All posts by Gregor Reimling

Allgemein, Azure, Azure VM, Cloud, Microsoft, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022

Microsoft announced Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage in preview – for me a big announcement this year

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In the past, it was quite quiet about new features and announcements in the Azure IaaS space. Yes, sometimes there were new VM sizes with more cores or more RAM, but in general there were no surprising announcements last year. From my point of view, this has changed with MS Inspire, which is currently underway.

Microsoft announced, surprising from my point of view, a new Disk SKU for Azure VMs called Premium SSD v2 Disk. The last announcement in this area was 2019 with the introduction of Ultra Disks.

Continue reading Microsoft announced Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage in preview – for me a big announcement this year →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Network, Azure Security, Azure Sentinel, Certifications, Cloud, Microsoft

How I passed the Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect exam SC-100 and why I am now a Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert

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Three months ago on 7th of April Microsoft announce a new exam for security architects and introduce again the existing exams SC-200, SC-300, AZ-500 and MS-500. The article contains the new announcement of the new exam SC-100 to become Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect.

I took the Microsoft Cybersecurity Beta exam #SC100 and got yesterday the confirmation that I passed the exam. This is great news for me as it confirms that I am gaining a better and better knowledge in Azure Security topics.

In this article I will introduce the exam, how to get the Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert award and which materials I used to prepare for the exam.

Continue reading How I passed the Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect exam SC-100 and why I am now a Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert →
Allgemein, Community, Microsoft, MVP

Microsoft MVP for Azure 2022-2023

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Every year on July 1, the MVP renewal process takes place and Microsoft notifies us on that day if we will be awarded another year as an MVP based on our contributions. So most of the MVPs look into their inboxes and wait for the mail notification. Some colleagues call the day the F5 day, because second by second the inbox is updated 🙂

This year there were some technical difficulties and so late on July 1 there was an announcement that the MVP announcement would be delayed until July 5. A murmur went through the internet. 🙂

But late Tuesday I got to rejoice again, because that’s when the mail came and I was once again recognized as a Microsoft MPV in the Azure category for 2022-2023. It’s a great award, and I’m very pleased to have received this special award for the fourth year in a row.

Continue reading Microsoft MVP for Azure 2022-2023 →
Allgemein

MY UPCOMING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS IN 2022

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It’s been pretty quiet here on the blog the last few months and I’m sorry for that. I am in some big customer projects and am in full planning of some community events, like Global Azure at Azure Bonn and the Cloud Identity Summit, this was the reason of the silence in this blog. But I vow to mend my ways and will soon publish some blog articles again, which I am already working on. Today we start first with light fare and my upcoming community events. I hope to see you at one of the many events and get in touch with you.

Before I list the events where I will deliver a session I will shortly inform you, that I created a page where all upcoming Azure and Microsoft 365 community conferences are listed. Take a look there to find all events, that I’m aware of and please feel free to give me a hint, when I forget one.

Global Azure Cologne – 07/05/2022

VCNRW – Enforce Security & Compliance with Azure Policy – 25/05/2022

I’m really looking forward to the first meeting of the Virtualization Community NRW (VCNRW). The VCNRW team took a break for a few months and decided to return in May with face-to-face meetings. They approached me and asked for an Azure session and I gladly agreed. I’ve have the pleasure to hold a session about Enforce Cloud Security and Compliance with Azure Policy.

Experts Live Austria – Azure Automanage – 29/06/2022

The Experts Live is a great community that grows over the last couple of years. Is founded by a team as System Center Universe and changed the name to Experts Live some years ago. There are several Experts Live events in Europe and the Austria team is one of the first with a a in-person conference. I am pleased to announce to get an invite and will held a sesseion about Azure Automanage – Your VM service provider live at the conference in Austria.

Cloud Land – Azure Policy – 29/06/ – 01/07/22

The next before we going into the Summertime is the Cloud Land Conference Germany that will be placed in the Phantasia Land Brühl near Cologne. This is a larger event that goes over several days. I’m really happy to get a slot on this conference on Saturday with a session about Azure Policy.

AVD Tech Fest 2022 – 01/09/2022

The AVD TechFest was originally planned for March 2022 and was postponed to Septemper. I really looking forward to this Conference with a strong focus on Azure Virtual Desktop and other sessions related to Virtual Desktops. For this conference I created a special session about “Mastering AVD profiles with Azure (NetApp) Files” where I go into the different store services to store Windows User profiles in a efficient and secure way.

Experts Live Germany – 08/09/2022

The Experts Live is a conference format which was organized by different people from different country. Eric Berg and Carsten Rachpfahl organize the Experts Live Germany in Septemper and I’m really proud to be one of the speaker on this great Azure and Hybrid focused conference in the heart of Germany.

Workplace Ninja Summit – 12/09/ – 14/09/2022

I got my first invitation to the Workplace Ninja Summit, scheduled for mid-September in beautiful Lucerne. The Workplace Ninja Summit focuses on everything related to Workplace and Microsoft 365 technologies and brings together a lot of community greats and offers a lot of know-how and experience exchange for the participants during 3 days. I am very excited to be delivering a session on Azure Security Best Practices at the Workplace Summit.

