Azure Weekly Updates - March 06th, 2023

Scale improvements and metrics enhancements on Azure’s regional WAF

You can now do more with less using the increased scale limits for Azure’s regional Web Application Firewall (WAF) running on Application Gateway. These increased scale limits allow you greater flexibility, and scale, when configuring your WAF to meet the needs of your applications and network. Application Gateway v2 WAF enabled SKUs running Core Rule Set (CRS) 3.2 or higher now supports a higher number of frontend ports, HTTP load-balancing rules, backend HTTP settings, SSL certificates, number of sites, and redirect configurations. The regional WAF also increased the number of HTTP listeners from 40 to 200.

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/general-availability-scale-improvements-and-metrics-enhancements-on-azure-s-regional-waf/

Customer Initiated Storage Account Conversion

As Azure Storage strives to provide you with the best experience possible we are now supporting the self-service abilitiy to convert storage accounts from non-zonal redundancy (LRS/GRS) to zonal redundancy (ZRS/GZRS). You can now save time by initiating a storage account conversion directly through Azure Portal rather than creating a support ticket. Converting your storage account to zonal redundancy allows you to increase your intra-regional resiliency and availability.

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/general-availability-customer-initiated-storage-account-conversion/

AKS NodeOSUpgrade channel

NodeOSUpgrade channel is a new channel that runs complementary to the existing AutoUpgrade Channel today. Customers can use this channel to disable unattended upgrades and put a maintenance schedule without worrying about Kured for security patches. They can run Node image upgrades in tandem with major Kubernetes auto upgrade channels like Stable, Rapid etc. The Node OS Upgrade channel also gets its own scheduler that runs parallel to the auto upgrade channel schedule.

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/public-preview-aks-nodeosupgrade-channel/

Auto vacuum metrics for Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server

Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server now offers 12 new metrics for you to monitor the performance of your auto vacuum process. The metrics include information on dead rows, vacuum cost limit, frequency of auto vacuum, number of tables vacuumed, and more. It is important to monitor auto vacuum to ensure the process is running efficiently and effectively. Each metric is emitted at a 30-minute frequency and has up to 93 days of history. You can configure alerts on the metrics and can also filter using the database-name dimension. By understanding these metrics, you can maintain the health of your database, improve performance, and maximize the application throughput.

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/public-preview-auto-vacuum-metrics-for-azure-database-for-postgresql-flexible-server/

Caching in ACR

Caching for ACR is a public preview feature within Azure Container Registry. This feature allows you to cache container images.

Caching for ACR allows you to create a cache rule and cache container images from Docker Hub and Microsoft Artifact Registry. Caching images lets you pull images directly from your cache ensuring faster and more reliable pull operations.

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/public-preview-caching-in-acr/

Pod sandboxing in AKS

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now allows you, in public preview, to run pod sandboxed containers.

Pod Sandboxing provide an effective strategy for safeguarding against “Container Breakout” scenarios such as a malicious or legitimate user escaping container isolation to access filesystem, processes, network interfaces, and other resources on the host machine.

While one can enforce isolation through node pools, such an approach poses significant operation and resource overhead and increases operational costs. ?Pod Sandboxing addresses this issue by isolation workloads at the kernel level.

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/public-preview-pod-sandboxing-in-aks/

Online live resize of persistent volumes

Live resizing capability allows you to dynamically scale up your persistent volumes without application downtime. Previously, in order to resize the disk, you had to scale down your deployment to zero pods, wait several minutes for the disk to detach, update your persistent volume claim, and then scale back up the deployment. With Live resize of persistent volumes, you can just modify your persistent volume claim directly, avoiding any application downtime.

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/ga-online-live-resize-of-persistent-volumes/

Confidential containers on ACI

Confidential containers on ACI, now available in public preview, enables you to run containers in a trusted execution environment (TEE) that provides hardware-based confidentiality and integrity protections for your container workloads. The TEE is currently supported by AMD Secure Nested Paging hardware. ?

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/public-preview-confidential-containers-on-aci/

4 TiB, 8 TiB, and 16 TiB storage per node for Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL

Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL now supports 4 TiB, 8 TiB, and 16 TiB storage on coordinator and worker nodes in multi-node configurations. With the new increased storage sizes, you can onboard workloads with 10s and 100s of TiBs with fewer worker nodes. Less worker nodes with larger storage size allow for decreased overall cluster costs and increased storage IOPS per node to maintain or improve performance of your disk-bound workloads. You can start with a smaller storage size and scale up storage on worker nodes at any time as your workload size and requirements for IOPS per node grow.

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/generally-available-4-tib-8-tib-and-16-tib-storage-per-node-for-azure-cosmos-db-for-postgresql/

Login and TDE-enabled database migrations with Azure Database Migration Service

The new capability in the Azure SQL Migration extension makes your post-database migration experience more seamless. Now you can receive assistance with the migration of instance-level objects such as SQL and Windows logins, permissions, server roles, and updated user mapping of previously migrated databases.

