Every so often I set out to create new resources in my Azure subscription using the command line tools (PowerShell or CLI) just to keep up to date on the changes and improvements in the different methods. While the Azure portal is a great GUI for creating virtual machines, it definitely leaves something to be desired from a customization standpoint. I’m fairly OCD about my environment and...
July 9, 2019
Create New Azure VM with PowerShell
09July
June 5, 2018
Bring Your Own Key to Azure SQL Database TDE New UI
05June
In a recent post I wrote about a new functionality for Azure SQL Database’s TDE feature: Bring Your Own Key. At the time the only way to bring your own key was through PowerShell and T-SQL. Thankfully, that has changed. A recent update added a UI for managing your TDE keys using Azure Key Vault. Check out the quick, easy details below on setup and configuration. Before you start...
May 29, 2018
Azure PowerShell – List Virtual Machine Sizes
29May
For those who use PowerShell to do things in Azure you will know that occasionally there is a parameter that you need to get right but are unsure of the exact value that should be there. In the Azure Portal it’s easy, you pick from a drop down menu where the required, pre-defined, values are and enter into the text box where it’s a free form value. Last week I wrote about using...
May 22, 2018
Azure PowerShell – List Data Center Locations
22May
Occasionally I will come across the need to use PowerShell for my day to day activities. One such need came up this week when I was preparing to do training with a customer. Part of that meant creating 6 data science VMs. So we updated the software on a VM and went to clone it, ran into some issues and then decided to break out the PowerShell to fix the issue. For those who use PowerShell to do...
May 22, 2018
Bring Your Own Key to Azure SQL Database TDE
I have previously written about using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with Azure Key Vaule as a great way to store and manage encryption keys for SQL Server. With Azure SQL Database there has long been an option to enable TDE with just the click of a button. A lot of users I talk to say that is great, but they need to be able to manage the keys themselves. That could be for a variety of...
May 16, 2018
Webinar Followup: Overview of Azure Data Factory V2
16May
About 3 weeks ago I presented a free webinar for Pragmatic Works where I talked about Azure Data Factory V2. You can watch the recording here if you missed it. In this follow-up I answer all the important questions that were posted to the Q&A pannel, like those related to the return of fun facts. If you have been tuning in for Pragmatic Works webinars for a long time you will remember fun...
April 25, 2018
State of the Cloud Database: April 2018
25April
It’s an exciting time to be a database professional. The technology is advancing quickly, large datasets are easier to handle than ever before, and the cloud is opening up new functionality and use cases that we couldn’t tackle before. My fellow database professionals, I tell you today that the state of the cloud database is strong! Today we explore three of the platform as a service...
April 12, 2018
New Azure SQL Database Pricing Model
12April
Azure SQL Database has some great built-in features that are included in the price like automatic backups, high availability, auditing and threat detection, transparent data encryption. No matter how excited people are when I talk to them about Azure SQL DB there is one topic that causes confusion. Every. Single. Time. That topic is sizing. “What the heck is that DTU thing and how many of...
April 12, 2018
New Azure SQL Database Pricing Model
Azure SQL Database has some great built-in features that are included in the price like automatic backups, high availability, auditing and threat detection, transparent data encryption. No matter how excited people are when I talk to them about Azure SQL DB there is one topic that causes confusion. Every. Single. Time. That topic is sizing. “What the heck is that DTU thing and how many of...
August 18, 2017
Fixing You’ll need a new app to open this ms-word
18August
It should come as no surprise that we rely heavily on SharePoint for sharing documents at Microsoft. For the most part it is a great solution with few issues. We can subscribe to documents and libraries and get updates when items are modified or added then go view those documents in a web browser while on the go without needing to constantly be pulling down the latest version and wondering if it...
