper-V. In a recent blog post, I discussed the installation and configuration process of Windows Server 2022 Hyper-V on an Intel NUC. In that post, I detailed a method for utilizing a USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter to expand networking capabilities. By using such an adapter, you can create an external virtual switch (vSwitch), which allows you to create a dedicated VM-LAN next to your HOST-LAN. This can be useful in scenarios where your ..read more

In this blog post, you’ll learn how install and configure Windows Server 2022 Hyper-V on an Intel NUC. Over the last few years, I’ve been using Intel NUCs, such as the Intel NUC11 11TNHv7 and the Intel NUC Skull Canyon, for my home labs to experiment with new Windows Server and Microsoft Hybrid cloud features, including various Azure Arc-related scenarios. As a public speaker, in some of my presentations, I talk about Azure Arc. Whenever I deliver such a session as a live demo, I mostly manage my home lab infrastructure, including my Windows or Linux VMs, all from the very location where I ..read more

The Festive Tech Calendar is a community initiative created by Gregor Suttie (Azure Greg), Richard Hooper (Pixel Robots), Keith Atherton, Simon Lee, Lisa Hoving, and Matt Boyd that brings together a diverse range of content throughout December. This includes video contributions, blog posts, live streams, and hands-on labs shared by community members worldwide. The focus is on the exchange of knowledge, fostering learning, and enhancing skillsets throughout the festive month of December 2023. This is truly by the communities, for the communities. Explore all the videos, blog posts, and other ..read more

This blog post guides you through resolving the “You do not have access to List secrets for this resource” error while connecting to an Azure VM via Azure Bastion and using a Secret (password or SSH Private Key) stored in a Key Vault that has a private endpoint. Azure Private Link Service allows you to connect to Azure Services (for example, Azure Key Vault and Azure Storage) as well as Azure-hosted customer and partner services through a Private Endpoint within your virtual network (VNet). On the other hand, Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that offers secure storage and access to secret ..read more

In this blog post, you’ll learn how to use an Azure PowerShell script to enable all Azure Bastion Standard SKU features with Azure PowerShell and with the REST API. Nowadays, Azure Bastion, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering that ensures a secure connection to your Azure virtual machines (VMs) through RDP or SSH directly from the Azure portal over SSL, is available in Basic, Standard, and Developer SKUs (Tiers). When using the Azure Bastion Standard SKU, you can choose to leverage the complete set of features Azure Bastion offers, including native client support, IP-based connection, and ..read more

This blog post will walk you through configuring and utilizing the Azure Bastion Developer SKU (Preview). On October 30, 2023, Microsoft announced the public preview of the Azure Bastion Developer SKU. As many know, Azure Bastion, previously available only with Basic and Standard SKUs, is an Azure PaaS service deployed within a virtual network (VNet), typically the HUB VNet. It offers a secure way to connect to your Azure virtual machines (VMs) through RDP or SSH directly from the Azure portal over SSL, eliminating the need for VMs to have a Public IP address (PIP), agent, or specialized clie ..read more

This blog post will guide you through the process of onboarding a Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 server into Azure Arc. Even though Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 has reached the end of its support lifecycle, companies can still benefit from onboarding their remaining servers still running on this OS, likely due to some kind of legacy application running on top of it, into Azure Arc. Bringing them into Azure Arc enables centralized management through a unified interface, streamlining governance and compliance on these servers with features like Change Tracking, Inventory and Tags. You can onboard the ..read more

In this blog post, you’ll learn how to use an Azure PowerShell script to provision an Extended Security License (ESU) through the Azure Arc WS2012 ESU ARM APIs. Currently, you can only provision and manage Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 ESU lifecycle operations programmatically using Azure Arc WS2012 ESU ARM APIs. This means that currently, an API command is necessary to provision a license. To simplify and automate this process, I have created the following Azure PowerShell script, which includes the following steps and configurations: Remove the breaking change warning mess ..read more