This is a blog post for a new, ongoing series of consolidated updates from the Cloud Platform team.

We’re here to help you embrace the cloud. Realize your true potential with our unique innovations, comprehensive mobile solutions, and developer tools across the breadth of our product portfolio. To help you stay current, here are our latest releases.

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Spring GA
• Spring Public Announcements / VLE | Spring Public Announcements / VLE
• Power BI Report Server - March 2018 update
• Azure Service Bus | Disclosure - Hourly Billing for Service Bus
• Azure Logic Apps | Logic Apps in Azure Gov GA
• Azure DNS Private Zones | Public Preview
• Azure Virtual Machines Serial Console | Public Preview
• Azure Service Health | GA
• Azure Availability Zones | GA
• Azure security and operations management | Security Center Web Assessment is GA
• Windows Server | Windows Server, version 1803 GA
• Azure Files Share Snapshots | GA
• Ubuntu Advantage availability in Azure | GA
• Azure Cosmos DB | Data Explorer - GA
• Azure Search | Auto Complete and Synonyms - Public Preview
• Azure SQL Database | New Purchasing Model - Public Preview
• Azure SQL Database | Read Scale - Public Preview
• Azure SQL Database | Long term backup retention - Public Preview
• Azure DevOps Projects | VM Support for .NET Apps (GA)
• Azure DevOps Tool Integrations | Updated Azure support in Ansible 2.5
• Azure DevOps Tool Integrations | Announcing Terraform Availability in the Azure Marketplace & Azure Terraform Provider v1.3
• Azure AD App Proxy Wildcard, PowerShell support GA

Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Spring GA

Business Applications Spring 2018: General Availability

It is with great excitement that we announce Business Applications Spring 2018 general availability. This represents an incredible effort to release the next wave of innovation with hundreds of new features and capabilities.

We publicly announced Spring 2018 on March 21st at Microsoft Business Forward, bringing together executives, analysts and guest speakers to host 324 business decision makers. This momentum was further amplified at the Business Applications Virtual Launch Event where we were joined online by over 3,000 prospects, partners and customers.

To learn about all of the exciting new capabilities being released, read the Spring 2018 Release Notes and watch the Virtual Launch Event, which includes nine additional on-demand deep-dive videos.

Resources:

• Download the Spring 2018 Release Notes
• View on-demand video content of the Virtual Launch Event
• Read James Phillips’ blog post about the spring update
• Read the Spring 2018 Launch FAQ
• Watch the Dynamics 365 Sales Readiness Blitz videos and presentations
• Drive excitement about our upcoming Business Applications Summit that will take place July 22 – 24 in Seattle

Power BI Report Server - March 2018 update

On March 19, 2018, Microsoft released an update to Power BI Report Server. The new update of Power BI Report Server contains several new features customers have been anxiously waiting for, including bookmarking, syncing slicers, and quick measures. The Power BI Report Server March 2018 release is supported for production workloads, so you should feel free to upgrade your production environment to take advantage of all these new capabilities.

To learn more, read the full blog post and visit the Power BI Report Server webpage.

Azure Service Bus | Disclosure - Hourly Billing for Service Bus

Azure Service Bus connects your existing on-premises systems to cloud solutions, distribute messages to multiple independent back-end systems, and simplify enterprise integration with a reliable cloud messaging as a service (MaaS).

On May 1st, 2018 Azure Service Bus Standard Base Unit and Service Bus Premium Messaging Units will start being billed at an hourly rate from the current daily rate.

For more information about pricing for this tier, please visit the Azure Service Bus pricing webpage.

Azure Logic Apps | Logic Apps in Azure Gov GA

Azure Logic Apps is now generally available in Azure Government. Azure Logic Apps delivers process automation and integrate applications and data across on-premise, public or private cloud environments.

With Logic Apps Government agencies enhance productivity with business processes automation, EAI, B2B/EDI and services and applications integration leveraging most common out-of-the-box connectors for Azure services, Office 365, Dynamics CRM and others while complying with policies and regulations related to public cloud.

Transform workflows into intelligent actions with machine learning and cognitive services and build smart integrations from connecting SaaS applications and hybrid deployments with Logic Apps. For more information visit blog post.

Azure DNS Private Zones | Public Preview

Azure announces Public Preview of Azure DNS Private Zones, a key feature addition to Azure DNS. This capability provides a reliable, secure DNS service to manage and resolve names in a VNet, without the need for you to create and manage custom DNS solution.

This feature allows you to use your company domain rather than the Azure-provided names available today, provides name resolution for VM’s within a VNet and across VNets. Additionally, you can configure zones names with a split-horizon view – allowing for a private and a public DNS zone to share the same name.

Zone and record management is done using the Azure REST APIs, SDKs, PowerShell and CLI.

The feature has been available for a few months now in Managed Preview. Some of the previous limitations with the Managed Preview have been lifted, notably the region-wide availability. With this release the feature is now available in all Public Azure regions.

Azure Virtual Machines Serial Console | Public Preview

On Monday, March 26, we announced public preview of Azure's Virtual Machine Serial Console providing access to a text-based console for Linux and Windows Virtual Machines on Azure. This serial connection is to COM1 serial port of the virtual machine and provides access to the virtual machine regardless of that virtual machine's network / operating system state. Access to Serial Console for a virtual machine can be done via Azure Portal and for those who have VM Contributor or above access.

