Key Takeaways:

• Microsoft announced the public preview of the Cobalt 100 Arm-based virtual machines.
• The new Azure ND MI300X VM series is now generally available and is optimized for AI and high-performance computing workloads.
• Microsoft introduced the Azure Compute Fleet in public preview, designed to streamline the provisioning and management of compute resources across various VM types and availability zones.

Microsoft announced this morning the public preview of the Cobalt 100 Arm-based virtual machine (VM). The company has also announced the general availability of the new Azure ND MI300X v5 VM series.

Microsoft first unveiled its Arm-powered chip Cobalt 100 chip for general-purpose and cloud-native workloads in November last year. The Azure Cobalt CPU is a 128-core processor that’s built on an Arm Neoverse CSS design. Microsoft has already tested its Cobalt 100 chip on workloads like Microsoft Teams and SQL server. The company claims that the Cobalt CPU has performed 40 percent better than Azure’s existing Arm-based chips.

The new Cobalt 100-based VMs should offer efficiency and performance improvements for workloads such as web apps, microservices, and open-source databases. Microsoft claims that users can expect up to 40 percent better performance compared to the previous generation of Arm-based VMs.

ND MI300X virtual machines now generally available

Microsoft has also announced the general availability of the ND MI300X VM series. The company highlighted that these new VMs are optimized for demanding AI and high-performance computing workloads. For instance, users can build large models from scratch, run inference on pre-trained models, and fine-tune models for specific domains.

“It features an AMD Instinct MI300X AI accelerator, providing each VM with 1.5 TB of high bandwidth memory and 5.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth. These VMs are also connected by NVIDIA Quantum-2 CX7 InfiniBand, offering 3.2 TB/s of scale-out bandwidth per VM, which allows scaling up to thousands of VMs and tens of thousands of GPUs,” Microsoft explained.

Azure Compute Fleet launches in preview

Microsoft has launched a new Azure Compute Fleet in public preview for commercial customers. This new service is designed to make it easier for administrators to provision and manage compute resources in the cloud, across different VM types, availability zones, and pricing models. It helps customers to meet their requirements for scale, performance, and cost-effectiveness.

“Azure Compute Fleet will automatically find an optimal mix of VMs based on customer requirements while matching them to the available compute capacity and prioritizing speed of deployment, cost of operation or a balance of both,” Microsoft added.

Azure Compute Fleet lets administrators use a single API call to deploy and manage up to 10,000 virtual machines concurrently. This capability should be useful for enterprise customers with high computational demands or those requiring extensive parallel processing. The Azure Compute Fleet service also optimizes the use of Spot VMs, which leads to potential cost savings for organizations.

Lastly, Azure Compute Fleet provides users with flexible and automated ways to manage their virtual machine groups. It should help customers adapt to changing conditions like pricing, capacity availability, and Spot VM evictions. Azure Compute Fleet offers automation and simplification of the deployment, management, and cost optimization of large VM fleets.

The post Build 2024: Microsoft Announces New Azure Virtual Machines for AI and Cloud-Native Workloads appeared first on Petri IT Knowledgebase.

Key Takeaways:

• Broadcom and Google have partnered to introduce a license portability plan, allowing enterprise customers to run VMware workloads on Google Cloud.
• The license portability scheme allows customers to migrate their virtual machines and workloads to Google Cloud VMware Engine.
• License portability is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2024.

Broadcom and Google have announced a new license portability plan that will allow enterprise customers to run VMware workloads on Google Cloud. Broadcom is also actively advocating for the benefits of the changes to its VMware products among partners and customers.

In the new license portability scheme, customers who purchased VMware Cloud Foundation software from Broadcom can now use their subscriptions not only on Google Cloud VMware Engine but also within their own on-premises data centers. Additionally, they have the option to bring their existing VMware Cloud Foundation subscriptions to Google Cloud VMware Engine.

Organizations will also be able to migrate their virtual machines and workloads to Google Cloud. This license portability scheme promises enhanced operational efficiency and security for businesses. It’s expected to be available in the second quarter of 2024.

