AzureFunBytes - The AZ-900 Badge, Your First Triumph on Azure

I recently sat down with a friend of mine for an AzureFunBytes stream and discussed his current training on Azure Fundamentals using Microsoft Learn. Like many others across the globe, Mike was impacted by the COVID19 pandemic which led to mass layoffs. Mike often sees me extol the virtues of taking the Microsoft Learn Azure Fundamentals training and became interested. I pointed him in the right direction and he jumped feet first into the training.

Mike and I talked a little bit about certificates and their value, especially for those of us who got into technology in the early 2000s. I was not a college graduate. I did not come with a credential when I was looking for work explaining that I was proficient based on the school’s academic standards. Because of this, I looked to professional accreditations from Microsoft and COMPTIA. By following the learning paths provided then, I was able to crack the books and pass my certificates.

One catch though

Here was the hard part… training and preparation for the test. I was working another full-time job and looking to get training for my exam. in 2002 I had only access to education with an on-site school with instructor-led courses. These training courses were costly, time-consuming and typically came after my workday. I was always stressed. I wanted to keep up with the rest of the class, keep up with my systems administration work and also enjoy time with my then-girlfriend, now wife.

Preparation for my tests was hard, very hard. There were no resources to use at home except books and poorly made CD-ROMs. I spent so many hours after those 6:30 PM training courses still trying to understand concepts around Active Directory, Windows 2000 networking, and other key parts of becoming proficient enough to get my MCP.

I carried on, I took my first test and passed! I had one more to go to get my MCP and felt encouraged. I had just taken my A+ and passed. I knew I was on the right path.

Failure

I didn’t pass the second test the first time. I sat in the PEARSON testing center, $150 less in cash, and wondered how all the work I did just didn’t seem like enough. There were aspects around AD I just didn’t know and weren’t prepared for. Our instructor-led training got us the things we needed to know conceptually, but there were actual “real world” types of examples I still didn’t feel I knew the answers to. That was obviously proven around my test score, I just didn’t have all the skills yet.

Postmortem and resolution

I took a real hard look at what I didn’t understand about the test in regards to AD, domain controllers, and how they were connected. I had spent a lot of time around Linux systems and these AD concepts were still foreign to me.

In those classes, I felt really self-conscious when I didn’t understand one of the topics. I was in a room full of other working professional adults. I was at times afraid to speak up and say I didn’t get one of the subjects in fear of interrupting the flow of the class. It became a sticking point for me on why I was getting

I recognized that I needed to spend time using technology rather than reading about it. I started coming to school on weekends and using the lab facility to train. I had a room full of Windows 2000 and Windows NT servers to learn from. I was able to configure networks, authentication, add policies, and learn what I needed. After doing this for about two months while also preparing for my NET+ test I finally scheduled my second test to complete my MCP.

Take Two… uh oh.

Returning to PEARSON was intimidating. While I had seen success prior, the recent failure felt like a reminder that this was not easy. I went into the testing room and then the worst happened. The modem for the network to connect to the testing network was failing. I walk out of the testing room and find a person who administered my test poking in a closet.

“Hey is this broken?”

“Yeah,” the person said. “I think you may need to reschedule but let me try something.”

The person pushes a few keyboard buttons, but I notice some red lights on the external modem appears to be flashing. I see a phone next to it and being the nosy boy who wanted to take his test I ask,

“Is that the phone for the modem line?”

“Yep”

“Mind picking up and listening?”

The person picks up the phone, we hear a busy signal. He unplugs the line from the wall, plugs in back in and then hits dial on the program again. It works.

“Good thinking.”

I go back to the room, kind of shaken up about having to assist with tech support, and start my exam. I answer the questions with far more confidence this time. I feel good about what I am doing as the questions begin to get more difficult as I continue. I finally reach the end and wait for the computer to spit out my result. I see “CLICK HERE TO GET SCORE” and follow my modem driven leader’s instructions.

PASS

I sigh with relief. I did it.

I’ve had this card since 2003 and have always held on to it as a reminder, I did it.

Opportunity knocks…

I look back on what I had to do, how I did it, and eventually what this moment all meant for me. I finally got something that helped me feel like I was ready, I was prepared and able to say “I know this.” I’d go on to take Linux+ and felt I was ready to take on some new interviews. About early 2003 my old job was about to go out of business. The company had simply run out of money. My boss’s hosting and dial-up simply weren’t making money and it was time to really find the next step.

I eventually got my opportunity when a managed service provider in the New Jersey area went on a hiring binge as they expanded. They wanted young, newly trained, and ready to work people with their certs. They felt that those certs proved that we had already wanted to do this kind of work. As I went through the interview and eventually hiring process, one thing that was communicated to me is that I was more than welcome to continue taking more of these certificates. The company even offered to pay for the exams every time I passed one. This was greater encouragement to keep going, and I did. I worked at the MSP for eight years and was able to learn and accomplish so much. But it all started with those first tests, those certs, and the desire to prove I knew these subjects.