As detailed in Corey Sander's blog post announcing public preview of Serial Console, Serial Console offers a way you can debug both with direct serial-based access and fix these issues with the tiniest of effort.

To learn more, watch special episode of Tuesday with Corey on Serial Console, or read our Serial Console documentation.

Azure Service Health | GA

On Monday, March 26, we announced the general availability of Azure Service Health. Unlike the Azure Status page which provides general status information, Azure Service Health provides tailored information for your resources. When issues in Azure services affect your resources, this personalized dashboard helps you understand the impact of the issue, and keeps you updated as the issue is resolved. It also helps you prepare for planned maintenance and changes that could affect the availability of your resources. Finally, Azure Service Health allows you to configure alerts to ensure that your relevant teams are notified of any service health events.

Learn more about Azure Service Health and get started by creating a service health alert.

Azure Availability Zones | GA Azure Availability Zones | GA

On Tuesday, March 27, we announced the general availability of Azure Availability Zones, a high availability solution for the most demanding mission critical workloads.  Availability Zones are physically separated, logically isolated, and feature independent power, cooling, and networking for the one or more datacenters that make up each zone.  We are introducing a new Virtual Machine SLA of 99.99% uptime when running in two or more zones, our highest level offered yet.  Availability Zones are live in regions across the US and Europe.

As detailed in Tom Keane's blog post, the addition of Availability Zones in Azure means customers can more easily create a comprehensive business continuity strategy with data residency, by utilizing our high availability solutions and paired regions for disaster recovery and backup.

To learn more, read the blog post and visit the Availability Zones webpage for more information.

Azure security and operations management | Security Center Web Assessment is GA

Generally available today, Azure Security Center's Web Security Configuration Assessment can now help you detect vulnerabilities in your web server settings and quickly act. To learn more about this feature, visit our blog.

Windows Server | Windows Server, version 1803 GA

Windows Server, version 1803 is the next release in the Semi-Annual Channel and in this release, we have continued to prioritize customer feedback delivering further optimizations to the Server Core base container image to reduce footprint and download times. We’re also delivering increased application compatibility, better performance, additional Kubernetes support and continued optimizations for native Linux containers through Hyper-V isolation. We also heard from many of our customers about how tools like the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) improved their management and scripting experience on Windows Server, so they'll be happy to know that the great work showcased on the Command Line Blog is also part of Windows Server, including Background tasks, DriveFS, WSLPath and much more. Beyond that we also now have native Windows versions of popular open source tools including tar, curl and of course OpenSSH. For more information, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-server.

Azure Files Share Snapshots | GA

Azure Files Share Snapshots | GA Azure File Share Snapshots are Generally Available

We're excited to announce that Azure File Share Snapshots are generally available. Share snapshots provide a way to make incremental backups of SMB shares in Azure Files. Storage Administrators can use snapshots directly and backup providers can now leverage this capability to integrate Azure Files backup and restore capabilities into their products. File Share Snapshots are:

• Incremental and Fast - Only changes to the base data are stored in the snapshot. If nothing changes after you create the snapshot, size of the snapshot remains zero.
• Work in a familiar way - Azure is the very first public cloud provider having capabilities like creating instantaneous file share snapshot, browsing of files within snapshots with native VSS like experience in Windows Explorer and restore from right within the same Windows explorer.
• Easily integrated with offerings from Backup providers - Backup providers can now leverage REST API to provide a true native backup story.

Azure File Share Snapshots will be available in all Azure Public Regions. Capacity consumed by share snapshots is charged at the same rate as Data storage prices.

Ubuntu Advantage availability in Azure | GA

Ubuntu Advantage is Canonical’s enterprise-grade commercial support offering for Ubuntu on Azure, trusted by telco, finance, and retail customers running highly available, and cost-efficient cloud infrastructures. Starting today, Ubuntu Advantage is available to be deployed to your subscription via Azure Marketplace and, you can even enroll from a running Ubuntu VM on Azure! Learn more at the Azure blog.

Azure Cosmos DB | Data Explorer - GA

Azure Cosmos DB Data Explorer now generally available

Azure Cosmos DB Data Explorer provides a rich and unified developer experience for inserting, querying, and managing Azure Cosmos DB data within the Azure portal and the Emulator. Data Explorer consolidates the functionality previously available in Document Explorer, Query Explorer, and Script Explorer, so that they can all be done without switching views. With this announcement, Document Explorer, Query Explorer, and Script Explorer will no longer be available in the Azure portal. Learn more in the Azure update.

Azure SQL Database | New Purchasing Model - Public Preview Azure SQL Database | New Purchasing Model - Public Preview

New purchasing model for Azure SQL Database

We are pleased to announce the preview of a new vCore-based purchasing model for Azure SQL Database Elastic pools and Single databases. The new purchasing model is in addition to the existing DTU-based model. Designed to give you flexibility, control, transparency and an easier way to compare to on-premises workloads, it allows you to scale your compute, and storage independently based upon your workload needs. Options within the vCore-based model are also eligible for up to 30 percent savings with the Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server.