Cloud IdentitySummit – 22/09/2022

And last but not least the next Cloud Identity Summit will take place on 22/09/2022 directly in Bonn at the DigitalHub near the Central Station Bonn. We are really happy to organize the 3rd edition of the Cloud Identity Summit and in this year first time as Hybrid edition. This means we will go to a full day event and the morning will have two different workshops as in-person only event and on the afternoon we will go into the hybrid format, where the session will be live at our location and will be delivered online.

CloudSummit 2022 – 26/09/-28/09/2022

Last December, the European Collaboration and Cloud Summit took place together in Duesseldorf. It was the only in-person conference in 2021 that I attend and it was a pleasure and great experience. Networking is an important part of a community conference and we all look forward to this nice part of every conference. This year only the Cloud Summit will be held in Mainz and I am very exited to speak about Azure Security.

Allgemein, Azure, Azure Active Directory, Cloud, Community, Meetup, Microsoft, Windows Virtual Desktop

Azure AMA – Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices #AVD with Marcel Meurer and Patrick Koehler – English Edition

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I’m excited to announce that we’re kicking off another Azure AMA on Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices session – English Edition. The last session was delivered in German and we get a lots of Feedback to repat this in English. I’m really happy to announce that your wish comes true and Marcel and Patrick was also available for a 2nd session 🙂

Marcel and Patrick are two Azure MVPs and do a lot of work in the AVD community. Marcel is known as the brains behind the WVDAdmin and Project Hydra products, which are services to automate all things Azure Virtual Desktop. Patrick has also been active in the AVD community for many years with great sessions and insights about AVD and is the organizer of AVD TechFest together with Simon Binder.

Azure AMA – Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices will take place live on Youtube on March 18, 2022 between 1:30 – 2:30 PM CET. You can register for this event via our Azure Bonn page. Please note that this is a live AMA session and we would love for you to join us live and bring your questions to the session. If you don’t have time this time, please use our Microsoft forms to submit your questions before the session starts. This session will be held English.

Allgemein, Azure, Azure Files, Azure Monitor, Azure Network, Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure VM, Cloud, Community, Events, Meetup, Microsoft, Windows Virtual Desktop

Azure AMA – Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices #AVD with Marcel Meurer and Patrick Koehler

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German below

I know it’s been a little quiet on new blog articles the last few months, but that’s due to other community topics I’m working on. One of my new projects is the Azure Ask my Anything Live format that I will be hosting with my team at Azure Bonn Live on YouTube and Linkedin. I’m excited to announce that we’re kicking off this year with an Azure AMA on Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices, and we have the pleasure of welcoming Marcel Meurer and Patrick Koehler to this session. Marcel and Patrick are two Azure MVPs and do a lot of work in the AVD community. Marcel is known as the brains behind the WVDAdmin and Project Hydra products, which are services to automate all things Azure Virtual Desktop. Patrick has also been active in the AVD community for many years with great sessions and insights about AVD and is the organizer of AVD TechFest together with Simon Binder.

Azure AMA – Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices will take place live on Youtube on February 14, 2022. You can register for this event via our Azure Bonn page. Please note that this is a live AMA session and we would love for you to join us live and bring your questions to the session. If you don’t have time this time, please use our Microsoft forms to submit your questions before the session starts. The session will be held in German, but you can also ask your questions in English.

German

Continue reading Azure AMA – Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices #AVD with Marcel Meurer and Patrick Koehler →
Allgemein

Zu Gast beim Decompose.io Podcast mit Azure Policy

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English Below

Letzte Woche hatte ich das Vergnügen zu Gast beim Decompose.io Podcast von Tillmann Eitelberg zu sein. Im Podcast haben wir über das Thema Azure Policy gesprochen und wir haben über vielfältige Themen gesprochen. Es war ein lockeres Gespräch mit viel fachsimpeln und unseren Eindrücken zu aktuellen Community Tätigkeiten.

Im Podcast haben wir unter anderem folgende Schwerpunkte thematisiert:

  • Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Azure Policy
  • Einsatzebenen (Governance, Security, etc.)
  • Best Practices und Grenzen
  • Verbindung zu Microsoft Defender for Cloud
  • und viel mehr

Hört gerne rein und hinterlasst gerne Feedback oder kommt mit Fragen auf uns zu.

Viel Spaß beim anhören.

English below

Continue reading Zu Gast beim Decompose.io Podcast mit Azure Policy →
Allgemein, System Management, Ubiquiti

Migrate Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway (USG) to Unifi Dream Machine Pro (UDM Pro)

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Some of my customers using Ubiquiti components in there networks, because of the great price and performance ratio and the easy administration. On of my customers the Unifi Security Gateway had a defect shortly before christmas. We decided to renew the both components (Unifi Security Gateway and Unifi Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus) with the Unifi Dream Machine Pro. On my research for the best upgrade process I do not found a good article how is the best way to migrate the Ubiquiti environment from the USG to a UDM Pro. In this article I will explain this in a short way, because with the actual release of the UniFi OS, the upgrade process is smooth and simple.

