Category Archives: Azure Network

Allgemein, Azure, Azure Network, Azure Security, Cloud, Microsoft, Zero Trust

Azure Firewall Basic SKU is now GA

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Microsoft announces with the Azure Firewall Standard and Premium two native Firewall Services available as PaaS solution what are a great benefit to classic Firewall deployments, because of native Autoscaling Features, no need for VM Management and more. Unfortunately the price was to high for SMBs, with 900€ for the Standard and over 1200€ for the Premium Edition. A frequently requested Features, was a cheaper variant aimed at small and medium businesses.

This wish has been answered and last year October with the Azure Firewall Basic edition (public preview). The Azure Firewall Basic (AzFw Basic) has leaved the Public Preview and are now GA. The planned subscription must first be prepared before the deployment can begin with some Powershell commands.

Now Azure offers three different Azure Firewall solutions. The following table list the different SKUs and the price for using in West Europe (03/2023).

Microsoft has made some changes to deploy the Firewall Basic compared to the Firewall Standard and Premium SKU for better Service avalability. This article will give you a short overview of this changes.

Continue reading Azure Firewall Basic SKU is now GA →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Arc, Azure Automanage, Azure Network, Azure Security, Azure VM, Cloud, Microsoft

My favorite Microsoft Ignite 2022 Fall Highlights

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After the pandemic beguns Microsoft switched the both big conference Microsoft Build and Microsoft Ignite to virtual only events. The Ignite was two times a year in 2020 and 2021. For 2022 it was long time not clear will it go back to an in-person event or still stay as a virtual event.

The Microsoft Ignite 2022 has start 2 hours ago as an hybrid event delivered from Seattle with 6 Spotlight events around the globe and delivered as before virtually. I’m a little disappointed because a lot of the content is pre-recorded and even great speakers like Donovan Brown don’t hold their sessions live in Seattle but are only shown there virtually as well.

In this article I will share the important announcements from my perspective from the Microsoft Ignite 2022. Most of you know me as an Azure Governance, (Hybrid) Infrastructure and Security guy, so please forgive me for focusing on these things.

Continue reading My favorite Microsoft Ignite 2022 Fall Highlights →
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, 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, Azure, Azure Bastion, Azure Network, Azure VM, Cloud, Microsoft, Remotedesktop

Azure Bastion supports SCALABILITY for SSH/RDP Connections with the new Standard SKU

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Update 1 on 01/12/2021 :

Microsoft has changed the #AzureBastion minimum subnet size from /27 to /26. Installed #Azure Bastion are unaffected, but new deployments require the new subnet size. Please remember this. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bastion/bastion-faq#subnet

Azure Bastion is a fully managed PaaS service to secure access Azure VMs via SSH/RDP without the need for Internet connectivity on the selected VMs. Azure Bastion was released as part of the Microsoft Ignite 2019. As part of the ongoing Microsoft Inspire 2021, Microsoft has launched a new SKU for Azure Bastion called Standard.

Difference between Basic and Standard SKU

When you create an Azure Bastion instance Microsoft creates in the backend an optimized Azure VM that runs all the processes they are needed for Azure Bastion. This Azure VM is called a Instance and had some limitations. In general when you deploy the Azure Bastion Basic SKU Microsoft deploys two instances which supports 20-24 concurrent sessions which means each instance support 10-12 sessions.

The Standard SKU allows you to specify the number of instances called as host scalling.

Please note that when using an Azure Bastion Standard SKU, the AzureBastionSubnet size should be increased to a subnet size of approximately /26 or larger.

Azure BastionBasicStandard
Instances2 Defaultup to 50
Max. supported concurrent sessions20-24up to 500
Supported configurationAzure Portal, Powershell, CLIOnly Azure Portal

Deploy an Azure Bastion Standard SKU

Only the Azure Portal allows to deploy an Azure Bastion Standard SKU with the host scalling feature, because the feature is in public preview.

Continue reading Azure Bastion supports SCALABILITY for SSH/RDP Connections with the new Standard SKU →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Arc, Azure Automanage, Azure Files, Azure Migrate, Azure Network, Cloud, Events, Microsoft, Windows Admin Center, Windows Server 2022

My Microsoft Ignite 2021 Spring Highlights

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The corona situation brings new opportunities and one of them is that Microsoft Ignite going to a virtual conference twice a year. It used to be an in-person event only once a year. Last week the Microsoft Ignite 2021 spring conference started and in this article I will cover most of the highlights from my perspective. I would really appreciate your feedback on how valuable the article is.

Windows Server 2022 in preview

With Windows Server 2022 there coming the next Major release for as Windows Server OS. This release coming as the next LTSC release with lots of new features, such as new hybrid and security capabilities. Take a look at the MS Ignite Session about latest Azure innovation for SQL and Windows Servers

Passwordless Azure AD authentication is GA

To prevent phishing attacks Microsoft is part of the FIDO2 alliance. Azure AD supports long time ago the login with FIDO2 keys, but the service are in public preview. With this Ignite Microsoft move the service from Public Preview state into GA state and add some new capabilities, like the Temporary access pass. To unterstand how FIDO2 and TAP works, take a look at the short video. Passwordless authentication with FIDO2 keys, brings Identity Security to a new level. This prevents custom user passwords, enable higher security and preventing phishing attacks.

