Announcement: 172

Microsoft Translator Developer & Web Master Support announcements

Script Junkie Discussion announcements

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    Welcome to the Script Junkie Forum
    Rey Bango

    We'd like to welcome you to the Script Junkie forum. Here you'll find a fantastic place to engage with others who have a passion for JavaScript, HTML, CSS and the emerging standards that are changing the face of web development. We urge you to share the web development experiences and techniques that have made your projects fun and exciting.

    Also, please let us know your feelings about the SJ content so that authors can get the feedback they need to continuously enhance their works. We want to know what works and what topics you'd like to see in the future and this forum is a great place to share your ideas.

    It's our hope that the SJ forum breeds many incredibly useful discussions and provides a hub for developers to work together to build amazing applications.

    - The Script Junkie Team

     

Live Connect (Archived) announcements

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    Live SDK v5.5 JWT Consent Changes
    Toan Nguyen-Azure
    The Microsoft account team will need to make a change that will affect the way that registered applications process tickets. All you have to do is upgrade to the latest SDK and the ticket handling will automatically be updated. For more information please see this page : http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=242807.
    The change is scheduled to take place on Monday 5thMay, so please make sure that you update before then – users may experience problems with repeated sign-in when requesting consent for your application if you don’t.
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    Live SDK v5.4 released
    JOshiro

    Live SDK v5.4 is now available for download. New additions to this version of the SDK include:

    •          Windows Store HTML and XAML applications. Version 5.4 of the Live SDK was updated for compatibility with Windows 8.1 Preview and Visual Studio 2013 Preview, including new behavior specific to Windows 8.1 Preview: For a user not connected with a Microsoft account, invoking WL.login in JavaScript or LiveAuthClient.LoginAsync will trigger the process to connect the user with a Microsoft account. Also specific to 8.1 Preview, for users who are not connected with a Microsoft account, calling methods on LiveConnectClient to access user data will result in a reject response.
    •          Windows Phone 8. This update contains several fixes for the new WP8 SDK, including a fix for a login session cache issue that could prevent a user from logging in with a different account after logging out. Additionally resolved in this update is a caching issue in LiveConnectClient.UploadAsync that could lead to additional app memory consumption and less accurate progress event data when uploading large files. As a result, larger files can be uploaded on lower-memory devices than was possible in the past.
    •          .NET client and ASP.NET apps. The Live SDK v5.4 Nuget package has been updated with support for .NET 4.
    •          Live SDK for iOS apps. Several UI issues related to login in the iOS 6 SDK have been resolved.
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    Support for XMPP ends in October 2013
    Navdeep Bawa

    Last year, we announced that support for Messenger will end in 2013. Apps that already use Extensible Messages and Presence Protocol (XMPP) will continue to be supported until October 2013. We strongly discourage any new implementations relying on XMPP. Instead, we encourage you to learn more about our APIs for SkyDrive, Hotmail and Skype at http://dev.live.com.

    The documentation for XMPP and messaging has been removed from the Windows Dev Center and archived. This info will not be updated and might contain links to content that no longer exists. But you can still find the XMPP topics here if you need them:

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    Live SDK v5.3 released
    Shelly Guo

    Live SDK v5.3 is now available for download here. New additions to this version of the SDK include:

    • New .NET SDKs for client and server.  Since we first introduced the Live SDK, we have seen a lot of developers ask for a .NET library that would work for classic desktop apps and ASP.NET applications. With this release you can now create applications that target traditional desktop scenarios and as well as server side scenarios.  With the client .NET SDK, you can create WPF, Windows Form or console applications that let your users use their SkyDrive data.  With the ASP.NET SDK, you can create websites and web server components that talk to the Live Connect API service. Using the SDK also makes it easy for you to incorporate Microsoft account into your identity system or even just use Microsoft account as your primary identity system. Be sure to check out our Build talk “Powering your apps with Microsoft accounts” below to learn more about it.
    • Windows Phone 8 SDK.  The WP 8 SDK takes advantage of some of the new features that Windows Phone 8 has to offer and provided you with an easy to use programming model by supporting the new Task<T> async pattern and dynamic keyword. With this you can easily move your code between your Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 application.
    • Open source projects for Windows and Windows Phone SDKs. Starting from v5.3, all Live SDK client components written in C#, Objective C and Java are released as open source projects.  This makes it much easier for developers to resolve problems quickly and build solutions that are tailored to their scenarios.  Be sure to check out our gibhub depot for new additions of the Windows and Windows Phone SDK source code.
    • New samples and starter guides.  New samples for Windows and Windows Phone are added as part of the open source Windows SDK projects.  We also have an updated starter guide for Windows Phone 8 and a new one for Windows 8 and Asp.Net.

    SkyDrive REST API enhancements - we have added the ability to search for files in a user’s SkyDrive by using a partial file name. You can do this by simply making an HTTP GET call with the search parameter 'q'. Here is an example:

    GET http://apis.live.net/V5.0/me/skydrive/search?q=expenses

    The response contains the list of files that have “expenses” in the file name.

    Windows 8 Sign-in control deprecation - Starting with Live SDK v5.3, the sign-in control is deprecated from the Windows 8 C# and Windows 8 JavaScript SDKs.  Instead, apps should follow our guidelines for implementing the sign in experience for Windows Store apps using HTML/Javascript and Windows Store apps using XAML.

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    Application provisioning API will be deprecated in March 2013.
    Shelly Guo

    When we shipped the Live Connect API service 5.0 April last year, we included the functionality to allow an app to provision applications on behaves of other developers.  This functionality is enabled if the app has permission to use the wl.application and the wl.application_create scope.  Application information can be access through the https://apis.live.net/v5.0/me/applications path. After observing the usage pattern of this API for more than a year, we have concluded that this API does not fit into the user model and the design goals of the Live Connect API, whose primary objective is to provide developer access to user’s data stored in Windows services, not a platform to auto provision applications.  With that, we’re now announcing the plan to decommission any APIs that are related to application provisioning through the Live Connect API service, which include all calls to the https://apis.live.net/v5.0/me/applications path and its sub-paths. These APIs will stop working in March 2013.

