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
Generation 2 virtual machines in Azure in Public Preview
Generation 2 virtual machines use the new UEFI-based boot architecture vs. the BIOS-based architecture used by Generation 1 VMs. The new architecture enables customers to:
- Build large virtual machines (up to 12TB)
- Provision OS disks sizes that exceed 2TB, and
- Leverage advanced security capabilities like SecureBoot and Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) to secure their Virtual Machines.
If you want to take advantage of these features, you can now create Generation 2 virtual machines in Azure. For a complete list of capabilities, limitations and details associated with the deployment of Generation 2 virtual machines on Azure, please refer to this documentation.
Azure DDoS Protection Standard introduces DDoS Alert integration with Azure Security Center
DDoS Protection Standard customers can view DDoS Alerts in Azure Security Center (ASC) and this capability is generally available for all ASC and DDoS Standard customers. These DDoS alerts will be available for review in the Security Center in near real-time without any setup or manual integrations required and will provide details on DDoS attacks detected and automatically mitigated by the service.
General availability of Azure NetApp Files
Azure NetApp Files, the industry’s first bare-metal cloud file storage and data management service, is general availability (GA). Azure NetApp Files is an Azure first-party service for migrating and running the most demanding enterprise file-workloads in the cloud including databases, SAP, and high-performance computing applications with no code changes. Azure NetApp Files is a fully managed cloud service with full Azure portal integration. It’s sold and supported exclusively by Microsoft. Customers can seamlessly migrate and run applications in the cloud without worrying about procuring or managing storage infrastructure. Additionally, customers can purchase Azure NetApp Files and get support through existing Azure agreements, with no up-front or separate term agreement.
OpenVPN support in Azure VPN gateways
Microsoft announced the General Availability (GA) of OpenVPN protocol in Azure VPN gateways for P2S connectivity. Form more details you can read this article.
Azure Mv2 Virtual Machines are generally available
Azure Mv2-series virtual machines are hyper-threaded and feature Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8180M 2.5GHz (Skylake) processor, offering up to 208 vCPU in 3TB 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-series VMs are certified by SAP for SAP HANA OLTP and OLAP production workloads. Mv2 VMs are available in US East and US East 2 regions. Mv2 VMs in U.S. West 2, Europe West, Europe North and Southeast Asia regions will become available in the coming months.
Azure Stack
This release updates the resource provider and brings the following key capabilities and fixes:
- Updates to App Service Tenant, Admin, Functions portals and Kudu tools. Consistent with Azure Stack Portal SDK version.
- Updates to Kudu tools to resolve issues with styling and functionality for customers operating disconnected Azure Stack.
- Updates to core service to improve reliability and error messaging enabling easier diagnosis of common issues.
All other fixes and updates are detailed in the App Service on Azure Stack Update Six Release Notes. The App Service on Azure Stack Update 6 build number is 82.0.1.50.