Azure SQL Database | Read Scale - Public Preview

Azure SQL Database announces public preview of read scale-out support in Premium service tier

Following the announcement last month of zone redundant database support, we are further expanding the power of Premium databases and elastic pools by including read scale-out support. This capability redirects the read-only client connections to one of the automatically provisioned HA replicas and effectively doubles the compute capacity of the database or elastic pool at no additional charge. This is ideal for load-balancing of complex analytical workloads without impacting the primary OLTP workload. To learn more, please see our read scale-out documentation.

Azure SQL Database | Long term backup retention - Public Preview

Azure SQL Database announces a major update of its long-term backup retention preview

We are releasing a major update of this preview feature to address the feedback we have gathered from customers since the initial release in October 2016. This refresh of the long-term backup retention preview will make the feature available in all Azure regions and provide greater flexibility in setting your retention policies and managing individual backups. Backups will also now use RA-GRS storage, which provides an even higher degree of protection for your data. To learn more, please visit the Azure blog.

Azure DevOps Projects | VM Support for .NET Apps (GA)

Azure DevOps Projects now supports Windows VMs as deployment targets for ASP.NET and ASP.NET core web applications. This addition is the first of several planned expansions to Azure DevOps projects scenarios which allow developers to create full CI/CD pipelines in minutes from the Azure portal powered by Visual Studio Team Services.

To learn more visit: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/devops-projects/

Azure DevOps Tool Integrations | Updated Azure support in Ansible 2.5

The Azure engineering team is bringing increased native support to Azure for customers using Ansible. Ansible 2.5, that was just released, includes updates to network and virtual machine support as well as 13 new Azure modules, enabling image management, container and database scenarios.

• Image: Create, delete an image from virtual machine, blob uri, managed disk or snapshot.
• Container Instance: Create, update and delete an Azure Container Instance.
• Container Registry: Create, update and delete an Azure Container Registry.
• SQL server and database: Create, update and delete instance of SQL Server and database.
• MySQL server and database: Create, update and delete instance of MySQL Server and database.
• PostgreSQL server and database: Create, update and delete instance of PostgreSQL Server and database.
• Key Vault: Create, update and delete instance of Key Vault. And create or delete a key or secret with a given Key Vault. By using Key Vault, you can encrypt keys and secrets (such as authentication keys, storage account keys, data encryption keys, .PFX files, and passwords).

For more information about the capabilities available, please visit the Ansible on Azure documentation webpage.

Azure DevOps Tool Integrations | Announcing Terraform Availability in the Azure Marketplace & Azure Terraform Provider v1.3

The Azure engineering team is bringing increased native support to Azure for customers using Terraform, the latest improvements and enhancements include:

• Announcing the availability of the Terraform solution in the Azure Marketplace. This solution will enable teams to use shared identity, using Managed Service Identity (MSI), and shared state using Azure Storage. These features will allow you to use a consistent hosted instance of Terraform for DevOps Automation and production scenarios.
• v1.3 of the Azure Terraform Provider has been released, which includes support for additional Azure resources including:
  • Platform Services
    • Azure Functions
    • Deployment Slots for Azure Web Apps
    • AKS Managed Kubernetes Cluster
    • Azure CDN
  • Advanced Networking Services
    • Application Gateway
    • Virtual Network Gateway
    • Application Security Groups
    • Network Watcher

To get started using Terraform on Azure, visit the Terraform on Azure developer hub, or visit our blog.

Azure AD App Proxy Wildcard, PowerShell support GA

We are continuing to deliver new features to make your remote access story even better and easier through Azure AD Application Proxy. As of today, we are happy to introduce limited support for using websockets with Application Proxy, particularly for accessing the application QlikSense. If there are other applications you’d like to see as we move towards GA, let us know in our feedback portal. To get started, follow our documentation and download the new connector. We are also excited to share that our wildcard application publishing and PowerShell support are now GA. Wildcard application publishing allows you to publish and manage many applications as one in the Azure Portal. PowerShell also build and maintain a standardized and predictable process for deploying Application Proxy applications in your environment.

Hi Everyone,

Many of you are trying the websocket support we announced recently in Public Preview. As we look towards GA, we would love to get more of your feedback on how the preview is going and what apps you'd like to see us support next.

If you have tried the new websocket support, or if you would use it if our support was expanded to other applications, please take a few minutes to fill out our short 7 question survey:

https://aka.ms/appproxywebsocketsurvey

Thanks,

Harshini Jayaram

Program Manager II

What is TechNet Guru Competition?

Each month the TechNet Wiki council organizes a contest of the best articles posted that month. This is your chance to be announced as MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY GURU OF THE MONTH!

One winner in each category will be selected each month for glory and adoration by the MSDN/TechNet Ninjas and community as a whole. Winners will be announced in dedicated blog post that will be published in Microsoft Wiki Ninjas blog, a tweet from the Wiki Ninjas Twitter account, links will be published at Microsoft TNWiki group on Facebook, and other acknowledgement from the community will follow.

Some of our biggest community voices and many MVPs have passed through these halls on their way to fame and fortune.

If you have already made a contribution in the forums or gallery or you published a nice blog, then you can simply convert it into a shared wiki article, reference the original post, and register the article for the TechNet Guru Competition. The articles must be written in April 2018 and must be in English. However, the original blog or forum content can be from before April 2018.

Come and see who is making waves in all your favorite technologies. Maybe it will be you!

Who can join the Competition?

Anyone who has basic knowledge and the desire to share the knowledge is welcome. Articles can appeal to beginners or discusse advanced topics. All you have to do is to add your article to TechNet Wiki from your own specialty category.