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    Changes in OAuth Endpoints
    Navdeep Bawa-MSFT

    We would like to inform you of about the changes to the OAuth 2.0 SDK.  We have transitioned the OAuth endpoints to https://login.live.com. This change is to move our OAuth 2.0 authentication service to be on the same backend as our primary login infrastructure. It will give increased scalability and reliability to our OAuth interface and also add some security features like invalidating refresh tokens if the users are detected as compromised or has changed their password.   

    The https://oauth.live.com endpoints will continue to function but with slightly increased latency so we recommend you begin using the new URL’s.

    The new endpoints are:

    The old end points are:

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    Support Operation Hours for Live Connect Forum
    Navdeep Bawa-MSFT

    This forum is monitored by Live Connect Support and Product Group team.

    Hours of Operation: 8:00AM – 5:00PM US Pacific Time (Monday – Friday)

    We do not provide any support over the weekend (Saturday-Sunday).

    Thanks!!!

    Live Connect Support Team

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    Live Connect open source projects and samples on github
    Steve Gordon - MSFT
    Check out our open source depot on github: https://github.com/liveservices/
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    Messenger Connect v4.1 is now deprecated
    Dare Obasanjo - MSFT

    With the release of v5.0 of the Messenger Connect API, the previous version is now deprecated. As mentioned in the v5.0 announcement blog post, the latest version of the Messenger Connect API is the result of taking into account a lot of the input from developers about how to simplify the API and address key limitations we had in the previous version. 

    The v4.1 API will continue to function and will be supported for one year after the release of the v5.0 API. New applications are strongly encouraged to use the v5.0 Messenger Connect instead of the deprecated v4.1 API. It is also recommended that when you upgrade or modify existing applications avoid using and remove usage of the v4.1 APIs. 

    Below is a list of v4.1 features that will no longer be supported in new applications with the release of v5.0 of the Messenger Connect API 

     

    • The v4.1 API provides the ability to publish activities using activity streams to a user’s Messenger Social feed. We received significant feedback from developers and end users that this functionality is not complete because it doesn’t set the Messenger status field and is thus not visible in the user contact list nor in mobile or previous versions of the Messenger client. In addition, we’ve gotten complaints about the complexity of the data formats required to publish status updates. For this reason, we have updated the activity object available in v5.0   to address these shortcomings. For this reason we are not supporting any new applications using the v4.1 activity publishing APIs although this will continue to function in existing applications. Any new applications that try to use this functionality from the v4.1 APIs will receive a 1073 error. 

     

    In summary, the v4.1 Messenger Connect APIs are deprecated and ceased working on August 14, 2012. 

     


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    Live Connect v5.2 released
    Dare Obasanjo - MSFT

    The final version of the Live SDK v5.2 for Windows 8 and Windows Phone is now available for download here. There are several versions of the Live SDK, depending on your target development platform:
    • Live SDK for Windows and Windows Phone: use this edition if you're developing apps for Windows 8 or apps for Windows Phone 7.0 or 7.5. Download here.
    • Live SDK for Android: use this edition if you're developing apps for Google Android mobile technology platform devices, like those running Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and Ice Cream Sandwich. Download here.
    • Live SDK for iOS: use this edition if you're developing apps for the iOS operating system for Apple devices, like iPad, iTouch, and iPod. Download here.

     

    We’ve also added the following new features in the REST API as highlighted in this SkyDrive blog post.

    1.

    If you're developing apps for other platforms, you don't need to download the Live SDK; you can reference our updated Representational State Transfer (REST) API directly, as follows:

    • For websites that use JavaScript, learn more.
    • For Windows desktop apps, and for mobile apps for other than Windows Phone, Android, and iOS, learn more.

    If you have any questions about these downloads or about the Live SDKs in general, post them in this forum. We have team members here that are ready to help you.

    If you're new to Live Connect, learn how to get started; configure your app; work with our code examples; do cool things with Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger; play with our APIs without writing any code; and explore our end-to-end code samples.

SyncFx - General [ReadOnly] announcements

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    This forums is moving Jan 23, 2010
    Liam Cavanagh - MSFT

    One piece of feedback we receive fairly frequently is that given the number of Sync Framework forums, it is confusing, where to best find answers and ask questions relating to specific components of the Sync Framework.  For that reason, we have created a new single (unified) forum for you to use for anything relating to the Microsoft Sync Framework:

     

    SyncFx - Microsoft Sync Framework Developer Discussions

    http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/syncdevdiscussions/threads

    As a result, as of Jan 23rd, 2010 this forum will be locked and will only be available in read mode to allow you to search and read archived questions.  Any questions that were submitted since Jan 1, 2010 in the below forums will be moved to this new location and will continue to be active in their new location.  So please start tracking them in their new location.
     

    SyncFx - General

    SyncFx - Technical Discussion

    SyncFx – Feedback

    SyncFx - Microsoft Sync Framework Database Providers

     

    Liam Cavanagh

Microsoft Translator User Forum (Including Bing Translator) announcements

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    How to add newly released languages to your Office apps?
    Microsoft Translator

    How to add newly released languages to your list of languages in Office?

    As new languages are added to the core Microsoft Translator service, these languages will appear automatically in www.bing.com/translator, Internet Explorer, Skype Translator IM translation, etc.

    However, for these to appear in Office, Word for instance, you need to first update the list. This is pretty simple and here are the detailed steps to do this. It will take less than a minute to do this

    1. Open word, type a short (5 words of more) text, select the text
    2. Go to the review tab, select “translation” and “translate selected text”
    3. This will open the research pane and you will see a link towards the bottom of the pane that say “Get update to your services” 
      • If you click on the menu “from” or “to” you will see that the new language is not in the list
    4. Click on this “Get update to your services” link.,
    5. Click on “Update”, then “Continue” on the pop-up Windows
    6. Click on “Install” (figure 3)
    7. Then “OK” and “Close”
    8. All done! Now the new language is available.