“Through this model, our customers can realize the unique benefits of Google Cloud VMware Engine, such as four 9’s cluster-level uptime, deeply integrated networking and a unified Google experience along with the full portfolio of Google Cloud services across AI/ML, data analytics, security, and more,” said Mark Lohmeyer, Vice President and General Manager, Compute and ML Infrastructure at Google Cloud.

Broadcom’s $61 Billion VMware acquisition sparks dramatic changes

Broadcom acquired VMware for $61 billion back in November 2023. Since then, the company has made headlines with several changes to its products and services. In December, Broadcom ended perpetual licenses for VMware products and moved towards a subscription-based business model instead. Consequently, this transition resulted in a substantial surge in license renewal prices, with increases ranging between 200 to 300 percent for VMware’s customer base.

Last month, Broadcom killed off the VMware partner program, which impacted the sales of its products. Broadcom sent invitations to 18,000 reVMware sellers with active contracts from the past two years to join its partner program. This move prevented many of the MSP partners from selling their own hosted VMware-based cloud services.

Broadcom has recently discontinued the free version of VMware’s ESXi hypervisor. The tool allows users to split the physical resources (such as RAM, CPU, and storage) of a computer among several virtual machines (VMs). The free version of ESXi, unlike its paid enterprise counterparts, lacked automated load-balancing, software support and was limited to supporting only two physical CPUs.

VMware’s strategy to appeal to a broader enterprise audience

Last week, VMware acknowledged that the licensing changes have raised concerns among numerous enterprise customers with budget constraints. “Subscription is the model all major enterprise software providers are on today. Subscription software is the right model for fueling continuous innovation for customers,” said Prashanth Shenoy, VP of Product and Technical Marketing for VMware’s Cloud offerings.

Lastly, VMware claimed that the simplification of its product portfolio would help to focus on VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation. The company aims to appeal to a broader audience of partners and enterprise customers by offering a select range of products that offer higher value at a competitive price.

The post Broadcom and Google Unveil New VMware License Portability Plan for Businesses appeared first on Petri IT Knowledgebase.

Understanding how roaming profiles work

With roaming profiles, users can enjoy a consistent experience regardless of the computer they’re using. Their settings and data follow them from one machine to another when they log in with their username.

Their profile data is typically saved on a central file share on the corporate network. This is especially useful in environments where users regularly switch between different computers or locations.

Although there are a good number of efficiency benefits and productivity-related boosts when using roaming profiles, the feature has not been the most reliable feature in Windows since its inception several decades ago. I have almost always experienced reliability issues with roaming profiles when providing consulting and troubleshooting value to customers over the years.

Let’s learn more about how roaming profiles work:

1. Profile creation: When a user logs into a computer for the first time, Windows creates a user profile on that computer. This profile includes personal settings, documents, and other user-specific data.
2. Roaming profile setup: In a network environment with Active Directory, administrators and IT Pros can configure roaming profiles. This involves designating a network location, often on a server, to store user profiles instead of keeping them only on the local computer. The profile path is saved with a variable in the user’s profile folder attribute in Active Directory, making administration simple.
3. Profile synchronization: When a user logs into a different computer within the same network, their roaming profile is downloaded from the designated network location. This process ensures that their personalized settings and data are available on the new machine.
4. Synchronization at logoff: As the user logs off, any changes made to the roaming profile are synchronized back to the network location. This ensures that the latest changes are preserved and ready for use on other computers. If a user makes an edit to a file on their desktop or adjusts their computer configuration, those changes will get sent back to their home folder on the network file server.

Can roaming profiles be problematic?

While roaming profiles can offer some benefits to IT Pros and users, there are some challenges and considerations to keep in mind:

1. Profile size: Roaming profiles can become large due to accumulated settings and user data. This might impact login and logout times, as well as consume network bandwidth during synchronization.
2. Network performance: Frequent synchronization of large profiles can affect network performance, particularly in environments with limited bandwidth. The user experience can be painful, at best, especially with many large roaming profiles.
3. Profile conflicts: If a user logs into multiple computers simultaneously and makes conflicting changes, resolving these conflicts during synchronization can be complex.
4. Application compatibility: Some applications may not work seamlessly with roaming profiles, leading to unexpected behaviors or conflicts.