How can you win?

1. Please copy/Write over your Microsoft technical solutions and revelations to TechNetWiki.
2. Add a link to your new article on THIS WIKI COMPETITION PAGE (so we know you've contributed)
3. (Optional but recommended) Add a link to your article at the TechNetWiki group on Facebook. The group is very active and people love to help, you can get feedback and even direct improvements in the article before the contest starts.

Do you have any question or want more information?

Feel free to ask any questions below, or Join us at the official MicrosoftTechNet Wiki groups on facebook. Read Moreabout TechNet Guru Awards.

If you win, people will sing your praises online and your name will be raised as Guru of the Month.

PS: Above top banner came from Ronen Ariely.

Thanks in advance!
- Ninja [Kamlesh Kumar] TechNet Wiki Council

執筆者: Anirudh Cavale (Program Manager, Azure Monitor)

このポストは、2018 年 3 月 27 日に投稿された Azure Monitor–General availability of multi-dimensional metrics APIs の翻訳です。

昨年 9 月に、Azure の組み込み型プラットフォーム監視サービスである Azure Monitor のマルチディメンションのメトリックのパブリック プレビューを開始しました。そして本日、これに対応する API の一般提供を開始しました。これによりさまざまなディメンションから Azure メトリックにアクセスして詳細なインサイトを取得できるようになります。ディメンションとは名前と値の組み合わせで、メトリックをセグメント化する際に使用することであらゆる角度から情報を見ることができます。また、Azure Monitor でのメトリックの保持期間を 30 日間から 93 日間に延長します。データへのアクセス期間が長くなることで、データを効果的に比較できるようになります。

マルチディメンションのメトリックには以下の方法でアクセスできます。

·         REST API の Metric Definitions API (英語) および Metrics API (英語)。サンプルはこちら。

·         Azure Portal のプレビュー。サンプルはこちら。

·         Azure CLI (英語) コマンド。

·         .NET SDK (英語)。サンプルはこちら (英語)。

·         Java SDK (英語)。サンプルはこちら (英語)。

·         Grafana も Azure Monitor Plugin (version 0.1.0) を更新し、これらの新しい API を活用できるようにしました。この Grafana のプラグインでもAzure US Government、Azure Germany、Azure 中国版クラウドがサポートされます!

数週間後には PowerShell でもマルチディメンションのメトリックをサポートする予定です。

上記のアクセス方法以外にも、先日一般提供を開始した次世代のメトリック アラート機能を使用して、マルチディメンションのメトリックに基づくアラートを作成することができます。

今回はさらに、以下の Azure サービスでメトリックを使用できるようになりました。

·         従来のクラウド サービス

·         Azure Key Vault

·         DNS ゾーン

·         HDInsight

·         Azure Container Instances (ACI)

·         Power BI 専用機能

Azure Monitor で使用可能なリソースやメトリックは、こちらのドキュメントにすべて掲載されています。メトリックのクエリ用 API の料金については、料金ページでご確認ください。

執筆者: Ayo Olubeko (Program Manager, Azure SQL Data Warehouse)

このポストは、2018 年 3 月 27 日に投稿された Azure SQL Data Warehouse now generally available in all Azure regions worldwide の翻訳です。

このたび、新たに西日本、オーストラリア東部、インド西部の 3 つのリージョンで Azure SQL Data Warehouse の一般提供が開始されました。これにより Azure SQL Data Warehouse は主要クラウド データ ウェアハウス プロバイダーで最多となる世界 33 の全リージョンで一般提供されたことになります。この一般提供開始に伴い、SQL Data Warehouse のプロビジョニングでは、33 すべてのリージョンで 99.9% の可用性を保証する返金制度付きの SLA がサポートされます。

SQL Data Warehouse は安全で法規制に準拠した高パフォーマンスの SQL 分析プラットフォームです。データ全体を参照する SQL ベースのビューや、ペタバイト規模のフル マネージド型の高速なクラウド ソリューションを利用することができます。弾力性が高いため、数分程度でプロビジョニングし、数秒で最大 60 倍にまでスケーリングできます。また、地理冗長性を持つ標準の geo バックアップ機能により、リージョン全体でサービスが停止しても任意の Azure リージョンにデータ ウェアハウスを復元することが可能です。

Azure リージョンでは、低レイテンシ、高スループット、高冗長性のネットワークで接続された、物理的に分離された複数の可用性ゾーンを利用することができます。今後この高度な機能は、33 のすべてのリージョンで提供されます。

このクラウド ベースのデータ ウェアハウスの速度、拡張性、柔軟性、安全性をぜひ今すぐお試しください。SQL Data Warehouse の機能の詳細については、こちらのブログ記事をお読みください。

フィードバックのお願い

追加してほしい機能がありましたら、ぜひマイクロソフトまでお知らせください。

どんな機能を必要とされているか、フィードバック フォーラム (英語) への書き込みをお待ちしています。フィードバックや投票にご協力いただいた場合、ご希望の方には機能の最新情報やリリース情報をお知らせいたします。

ご質問は StackOverflow (英語) または MSDN フォーラム (英語) をご利用ください。

参照情報

SQL Data Warehouse については、以下をはじめとするさまざまな資料をご用意しています。ぜひご覧ください。

·         SQL Data Warehouse のベスト プラクティス

·         ビデオ ライブラリ

執筆者: Tom Keane (Head of Global Infrastructure, Microsoft Azure)

