Azure Snippets w/c 08/07/2024
By Jon Lee
After a couple of weeks off due to holidays and a general lack of updates from MS, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming :-)
Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 8th July 2024, grouped by Azure service. No Azure Monthly summary this month as there’s only one other post for June.
GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated :-)
Azure services with highlighted updates this week:
Azure Load Balancer
- Cross-subscription load balancer (Public Preview) : Allows the frontend IP and/or the backend pool instances to be in a different subscription from the Azure Load Balancer resource. Useful if networking and application resources are split across subscriptions, for instance.
Azure Kubernetes Service
- Some interesting items in the latest AKS release :
- K8s 1.30 will be the next LTS version in AKS
- AKS patch versions 1.27.14, 1.28.10, and 1.29.5, are now available. 1.27.9, 1.28.5, and 1.29.2 patch versions are deprecated.
- Cost Analysis is now available on AKS resource blades (shows as Preview if enabled on your tenant). It’s available for Standard and Premium tier clusters only and must be enabled (as an add-on) on every cluster you wish to view costs for.
- Copilot in Azure can now assist with cluster management using kubectl
Azure Policy
- Built-in versioning (Public Preview) : Policies (and initiatives) can now have multiple versions but keep a single definition ID for reference. Follows semantic versioning standard. Should be a boost to Policy governance and management.
FinOps
- FinOps toolkit : The Microsoft FinOps toolkit is an open-source collection of learning resources and customizable tools to help you adopt and implement FinOps capabilities that automate and extend the Microsoft Cloud. There’s a lot of stuff in here across Azure Monitor, Power BI, and tools and automations in PowerShell and Bicep. Aligned with the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) standard.