Preperation

The preparation is not necessary, but I will recommend to do this for easy device management, when something go wrong.

  • upgrade all devices to the latest available firmware
  • Note all ssh logins for your existing Unifi devices
  • take a backup on a secure place (e.g. OneDrive)

Preparing the Unifi Cloud Key

Go to your Unifi Network Portal (Client or Unifi Cloud Key based) and upgrade the USG and all devices to the latest available firmware.

After the update process is successfully completed download a backup from your Cloud Key. Did you use a Cloud Key Gen 2 with Camera Protection also update it to the latest available version and download the configuration file for the protect software.

Install the UDM Pro

Firstly install the UDM Pro into your existing network. Use the UDM Pro WAN Port and connect it with the existing network and connect a notebook with the UDM over one of the existing switch ports. This helps to bring the UDM Pro online and does not affect the existing network, when you use the WAN Port. Open a browser from your notebook and go to 192.168.1.1. The UDM Pro setup website will be open and you can go trough the easy steps to setup and connect the UDM Pro with an existing Ubquiti account.

After you finished the setup process update the hole software

  • Unifi OS of UDM Pro
  • Network Application
  • Protect Application

to the latest available update (in my case 6.5.55)

Preparing the Unifi Cloud Key

On the Unifi Cloud Key Gen 2 it also necessary to update to the latest available update (in my case 6.5.55). After the firmware are up to date, take a backup from the Network and Protect application.

Replace the USG with the UDM

Disconnect the WAN Port, connect through one of the switch ports and access the UDM Pro admin site 192.168.1.1 and configure the UDM Pro with the same IP as of the USG. Save the configuration and shutdown the UDM Pro in the admin portal.

Disconnect the USG and the Cloud Key (when exist) from the network and replace it with the UDM Pro and start the UDM Pro.

The UDM Pro will be available shortly under the same IP as the USG and you can enter the UDM Pro admin site. Login and go firstly to the Network application and import the backup file. After the import is successfully completed the UDM Pro will reboot. After the reboot the migration of the network part is complete and all devices are up and connected to the new UDM Pro.

Do the same for the Protect application, when you had available Unifi camera devices. After the import of the backup file is completed, the cameras are now report directly to the UDM Pro.

Allgemein, Azure, Azure Backup, Azure VM, Cloud, Community, Microsoft

Reinstall Azure Backup Windows Workload to fix UserErrorSQL NoSysadminMembership for SQL Server in Azure VM

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In the last couple of days I try to optimize some Azure environments from security and cost perspective. One customer has a SQL Server Express installed inside an Azure VM. The backup was configured for the hole VM, but there is no need to backup the Datadisk which contains the SQL databases. In this article I will explain how you can reinstall the Azure Backup Windows Workload extension to fix the issue when the service account will not listed on the Azure SQL Server VM. This fix the issue only did you not find the service account in the SQL Server management studio. To add the account in the right way, please refer to the article from Wim Matthysen.

Continue reading Reinstall Azure Backup Windows Workload to fix UserErrorSQL NoSysadminMembership for SQL Server in Azure VM →
Allgemein, Cloud, Community, Microsoft

Recap of 2021 and Looking forward to 2022

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2021 is over and it was a challenging and interesting year from many perspectives. I think the most important thing in these times is health and consideration for the community. Looking back to 2021, I was a speaker at many virtual events and that was quite interesting because of the different organization and audience. What I miss most is feedback and discussing different solutions with the event attendees. This was a little bit sad, because the virtual events feel more like a YouTube streaming and less a in-person event. So when I look in direction of spring, I hope we can get back more to in-person event.

Looking forward to 2022

I’am really looking forwad to 2022. We planning some great Azure Bonn Meetups and will start in January with Esther Barthel and Transitioning Ops to the Cloud and in February we will welcome David O Brien.

The 3rd Cloud Identity Summit is also on our List and we hope we can start this event first time as a Hybrid conference – so stay tuned and follow our Twitter account for latest updates.

Finally, I have a few tasks on my list. I will update my sessions to focus more on governance, security and cloud reviews because I see many growing cloud environments with little review iterations, yet there are some services that can help clean up your cloud environments and get them in good shape.

I will also expand my activities on Youtube, where I will conduct more frequent AMA sessions on various Azure topics. You can find there a AMA Session about Azure VM Best Practice for the Festive Techcalendar where I discuss different best pratice with Eric Berg, Marcel Meurer and the audience for the Festive Tech Calendar.

I am also looking forward to a adesso meeting in Frankfurt where we will share the important Azure topics for 2022. When you interested in meet me live and discuss the interesting topics for 2022 please join our (german) event “Wolkenreicher Start in den Frühling” on 09/03/2022.

And you will recognize me better now that I have a small logo for my activities 🙂

I would like to take this opportunity to thank some great community heroes for the past year and your support: Melanie Eible, Thomas Naunheim, René de la Motte, Eric Berg and Marcel Meurer

Finally I noted the upcoming #community events, that I aware of it on my event page. Upcoming Conferences and Open CFPs | Gregor Reimling

Recap of 2021

Continue reading Recap of 2021 and Looking forward to 2022 →