Software and hardware requirements for roaming profiles

Setting up roaming profiles in Windows 10 or Windows 11 requires specific software and hardware configurations, including a check of Windows versions to ensure smooth profile synchronization across a network. Let me go through a high-level breakdown of the software and hardware requirements for roaming profiles, covering the network environment, server requirements, and client requirements:

Network environment

Roaming profiles are typically managed through Active Directory, a directory service provided by Microsoft. Active Directory stores user account information, manages network resources, and facilitates authentication and access control. You can use various features in Active Directory such as the Group Policy Management Console to create a new Group Policy Object (GPO) to handle the management of roaming profiles for all your users!

Regarding network Connectivity, a stable and reliable network connection is crucial for seamless synchronization between user computers and the server where the profiles are stored.

Server requirements

To host roaming profiles, you need a file server that has sufficient storage space to accommodate the profiles of all users who will be using roaming profiles. A simple SMB share will suit your needs here nicely.

It is typically prudent to project your space needs ahead of time so that you can proactively account for your users’ growth and data storage needs. Any supported version of Windows Server will certainly suffice for these needs.

Client requirements

• Operating System Version: The Windows client computers and the server should be running Windows operating systems that support roaming profiles. This includes the latest supported versions of Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2016, 2019, and 2022.
• User Privileges: Users should have the necessary permissions to access, modify, and create files within their roaming profiles on the server. Adequate permissions need to be configured to ensure the security and integrity of user data. You can customize permissions with this feature to stay compliant within your organization.
• Active Directory Account: This should go without saying, but for completeness, each user must have an Active Directory account, which provides a unique identity within the network. This account allows the user to log into different computers and access their roaming profile.
• Domain Membership: Client computers need to be part of the same Active Directory domain as the server hosting the roaming profiles. This domain membership is essential for authentication and communication.

Roaming profiles and Folder Redirection: What are the benefits?

To optimize the use of roaming profiles, administrators often implement Folder Redirection. This feature involves redirecting specific user folders, such as Documents, Desktop, and AppData folder, from the local profile to network locations. This reduces the size of the roaming profile, improves login/logout times, and enhances data protection.

Profile size reduction

One of the primary advantages of using Folder Redirection is the reduction of the size of roaming profiles. Again, roaming profiles can become large due to content like documents, downloads, and media files.

When Folder Redirection is enabled, when these folders are redirected to network locations, only essential data required for the user’s session is included in the profile. This reduces the size of the roaming profile significantly. You’ll also see reduced network bandwidth usage as only essential data is synchronized.

Faster logins and logouts

Folder Redirection contributes to faster login and logout times for users. By excluding bulky folders like Documents and Desktop from the roaming profile, the amount of data that needs to be synchronized between the user’s computer and the network is minimized. As a result, users experience quicker logins and logouts, allowing them to quickly switch between computers and improving their overall productivity.

Data protection

Folder Redirection enhances data protection by ensuring that user data is stored on network locations rather than on local machines. This is, in my mind, absolutely paramount.

I can not tell you how many client sites I visited over the past 25 years that included at least one computer with vital data stored on the C: drive, in a dirty warehouse, with poor or no circulation. Those are ticking time bombs! 

Every piece of important data should be stored on the network, period. No exceptions. Using Folder Redirection to validate that all files on the Desktop, Documents, etc. folders are stored (and backed up each night, right?) in a safe location will ensure that user data remains secure even if the local machine encounters hardware issues. Easier data recovery and restoration in case of hardware failures.

Options to manage roaming user profiles

Managing roaming user profiles involves handling profile synchronization, data integrity, and user-specific settings effectively. Windows provides several options to manage roaming user profiles, each offering different features and capabilities. Here are some of the main options.

Group Policy

Group Policy is a powerful tool for managing various aspects of Windows environments, including roaming user profiles. Through Group Policy settings, administrators can configure how roaming profiles are managed and synchronized.