    Questions? Comments? www.MicrosoftTranslator.com/forum

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    Known issue on Word translation
    Microsoft Translator
    When you try to translate a large Word document by using Microsoft Translator, you might get 404 error. This is a known issue and we're working on this.  If you need to
    translate a large Word document, we suggest you to split the large document into smaller documents. We will post a note at the forum when this issue gets fixed.
    Thanks. Microsoft Translator Team
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    Welcome to the Microsoft Translator User forum
    Vikram Dendi
    This forum provides support for Microsoft Translator powered end-user products - Bing Translator, Office Translator, Windows Live Toolbar, Internet Explorer Accelerator etc.
    If you are looking for support with Developer and Webmaster offerings - please go to our MSDN forum: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/microsofttranslator/threads

Forums Redesign - Q&A / Discussions announcements

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    How to share your feedback on the new design
    Bryant Hawthorne - MSFT

    Thank you everyone who has provided feedback into this forum so far. We appreciate the feedback and are actively prioritizing it accordingly. We are monitoring the suggestions and bugs and are currently working to make improvements based on feedback that has already been provided.

    In order to help us make further improvements to this new design, please take the following action:

    • If you have a suggestion for the redesigned Forums please post these to Suggestions and Feedback for the Forums. Please limit one suggestion per post and we encourage users to vote up suggestions to bring attention to the Forums team.
    • If you encounter bugs please continue to post bugs in the Forums Issues forum.
    • If you have additional questions or comments about the redesign, this forum is the place to post.

    Again, thank you for your feedback and know that your voice is being heard.

Microsoft Translator Hub Forum announcements

.NET Native Preview announcements

Windows Phone Preview OS Issues announcements

Windows Live Messenger Web APIs: Development announcements

Visual Studio Editor announcements

Windows Live Messenger Client: Development (retired) announcements

Expression Studio announcements

Windows Live  Spaces: Development announcements

Bing Maps: Map Control and Web services Development announcements

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    New Bing Maps Forums
    Ricky_Brundritt

    Today we announced the new Bing Maps developer forums. Rather than having a single forum for Bing Maps we have created 5 seperate froums grouping liked API's. In addition we have also created a Bing Maps category in the MSDN forums which you can access here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/bingmaps

    · Bing Maps General

    · Bing Maps AJAX Map Controls

    · Bing Maps Silverlight/WPF Controls

    · Bing Maps REST/SOAP/SDS Services

    · Bing Maps Windows 8 Controls

    The original announcement can be found here: http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/maps/archive/2012/03/16/the-bing-maps-forums.aspx

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    Important Information about Bing Maps Spatial Data Services
    Chris Pendleton (MSFT)

    Since its release earlier this year, we have seen interest in, and usage of, our Bing Maps Spatial Data Services (SDS) grow rapidly.

     

    The result is that at times of peak load the number of evaluation accounts using the service is pre-empting other requests. Today we have made a change to the SDS service that will prioritize requests from Enterprise Accounts. You can check the status of your Account to see if you have an Enterprise Account by logging into the account on the Bing Maps Account Center.

     

    We regret that this means that you will no longer be able to submit new jobs to SDS from non-Enterprise Accounts until you request and are given access to SDS as detailed below. To be clear, data already uploaded to the SDS service can still be queried; it is only when you try to update those data sets, create new ones, or download them that you will receive an error.

     

    If you would like to request access to SDS for a non-Enterprise Account application, you can do so by emailing MAPLIC@microsoft.com with your Account ID and (for publically accessible sites) top level domains. Be sure to send this request from the email account on record in the Bing Maps Account Center. (Replies will only be sent to these accounts so please check your SPAM filters and the usual things that might complicate communication.)

     

    Please also note that if you are using the SDS service from an Enterprise Account, then you should not need to take any action related to production accounts. Your application should not require any changes. If you experience any issues please let us know via your enterprise support contact.

     

    As we continue to enhance the SDS system this process will be improved and made more efficient. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

     

    Chris Pendleton

    Sr. Program Manager, Lead

    Bing Maps, Microsoft Corp.

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    Bing Maps AJAX v7 Interactive SDK Released
    tanoshimi

    Released today, the Bing Maps v7 Interactive SDK demonstrates the code required to perform common tasks on the Bing Maps v7 control - how to add shapes to the map, working with tile layers, adding events to the map, together with new features such as getting the user's location and registering custom modules.

    You can access the interactive SDK here: http://www.bingmapsportal.com/ISDK/AjaxV7

    If you have any questions about the examples used in the iSDK, please start a new thread onthe forum

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    Bing Maps 3D control has been discontinued
    tanoshimi

    On the 2nd November 2010, Microsoft announced that they have discontinued investment in the Bing Maps 3D control Active-X plug-in.

    When the next update to www.bing.com/maps is launched, the option to view 3D Maps will be removed.

    Current users of 3D Maps can expect the following:

    1. Permalinks and the desktop shortcut to 3D Maps will be redirected to Bing Maps with the nearest match to the experience they had in 3D. In most cases this will result only in a loss of the ability to navigate in full 3D.

    2. After opening collections with 3D models, the 3D models will be represented as pushpins only. The models will not be accessible from collections.

    3. Permalinks to tours will now open the collection manager with a message indicating discontinued support of the feature. Unfortunately there will no longer be an option to view the tour.

    The 3D API used by developers to implement 3D mode in their own Bing Maps (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb429547.aspx) will continue to be supported until December 2011.

    You can view the announcement by Brian Hendricks, Bing Maps Product Manager, at: http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/maps/archive/2010/11/02/changes-to-bird-s-eye-and-3d-maps.aspx

Windows Live Writer: Development announcements

Reporting announcements

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    Forum Migration
    Patrick Gale (MSFT)

    Please be advised that in an effort to provide a more unified Dev Center experience the ads-in-apps forums have been moved as of August 01, 2016 into the same location housing the other Dev Center forums.