このポストは、2018 年 3 月 30 日に投稿された Azure Availability Zones now available for the most comprehensive resiliency strategy の翻訳です。

マイクロソフトは先日の Ignite において、Azure で高負荷のミッション クリティカルなワークロードのサポートを拡張する Azure 可用性ゾーンを発表しました (英語)。そして本日、米国とヨーロッパの一部リージョンを対象に、この機能の一般提供を開始しました。

Azure は世界で最も広範囲をカバーする (英語) クラウド サービスですが、可用性ゾーンを使用することで、ラック レベルで発生した障害の緩和や大規模インシデント発生時に異なるリージョンへのフェールオーバーなど、業界最高レベルの包括的な回復性戦略を提供できるようになります。同一リージョンで、物理的に離れた場所にある電源、ネットワーク、冷却装置を使用するため、フォールト トレランスが向上します。

ミッション クリティカルなアプリケーションが次々にクラウドへ移行される中、規制の厳しい業界の企業は、システムの回復性とビジネス継続性を重要視しています。小売業のオンライン販売システムから金融サービスの顧客向けアプリケーションまで、顧客にサービスを提供する場合には大きなリスクが伴います。たとえ小さなトラブルでも、企業のブランド価値、顧客満足度、収益に大きな影響を与える可能性があります。このような環境においては、最高レベルの基準を満たす多層構造の回復性アプローチでアプリケーションを開発する必要があります。

「可用性ゾーンは、低レイテンシと高可用性というお客様のニーズに応えることができます。高レベルの SLA が求められるアプリケーションは、すべて可用性ゾーンを利用して構築しています。物理的に分離されているため、きわめて高い冗長性を得られます」

- Mitch Nelson 氏 (Adobe、マネージド サービス担当ディレクター)

同一リージョン内の 2 か所またはそれ以上の可用性ゾーンで稼動する仮想マシンは、業界最高レベルの 99.99% の可用性が SLA で保証されています。お客様が包括的なビジネス継続性戦略を実現できるように、今後さらに提供地域を拡大していきます。

こちらのページ (英語) から今すぐ Azure 可用性ゾーンをお試しください。Azure の回復性については、こちらのページ (英語) をご覧ください。

When you insert code blocks into your article, the online editor is automatically adding borders to the code blocks.
But when you save the article, you might see that your code blocks are losing their borders...

Here's the solution...

Edit your article again, go into HTML editor.

Replace all instances of :

<div class="reCodeBlock">

with

<div class="reCodeBlock" style="border-style: solid;border-width: 1px;  padding: 1px 4px;">

Just as an example, to demonstrate what happens:

Check rev 6 of this article, and then check the final version.

"One HTML fix a day, keeps the administrator away!"

WordやExcel、PowerPointといったOfficeファイルをファイルごと翻訳したいときは、Microsoft Document Translator を使ってみましょう。Office ファイルだけでなく、PDFのファイルの文書も翻訳可能です。

さっそくガイドのビデオを見ながらダウンロードしてみてください。

Imagine getting to the end of a blog post, only to realise the writer doesn't know what they're talking about.

"The thing about security is: it's really important."

"You need to manage everyone's devices."

"The cloud is really taking off."

They know the hot topics that'll get your attention. But often, they don't know enough to keep it. It's just another generic conversation - and another waste of your time.

The best conversations happen when you know not only what to talk about, but how to talk about it, too. And like you're screaming out for thought leaders who really know their stuff, your customers are looking for partners they can have THE conversation with. The conversation that answers their unique questions and gives them the resources they can keep coming back to.

How do you make sure you're the partner for the job?

Know your stuff

There's a saying we use a lot at Microsoft. "Pick something and do it really well." For you, this means finding THE conversation topic, knowing what your customers will ask, and making sure you know your stuff.

Take security as an example. Lots of your customers will be looking for an expert partner they can have THE conversation with. How do you make sure you're the partner for the job? By building a security practice that allows you to answers all your customers' questions.

"How do I come up with a security strategy?"

If your customers are just getting started (or have fallen a little behind), a good security strategy will be front of mind. This is the foundation for everything - so it's no time to be vague. This webinar outlines four steps you can help your customers take when putting together their security strategy. By showing them how you plan to help them, they'll know you're THE partner. 

"How do I manage all my employees' devices?"

Their employees are bringing in devices of their own, and your customers are scrambling to keep them all safe. There's no time to waste. Listen to their individual needs. Then introduce Microsoft 365, and show them how you can keep them secure and compliant

"How do I stay secure in the cloud?"

Yes, it's unfamiliar to some of your customers - but it's still going to be tough to find talking points they haven't heard before. You can make a good start with our risk and compliance assessment, to uncover exactly what they're looking for, and exactly where you can help.

This definitely isn't an exhaustive list of THE conversations your customers want to have. But if you're serious about building a security practice your customers can trust, they're some of the hot topics you should be talking about.

Why you can trust Microsoft

You don't have to have these conversations alone. The advantage of being a Microsoft partner is that you've got all the knowledge and support you need to succeed. But, like your customers, you might be wondering why you can trust us with a topic as important as security.

