adatum | Page 2 of 19 | Another IT blog focusing on Azure management and surrounding areas

From one platform to another

26/10/202019/10/2020
by Martin Ehrnst

I was 20 years old when I entered a pink building in Oslo for my first (real) job interview. After only one conversation, I was offered a job, and I accepted it on the spot. Little did I knew that I was going to work for this company called Intility for 14 years.

Me 20 years old looking for a hair dresser in Paris

Opportunities and growth

14 years is a very long time, but not that long considering the circumstances. Of course, I have considered a move earlier, but I’m glad I waited this long.

When I accepted the offer in 2007. Intlity had around 80 full-time employees. Today, a little more than a decade later, they have around 400 employees. Own their own building in the heart of Oslo and the name of a football (soccer) stadium.

Since 2007 I have been trusted with a variety of responsibilities, the opportunity, and backing to form my own career. Resulting in international speaking gigs and two Microsoft MVP awards.
I am very grateful to have played a part in this journey, but this is strange times. Working from home since March gave me a lot of time to think and I believe I made the correct choice.

Platforms are the future

Intility has grown from an IT outsourcing and hosting provider to becoming a platform for companies wanting to grow, based on technology.

I believe that technology platforms are going to shape the future. And when I was offered a job at yet another successful, Norwegian technology platform I wanted to join.
I am happy to announce I have accepted a position as TechLead for platforms at Vipps.
Vipps is a Technology and identity platform which has revolutionized how we look at B2c and friend payments in Norway and are now expanding to Europe with their mobile payment solution.
Not knowing what to expect, I am surely looking forward to joining another Norwegian tech rocket. Working with the technology I love.

Azure

Recording available: ARM template deployment scripts

23/10/202023/10/2020
by Martin Ehrnst

In our Infrastructure as code live stream series, Marcel Zehner and I covered a new feature in the Azure IAC space. Namely deployment scripts. With deployment scripts for Azure, you can run PowerShell or Bash (CLI) scripts within your ARM templates.

You may have heard of Custom script extension for Azure Windows VMs, this is sort of the same thing. Making you able to call external systems during deployment, or perform the last-mile configuration to your infrastructure.

Deployment scripts recording

You can find all our recordings on youtube and all code examples on github

Azure

Recording available: Complex ARM templates

12/10/202012/10/2020
by Martin Ehrnst

Together with MVP and Regional Director, Marcel Zehner we are running four live streams on Azure Resource Manager deployments using ARM templates. Recording from our first live stream, Complex ARM templates is available now.

In this session, we covered how you should use parameters, functions, and dependencies to create more reusable code, and how to control the result of your user’s input.

You can find the recording on YouTube, and the script examples on GitHub

More ARM template live streams

We have three more ARM template live streams planned- hopefully we will see you there:

Nested & linked ARM templates
Date & Time: October 12, 2020, 5PM CEST
Registration: https://lnkd.in/deW4xXJ
Attendee Link: https://lnkd.in/dz_WgyW

Deployment scripts
Date & Time: October 19, 2020, 5PM CEST
Registration: https://lnkd.in/dhEYeMr

Code release using pipelines
Date & Time: October 26, 2020, 5PM CEST
Registration: https://lnkd.in/d_JuDuv

Community

Microsoft MVP 2020-2021

01/07/202001/07/2020
by Martin Ehrnst

Almost a year has passed since I received my first MVP award in the Azure category. Although it has been a challenging year personally, and with the ongoing pandemic. I am delighted to share that I was renewed as Microsoft MVP for 2020-2021.

As things hopefully normalize I hope to get back on the community saddle, and contribute more in person and virtually.

A big thanks to my family, fantastic colleagues at Intility, and my community friends. Have a great summer!

Automation

Remediate Azure Policy with PowerShell

11/06/202011/06/2020
by Martin Ehrnst

Azure Policy is there to help us with properly governed and secure infrastructure. However, Azure Policy requires management as well.

Lately, I have built a new set of policies to ensure diagnostic logs are forwarded to Azure Monitor Logs. Multiple policies and a policy initiative were deployed to multiple subscriptions and multiple customers. All this was made possible since we manage through Azure Lighthouse.

Automatic remediation of Azure Policy

The challenge faced after deploying the policy was how to remediate them. Since policies with effect ‘deployIfNotExists’ only apply to new or modified resources, I faced the job with clicking in the portal or figure out a way to do this with PowerShell.
I actually started with the portal, as I thought it would be a quick job. After doing one or two subscriptions I realized how much time I would use.

Given the fact that the imitative it self contained around 50 individual policies, and at the time 19 subscriptions. I figured spending some time in PowerShell was well worth it. There is also a pretty good chance I will find my self in the same situation pretty soon.

Create remediation task with PowerShell

To create a remediation task for a policy set you can use this script. It will connect to your subscription and get all non-compliant policies. Then start a policy remediation task for the individual policies.

Summary

Policies with effect “deployIfNotExist” only work for resources that are updated or created after the policy was applied. To remediate existing resources you will have to create the remediation tasks manually through the portal, or by using PowerShell (and REST API)

By the way, fellow Azure MVP Tao Yang has created everything you need in order to enable these policies your self. Please see GitHub for complete ARM templates. And please help him maintain everything by contributing.

From one platform to another

Opportunities and growth

Platforms are the future

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Recording available: ARM template deployment scripts

Deployment scripts recording

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Recording available: Complex ARM templates

More ARM template live streams

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Microsoft MVP 2020-2021

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Remediate Azure Policy with PowerShell

Automatic remediation of Azure Policy

Create remediation task with PowerShell

Summary

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