#azure & cloud #community #devops

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Learn NoSQL in Azure: Diving Deeper into Azure Cosmos DB

This article is a part of the series – Learn NoSQL in Azure where we explore Azure Cosmos DB as a part of the non-relational database system used widely for a variety of applications. Azure Cosmos DB is a part of Microsoft’s serverless databases on Azure which is highly scalable and distributed across all locations that run on Azure. It is offered as a platform as a service (PAAS) from Azure and you can develop databases that have a very high throughput and very low latency. Using Azure Cosmos DB, customers can replicate their data across multiple locations across the globe and also across multiple locations within the same region. This makes Cosmos DB a highly available database service with almost 99.999% availability for reads and writes for multi-region modes and almost 99.99% availability for single-region modes.

In this article, we will focus more on how Azure Cosmos DB works behind the scenes and how can you get started with it using the Azure Portal. We will also explore how Cosmos DB is priced and understand the pricing model in detail.

How Azure Cosmos DB works

As already mentioned, Azure Cosmos DB is a multi-modal NoSQL database service that is geographically distributed across multiple Azure locations. This helps customers to deploy the databases across multiple locations around the globe. This is beneficial as it helps to reduce the read latency when the users use the application.

As you can see in the figure above, Azure Cosmos DB is distributed across the globe. Let’s suppose you have a web application that is hosted in India. In that case, the NoSQL database in India will be considered as the master database for writes and all the other databases can be considered as a read replicas. Whenever new data is generated, it is written to the database in India first and then it is synchronized with the other databases.

Consistency Levels

While maintaining data over multiple regions, the most common challenge is the latency as when the data is made available to the other databases. For example, when data is written to the database in India, users from India will be able to see that data sooner than users from the US. This is due to the latency in synchronization between the two regions. In order to overcome this, there are a few modes that customers can choose from and define how often or how soon they want their data to be made available in the other regions. Azure Cosmos DB offers five levels of consistency which are as follows:

• Strong
• Bounded staleness
• Session
• Consistent prefix
• Eventual

In most common NoSQL databases, there are only two levels – Strong and Eventual. Strong being the most consistent level while Eventual is the least. However, as we move from Strong to Eventual, consistency decreases but availability and throughput increase. This is a trade-off that customers need to decide based on the criticality of their applications. If you want to read in more detail about the consistency levels, the official guide from Microsoft is the easiest to understand. You can refer to it here.

Azure Cosmos DB Pricing Model

Now that we have some idea about working with the NoSQL database – Azure Cosmos DB on Azure, let us try to understand how the database is priced. In order to work with any cloud-based services, it is essential that you have a sound knowledge of how the services are charged, otherwise, you might end up paying something much higher than your expectations.

If you browse to the pricing page of Azure Cosmos DB, you can see that there are two modes in which the database services are billed.

• Database Operations – Whenever you execute or run queries against your NoSQL database, there are some resources being used. Azure terms these usages in terms of Request Units or RU. The amount of RU consumed per second is aggregated and billed
• Consumed Storage – As you start storing data in your database, it will take up some space in order to store that data. This storage is billed per the standard SSD-based storage across any Azure locations globally

Let’s learn about this in more detail.

#azure #azure cosmos db #nosql #azure #nosql in azure #azure cosmos db

How to set up Azure Data Sync between Azure SQL databases and on-premises SQL Server

In this article, you learn how to set up Azure Data Sync services. In addition, you will also learn how to create and set up a data sync group between Azure SQL database and on-premises SQL Server.

In this article, you will see:

• Overview of Azure SQL Data Sync feature
• Discuss key components
• Comparison between Azure SQL Data sync with the other Azure Data option
• Setup Azure SQL Data Sync
• More…

Azure Data Sync

Azure Data Sync —a synchronization service set up on an Azure SQL Database. This service synchronizes the data across multiple SQL databases. You can set up bi-directional data synchronization where data ingest and egest process happens between the SQL databases—It can be between Azure SQL database and on-premises and/or within the cloud Azure SQL database. At this moment, the only limitation is that it will not support Azure SQL Managed Instance.

#azure #sql azure #azure sql #azure data sync #azure sql #sql server

AzureFunBytes - The AZ-900 Badge, Your First Triumph on Azure

I recently sat down with a friend of mine for an AzureFunBytes stream and discussed his current training on Azure Fundamentals using Microsoft Learn. Like many others across the globe, Mike was impacted by the COVID19 pandemic which led to mass layoffs. Mike often sees me extol the virtues of taking the Microsoft Learn Azure Fundamentals training and became interested. I pointed him in the right direction and he jumped feet first into the training.

Mike and I talked a little bit about certificates and their value, especially for those of us who got into technology in the early 2000s. I was not a college graduate. I did not come with a credential when I was looking for work explaining that I was proficient based on the school’s academic standards. Because of this, I looked to professional accreditations from Microsoft and COMPTIA. By following the learning paths provided then, I was able to crack the books and pass my certificates.

One catch though

Here was the hard part… training and preparation for the test. I was working another full-time job and looking to get training for my exam. in 2002 I had only access to education with an on-site school with instructor-led courses. These training courses were costly, time-consuming and typically came after my workday. I was always stressed. I wanted to keep up with the rest of the class, keep up with my systems administration work and also enjoy time with my then-girlfriend, now wife.

