Tag: #CLOUD

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Azure Update Manager & Azure ARC

Hello, readers! Today, we’re diving into Azure Update Manager, an essential tool for anyone looking to optimize and manage their cloud solutions. Have you heard of it, or are you already using it? We’re eager to hear your thoughts, questions, and experiences. Please leave your comments below, and let’s explore the potential of Azure Update Manager together!

1. What is Azure Update Manager?

  • An introduction to Azure Update Manager, explaining its primary role in managing updates for operating systems and applications on virtual machines.
    • What is Azure ARC?
      • Azure ARC is a Microsoft solution that allows you to manage resources from different cloud environments and on-premises locations directly from Azure.

2. Benefits of Azure Update Manager

  • Automation: How Update Manager automates the update process, reducing operational overhead.
  • Compliance: The importance of keeping systems updated to meet compliance and security requirements.
    • Azure ARC
      • One of the significant advantages of Azure ARC is the ability to manage updates from various cloud providers in a single dashboard. This means that regardless of where your applications and services are hosted—whether in Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, or on-premises servers—you can monitor and apply updates centrally.

3. Integration with Azure Automation

  • How Azure Update Manager integrates with Azure Automation to facilitate large-scale update management.

4. Configuration and Implementation

  • A step-by-step guide on how to set up Azure Update Manager in an organization, including best practices.

5. Reporting and Monitoring

  • The importance of detailed reporting and continuous monitoring of applied updates, and how this can be achieved with Azure Update Manager.

Centralization: With Azure ARC, I don’t need to switch between different management consoles. Everything is accessible in one place, making it easier to visualize and control. This helps me a lot in my daily tasks, especially with centralized patch scheduling and defining custom windows for more efficient deployment, all in a single console

By leveraging this tool, we have greatly minimized the impact during patch windows and enhanced our visibility into all ongoing activities. We are very pleased with the results! 🚀🚀

I hope this post has shed light on the benefits of Azure Update. Have you had any experiences with it? If you haven’t started using Azure ARC yet, it’s worth considering this solution to optimize your IT infrastructure management. I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions! Please leave your comments below, and let’s continue the conversation!😉

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/azure-update-management-center
https://azure.microsoft.com/pt-br/products/azure-arc

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 Microsoft Copilot for Azure 🎉

Now many things can be done quickly and easily with the announcement of the Microsoft Copilot for Azure, an AI companion, that helps you design, operate, optimize, and troubleshoot your cloud infrastructure and services. Combining the power of cutting-edge large language models (LLMs) with the Azure Resource Model, Copilot for Azure enables rich understanding and management of everything that’s happening in Azure, from the cloud to the edge.

Microsoft Copilot for Azure helps you to complete complex tasks faster, quickly discover and use new capabilities, and instantly generate deep insights to scale improvements broadly across the team and organization.

  • Design: create and configure the services needed while aligning with organizational policies
  • Operate: answer questions, author complex commands, and manage resources
  • Troubleshoot: orchestrate across Azure services for insights to summarize issues, identify causes, and suggest solutions
  • Optimize: improve costs, scalability, and reliability through recommendations for your environment

Optimizing cost and performance

Copilot aids in understanding invoices, spending patterns, changes, and outliers, and it recommends cost optimizations.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-infrastructure-blog/simplify-it-management-with-microsoft-copilot-for-azure-save/ba-p/3981106

👏🎉Microsoft Copilot for Azure is already being used internally by Microsoft employees and with a small group of customers.🚀☁

#azure #cloud #microsoft #copilot

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Reduce Snapshot costs with new GCP Archive Snapshot

Due to Google Cloud Platform’s (GCP) announcement of new prices for disk snapshots, as of April 1, 2023. The changes affect regional and multi-regional snapshots.

  1. Regional snapshot storage: The price of regional snapshot storage will increase from $0.026 GB per month to $0.05 GB per month.
  2. Multi-regional snapshot storage: The price of multi-regional snapshot storage will increase from $0.026 GB per month to $0.065 GB per month.

The image shows the situation in many companies where the cost of snapshots has almost doubled and it is now really important to check and analyze your snapshot protection, especially if you have a large organization and thousands of PD snapshots.

  • As a suggestion to minimize costs, use Archive snapshots:
    • Use archive snapshots. Archive snapshots are a new type of snapshot that is designed to be more cost-effective than standard snapshots. Archive snapshots are stored in a compressed format and can only be accessed by creating a new disk from the snapshot. The price of archive snapshot storage is $0.019 per GB per month, which is significantly lower than the price of standard snapshot storage ($0.05 per GB per month).
    • But very important to remember about the “Early Deletion” cost – the minimum life sickle period for this type of snapshots is 90 days.
  • Important steps:
    • Retention policy and snapshot frequency:
      • Review your retention policy and snapshot frequency to comply with the policy. Reducing the frequency of snapshots or adjusting the retention period can help reduce costs. Only take snapshots as often as necessary and consider deleting older snapshots that are no longer needed.
    • Use regional (rather than multi-regional) snapshots:
      • Regional snapshots are generally cheaper than multi-regional snapshots. If your use case allows it, opt for regional snapshots to save on costs.
    • Optimizing snapshot size:
      • Try to minimize the amount of data stored in the snapshots by removing unnecessary files or temporary data. If you take several snapshots from one disk, the incrementally saved data and deleted files will be added to the active snapshots. Ensuring efficient disk usage can help reduce the size of snapshots and, consequently, lower costs.
    • Snapshot Schedule and Automation:
      • Automate the snapshot creation process using scheduling tools or scripts Python. This helps you manage snapshots efficiently and avoid unnecessary manual operations.
def create_snapshot(disk_name, snapshot_name):
    config = {
        "name": snapshot_name,
        "sourceDisk": disk_name,
        "storageLocations": "southamerica-east1",
        "labels": {"bkp": "archive"}
    }
    # parâmetro 'snapshot-type' definido como 'ARCHIVE' no corpo da solicitação
    config["snapshotType"] = "ARCHIVE"
    • Choose the Right Disk Type and Size + Analyze:
      • Choose the appropriate persistent disk type and size based on your application’s needs. Using the right disk specifications can prevent overprovisioning and reduce costs.
      • Monitor and analyze snapshot usage regularly to identify any unnecessary or redundant snapshots. Removing such snapshots can lead to cost reductions.

#GCP #CLOUD #GOOGLE