Author Archives: danielstechblog

Automate taking backups from Azure disks attached to Azure Kubernetes Service

At the beginning of 2019 I wrote a blog post about taking backups from Azure disks attached to an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster. -> https://www.danielstechblog.io/taking-backups-from-azure-disks-attached-to-aks-via-azure-automation/ Since then, some things changed. Azure Function PowerShell support went into public preview in April 2019 and the AzTable (AzureRmStorageTable) module I use Read more [...]

Azure Policy for Azure Kubernetes Service

In June I already covered Azure Policy for Kubernetes in a blog post. -> https://www.danielstechblog.io/using-azure-policy-for-kubernetes/ Back then Azure Policy for AKS was in public preview. At this year’s Microsoft Ignite Azure Policy for AKS went GA. -> https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/ga-policy-addon-for-azure-kubernetes-service/ There have been some significant changes Read more [...]

Unix time format in Azure Resource Manager templates

The Unix time format is represented in seconds elapsed since 01.01.1970 UTC. So, it is different from the standard time format we are used to. Depending on the Azure service some attributes in the Azure API / ARM template require the Unix time format especially Azure Key Vault keys and secrets. Those ones have two attributes the not before (nbf) and expiry (exp) date requiring the Unix time format. -> Read more [...]

Azure Kubernetes Service – Microsoft Ignite announcements

At this year’s first digital Microsoft Ignite conference Microsoft announced several GA and preview features for its Azure Kubernetes Service. GA: Azure Policy add-on for AKS GA: Ubuntu 18.04 as new base image GA: Mutate default storage class Preview: Azure RBAC for Kubernetes authorization Preview: AKS cluster start/stop feature Preview: Kubernetes 1.19 support Preview: New Read more [...]

Trigger an on-demand Azure Policy compliance evaluation scan

Azure Policy evaluates resource compliance automatically every 24 hours for already assigned policies or initiatives. New policy or initiative assignments start the evaluation after the assignment has been applied to the defined scope which might take up to 30 minutes. What might be a hidden gem to some of you is the case that you can trigger an on-demand compliance evaluation scan whenever Read more [...]

Introduction to Azure Resource Mover

Azure Resource Mover is a new service in Azure that lets you move resources across regions. It complements the existing capabilities to move resources between resource groups in the same subscriptions or cross subscriptions. Scenarios for Azure Resource Mover are: Taking advantage of a new Azure region that is closer to you and thus reducing latency. Moving resources to Azure regions Read more [...]

Downgrade the Linux kernel on an Azure Ubuntu VM

Sometimes it might be that you need to downgrade the Linux kernel on an Azure Ubuntu VM. Especially when you use Azure Site Recovery for BCDR. As the ASR agent has a slight delay on supporting the latest Linux kernel versions. -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/azure-to-azure-support-matrix#supported-ubuntu-kernel-versions-for-azure-virtual-machines Ubuntu was one of Read more [...]

Using distroless images in Istio on Azure Kubernetes Service

Looking at Docker Hub Istio provides the option using distroless images since version 1.3.0. As it is always a good idea on a Kubernetes cluster to reduce the attack surface, especially when running a managed Kubernetes cluster like Azure Kubernetes Service, using distroless images is one option of it. Per default Istio does not use the distroless image versions. So, you need to opt in for Read more [...]

Microsoft MVP Award – Microsoft Azure

Today, I received an exciting email that I got the Microsoft MVP award in the category Microsoft Azure. In total this is my fourth award after being awarded in the category Cloud and Datacenter Management in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Then I joined Microsoft and hence as a Microsoft employee was not eligible anymore for receiving the MVP award. After nearly three years at Microsoft I decided Read more [...]

Assigning RBAC permissions with Azure Resource Manager templates

Recently, I updated my AKS ARM template supporting the latest AKS feature set and important RBAC role assignments for the AKS cluster. After having a hard time, I managed to get the RBAC role assignment working. When you now think what should be so complicated? Check out my tweet on Twitter getting the background information. -> https://twitter.com/neumanndaniel/status/1294272253211947008 It Read more [...]