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/public-preview-login-and-tdeenabled-database-migrations-with-azure-database-migration-service/

New enhanced connection troubleshoot

As customers bring sophisticated, high-performance workloads into Azure, there is a critical need for increased visibility and control over the operational state of complex networks running these workloads. With decreased visibility, diagnosing becomes difficult as the customer ends up in a black box with minimum control. One such day-to-day common occurring scenario is connectivity.

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/general-availability-new-enhanced-connection-troubleshoot/

Azure Archive Storage now available in West US 3

Azure Archive Storage provides a secure, low-cost means for retaining rarely accessed data including backup and archival storage. Now, Azure Archive Storage is available in West US 3. For a complete list of regions, see Azure products available by region.

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/general-availability-azure-archive-storage-now-available-in-west-us-3/

Azure Monitor Ingestion client libraries

We’re announcing the initial stable release of the Azure Monitor Ingestion client libraries for .NET, Java, JavaScript, and Python. The libraries:

Enable uploading of custom logs to a Log Analytics workspace.

Are an open-source, officially supported, idiomatic alternative to sending HTTP POST requests to a REST API.

Wrap the new Data Collection Rules-based Logs Ingestion REST API.

Modernize security standards by requiring Azure Active Directory token-based authentication.

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/azure-monitor-ingestion-libraries/

Burstable compute for single node configurations for Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL

The new 1-vCore with 2 GiB RAM and 2-vCore with 4 GiB RAM burstable compute options in Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL provide the flexibility to start small and grow big as your Postgres workload requirements are increasing. Burstable compute on a single node cluster is ideal for workloads like development environments or small databases that don't need the full performance of the node's CPU continuously. These workloads typically have burstable performance requirements. When a workload’s performance needs to grow single node with burstable compute can be upscaled to the regular compute single node or multi-node configurations.

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/generally-available-burstable-compute-for-single-node-configurations-for-azure-cosmos-db-for-postgresql/

Power BI with Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server

Now, you can take advantage of Power BI integration with Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server directly from the Azure portal. With Power BI Desktop, you can visually explore your data using a free-form drag-and-drop canvas, a broad range of modern data visualizations, and easy-to-use report authoring experiences. Plus, it's easy to import data directly from the tables or from a SELECT query!

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/general-availability-power-bi-with-azure-database-for-mysql-flexible-server/

Azure PostgreSQL migration extension for Azure Data Studio

Migrate and modernize your PostgreSQL workloads to Azure with the Azure PostgreSQL migration extension for Azure Data Studio. This extension will guide you through a simple tool to assess, identify cloud migration readiness, and provide Azure recommendations for migrating workloads to a right-sized target of Azure Database for PostgreSQL in the Azure PostgreSQL migration extension using Azure Data Studio. ?

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/public-preview-azure-postgresql-migration-extension-for-azure-data-studio/

New Azure for Operators products and partner programs released

With Azure for Operators, Microsoft is empowering telecom operators to modernize and monetize their 5G investments, enabling enterprises with ubiquitous computing that spans from cloud to edge, and helping developers and ISVs to build more innovative, network-aware applications. At Mobile World Congress 2023 (2/27-3/2), the world’s most influential event for the connectivity industry, Azure for Operators is announcing our next wave of services and programs.

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/new-azure-for-operators-products-and-partner-programs-released/

Azure Virtual Network Manager Event Logging now in public preview

Azure Virtual Network Manager (AVNM) event logging is now available for public preview.

AVNM is a highly scalable and available network management solution that allows you to simplify network management across subscriptions globally. With this new feature, you can monitor changes in network group membership by accessing event logs. Whenever a virtual network is added to or removed from a network group, a corresponding log is emitted for that specific addition or removal. You can view and interact with these logs using Azure Monitor’s Log Analytics tool in the Azure Portal, or you can store them in your storage account, or send them to an event hub or partner solution.

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/azure-virtual-network-manager-event-logging-now-in-public-preview/

In-tree disk and file drivers will no longer be supported starting in Kubernetes v1.26

Due to the deprecation of in-tree storage drivers by the Kubernetes Community, Azure Storage is now provided by the Azure Disk CSI driver and Azure File CSI driver. Starting in Kubernetes 1.26 , we will no longer offer support for Azure Disk and Azure File in-tree drivers. While existing deployments using the in-tree drivers are not expected to break, these will no longer be tested and users should update them to use the CSI drivers as soon as possible.

AVAILABLITY: IN PREVIEW

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/disclosure-intree-disk-and-file-drivers-will-no-longer-be-supported-starting-in-kubernetes-v126/

Azure Monitor Logs now supports Availability Zones in Canada Central, France Central and Japan East

Azure Monitor Logs continues to extend its Availability Zone support by adding three regions – Canada Central, France Central and Japan East – to the East US 2 and West US 2 regions, which are already supported.

Azure Availability Zones (AZ) provide protection from datacenter failures by using in-region redundancy between datacenters in separate zones, each with its own independent infrastructure.

AVAILABLITY: NOW AVAILABLE

For more information you can click here.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/azure-monitor-logs-az-in-canada-france-japan/