    If you already have links to the forums for App/Ad Unit Management, Promote Your App, and AdSDK they should continue to work. The Payout and Reporting forums have been combined and content migrated with the Dev Center Payout and Reporting Forum. All of the original posts and replies still remain and can be found in the new locations.

    If you have any specific questions regarding the forum migration please contact support via the Dev Center Support Portal.

Ad Revenue, Payout & Taxes announcements

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    Forum Migration
    Patrick Gale (MSFT)

    Please be advised that in an effort to provide a more unified Dev Center experience the ads-in-apps forums have been moved as of August 01, 2016 into the same location housing the other Dev Center forums.

    If you already have links to the forums for App/Ad Unit Management, Promote Your App, and AdSDK they should continue to work. The Payout and Reporting forums have been combined and content migrated with the Dev Center Payout and Reporting Forum. All of the original posts and replies still remain and can be found in the new locations.

    If you have any specific questions regarding the forum migration please contact support via the Dev Center Support Portal.

SQL Server 2012 Setup and Installation (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot for Excel (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Integration Services (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 High Availability and Disaster Recovery (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Spatial (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot for SharePoint (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services (Pre-Release) announcements

Claims based access platform (CBA), code-named Geneva announcements

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    Welcome to the "Geneva" forum
    Marc Goodner
    The Federated Identity ”Geneva”  team is happy to announce the release of Microsoft code name “Geneva”, an open platform for simplified user access based on claims.  This release consists of three components:  Geneva Framework for .NET developers, Geneva Server for IT Pros, and Windows CardSpace “Geneva”. 

     

    You can find all of our installation downloads and supporting documentation for each component of the Geneva platform on the “Geneva” Connect site.

Cognitive Services announcements

Orchard –Discussions announcements

Orchard - Help and Support announcements

Azure Mobile Engagement announcements

ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ to Entities (Pre-Release) announcements

Microsoft StreamInsight announcements

Microsoft Robotics - Visual Programming Language announcements

Code Contracts announcements

Azure Virtual Machines announcements

Azure Multi-Factor Authentication announcements

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) announcements

SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint announcements

Microsoft Robotics - Simulation announcements

Dev Center App announcements

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    Forum closed
    Sandra Aldana - MSFT
    Window Phone is no longer supported by Microsoft and most of the questions in this forum are off topic. As a result, this forum is now closed. Thank you for your participation.
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    Dev Center App Update!
    Arvind Ladha

    Thank you for all the feedback regarding the new Dev Center App!  

    We released an update (version 1.1.1302.26 published on Feb 28, 2013) to fix these issues:

    -  App would fail if the background agent was turned off

    -  App would show an incorrect notification “update required”

    - UI graphic improvements

    IMPORTANT: This app requires a Windows Phone Dev Center active account and won’t work without one.

    Please take a minute to download the update. Please send us feedback either by email and this forum.


Application Insights (AI) announcements

Azure Blockchain announcements

Azure Cache announcements

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    Azure Redis Cache is now Generally Available
    Shakti Prasad Mishra

    Azure Redis Cache is now Generally Available, with an availability SLA of 99.9%.

    Azure Redis Cache is a distributed, in-memory, managed cache that helps you build highly scalable and responsive applications, by providing you with fast access to your data. It’s based on the popular open source Redis Cache, and it gives you access to a secured, dedicated Redis cache that’s managed by Microsoft.

    For all new Azure deployment, Azure Redis cache is the recommended  cache.

    For more information browse to the Azure Redis Cache service home page.

Azure Cognitive Service announcements

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    New forum for Azure Cognitive Services!
    James Lee - MSFT

    Welcome to the Azure Cognitive Services forum. This forum is for the posting of questions related to building and deploying applications using pre-built machine learning models. These pre-built models include, but are not limited to, computer vision, speech, language, knowledge and other preview services as they become available. This also includes any pre-built model that supports customization, such as custom vision or custom speech.

    We look forward to hearing about the project you are working, and helping you infuse the models into your applications in the most effective manner.

Azure Data Factory announcements

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    Azure Databricks forum is available on the MSDN forum now.
    CHEEKATLAPRADEEP-MSFT

    We have noticed customers post their questions on Azure Databricks on incorrect forums on MSDN, since there is a new home for Azure Databricks.

    Forum Link: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=AzureDatabricks

    

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    Welcome to Azure Data Factory MSDN Forum
    Gaurav Malhotra-MSFT

    Azure Data Factory allows you to manage the production of trusted information by offering an easy way to create, orchestrate, and monitor data pipelines over the Hadoop ecosystem using structured, semi-structures and unstructured data sources.

    You can connect to your on-premises SQL Server, Azure database, tables or blobs and create data pipelines that will process the data with Hive and Pig scripting, or custom C# processing. The service offers a holistic monitoring and management experience over these pipelines, including a view of their data production and data lineage down to the source systems.

    The outcome of Data Factory is the transformation of raw data assets into trusted information that can be shared broadly with BI and analytics tools.

    The MSDN forum will be used for general discussions for Getting Started, Development, Management, and Troubleshooting using Azure Data Factory.

Azure Disk Encryption announcements

Azure Functions announcements

Azure Key Vault announcements

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    Azure Key Vault Preview announced
    Amit Bapat [MSFT]

    Today we're announcing the public preview of Microsoft Azure Key Vault, a cloud-hosted HSM-backed service for managing cryptographic keys and other secrets used in your cloud applications. This forum is intended for general discussion, best practices, tips and tricks and troubleshooting. Remember, this is a public forum. Do not post confidential information here. Reach us via email to discuss your specific project or feature requests.

Azure Logic Apps announcements

Azure Log Integration announcements

Azure Migrate announcements

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    Confidently plan your cloud migration: Azure Migrate is GA
    Ruturaj Dhekane
    We are pleased to announce the general availability of Azure Migrate.