Because we partner with other organisations to share intelligence. We work together to improve the response to security threats across our industry. And we stay in touch with government and governing bodies to make sure we're promoting best practices. In short, you can trust us because we really know our stuff. When you get in touch with us, we'll give you information you'll find useful - so you can do the same for your customers.

With talking points, insight, and answers to the big questions, we're ready to help you pick something and do it really well. We're ready to help you have THE conversation. See how you can build out a security practice here.

In this blog post I show the Business Central extension that use Web API (RESTful HTTP service) from the previous post.
The final extension looks like:

GitHub: https://github.com/finn777/ALFnavobjectpermissionsreportALJSON

The key code parts you could see on the pictures:

Links:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-restapi-overview
https://kappiwebhosting.blob.core.windows.net/dynamcisis/2018/01/NAVTechDays2017-JsonMeetsNAV.zip

Hello All,

Thought I would bring your attention to this feature in the OD4B service, the Shared by Me feature is a view in OneDrive for Business (ODB) that only shows your files within your OneDrive that are uniquely permissioned to other users, has had a sharing link generated for it, or has a pending external invitation.

To use the feature click on ‘Shared’ in the navigation bar then go to the ‘Share by Me’ tab.

The feature provide three columns Name, Location, and Activity.  The activity column provides the user that last modified the file.  The last thing you should realize is that legacy sharing links unless they have been permissioned on the file it won’t show up in the Shared by Me view.

Known Limitations

•            No sorting/filtering controls

•            Will not be in OneDrive mobile app

•            Thumbnails are missing in grid view

You can read this article for info or to send to your users.

Pax

Here is something that I have run into a few times now so I created a script to help make all our lives a bit easier.

When applying updates to the ConfigMgr environment, modifications to the Hardware Inventory classes in the default and custom client settings sometimes get reset to the default.  For some people and environments, this might not matter too much.  However, if you have heavily customized Hardware Inventory Class settings or many custom client settings that you might want to preserve, this can be an annoyance.

I decided the create a PowerShell script that will export all the current Hardware Inventory Class settings from the default and custom client settings into an XML file.  The script can also then use the same XML file to import the setting back (post update).

You can find the full script here.

What I will do here, like I typically do, it break the script down for you as a learning exercise.

The first part of the script just sets up our variables to be used:

[cmdletbinding()]
param(
    [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [ValidatePattern('.*(.xml)')]
    [String]
    $XMLFile,

    [switch]
    $Import,

    [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string]
    $SiteCode,

    [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string]
    $CMProvider = "."
)

$CIMProps = @{
    ComputerName = $CMProvider
    Namespace = "rootsmssite_$($SiteCode)"
}

$TodaysDate = get-date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd-HHmmss"

We have defined 4 parameters that will be used in the script; XMLFile, Import, SiteCode, CMProvider.

The SiteCode and CMProvider are required for the script to know what server hosts the CMProvider and the SiteCode is required to know the correct WMI Namespace to connect to.

The XMLFile is the name of the file we will be exporting the settings to or importing the settings from. This parameter has a Regular Expression ValidatePattern to ensure the file name ends with .XML.  This is important in this case because we later do a "split" on the file name at the .xml part to include today's date for some version control.

The Import switch parameter we use at the end to determine what "mode" we are running in.

The next part of the script is the ExportClientHardwareInventoryClasses scriptblock.  This is the part that actually connects to the ConfigMgr Provider, queries for the client settings, and saves the information to an XML File.

$ExportClientHardwareInventoryClasses = {

We start off by splitting the XMLFile name and adding today's date to it and setting up an array (ExportHWInvClasses) to store our results.

    $File = $XMLFile -split '.xml'
    $File = "$($XMLFile)-$($TodaysDate).xml"
    $ExportHWInvClasses = @()    

Next, we connect to the ConfigMgr provider using the values stored in the $CIMProps hashtable using the splat (@) operator.  We query the SMS_ClientSettings WMI class and pipe again to Get-CIMInstance in order to retrieve the lazy properties.  This class contains the custom client settings.

    $ClientSettings = Get-CimInstance @CIMProps -ClassName SMS_ClientSettings | Get-CimInstance

Next, we query the SMS_ClientSettingsDefault class as this class contains the default client settings.  We have to do a little data manipulation of the returned object to make it "match" the same as the custom client settings.  The default hardware inventory report id is well known so we create a new property on our resulting object and add the report id.  The Hardware Inventory Agent ID is 15, so we add that value as well since we are filtering on it later.  We then add this to the array of client settings.

    $DefaultClientSettings =  Get-CimInstance @CIMProps -ClassName SMS_ClientSettingsDefault | Get-CimInstance
    $DefaultClientSettings | Add-Member -NotePropertyName AgentConfigurations -NotePropertyValue @{}
    $DefaultClientSettings.AgentConfigurations.Add('AgentID',15)
    $DefaultClientSettings.AgentConfigurations.Add('InventoryReportID','{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001}')
    $ClientSettings += $DefaultClientSettings

The next step is to loop through the clients settings that we have found, extract the InventoryReportID value. We create a hashtable to store the data in, noting the ClientSetting, AgentConfigurations, and the InventoryReport.  The InventoryReport data is gathered by querying the SMS_InventoryReport class with the InventoryReportID to get the details about which inventory classes and properties are enabled for collection.  These are lazy properties so we have to pipe to Get-CimInstance again to get the details.

