This series of blog posts includes the most important announcements and major updates regarding Azure infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and Azure Stack, officialized by Microsoft in the last two weeks.
Azure
Azure File Sync supports the firewall and virtual network setting on storage accounts
To configure your Azure File Sync deployment to work with the firewall and virtual network setting, perform the following steps:
- Go to the storage account you want to secure.
- Click on the settings menu called Firewalls and virtual networks.
- Click on allow access from Selected networks.
- To enable servers to sync to the Azure file share, verify the server’s IP address or virtual network has been added.
- To enable the Storage Sync Service to access the storage account and Azure file share, verify the Allow trusted Microsoft services to access this storage account is selected.
- Click Save to save your settings.
This feature works with any Azure File Sync agent version.
Azure File Sync agent v7.2 update
Improvements and issues that are fixed:
- Storage Sync Agent (FileSyncSvc) crashes if the proxy configuration is null.
- Server endpoint will start BCDR (error 0x80c80257 – ECS_E_BCDR_IN_PROGRESS) if multiple endpoints on the server have the same name.
- Cloud tiering reliability improvements.
To obtain and install this update, configure your Azure File Sync agent to automatically update when a new version becomes available or manually download the update from the Microsoft Update Catalog.
New features to IPv6 support for Azure VNets
In addition to the preview capabilities announced on April 23, IPv6 for Azure VNET public preview now includes:
- Standard IPv6 Public Load Balancer support to create resilient, scalable applications which includes:
- IPv6 health probe to determine which backend pool instances are healthy and thus can receive new connections.
- Outbound Rules provide full declarative control over outbound connectivity to precisely tune your network for scale and resiliency.
- Multiple Front-end Configurations enable a single load balancer to use multiple IPv6 Public IP addresses – the same frontend protocol and port can be reused across frontend addresses.
- Instance-level Public IP provides IPv6 Internet connectivity directly to Individual VM’s
- Azure Portal support for the preview now includes interactive create/edit/delete of dual stack (IPv4/IPv6) Virtual Networks and subnets, IPv6 Network Security Group Rules, IPv6 User defined routes, and IPv6 Public IP’s.
Azure Security Center launched new network recommendations
There are new and updated Azure Security Center networking recommendations. For more information, see the Network Recommendations section in the Azure Security Center documentation.
Proximity placement groups are in preview
A proximity placement group is an Azure Virtual Machine logical grouping capability that you can use to decrease network latency among VMs. When the VMs are deployed within the same proximity placement group, the VMs are physically located as close as possible to each other. Proximity placement groups are particularly useful to address the requirements of latency-sensitive workloads.
New 48 vCPUs Azure Virtual Machine sizes are available
New 48 vCPUs sizes for the Dv3, Dsv3, Ev3, Esv3, Fsv2, and Lsv2 Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) are available so you can better match your workload requirements.
Azure Mv2-series VMs up to 6 TB of memory are available for the US West 2 region
Azure Mv2-series virtual machines are hyper-threaded and feature Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8180M 2.5 GHz (Skylake) processors, offering up to 208 vCPU in 3 TB and 6 TB memory configurations. Mv2 virtual machines provide unparalleled computational performance to support large in-memory databases and workloads such as SAP HANA and SQL Hekaton. Mv2 VMs are available in US East, US East 2 regions, and US West 2 regions. Mv2 VMs in Europe West, Europe North, and Southeast Asia regions will become available in the coming months.
Availability Zones support is available for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) in preview
Availability Zones support is now available for AKS in preview. Protect applications and data from datacenter failures with redundancies across Availability Zones and achieve higher availability and resiliency for worker nodes with Availability Zones, used in conjunction with Azure Standard Load Balancer.
Network Performance Monitor in Central India
Network Performance Monitor is now available in Central India region.
Azure Lab Services updates
- Azure Lab Services has a new instance size available: Medium (nested virtualization)
- Azure Lab Services has removed the unlimited option from quota per user so lab owners can intentionally choose a specific number of hours needed for each lab to help save costs.
- Azure Lab Services supports the ability to reset passwords and to provide added support for Ubuntu images.
Azure Stack
Azure Stack 1907 update
Azure Stack 1907 Update is available. Check the release notes for more details.