    Azure Migrate is offered at no additional charge and provides appliance-based, agentless discovery of your on-premises environments. It enables discovery of VMware-virtualized Windows and Linux VMs today and will enable discovery of Hyper-V environments in the future. It also provides an optional, agent-based discovery for visualizing interdependencies between machines to identify multi-tier applications. This enables you to plan your migration across three dimensions:

    • Readiness: Are the machines that host my multi-tier application suitable for running in Azure?
    • Rightsizing: What size will my Azure VM be, based on my machine’s configuration or utilization?
    • Cost: How much will my recurring Azure costs be, taking into account discounts like Azure Hybrid Benefit?

    You can get started by creating a migration project in the Azure portal. In addition...

    • Get and stay informed with our documentation.
    • Seek help by posting a question on our forum or contacting Microsoft Support.
    • Provide feedback by posting or voting for an idea in our user voice.

    Happy Migrations!

Azure Mobile Apps announcements

Azure Search announcements

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    Welcome to the Azure Search Forum
    Liam Cavanagh - MSFT
    Welcome to the public preview forum for Azure Search.  This is a great place to ask technical questions about Azure Search a fully-managed search-as-a-service that customers can use to integrate complete search experiences into applications and connect search results to business objectives through fine-tuned, ranking profiles.  We look forward to your questions and feedback!

Azure Security Center announcements

Azure Sphere announcements

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    Azure Sphere 18.11 Release Announcement
    Alberto Vega (Azure)

    In September, Azure Sphere was released for public preview. Today, Microsoft released the 18.11 update to the Azure Sphere Operating System, Azure Sphere Security Service, and Visual Studio development environment. This release includes substantial investments in the security infrastructure and connectivity solutions, and it incorporates some of your feedback.

    Update to 18.11 Release

    Because of changes to the security infrastructure, this release will require a manual update; over-the-air (OTA) update should be available for future releases. Download and install the new SDK and follow the instructions in the Release Notes to manually update your device to 18.11 and reconnect to Wi-Fi. If you previously configured OTA application deployment, you will need to create new feeds.

    Upgrade your device OS and SDK as soon as possible. Devices that run the TP 4.2.1 release will have limited functionality. Please refer to the Release Notes for more information.

    New Features

    18.11 release includes support for new device functionality and adds new reference solutions. Please see the Azure Sphere Blog post for more details.

    If you have any questions about this update, please post them here on Azure Sphere MSDN forum.

Azure SQL Data Warehouse announcements

Cost Management - Cloudyn announcements

Azure Marketplace announcements

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    Certificate change may affect Linux clients
    Max Uritsky

    We recently updated our certificate infrastructure to reflect all up Windows Azure Certificate Authority change (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2013/03/15/windows-azure-root-certificate-migration.aspx).

    Some Linux clients do not does not accept certificates chained to both the GTE CyberTrust Global Root and the Baltimore CyberTrust Root and you may hit certificate validation errors. Accepting the Root Certificate trust will solve the issue.

    Thanks,

    Marketplace team

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    Bing Image Thumbnail Changes
    Peter Puszkiewicz

    We are pleased to announce a new development in the display of thumbnail images with the Bing Search API.  As the demand for images in Bing has increased, the need for larger thumbnails to display high quality images has grown.  To meet this need, thumbnail dimensions will now be increased when the original image can support it.

    How does this affect you?  If you currently display images in your application, you will need to utilize existing thumbnail properties to adjust the thumbnail size to your UI specifications.  We recommend that you should not have a dependency on the upper bound of the thumbnail size, as the thumbnail size will vary.

Microsoft Azure Site Recovery announcements

Machine Learning announcements

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    New forum for Azure Cognitive Services!
    James Lee - MSFT

    We have a new dedicated forum for Azure Cognitive Services.

    Please update your bookmarks to point to: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=AzureCognitiveService

    Thank you.

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    New forum for Azure Machine Learning service
    James Lee - MSFT

    We have opened a new forum (https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=AzureMachineLearningService) dedicated to Azure Machine Learning service.

    Please direct all Azure Machine Learning service (and the retiring Azure Machine Learning workbench) related questions to the new forum.

    Thank you.

    Azure Machine Learning team

  • Link
    Azure Machine Learning now supports Azure DocumentDB as a data source in Import Data module
    GokhanU
      We have released support for Azure Document DB as a data source in Azure Machine Learning. You can use the existing "Azure DocumentDB" connection option in the Import Data module to read data from Azure DocumentDB for your experiment.
      For more information, please see the       DocumentDB section of the Import Data module.
      • Link
        Updates to Text Analytics Modules in Azure Machine Learning Studio
        Roope Astala - MSFT

        New Module: Extract Key Phrases from Text

        You can use this module to extract key talking points from text. As an input, the module takes a dataset that must have a text string column from which the key-phrases are extracted.

        The module takes the language of the text records as input parameter. Supported languages include Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. You can also use a language column that specifies the language of each record, as produced by Detect Languages module.  

        The output consists of comma-separated lists of key phrases for each record in input. The key phrases can be used to summarize a corpus of documents, or as features for a machine learning model.

        Updated Module: Preprocess Text

        • You can specify a language through a language column, as produced by Detect Languages module.
        • Following three preprocessing options have been added: Expand verb contractions, Normalize backslashes to slashes, and Split tokens on special characters. Previously, these transformations were done automatically.
      • Link
        Azure Machine Learning Workspace and Web Service Pricing Plans now available in the Azure Portal
        Chhavi Bhasin

        We are pleased to announce the availability of Azure Machine Learning Workspaces and Web Service Plans for all our Azure Machine Learning users through the Azure Portal. Azure Machine Learning users can now create and manage Standard workspaces through the Azure Portal. In addition, users will also be able to create Web Service Pricing Plans. These plans are used when deploying web services and provide included quantities of operationalized compute at a single, predictable monthly cost.