To enable passwordless login for the own Azure AD Tenant take a look at my blog article “Setup passwordless login for Azure & Microsoft 365 mit Yubico and FIDO2 (german)“.

http://aka.ms/passwordlesswizard

Continue reading My Microsoft Ignite 2021 Spring Highlights →
Active Directory, Allgemein, Azure, Azure Active Directory, Azure Files, Azure Network, Cloud, Community, Events, Microsoft, Remotedesktop, Windows Virtual Desktop

Speaking at WVD Tech Fest 2021 about Azure Files

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Due do the covid pandamy, many organizations in Germany are in a challenging phase as many employees need to be given the opportunity to work from home. Many companies have not yet made this option available to their employees, or only to a few. Microsoft has created a new option with Windows Virtual Desktop to give employees the ability to work from anywhere and the clients are always hosted in Azure and accessible via an app or browser.

I am very happy to have received an invitation to the WVD Tech Fest. The first conference only focusing on WVD with three parallel tracks around everything you need to know about Windows Virtual Desktop. The agenda is pretty complete and the organizers Simon Binder and Patrick Köhler are doing a great job. The conference will take place on 25/02/21 and is free. So take a look at the Website, plan your Agenda and grab your Ticket.

Azure Files is one of my favorite topics and due to many WVD projects in the past, I will address the question is Azure Files the optimal WVD profile store solution. And I can say: it depends – but you will learn more in my session on Thursday between 10:50 – 11:20 AM 🙂

Take this oppurtunity to learn more about Windows Virtual Desktop and hopefully this can be a solution for your organization to enable more people to work from anywhere and get everyone safely through these challenging time. I hope to see many of you there 🙂

Allgemein, Azure, Azure Automanage, Azure Backup, Azure Bastion, Azure Governance, Azure Monitor, Azure Network, Azure Security, Azure VM, Cloud, Community, Microsoft, Windows Server

Azure VM Best Practices

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Last year Gregor Suttie and Richard Hooper launched the Azure Advent Calendar and I got to support with a session on Azure Bastion. This year they improved on the idea with the Festive Tech Calendar. I’m happy to be back with an article on Azure VM best practices. I hope you find the article helpful and I would appreciate feedback.

Over the past few months, I have conducted many customer workshops, designed and implemented Landing Zones, and migrated or placed VMs into Azure. One of the most common customer questions has been about best practices for Azure VMs to maximize performance and efficiency, minimize costs, increase security, and reduce management overhead. This article is based on my real-world experience and recommendations based on several Azure projects.

Continue reading Azure VM Best Practices →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Bastion, Azure Network, Azure Security, Cloud, Microsoft

Azure Bastion now supports VNET Peering

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Update 2 on 01/12/2021

Microsoft has changed the #AzureBastion minimum subnet size from /27 to /26. Installed #Azure Bastion are unaffected, but new deployments require the new subnet size. Please remember this. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bastion/bastion-faq#subnet

Update – 12/2020

Azure Bastion is now available in West Germany Central.

Azure Bastion is a service to avoid deployment own Jumphosts and reach Azure VMs over the Management Ports (SSH and RDP) in a secure way without the need to assign Public IPs directly to Azure VMs.

Azure Bastion got a really big improvement and now supports Azure VNET Peering. This includes all VNET peering models, inside a single subscription and VNET peering across different subscriptions.

Continue reading Azure Bastion now supports VNET Peering →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Active Directory, Azure Network, Cloud, Microsoft

Azure VPN AAD P2S Error Server did not respond properly to vpn control packets resolved

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In the last few days I have created some Azure Landingzones. To secure access to Azure resources within the landing zone with different users, customers use a P2S connection through the Azure VPN Gateway using Azure AD for authentication.

Sometimes I see some mistakes in the Azure VPN Point-to-site configuration blade that results in the Error: “Server did not respond properly to vpn control packets” when trying to connect to the VPN Gateway over the Azure VPN Client.

These error messages are often due to incorrect settings in the basic settings. To resolve this issue it is really important to configure the three points: Tenant & Audience & Issuer correctly.

Please pay close attention to the following settings:

  • The Tenant field must be specified in the following notation “https://login.microsoftonline.com/your-Azuread-Tenant-ID-here/” at the end do not miss the backforwardslash /
  • Audience field must be only contains the Enterprise Application ID of the Azure VPN client (this is the same for all Tenants) “41b23e61-6c1e-4545-b367-cd054e0ed4b4” without any other characters or spaces
  • The Issuer field must be specified in the following notation “https://sts.windows.net/your-Azuread-Tenant-ID-here/” at the end do not miss the backslash /

Please be aware of the difference between the Tenant- (begins with https://login….) and Issuer field (begins with https://sts.win…).

Please contact me if you have any questions or if you find further errors and solutions 🙂

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