Folder Redirection

As previously discussed, Folder Redirection is an option that works in tandem with roaming profiles to optimize profile management. By redirecting specific user folders like Documents, Desktop, and AppData to network locations, you can reduce profile sizes and improve performance. 

Offline Files

Offline Files is a feature that allows users to access network files even when they are disconnected from the network. This can be useful for users who work remotely or frequently switch between online and offline modes.

Roaming profiles alternatives

There are more viable, robust, and modern options available to IT Pros. Let’s go through them here. By the way, Roaming Profiles have been in Windows since Windows NT 3.1! We’re talking 1993, 30 years ago as I write this.

OneDrive (Known Folders)

Recent versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11 include a new feature in the OneDrive sync client: Known Folders. 

This is often an even better option than using Folder Redirection. You don’t need to worry about your corporate network, file space, etc. With OneDrive (and Microsoft) handling all the details, every machine that a user logs into with OneDrive syncing will automatically back up every file, picture, and document in their designated key folders. This takes a LOT of burden off of your IT staff!

FSLogix

FSLogix is a powerful technology that addresses many of the challenges associated with managing roaming user profiles in Windows environments. Roaming profiles, while beneficial, have issues, as I’ve discussed above. FSLogix offers solutions to these problems by providing dynamic profile management and application masking, ultimately enhancing user experience and simplifying profile management for administrators.

Through its ability to reduce logon times, optimize profile storage, and prevent conflicts, FSLogix plays a significant role in creating a smoother and more efficient computing environment for both end users and IT personnel.

User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) – Windows 10 only

User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) is a technology developed by Microsoft to address the challenges and concerns associated with roaming profiles in Windows environments. UE-V provides a solution that alleviates the stated concerns of this post by virtualizing user settings and configurations, allowing for a consistent and personalized experience across different devices.

Here is how UE-V works:

• Configuration Settings Capture: UE-V captures the user’s configuration settings from applications, the operating system, and personalization options. These settings are stored in a settings package.
• Settings Package Creation: The captured settings are compiled into a settings package, which is stored in a central location, such as a network share.
• Roaming Settings Package: When a user logs in to a different device, the settings package is applied to the local machine. Only the necessary settings are synchronized, ensuring a fast login process.
• Synchronization: UE-V monitors changes to user settings in real time. Changes are synchronized to the settings package, ensuring that the user’s configuration remains up to date.

Roaming profiles reduce the learning curve when using multiple devices

Understanding how roaming profiles work in Windows is essential for creating a seamless user experience across different devices within a network. Roaming profiles allow users to access their personalized settings, files, and applications irrespective of the computer they use. This consistency enhances productivity and reduces the learning curve associated with transitioning between devices.

However, the challenges of profile size, synchronization speed, and conflicts have led to the development of various solutions, including third-party alternatives. These alternatives offer advanced features such as dynamic profile management, virtualization, and enhanced application masking.

While Windows provides native tools like Group Policy and Folder Redirection to manage roaming profiles, exploring third-party solutions can offer more tailored, efficient, and modern profile management approaches that address the limitations of traditional roaming profiles. It is recommended to first explore third-party tools that will undoubtedly offer more benefits with fewer headaches.

As usual, thank you for reading, and feel free to leave a comment or question!

The post What is a Roaming User Profile on Windows? appeared first on Petri IT Knowledgebase.

Data security is a top priority for many organizations, especially when it comes to sensitive and regulated data. Encryption is one of the most effective ways to protect data from unauthorized access, but not all encryption solutions are created equal.

Azure VMware Solution – what is customer-managed keys?

Some encryption solutions rely on service providers to manage the encryption keys, which may not meet the compliance and governance requirements of some industries and customers. That’s why Azure VMware Solution, a first-party Azure service that provides private clouds containing VMware vSphere clusters built from dedicated bare-metal Azure infrastructure, now supports encryption with customer-managed keys.

Rahi Patel, a Senior Technical Program Manager in the Azure VMware Solution product group at Microsoft, has made a significant contribution to the field of cloud computing with his innovative development of the Customer-Managed Keys feature. This feature is a critical point in the field of data security and compliance, providing customers with an unparalleled degree of control and security.