        Create your Standard Azure Machine Learning workspace now by going to https://portal.azure.com. Log in with the credentials that you use for accessing your Azure Subscription(s). Click on +New | Data + Analytics | Machine Learning Workspace.

      • Link
        New Text Analytics Modules in Azure ML Studio
        Roope Astala - MSFT

        We are pleased to announce significant new capabilities for text analytics in Azure Machine Learning Studio.

        The new features include following modules:

        These modules allow you to build models to solve text classification problems, such as support ticket routing or sentiment analysis. You can pre-process text in multiple languages, and then create features from your text data. Operationalization of models is fully supported.

        The modules complement the existing capabilities for Feature Hashing, Vowpal Wabbit based high-dimensional models, and text analytics through R and Python scripting.

        For more details, visit MSDN documentation and Cortana Intelligence Gallery.

      • Link
        Web services created using the "New" option
        raymondl_msft

        There is an issue impacting the "New" web service option for deploying web services from Predictive Experiments in Azure ML. We are working on resolving the issue, and a result have disabled the feature until the feature is fully functional. To access web services created the new process, please browse to https://services.azureml.net and sign in to view your web services. Sorry for any inconvenience this issue may cause.

      • Link
        Azure Machine Learning now supports Azure SQL Data Warehouse as a data source and a destination
        GokhanU

        We have released support for Azure SQL Data Warehouse as a data source and a destination in Azure Machine Learning. You can use the existing "Azure SQL Database" connection options in the Reader and Writer modules to read from and write to Azure SQL Data Warehouse. When using the Writer module, the destination tables must already exist in the SQL Data Warehouse.

        For more information, please see How to Use Azure ML with Azure SQL Data Warehouse 

        Please refer to SQL Data Warehouse Reference to learn more about the product and the Transact-SQL language details.

         

      • Link
        Announcing Availablility of Tree Model Visualizations in Azure Machine Learning
        Roope Astala - MSFT
        Visualization of tree models such as Boosted Decision Trees is now available in Azure Machine Learning Studio. To view the trees, train the model, and click Visualize on the output of Train Model module.
      • Link
        Announcing the Availability of an Azure Virtual Machine Image with Popular Data Science Tools
        Larry Koch (MSFT)

        Announcing the Availability of an Azure Virtual Machine Image with Popular Data Science Tools

        Microsoft Data Group is happy to announce the immediate availability of a Windows Server 2012 based custom virtual machine image on the Azure marketplace containing several tools that can be used by data scientists and developers for advanced analytics. Through Azure’s world-wide cloud infrastructure, customers now have on-demand access to a data science development environment they can use to derive insights from their data, build predictive models and intelligent applications.  The virtual machine saves developers’ time from having to discover and install the tools individually.  Hosting the data science machine on Azure gains you high availability and a consistent set of tools used across your data science team.

        The data science VM comes with several popular tools pre-installed like Revolution R Open, Anaconda Python distribution including Jupyter notebook server, Visual Studio Community Edition, Power BI Desktop, SQL Server Express edition and Azure SDK. Once you provision your virtual machine from this image you can get started with data exploration and modeling right away. The data on the virtual machine is stored on the cloud and highly available. You have full administrative access to the virtual machine and can install additional software as needed. There is no separate software fee to use the VM image. You only pay for actual hardware compute usage of the virtual machine depending on the size of the virtual machine you are provisioning this VM on. You  can turn off the machine from Azure portal when it is not in use to avoid being billed. When you restart the virtual machine from the Azure portal you can continue your development with all your data and files intact. Further augment your analytics on your data science virtual machine by leveraging solutions in Microsoft’s Cortana Analytics Suite.

        The data science virtual machine helps you create an analytics environment where you can rapidly build advanced analytics solutions for deployment to the cloud, on-premises or in a hybrid environment.

        You can find the data science virtual machine and the Azure hardware compute pricing  at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/partners/microsoft-ads/standard-data-science-vm/

        More information about the virtual machine can be found at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/machine-learning-data-science-provision-vm/

        If you are new to Azure, you can try the data science virtual machine for free via a 30-day Azure free trial by visitinghttps://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/

        We encourage you to try the data science virtual machine to jumpstart your analytics project and provide us feedback on how we can better serve your analytics needs.

      • Link
        Azure Machine Learning now available in Western Europe
        Dan Manrique

        We are happy to announce that we have released Azure ML in our Western Europe datacenter (Amsterdam). Now you can create workspaces in this datacenter. For more information, click here: http://aka.ms/mlwelaunch.

      • Link
        Azure Machine Learning now available in Southeast Asia
        Dan Manrique
        We are happy to announce that we have released Azure ML in our SouthEast Asia datacenter (Singapore). Now you can create workspaces in this datacenter. For more information, click here: http://aka.ms/mlasialaunch.
      • Link
        Azure Machine Learning now supports Azure Active Directory
        Dan Manrique

        We are happy to announce that we have released Azure Active Directory (AAD) support in Azure ML. Now you can log in with any arbitrary Azure AD account (work or school account), in addition to, Microsoft accounts (LiveID), and invite other Azure AD users to your workspace. For more information, click here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/machinelearning/archive/2015/09/02/logging-on-to-azure-ml-with-your-work-or-school-account.aspx.

      • Link
        Free Excel add-in to connect to Azure ML web services
        Ted Way

        A free Excel add-in that you can use with web services published from Azure Machine Learning is now available. You can use this add-in for request/response predictions or batch predictions, work in Windows or the browser, share workbooks with your co-workers, and call multiple web services all within a single spreadsheet.  Go to http://aka.ms/amlexcelhelp for help or ask a question here.

        To try it out, open and download sample Excel worksheets that already contain web services:

        http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-1

        http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-2

        You may use the add-in directly in the browser using Excel Online or opening the file in Excel 2013 or later on Windows.  Copy the file to your own OneDrive account if you want to edit it.