    Foreach ($ClientSetting in $ClientSettings) {
        if ($HWInvSetting = $ClientSetting.AgentConfigurations | where {$_.AgentID -eq 15}) {
            write-verbose $HWInvSetting.InventoryReportID 
            $HWInvDetails = @{
                ClientSetting = $ClientSetting
                AgentConfiguration = $HWInvSetting
                InventoryReport =  Get-CimInstance @CIMProps -ClassName SMS_InventoryReport -Filter ('InventoryReportID = "' + $HWInvSetting.InventoryReportID + '"') | Get-CimInstance
            }
            $ExportHWInvClasses += $HWInvDetails
        }
    }

Then we export the results to an the XML File

    Export-Clixml -InputObject $ExportHWInvClasses -Path $File
}

The next section is the scriptblock that is used to Import Client Hardware Inventory Classes.  If takes the XMLFile as an input to read in the data that was stored.

$ImportClientHardwareInventoryClasses = {
    $ImportedHWInvClasses = Import-Clixml $XMLFile

Then we loop through the resulting object, connect to WMI, and retrieve the matching Inventory Report, set the ReportClasses on the Inventory Report to those from the XML file, and then set that object back in WMI.  This results in updating the Hardware Inventory Classes/Properties on each Client Settings that was exported.

    foreach ($ClientSetting in $ImportedHWInvClasses) {
        $InventoryReport = Get-CimInstance @CIMProps -ClassName SMS_InventoryReport -Filter ('InventoryReportID = "'+ $ClientSetting.InventoryReport.InventoryReportID + '"') | Get-CimInstance
        $InventoryReport.ReportClasses = $ClientSetting.InventoryReport.ReportClasses
        $InventoryReport | Set-CimInstance
    }
}

If ($Import) {
    Invoke-Command $ImportClientHardwareInventoryClasses
} else {
    Invoke-Command $ExportClientHardwareInventoryClasses
}

Let me know what your thoughts are!

As noted below, all code is provided for sample use only.

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

This sample assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Partner or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200.

For more information about Microsoft Certified Partners, please visit the following Microsoft Web site: https://partner.microsoft.com/global/30000104

Here's an interesting challenge.  It's not actually DIFFICULT but it is OH so IRRITATING on any operating system.

I want to Team up some network cards for Load Balancing.     So I pick two at the back of the server,  try to figure out which two it is that lit up, then remember those two (or actually more sometimes) to make them into a team.

In Server 2012 we have had the ability to build these teams.

The challenge is still there.   "How to identify and build the team"

PowerShell makes this so must easier.    We can use PowerShell to FIRST identify cards that are attached to a live switch using the Get-NetAdapter Cmdlet.   Using the following line I can see only the PHYSICAL adapters (vs VPN, Hyper-V and others)

Get-NetAdapter -Physical

I can also examine the properties of this adapter and say "Show me only the ones that are connected"

Get-NetAdapter -Physical | Where-Object { $_.Status -ne 'Disconnected' }

What this means, at the VERY least is I have a way of seeing what wires are already connected as an object and having PowerShell tell me after (if I want) who was added.  We can do this easily by grabbing and Storing the Name of all the Network connections already attached.

$ExistingName=Get-NetAdapter -Physical | Where-Object { $_.Status -ne 'Disconnected' } | Select-object Name

We can then obtain and store (After attaching the new lan cables) a set of Network Cards that have been added.  We can compare and use a -notcontains to compare the original array and the new array.

$AllNetworkCards=Get-NetAdapter -Physical | Where-Object { $_.Status -ne 'Disconnected' }

$NewNetworkCards=$AllNetworkCards | Where-object { $_.Name -notcontains $ExistingName.Name }

We now, without trying to REMEMBER what network cards we attached, have a way to track them.

At this point, if you wanted to create a network team you could simply do this

New-NetLBFOTeam -name 'LBFOTeamTest' -teammembers ($NewNetworkCards.Name) -confirm:$False

A neat little trick in PowerShell.    I hope this helps you in all your Network teaming tasks

Cheers

Sean
The Energized Tech
Microsoft PFE

Raj Kambalapalli, Partner Technology Strategist

Register for our community call on Thursday, April 12 to join the conversation about Azure Government and recent innovations.

On March 5–6 at the Microsoft Government Tech Summit in Washington D.C., Microsoft shared a host of new capabilities for Azure Government focusing on the following areas:

1. Two new Azure Government Secret regions

Microsoft is adding two more regions to the Azure Government region count, bringing the number of dedicated regions to a total of eight. As announced last fall, these regions will be enabled for data classified Secret, and will provide commercial-grade, hyper-scale cloud services with the highest availability, deepest compliance, and fastest innovation available to support the most critical of U.S. Government missions.

2. New network services and ExpressRoute locations

Government customers can take advantage of growing connectivity options with two new ExpressRoute sites coming soon in San Antonio and Phoenix. These sites will provide choice and convenience when connecting between on-premises and virtual resources in the cloud, and enable reliable connection for scenarios such as data migration, disaster recovery, or other high-availability needs. We’ve also added key networking services, including VNet service endpoints for storage and SQL, and Network Watcher for more secure building of applications and monitoring.

