Mastering Azure & Cloud
one post at a time

Intro

In the first blog post (here), I wrote the most basic Bicep code for deploying a host pool, application groups, and a workspace. The result will be the same resources in this part, but the code will be a bit more advanced, allowing us to customize the deployment. I will keep the code simple, and the goal is to make the part we change for each deployment as simple as possible, while the Bicep modules contain the more advanced code.

Intro

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is a managed service that runs virtual desktops and applications in Azure. Some components are deployed and configured to fit your company’s needs, even with a managed solution. In this blog post, I will walk you through the necessary steps before any end-user can log in to the virtualized desktop. I will use Bicep code and PowerShell in this blog post, but there are more options if you prefer other languages. This blog post also starts the topic of AVD on my blog, and I intend to add more during the next weeks and months. My main focus is on automation, but there will also be a few on optimization in AVD.

Credits and sources

Microsoft Learn

Intro

In this blog post, I will show how to use Azure DevOps pipelines with source code placed in GitHub. I will also show you how to integrate GitHub with Azure DevOps boards so that you can manage your project in Azure DevOps and close work items by using commits to your GitHub repository.

This can be useful in migration scenarios and scenarios where you want the repository features from GitHub together with Azure DevOps features like project management and pipelines.

Credits and sources

Microsoft Learn

Hashicorp

Hashicorp docs

Intro

This article is about automating image builds in Azure. I am using Packer in this scenario and will use a Windows image for the examples. Linux builds use the same process. The goal is to make a customized image in Azure and place it in the Azure Compute Gallery for use with either AVD or Scale Sets.

I will walk through the process of using Packer on my machine and then move the process into GitHub Action for an automated build.

Credits and sources

Microsoft Learn

Intro

In this part of the blog series, I want to show you what Microsoft Defender for Key Vault (MDKV) brings. MDKV helps to protect the Azure Key Vaults against suspicious activities, and it does so without any agent installation. MDKV is one of the most straightforward features to manage. Still, it does protect some of the most sensitive resources you will have in Azure, like, for instance, certificates and secrets used to access your resources and data.

Credits and sources

Microsoft Learn

Intro

In this part of the blog series, I want to show you what Microsoft Defender for DNS (MDDNS) brings. MDDNS helps to protect the Azure DNS services against suspicious activities, and it does so without any agent installation.

Microsoft Defender for DNS features

The features that MDDNS offers are protection against:

• Data exfiltration
• Malware
• DNS attacks
• Communication with domains used for malicious activities (phishing and crypto mining)

Microsoft Defender for DNS alerts

Microsoft Learn Docs provides a complete list of alerts that MDDNS provides; see the link below.