        Feature highlights

        • Connect to multiple web services in one Excel workbook
        • Choose from RRS or BES
        • Supports single or no input, and single, multiple, or no outputs

        For sample 1 (text sentiment analysis): http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-1

        1.)    Highlight cells A1 to A12

        2.)    Click the range selector button (the selection Sheet1!$A$1:$A:$12 should automatically be populated)

        3.)    Click OK in the Select Data dialog box

        4.)    Type “B1” in the output1 text box

        5.)    Click the Predict button

        6.)    This web service takes some time to process the text, so please be patient and wait for a minute.  When it’s done, you should see the sentiment predictions and scores in columns B and C.

        For sample 2 (Titanic survivor predictor): http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-2

        1.)    Highlight cells A1 to G11

        2.)    Click the range selector button (the selection Sheet1!$A$1:$G:$11 should automatically be populated)

        3.)    Click OK in the Select Data dialog box

        4.)    Type “H1” in the output1 text box

        5.)    Click the Predict button

        6.)    When it’s done, you should see the predictions and scores in columns H and I

        To add your own web service:

        1.)    In the Excel add-in, go to the Web Services section (if you are in the Predict section, click the back arrow to go to the list of web services)

        2.)    Click Add Web Service

        3.)    In Azure ML Studio, click the WEB SERVICES section in the left pane, and then select the web service

        4.)    Copy the API key for the web service

        5.)    Paste the API key into the Excel add-in text box labeled API key

        6.)    On the DASHBOARD tab for the web service, click the REQUEST/RESPONSE link

        7.)    Look for the OData Endpoint Address section. Copy the URL and paste that into the text box labeled URL in the Excel add-in\

        8.)    Click Add

      • Link
        Release Announcement: Preview availability of Jupyter Notebooks in Azure Machine Learning Studio
        Dan Manrique
        On July 24th, 2015, Microsoft announced the Preview Availability release of Jupyter Notebooks in Azure Machine Learning Studio. 
         
        Azure Machine Learning Studio is a powerful canvas for the composition of Machine Learning Experiments and subsequent operationalization and consumption.   It provides an easy to use, yet powerful, drag-drop style of creating Experiments.  But sometimes you need a good old “REPL” that allows you to have a tight loop where you enter some script code and get a response.  We are delighted to announce that we’ve now integrated this functionality into ML Studio through Jupyter Notebooks.
         
        Jupyter enables the concept of “executable documents” with support for mixed code, markdown and inline graphics.   It’s  one of the most important innovations in the Data Science and Technical Computing space in recent years.  You now have full access to its power from any OS, from any modern browser directly from inside the Azure Machine Learning Studio. 
         
        In addition to authoring capabilities above, we are also enabling publishing AzureML web services directly from the Jupyter Notebook. We are also extending this capability to the Jupyter Notebooks running locally outside of AzureML Studio. This allows you to publish any function, including those creating ML models, to be published as a web service directly from the Jupyter Notebook running on your machine. The result is an AzureML web service API that can be called to perform functions or predictions from client applications in real time and over the internet.
      • Link
        Annoucing the availability of Azure Machine Learning BES SDK
        raymondl_msft

        Announcing the availability of the SDK for AzureML Batch Execution Service (BES)

        The AzureML BES SDK is now available for download and installation as a NuGet package on NuGet.org (http://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Azure.MachineLearning/).

        The SDK wraps the BES sample code with additional functions to simplify the consumption of BES APIs.

        Documentation is available after installing the SDK package in Visual Studio. The BES documentation has also been updated with sample code and guidance on using the SDK.

        We are looking forward to hearing your feedback and comments on the SDK to help improve it.

        Thanks,

        AzureML Team


      • Link
        AzureML Retraining API demo available on Codeplex
        raymondl_msft

        We have posted a demo of the Retraining APIs on Codeplex.com. The demo uses the new APIs to programmatically retrain a trained model. Here is the link to the Demo.

        Please take a look and let us know if you have questions or comments.

      Azure Media Services announcements

      • Link
        Azure Media Services v3 API has now entered general availability
        John Deutscher


        Developers and media companies trust and rely on Azure Media Services to build media applications that include encoding, content protection with DRM, video indexing, live streaming, dynamic packaging, and content delivery at scale. The API now features: 

        •   A simplified development and management model that 

        • adds new capabilities across live, VOD, and Content Protection 

        • includes new presets to facilitate automated audio and video metadata extraction workflows in Azure 

        • A new live streaming (LiveEvent) entity with support for 8-second end-to-end low-latency streaming across both HLS and DASH (when using 1s GOPs)

        • Release of a CLI 2.0 command line module that supports all API features (including live!) 

        • Better integration experience with key Azure services like Event Grid, Logic Apps, and Functions 

        • Updated versions of the most requested client SDKs for .NET, .NET Core, Java, Go, Ruby, Python, and Node.js. 

        In addition, there are updates to Azure Media Player— AMP now includes a Low Latency profile to use with the new LiveEvent entity, and its accessibility support has been enhanced with the inclusion of the closed-captioning standard CEA-708. 

        For more information on the above, please read the announcement blog.  

      • Link
        CRITICAL! Update to Powershell for Media Services: Removing support for ACS Keys next week.
        John Deutscher

        As part of our impending shut-down of ACS authentication and Key support in Azure Media Services, we will be removing support for ACS key management from Powershell as of next week. 

        If you have not begun your migration to use AAD authentication, you should begin so IMMEDIATELY! 
        In June we will be shutting off ACS key authentication support for all calls to Azure Media Services API. This means that all API calls and code that has not been migrated to use Azure Active Directory (AAD) auth will no longer work. 

        See our previous announcements on the required updates here:
        ACS deprecation Announcement

        Also see the full blog post with details on migration here:

        https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-media-service-aad-auth-and-acs-deprecation/

      • Link
        Media Services SDKs for Java and PHP support Azure Active Directory Authentication
        John Deutscher

        Azure Media Services client SDKs for both Java and PHP now support Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication. 