Customer-managed keys give customers maximum control over their encrypted vSAN data on Azure VMware Solution. Customers can use Azure Key Vault to generate customer-managed keys and centralize the key management process. Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that provides secure storage and management of secrets, such as keys, passwords, certificates, and tokens. Azure Key Vault also integrates with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) for role-based access control and auditing.

Adding a second layer of encryption in Azure VMware Solution with customer-managed keys

Customer-managed keys don’t disable default vSAN datastore encryption. Instead, they add a second layer of encryption on top of the default one. This means that customer-managed keys deliver double encryption, a critical requirement for finance industries with stringent regulations.

Customer-managed keys also enable you to revoke access to data at any time by disabling or deleting the keys used for encryption, making it impossible for Azure VMware Solution to read or write any data within the customer’s private cloud.

The benefits extend beyond control. Customers also have full authority over the key lifecycle, including the rotation of the key to align with corporate policies. The central management and organization of keys in Azure Key Vault further streamline the process.

A significant leap forward in cloud security

In conclusion, the introduction of customer-managed keys in Azure VMware Solution represents a significant leap forward in cloud security. It empowers users with greater control over their data while providing enhanced security features that meet and exceed industry standards. The innovative contribution of Rahi Patel in creating this feature has set a new benchmark in the field of cloud security.

Learn more about how to Configure customer-managed key encryption at rest in Azure VMware Solution

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“Azure VMware Solution is an easy way to extend and migrate existing VMware Private Clouds to run them natively on Azure. Azure VMware Solution offers symmetry with on-premises environments, which helps to accelerate datacenter migrations, so customers recognize the benefits of the cloud sooner,” said Ram Gowrishankar, Microsoft’s Partner Director for Product Management.

Microsoft has introduced support for stretched clusters in Azure VMware Solution. The feature is designed to ensure 99.99 percent uptime for mission-critical apps. It automatically moves virtual machines (VMs) and enterprise applications to an availability zone that has not been affected by the problem. The stretched clusters feature helps organizations to focus on core application features and requirements.

Additionally, Microsoft has announced a new Azure NetApp Files integration in Azure VMware Solution. This release enables customers to run their most demanding enterprise file workloads (such as SAP, databases, and high-performance computing application on Azure VMware Solution.

Azure VMware Solution adds support for customer-managed keys

The latest update brings the ability for customers to use customer-managed keys (CMKs) managed by customer-owned Azure Key Vault to encrypt VMware vSAN Key Encryption Keys (KEKs). Microsoft has added support for two new node sizes (AV36P and AV52) in Azure VMware Solution. It enables organizations to optimize their workloads for memory and storage as well as reduce transaction costs of latency-sensitive services.

Lastly, Microsoft announced that customers can now integrate Azure native services into Azure VMware Solution. These include Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Monitor, Azure Arc, Log Analytics Workspace, and Azure Update Management. It should make it easier to monitor and protect their virtual machines (VMs) in hybrid environments.

The post Azure VMware Solution Gets Support for Stretched Clusters and Customer-Managed Keys appeared first on Petri IT Knowledgebase.

Running VMs in the cloud has become a big part of the modernization of IT infrastructure for most businesses. However, even though those VMs that are in the cloud, the backup mechanisms that many IT shops use to provide disaster recovery (DR) capabilities are essentially the same as they would use for on-premise VMs. They often use legacy technologies that require a lot of resources and are difficult to scale.

Microsoft’s recently released Azure Backup for SQL Server Virtual Machines (VMs) is designed to address these issues by providing a modern cloud-based backup solution for SQL Server VMs running in Azure. Like you would expect from a DR/backup solution, Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs enables you to protect your SQL Server databases from application and user errors.

Azure Backup for SQL Server Virtual Machines (VMs) is an Azure cloud-based service that provides an enterprise scale, zero-infrastructure backup solution. It eliminates the need to separately deploy and manage your own backup solutions for SQL Server VMs running in Azure. There is no need for a separate backup server, agent jobs or writing complex backup scripts. Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs enables you to centrally manage and monitor the backups for both standalone SQL Server Azure VM instances and SQL Server Azure VM instances that are part of an Always On Availability Group.

Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs uses the native SQL Server backup APIs and it provides full, differential and log backups. You can monitor the backup jobs using SQL Server Management Studio. To get started with Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs, you use the Azure Portal to configure the service and create policies that specify the backup schedule and retention times for your SQL Server VM backups. The backups are stored in the Azure Recovery Services Vault and you can monitor the backup jobs using the vault’s dashboard.

Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs provides the ability to perform one-click restores – eliminating much of the complexity associated with point-in-time transaction log restores where you might need to first restore a full or differential backup followed multiple transaction logs. Microsoft states that Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs will provide a 15-minute recovery point objective. Backups can be scheduled to occur every 15 minutes and they provide built-in encryption at rest and during backup operations. You can specify that the service sends email notification for any backup or restore failures.

Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs is a monthly billable service. Pricing is based on paying for both the SQL Server instance costs and the storage costs. Instance costs are $30 per month for instances less than or equal to 500 GB. For instances that are more than 500 GB there is an additional $30 monthly charge for each additional 500 GB increment. Storage is based on Azure Blob storage and is priced per gigabyte per month. Organizations have the option of using locally redundant storage or they can opt for geo-redundant storage which is about twice as expensive but also adds an additional layer of DR protection.

As more of your businesses critical infrastructure moves into the cloud it’s important that you make sure your DR technologies are keeping pace with your infrastructure changes. Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs provides a modern cloud-based backup solution for your SQL Server VMs running on Azure. You can learn more about the service at About SQL Server Backup in Azure VMs and you can find more details about pricing at Azure Backup pricing.

Related Article:

• Protect Your Organization’s Assets – Disaster Recovery with Azure Backup

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Backup and replication are two of the most fundamental availability and disaster recovery (DR) technologies. While many businesses use these technologies, there’s a lot of confusion about their different roles for high availability and disaster recovery. While in some respects, these two technologies seem similar in their essence, the fundamental purpose behind them is very different.

On the surface, both backup and replication can copy a VM to a separate remote location and that copy can be used to restore or replace the original VM in the event of some type of failure. However, these technologies are actually designed with very different purposes in a mind and not surprisingly, they operate very differently.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these technologies to get a better idea of the role that each one plays in a disaster recovery scenario.

Backup for DR

Backup is the foundation of your disaster recovery plan. Backup captures the state of a given system at the time of the backup. Copies of the backup are usually archived and often moved offsite, enabling the business to use the backup copy to potentially restore your production servers in the event of some type of site failure or outage.

For optimum data protection, businesses are recommended to follow the 3-2-1 rule of backup which states your backups should have:

• 3- Have at least three copies of your backups
• 2- Store the copies on two different types of media
• 1-Keep one copy of the backup offsite

Three copies are important because more copies of your backup, this equates to less risk of failure to restore a backup. Likewise, using different storage media mitigates the risk of media failure which is one of the most common causes of failed restores. Finally, offsite backups provide protection from site failure. Backups can be archived for various amounts of time to help you to meet both recovery and regulatory requirements.

Of course, we know that restoring a backup can take a significant amount of time. Using the cloud as a backup source can definitely have an impact on your restore time. Restoring from the cloud to an on-premise system can be a fairly lengthy process because of the network/Internet latency involved. However, restore from a cloud backup to another cloud-based server can actually be quite fast.

Replication to Reduce RTO and RPOs

Replication serves quite a different purpose from backup. While backup is designed to provide data protection and archiving, replication is designed to reduce Recovery Time and Point Objectives (RTOs and RPOs) by providing very fast recovery.

RTOs essentially define the time it takes to recover from an outage while RPOs define the acceptable amount of data loss that a business can tolerate. With replication, changes to the source system or VM are captured and copied to one or more target systems. The target system can then be rapidly brought on-line in the event of the failure of the main server.

While some systems enable you to configure multiple recovery points, replication is not intended to store data for long periods of time. Having replication in place does not eliminate the need to perform backups. Replication is intended for fast VM recovery while backups provide an essential data archival function. Replication does not replace the need for backups.