3. Faster, more efficient cloud development and management

Azure DevTest Labs is coming soon to Azure Government and is the self-service sandbox to quickly create Dev/Test environments. Customers can take advantage of this service to get around common challenges, including configuring and delivering environments to developers and testers at scale, production fidelity issues, and resource optimization.

4. Continued momentum in compliance for government workloads

Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 5 Provisional Authorization for three new services: Azure Site Recovery, Backup, and Azure App Service. FedRAMP High ATOs for Azure Government for the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and a DoD Impact Level 4 ATO for the U.S. Air Force’s Common Computing Environment.

Excited about what we’ve announced? Want to hear more? Register for the Azure Government Community call on Thursday, April 12. We’ll talk about these innovations in a conversational dialogue. You can find additional details about all announcements at the Microsoft Government Tech Summit on the Azure Government blog and the Azure blog.

Helpful Links

• Azure Government site
• Azure Government documentation
• Azure Government blog
• Azure Government videos
• Azure Government training
• Azure Government free trial
• Azure Government D.C. user community

Azure Government Technical Community

• Community call schedule
• Yammer group
• Blog series

Over the last couple of days, I've updated a few tools that I have published on the gallery.  Here's the run-down:

AAD Connect Network and Name Resolution Test

I've been busy with this tool a lot lately, both adding tests and tweaking the way things are done.  This week, I did work with Seamless SSO testing.  I had originally included some endpoints that look like they didn't need to be included after all, so I fixed it.

Aaron addeth, and Aaron taketh away, and Aaron updateth the tool.  https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Azure-AD-Connect-Network-150c20a3

Forwarding Address Export/Import

I don't think I've ever blogged about this tool (though it did make an appearance in the Microsoft Office 365 Administration Inside Out book a few months ago).  Several years ago, one of my customers raised an issue with their shared Active Directory and Exchange environment: people frequently moved between the hospital and the university, and as a result, ended up with multiple mailboxes (one for the hospital, one for the university).  When one person would move from one facility to the other, their old mailbox would be configured to forward to their new one.  And, when they moved back, the forward would be flipped the other direction.

We were engaged to help half of the organization move to Office 365, and the customer wanted to keep the forwarding address data current in the event that the users would have move back and forth.  AAD Connect doesn't synchronize the ForwardingAddress (AD Contact) or ForwardingSmtpAddress (generic SMTP forward) attributes to Office 365, so we needed another way.

And this tool was born.

At any rate, I updated the method I use to capture the DeliverToMailboxAndForward attribute value.  You can get the updated tool at: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Forwarding-Address-Import-5b3ead8e.

Export and Import Resource Calendar Processing Information

This is another tool I've never really written about (and again, this tool is also mentioned in the Microsoft Office 365 Administration Inside Out book), but it is definitely a valuable tool for mailbox migrations.  As with the previously mentioned forwarding address values, calendar processing information is also not captured or migrated during mailbox migrations.  This can lead to some very frustrating experiences.

The Export and Import Resource Calendar Processing tool takes care of that.  The tool is currently scoped for capturing resource mailbox types.  It depends on both the source and target mailboxes having been configured correctly as resources, and will identify targets that are incorrectly configured.  In several source environments that I worked in, we discovered that the source mailboxes had originally been configured as one type and then switched, but the values for calendar processing had stayed unmodified (legacy Exchange 2007 and 2010 environments, primarily).  This tool will identify those attributes on import--which is especially important in Office 365, as it's a stickler for what attributes are available for resource mailboxes.

I have updated a parameter and variable name in it, so the new version is now available at https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Export-and-Import-Calendar-123866af.

AAD Connect Advanced Permissions

I try to keep up on this tool a bunch, as it its necessity grows.  A few users reported an error with a Write-Log function, which I believe I have resolved.  The updated version is posted here: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/AD-Advanced-Permissions-49723f74

In February we announced that System Center, version 1801 was now available.  It’s the first release in our new Semi-Annual Channel and delivers new features and enhancements based on customer feedback. It builds on the capabilities of System Center 2016 and has support for the latest version of Windows Server, version 1709 as well as Windows Server 2016. It includes enhanced Linux monitoring support, more efficient VMware backup, and improved user experience and performance. For more details, read the full announcement..

In February we announced that System Center, version 1801 was now available.  It’s the first release in our new Semi-Annual Channel and delivers new features and enhancements based on customer feedback. It builds on the capabilities of System Center 2016 and has support for the latest version of Windows Server, version 1709 as well as Windows Server 2016. It includes enhanced Linux monitoring support, more efficient VMware backup, and improved user experience and performance. For more details, read the full announcement..

In February we announced that System Center, version 1801 was now available.  It’s the first release in our new Semi-Annual Channel and delivers new features and enhancements based on customer feedback. It builds on the capabilities of System Center 2016 and has support for the latest version of Windows Server, version 1709 as well as Windows Server 2016. It includes enhanced Linux monitoring support, more efficient VMware backup, and improved user experience and performance. For more details, read the full announcement..

In February we announced that System Center, version 1801 was now available.  It’s the first release in our new Semi-Annual Channel and delivers new features and enhancements based on customer feedback. It builds on the capabilities of System Center 2016 and has support for the latest version of Windows Server, version 1709 as well as Windows Server 2016. It includes enhanced Linux monitoring support, more efficient VMware backup, and improved user experience and performance. For more details, read the full announcement..