Module 2ad - Exploring Azure Core Products - Compute, Virtualization & Serverless Compute

Question 1

Hint: HPC

What is an Azure Batch (Job)?

Answer 1

HPC (High Performance Computing) batch job with the ability to scale to thousands of VMs

Question 2

What operations can an Azure Batch do?

Answer 2

• Batches can start a pool of compute VMs
• If necessary, it can install apps and staging data
• Pulls input data from files in storage, writes output files to the same storage
• Batches run jobs with all your tasks
• Can identify failures and requeue work
• Auto-scales down the pool as work completes

Question 3

What is Azure Compute?

Answer 3

On-demand compute services for running cloud apps

Question 4

What are Azure Virtual Machines?

Answer 4

VMs are IaaS offerings for emulating physical computers

Question 5

What is Azure Virtual Desktop, where is it hosted and how do you get to it?

Answer 5

Desktop and application virtualization service.

Cloud-hosted version of Windows.

Can use any modern browsers across any device and OS to access

Question 6

What two (2) Modes can you set for Azure Virtual Desktop wrt user allocation across VM Pools?

Both modes allow for auto-scaling (T/F)?

Answer 6

Breadth Mode == Best Performance! Users are sequencially allocated across the host pool

Depth Mode == Best Cost Savings! VMs are fully stacked before adding to the next VM

True: Auto-scaling with either Mode

Question 7

2 Ways to reduce costs with Azure Virtual Desktop?

Answer 7

• Bring your own Licenses LOL* - If you have the following licenses, you only need to pay for resources used by Azure Virtual Desktop:
  
  • Microsoft 365 License gets you Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 7 Enterprise
  • Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Client Access License gets you Windows Server Remote Desktop
• Reserve VMs at a Discount* - Save on Compute Costs by buying One-Year or Three-Year Reserved VM Instances (up to 72% vs pay-as-you-go). Reservations provide a billing discount

Question 8

Hint: S P W

3 Key Management Features of Azure Virtual Desktop?

Answer 8

Azure Virtual Desktop has 3 high level features:

• Simplified Management
• Performance Management
• Multi-Session Windows 10 Deployment

Question 9

Hint: security, health and big brother

What Simplified Management Features do you get with Azure Virtual Desktop?

Answer 9

• Azure Active Directory and RBACs to manage Resources (because this is still a Service, thus can be managed as such)
• Automated VM deployments, updates and disaster recovery
• Azure Monitor for monitoring and alerts

Question 10

What is Multi-Session Windows Deployment and what feature does it provide to Azure Virtual Desktop?

Answer 10

Windows 10 Multi-Session is a Windows client-based OS that enables multiple concurrent users on a SINGLE VM

Question 11

What Performance Management Features do you get with Azure Virtual Desktop?

Answer 11

• Load balancing options for users connected to your VM pools
• Host Pools - collections of VMs with the same configuration assigned to multiple users
• Breadth and Depth first scaling modes

Question 12

Hint: Five (5) things

Why should you use Azure Virtual Desktop w.r.t. Security Concerns ie what security benefits do I get out of it?

Answer 12

Centralized security management

• Isolated User Sessions
• Reverse Connection Technology (no open inbound ports to the VMs)
• Enable multi-factor authentication for secure sign-ins
• Can use RBACs to control data access
• Data and apps are run on a remote server instead of on local hardware, REDUCING RISK of confidential data being left on the device

Question 13

Why should you use Azure Virtual Desktop w.r.t. User Experience?

Answer 13

• Accessibility - Users have freedom to connect with any device, via native device app or the Azure Desktop HTML5 web client
• Loading Performance - Co-locating or near-locating the session host VMs (to apps and services which connect to your datacenter or cloud) ensures short load times
• Fast Sign-In - thanks to containerized profiles from FSLogix. the container is dynamically attached to the environment and the profile is immediately available, appearing like a native user profile
• Personalization - Desktops can be persisted for personalization (ex. adding and removing programs)

Question 14

• What is Serverless Computing?
• How are scaling and performance handled?
• How are you billed?

Answer 14

An abstraction of servers, infrastructure and OS, where Azure takes care of managing the server’s infrastructure and the allocation/deallocation of resources based on demand.

Scaling and performance are handled automatically.

Azure bills you for the resources used.

Question 15

In Serverless Computing, what is Abstraction of Servers?

Answer 15

You never explicitly run or reserve server instances; the platform manages that for you. Code executions run on different compute instances or an Execution Context. This context is transparent; you just deploy your code and it runs with high availability

Question 16

In Serverless Computing, what is Event-Driven Scale?

What is a Trigger?

Answer 16

Serverless Compute is perfect for responding to incoming events.

Instead of writing an entire app, write a function that contains code and metadata about the triggers & bindings for those events.

The platform auto schedules the function, scales the compute instances based on the rate of incoming events

The Trigger defines how the function is invoked

Question 17

In Serverless Computing, what is Micro-billing?

Answer 17

You pay ONLY for the time YOUR CODE RUNS. Compare that to paying for a full day of a running website and the site only gets one hit!?

You get charged per execution, not per time of execution…so if the execution runs for 10 minutes, you’re rate is based only on the fact that it ran ONCE

Question 18

General Knowledge: What is “Lift and Shift”?

Answer 18

When migrating a physical server to the cloud. Take an image of the server and host it in a VM with little to no changes.

Question 19

Azure VMs require maintenance, configuration and software updates. Cloud Providers generally take care of this (T/F)?

Answer 19

False. Only the physical hardware that runs the VMs are maintained by the Cloud Provider. YOU have to take care of the actual VM yourself

Question 20

• What are VM Scale Sets? (Hint: I AS LB)
• What large scale services/workflows are they intended for?
• Scaling with Sets is only done automatic (T/F)?

Answer 20

A compute resource used to deploy and manage a set of IDENTICAL, AUTO-SCALED, and LOAD-BALANCED VMs

Designed for Auto-Scaling to support large-scale services targeting Big Compute, Big Data and Containerized Workflows

False. Scaling can be done manually or automated or both

Question 21

When would you use Azure Virtual Machines? (Hint: three (3) custom needs)

Answer 21

When you need:

• Total control over the OS
• The ability to run custom software
• Use custom hosting configs

Question 22

Hint: cost-savings

What are some example scenarios of when to use VMs?

Answer 22

• Development & Testing with custom OS and app configurations
• Running apps in the cloud - scalability, cost savings/pay-as-you-go
• Extending the On-Prem data center to cloud == cost savings
• Disaster Recovery - spin up VMs when your primary data center goes down