Related Article:

• Why You Need to Create an Incident Response Plan
• Five Essential Disaster Recovery Test Scenarios
• Protect Your Organization’s Assets – Disaster Recovery with Azure Backup

The post Choosing a Disaster Recovery Technology: Backup vs. Replication appeared first on Petri IT Knowledgebase.

Key takeaways

• Parallels Desktop 19 for Mac is now available and it adds new device management capabilities for IT admins.
• Windows VMs created with Parallels Desktop can now be enrolled to Microsoft Intune more easily.
• This release also adds new developer features including x86 emulation support on ARM-based Linux VMs. 

Parallels Desktop 19 for Mac is now available on macOS Mojave or newer, and it introduces more ways to manage Windows virtual machines (VMs) on Macs. Parallels Desktop for Mac is now an officially supported solution for running Windows 11 on Apple Silicon Macs (in addition to Windows 365 Cloud PCs), and for organizations interested in adding Apple Silicon Macs to their fleet, Parallels continues its work to make device management even more seamless thanks to better integrations with Microsoft Intune.

Parallels Desktop 19 is ready for the upcoming macOS Sonoma, and it comes with new mass deployment options for Windows VMs on Apple Silicon Macs. For IT pros, enrolling Windows 11 virtual machines in Microsoft Intune can now be done in 3 different ways: By using Parallels deployment packages, by using Parallels My Account Configuration Profiles, or by prepackaging VMs and sharing them as a file.

“Previously, to ensure that virtual Windows devices used by end-users in an organization can be enrolled in Microsoft Intune, an IT admin could use only the mass deployment scenario, which is not convenient for some types of organizations. Parallels Desktop 19 for Mac Business Edition brings the ability to enroll Windows 11 in Intune when it is provisioned to employees via the Parallels My Account web app, and when the Windows image is simply shared via cloud storage. This feature makes administering Windows devices within your organization much easier and more efficient,”  the company emphasized.

These new device management capabilities for IT admins require Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition, which costs $149.99 per year. This edition offers centralized administration and management and unified volume licensing for mass deployment, as well as per-user licensing option for companies that are ready to use SSO/SAML/SCIM for identity and access management.

New developer features in Parallels Desktop 19

Developers are getting more ways to manage Windows VMs via the Parallels extension for Visual Studio Code for Mac. This extension can now be used to create and manage VM groups, and it can also fit more VMs on one screen. 

Developers can also expect enhanced support for Hashicorp’s Vagrant and Packer VM tools. The Parallels extension for Visual Studio for Mac can now manage Vagrant boxes, and developers can also use Packer templates with macOS VMs on Apple Silicon Macs. 

For ARM Linux VMs, Parallels Desktop 19 also adds support for x86 emulation. This will allow developers to run x86 Docker containers or Microsoft SQL Server on a Mac with Apple Silicon. This is all made possible by leveraging Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology, which makes applications compiled for execution on x86-64 CPUs compatible with Apple Silicon Macs. 

Parallels Desktop 19 also introduces a more modern design, Touch ID support for signing into Windows, and better printer compatibility. You’ll need at least the Pro Edition ($119.99/year) to create VMs with up to 32 vCPUs and 128GB of RAM, but again, the advanced centralized management capabilities require Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition ($149.99/year).

The post Windows VMs Get Improved Microsoft Intune Support in Parallels Desktop 19 for Mac appeared first on Petri IT Knowledgebase.

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is a cloud-based virtual desktop and application virtualization solution that runs in Microsoft Azure. The managed service comes with several built-in various security capabilities (like Reverse Connect) to protect data in enterprise environments.

Microsoft explained that watermarking is an optional security feature that’s designed to protect sensitive data from being captured and shared on client devices. Once enabled, users will see QR codes with the embedded user’s session Activity ID on their screens.

The watermarking feature allows IT admins to trace a data leak back to its original source before it can expose more information. They can either query Azure Monitor Log Analytics or use Azure Virtual Desktop Insights to find session information from the QR code.