Preparation for my tests was hard, very hard. There were no resources to use at home except books and poorly made CD-ROMs. I spent so many hours after those 6:30 PM training courses still trying to understand concepts around Active Directory, Windows 2000 networking, and other key parts of becoming proficient enough to get my MCP.

I carried on, I took my first test and passed! I had one more to go to get my MCP and felt encouraged. I had just taken my A+ and passed. I knew I was on the right path.

Failure

I didn’t pass the second test the first time. I sat in the PEARSON testing center, $150 less in cash, and wondered how all the work I did just didn’t seem like enough. There were aspects around AD I just didn’t know and weren’t prepared for. Our instructor-led training got us the things we needed to know conceptually, but there were actual “real world” types of examples I still didn’t feel I knew the answers to. That was obviously proven around my test score, I just didn’t have all the skills yet.

Postmortem and resolution

I took a real hard look at what I didn’t understand about the test in regards to AD, domain controllers, and how they were connected. I had spent a lot of time around Linux systems and these AD concepts were still foreign to me.

In those classes, I felt really self-conscious when I didn’t understand one of the topics. I was in a room full of other working professional adults. I was at times afraid to speak up and say I didn’t get one of the subjects in fear of interrupting the flow of the class. It became a sticking point for me on why I was getting

I recognized that I needed to spend time using technology rather than reading about it. I started coming to school on weekends and using the lab facility to train. I had a room full of Windows 2000 and Windows NT servers to learn from. I was able to configure networks, authentication, add policies, and learn what I needed. After doing this for about two months while also preparing for my NET+ test I finally scheduled my second test to complete my MCP.

Take Two… uh oh.

Returning to PEARSON was intimidating. While I had seen success prior, the recent failure felt like a reminder that this was not easy. I went into the testing room and then the worst happened. The modem for the network to connect to the testing network was failing. I walk out of the testing room and find a person who administered my test poking in a closet.

“Hey is this broken?”

“Yeah,” the person said. “I think you may need to reschedule but let me try something.”

The person pushes a few keyboard buttons, but I notice some red lights on the external modem appears to be flashing. I see a phone next to it and being the nosy boy who wanted to take his test I ask,

“Is that the phone for the modem line?”

“Yep”

“Mind picking up and listening?”

The person picks up the phone, we hear a busy signal. He unplugs the line from the wall, plugs in back in and then hits dial on the program again. It works.

“Good thinking.”

I go back to the room, kind of shaken up about having to assist with tech support, and start my exam. I answer the questions with far more confidence this time. I feel good about what I am doing as the questions begin to get more difficult as I continue. I finally reach the end and wait for the computer to spit out my result. I see “CLICK HERE TO GET SCORE” and follow my modem driven leader’s instructions.

PASS

I sigh with relief. I did it.

I’ve had this card since 2003 and have always held on to it as a reminder, I did it.

Opportunity knocks…

I look back on what I had to do, how I did it, and eventually what this moment all meant for me. I finally got something that helped me feel like I was ready, I was prepared and able to say “I know this.” I’d go on to take Linux+ and felt I was ready to take on some new interviews. About early 2003 my old job was about to go out of business. The company had simply run out of money. My boss’s hosting and dial-up simply weren’t making money and it was time to really find the next step.

I eventually got my opportunity when a managed service provider in the New Jersey area went on a hiring binge as they expanded. They wanted young, newly trained, and ready to work people with their certs. They felt that those certs proved that we had already wanted to do this kind of work. As I went through the interview and eventually hiring process, one thing that was communicated to me is that I was more than welcome to continue taking more of these certificates. The company even offered to pay for the exams every time I passed one. This was greater encouragement to keep going, and I did. I worked at the MSP for eight years and was able to learn and accomplish so much. But it all started with those first tests, those certs, and the desire to prove I knew these subjects.

#azure & cloud #community #devops

Prepare for AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam in 2021

The city I live in is experiencing its worst moment of the pandemic and has been under quasi-lockdown since mid-May. I have got more spare time since working from home saves a lot of time commuting to the office. So I took this opportunity to take AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam!

The exam was updated on 9 November 2020. Some information and practice tests I found when preparing for the exam are outdated.

I have no experience of using Azure, and I have little knowledge of cloud computing service before studying for this exam. After studying for around 10 days and doing mock tests for 2 days, I passed this exam on 6 June 2021.

In this article, I would like to share the latest exam information and how I studied for this exam.

Information about this exam

• Duration: 1 hour
• Questions: 37
• Question types: single choice, multiple choice, matching, yes/no

Although it states this exam has 37 questions, a question might actually be a question set containing more than 1 question and each one worth 1 point. A question set might look like the following pictures.

#azure #microsoft #microsoft-azure #az-900-study-material

Getting Started With Azure Event Grid Viewer

In the last article, we had a look at how to start with Azure DevOps: Getting Started With Audit Streaming With Event Grid

In the article, we will go to the next step to create a subscription and use webhook event handlers to view those logs in our Azure web application.

#cloud #tutorial #azure #event driven architecture #realtime #signalr #webhook #azure web services #azure event grid #azure #azure event grid #serverless architecture #application integration