Blog Jul 20, 2021 Introduction to Git This session will provide an overview and introduction to using Git for source control. Attendees will gain a basic understanding of Git and how it works.
Blog May 21, 2021 Introduction to Azure Databricks Data volumes are increasing rapidly and with it, insights can be gained at cloud scales.
Blog Nov 24, 2020 Introduction to the Modern Data Warehouse In the past, the traditional data storage mechanisms were often cleanly divided between file storage, NoSQL and relational transactions, and data warehouses. The data warehouse was often a monolithic system, servicing the needs of both customers and internal stakeholders. With...
Blog Nov 17, 2020 Architecting Data Storage Solutions with Cosmos DB Cosmos DB provides a multi-model database for building highly responsive, scalable applications. The key to getting the most out of Cosmos DB is understanding how to design a database that can take advantage of the platform.
Blog Nov 17, 2020 GitHub and Azure DevOps – Better Together With Microsoft acquiring GitHub, many teams struggle to understand whether to adopt GitHub or Azure DevOps, especially if there’s already an investment in Azure DevOps or Team Foundation Server (TFS).
Blog Sep 10, 2020 Restricting Azure App Service Access to Azure Front Door Securing an Azure App Service is a common requirement. If you're not familiar with Front Door, it combines a web application firewall (WAF), content distribution network (CDN), traffic manager, and routing rules into a single service. This makes it a...
Blog Mar 09, 2020 Automating SQL Server 2019 Docker Deployments In a previous article, I walked through deploying to SQL Server 2017 containers and provided an overview of deploying DACPACs and BACPACs in containers. Since that time, SQL Server 2019 has been released; this requires a few changes to the...
Blog Oct 03, 2019 Restoring Azure Tests for SonarQube Continuing from the previous post, SonarQube expects a certain set of files to be present in $(Common.TestResultsDirectory). When it doesn't find the files in the folder, it can prevent it from reporting the results correctly. Because of changes to the...
Blog Sep 17, 2019 Missing Tests on Azure DevOps The customer was having a rough day. They had lots of unit tests, but were seeing an unexpected behavior from Azure DevOps and SonarQube. Because some tests were written in XUnit and others with MSTest, they had separated the execution...
Blog Feb 18, 2019 Understanding ARM Templates _artifactsLocation I'm someone that is always interested in seeing what's behind the curtain, pulling apart designs to understand the why and the how. When I began working with ARM templates, I noticed there were two parameters that Microsoft always included in...
Blog Feb 08, 2019 ARM Templates and Cloud Init If you've been spending much time with Linux VMs, you may have encountered Cloud-Init. Cloud-Init is an easy way to specify the configuration which needs to be applied to a deployed virtual machine. Executed when the machine is first provisioned,...
Blog Jan 01, 2019 Data DevOps: Deploying SQL Server DACPACs to Docker In order to truly optimize the workflow and create a culture of DevOps, we need to be able to quickly build and deploy databases. To automate this process, we need to rely on improving our ability to utilize infrastructure as...
Blog Nov 05, 2018 DevOps and Documentation Just because your software iterations are fast and lean doesn't mean that you shouldn't have good documentation. In fact, with shorter release cycles documentation becomes even more important. Consequently, it's important to have a a process that makes rapid updates...
Blog Jul 30, 2018 Mastering Azure Network Addresses If you're working with Azure, you have to ensure you can make the most of the Azure networking infrastructure. Connecting resources -- in the cloud or on-premise -- relies on knowing the basics of how to address elements of the...
Blog Jul 07, 2018 Understanding the Azure Certification Path Special Azure Role-based Certification Offer Through March 31st ,2020 Choose either $300 Amazon Gift Card or 20% class Discount. See eligible classes and dates here: http://web.training.atmosera.com/cn/am6vu/ms-cert-300 If you are new to Azure -- or experienced with Azure and trying to...
Blog Jun 26, 2018 Conditional Build and Release Tasks in VSTS Conditional Build and Release Tasks in VSTS One of the most overlooked features in VSTS is the ability to determine whether a task will be executed using custom conditions. What are custom conditions? It's the ability to specify a short...
Blog Jun 18, 2018 Using OnMicrosoft.com Azure Active Directory Accounts When you create an Azure account, a unique domain name will be automatically assigned to you. This unique name has several advantages which can make it very helpful for managing your Azure account. If you open your Azure Active Directory,...
Blog Jun 12, 2018 Enabling Release Annotations in VSTS Application Insights is a powerful component of Azure. It provides us with real-time logging about the performance of our application, the reliability of the site, and any exceptions that might arise. It's an important and often overlooked part of the...
Blog Mar 26, 2018 Correctly Sizing Azure Virtual Machines If you're used to high-control virtualization environments, the fixed nature of the options for sizing virtual machines in Azure can be a bit confusing. One of the benefits of cloud environments like Azure is that it's possible to find the...
Blog Feb 01, 2018 Handling “Open File – Security Warning” It seems like a simple enough task. Use an Azure File share to store an executable and use a PowerShell script to execute the application on a new virtual machines. In practice, however, you might find that the executable is...
Blog Nov 17, 2017 DevOps News From Connect(); 2017 The Microsoft Connect(); 2017 online event is nearly over, and so far we've heard lots of exciting news from Microsoft about Azure and changes to improve their support for DevOps. In fact, DevOps has been a big part of the...
Blog Nov 14, 2017 Using SSH with Visual Studio Team Services In April 2016, Visual Studio Team Services introduced support for using SSH to connect to Git repositories. Over the summer of 2017, Microsoft made a number of improvements to reduce latency and improve performance for Git connections. These changes take...
Blog Nov 04, 2017 Looking for top Azure Architects and DevOps Gurus to join our team Like to help companies build great DevOps practices? Passionate about the cloud and really good at thinking on your feet? Do you want to work with one of the world’s top Microsoft Gold Cloud and Gold DevOps Partners? If this...
Blog Oct 11, 2017 Creating First-Run ARM Templates Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates are a great solution for creating a repeatable environment. Using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) makes it easy to manage configurations, avoid dependency issues, and prevent server drift. Using IaC also means that you can recreate...
Blog Oct 03, 2017 Installing VSTS Build Agents on macOS If you’re doing Xamarin, macOS (OS X), or iOS development work you’ve likely discovered that you need a way to automate the build of your code from Visual Studio Team Services. If you’re not familiar with setting up a private...
Blog Sep 08, 2017 Creating Recoverable TFS Backups One of the things I’ve come to appreciate most about the cloud software-as-a-service solutions is that it can reduce work. Although there’s still a need for IT, some tasks – such as performing backups – are provided by the vendor....
Blog Aug 25, 2017 Creating a Temporary Visual Studio Environment Sometimes you will find that you need a cloud environment for working on a project. In some cases, you need the environment to perform a task that would take too long when you run it locally (for example, downloading a...
Blog Aug 12, 2017 DevOps: Connecting VSTS to Azure DevOps is about increasing efficiency and eliminating barriers. There's a lot of convenience in deploying directly from Visual Studio Team Services into the Azure cloud. With plugin based build and release pipelines, it's very easy to quickly configure a release...