“When you enable watermarking, QR code watermarks appear as part of remote desktops. The QR code contains the connection ID of a remote session that admins can use to trace the session. Watermarking is configured on session hosts and enforced by the Remote Desktop client,” Microsoft explained.

Getting started with watermarking in Azure Virtual Desktop

Previously, the watermarking feature was exclusively accessible on the Windows desktop app. Now, Microsoft has expanded its availability to cover the Azure Virtual Desktop web client as well. The company has also provided a couple of administrative templates to help administrators get started with watermarking in Azure Virtual Desktop.

Overall, watermarks are a useful tool to remind employees that the content they are viewing is sensitive and should not be shared or copied without authorization. Organizations can combine watermarking with other security measures to create robust protections against unauthorized access and security breaches.

The post Azure Virtual Desktop Introduces Watermarking Support to Protect Sensitive Data appeared first on Petri IT Knowledgebase.

Docker: It’s all about containers

The word ‘Docker’ actually refers to two things. One usage is the name of a red hot start-up company — less than 2 years old — that is currently taking the world of enterprise IT by storm. The other usage is the name of the platform that the aforementioned company produces. The latter is the more interesting of the two to developers and IT administrators, and I’ll explain why.

At its core, Docker is a platform that allows software developers and IT professionals to develop, transport, and execute applications. “Docker is a platform for distributed apps that was launched 18 months ago,” says Scott Johnston, the SVP of Products for Docker that I spoke with a few days before VMworld. “Docker uses containers….technology originally developed in the early 1980s. Docker made [the containers concept] much easier to use and made it interoperable.”

Johnston went on to explain that Docker provides an abstraction between the application layer and the infrastructure layer. Developers can create applications in Docker containers, and more easily copy and run those applications without changes on PCs, servers, VMS in the data center, and even in cloud environments. I’ve embedded a brief introduction to Docker by CTO Solomon Hykes below. If you’re interested in a deeper dive into what Docker is all about, there’s a unedited, 47-minute version of the Hykes Docker demo available as well.

Docker — which can also be accurately described as a Linux-based container virtualization platform — consists of a ‘Docker Engine’ that includes a runtime component and a packaging application, and a cloud-based service dubbed ‘DockerHub.’ The Docker website says that the latter is used for “… sharing applications and automating workflows.”

VMworld 2014: Docker, VMware, Google, and Pivotal Announce Partnership

One of the highlights of VMworld 2014 was news that VMware had partnered with Docker, Google, and Pivotal to more closely integrate containers in a variety of VMware products and services. In a VMware statement announcing the news, VMware CTO Ben Fathi said that “With Docker, Google and Pivotal, we will simplify the way enterprises develop, run and manage all application types on a common platform at scale,” Fathi said. “In this way, Docker containers and virtual machines will provide an IT environment without compromise. Together, we will optimize containers for the enterprise — enabling that they run effectively in software-defined data center environments.”–

Docker and Microsoft: Azure Support, PowerShell DSC, and Future Plans

While most of the more recent Docker news has focused on partnership with VMware, Google, and Pivotal, Docker is also gaining support from Microsoft as well. At DockerCon in June 2014, Microsoft’s Corey Sanders blogged about how Microsoft was supporting the deployment of Docker into Microsoft Azure Linux virtual machines using Microsoft’s Azure extension technology. Sanders also said that Azure Docker support also integrates with Microsoft’s cross-platform CLI toolset.

In July 2014, Microsoft announced that it was collaborating with both Google and Docker to provide support for lib swarm and Kubernetes to Microsoft Azure, which are open source projects that support and can help manage Docker applications.

That’s not all: Literally less than 24 hours before I finished this article, Microsoft had posted a TechNet Radio piece with Yung Chou, Keith Mayer, and Andrew Weiss that focused on how to use PowerShell DSC to deploy and manage Docker containers running in Microsoft Azure VMs.

During my chat with Johnston, he mentioned that Docker would be providing more robust support for Microsoft platforms in the near future, and that he expected the first Docker implementation to be running natively on Windows platforms by early 2015.

Related Articles:

• How to Install and Configure Docker on Ubuntu 22.04

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