        Due to the upcoming deprecation of key authentication support for the Azure Access Control service (ACS) on June 22, 2018, all Media Services customers are required to upgrade their client SDK or REST API code to support Azure AD authentication.

        To get the latest Java SDK release, see the details in our Java documentation. To download the latest PHP SDK for Media Services, look for version 0.5.7 of the Microsoft/WindowsAzure package in the Packagist repository. For critical information about the deprecation of ACS, see our blog.


      • Link
        CRITICAL BREAKING CHANGE coming June 1, 2018 - ACS authentication deprecation for Media Services. Move to AAD quickly!
        John Deutscher

        This is a CRITICAL reminder of an upcoming BREAKING CHANGE to your code if you are using Azure Media Services. 

        On June 1, 2018, we will be shutting down ACS authentication key support. This is currently the primary way most customers are authenticating with Azure Media Services.  We are being forced off the ACS system due to that team's planned retirement of the backend ACS key services.  As we have blogged before, we have moved to Azure Active Directory for Authentication (AAD).   See my previous blog post here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-media-service-aad-auth-and-acs-deprecation/ 

        Starting in November 2017, we will be turning off the ACS key blade in the Media Services section of the Azure Portal. You will no longer be able to retrieve or rotate your existing ACS keys for authentication with Media Services.  We are doing this to promote the coming critical change more, and ask customers to move more rapidly to meet the June 1 deadline. You can still list your keys via the REST management API or through Powershell. 

        We are pleading directly to our customer base to IMMEDIATELY update your SDK or REST API code to use Active Directory (AAD) authentication. Do not delay, as this will be a breaking change to your code on June 1, 2018.   You production code using ACS keys will begin to fail authentication on that date. 

        If you have any questions, reach out on this forum or email amshelp@microsoft.com to reach our team. 

        Thanks,
        Azure Media Services team

      • Link
        Announcing: New Auto-Scaling Standard Streaming Endpoint and Enhanced Azure CDN Integration
        John Deutscher

        The Media Services team is very excited to announce some long awaited customer features, including both our new Standard Streaming Endpoints and Enhanced Azure CDN Integration.

        Our new Standard Streaming Endpoints offer auto-scaling and the flexibility to deliver your content to virtually every device through dynamic packaging into HLS, MPEG-DASH, and Smooth Streaming as well as dynamic encryption for Microsoft PlayReady, Google Widevine, Apple Fairplay, and AES128 without needing to worry about Streaming Units.  They also scale from very small to very large audiences with thousands of concurrent viewers through Azure CDN integration.  The new Streaming endpoints only cost a very low monthly fee, with no additional costs when they scale up based on demand.

        Moving forward, all new Media Services accounts will be created with Standard Streaming Endpoint by default. Addition to this all new media services accounts come with 15 days of free Standard Streaming Endpoint. This is great for developers who need to test out our MPEG-DASH and HLS advanced features without committing to spending for the month.  Existing Media Services accounts with classic Streaming Endpoint will not be automatically migrated to Standard Streaming Endpoint, but will have the option to migrate manually. Standard Streaming Endpoints is our recommended option for virtually all streaming scenarios and audience sizes.

         

        In addition to Standard Streaming Endpoints, we are also pleased to announce enhanced Azure CDN integration. With a single click you can integrate all the available Azure CDN providers (Akamai and Verizon) to your Streaming Endpoint including their Standard and Premium products and you can manage and configure all the related features through the Azure CDN portal. When Azure CDN is enabled for a Streaming Endpoint using Azure Media Services, data transfer charges between the Streaming Endpoint and CDN do not apply. Data transferred is instead charged at the CDN edge using CDN pricing.

         

        You can start trying out new Standard Streaming Endpoint and CDN integration or migrate your existing endpoints to Standard Streaming Endpoint using Azure Portal (Please note that AMS is not accessible via Azure Classic portal and have a new home).

        If you prefer writing code, you need to use REST 2.15 and upgrade to .NET SDK 3.8.0.5.

         

        For more information please check our blog post and Streaming endpoints overview.

         

      • Link
        Service Management APIs
        Milan Gada (MSFT)

        WAMS Service Management APIs are now live on MSDN at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn167014.aspx

        Feedback welcome

      • Link
        On-Demand Streaming usage metrics now available
        Anton Kucer - MSFT

        You can now monitor your usage of On-Demand Streaming for your media services accounts via the following three metrics that are now available via the Azure Media Services dashboard. 

        Streaming Data Out - Indicates how many Bytes of egress data has been used for On-Demand Streaming.

        Streaming HTTP Errors - Indicates how many HTTP Errors have occured. This includes server errors (e.g. HTTP 500 caused by blob store or a media services component) as well as typical client errors (e.g. HTTP 404 or 403). In a future update we will provide additional granularity so that you can track these errors individually.

        Streaming Requests - Indicates how many requests for data have been made for on-demand streaming.

        If there are other metrics that you would like to see available for on-demand streaming, add the request to our uservoice board - https://azuremediaservices.uservoice.com/

      • Link
        Submit Feature ideas to our User Voice
        John Deutscher

        We have a User Voice site that we have been using for IIS Media Services on-premises for many years that we would like to direct our customers to post new feature requests and vote on features for Azure Media Services as well.  We decided to mix the customer feature list, as many of the same feature requests will impact both our cloud and on-premises solutions for Media Services.

        Please post your feature requests to our User Voice Media Services site here:

        http://azuremediaservices.uservoice.com/

      Azure Log Analytics announcements

      • Link
        NOTICE: Upcoming URL change for OpsMgr-attach to Azure Operational Insights
        Daniele Muscetta

        IMPORTANT for OpInsights users!

        If you are using OpsMgr with Azure Operational Insights behind proxies with specific ACL or rules to only allow traffic to specific destination, please note the following upcoming change that would require an action in your environment.

        In order to align the way that OpsMgr and direct agent send data to the service, and as we are making preparations to have a presence in more Azure regions, we have to make a ONE-TIME change to the URLs that the management packs use to post data to OpInsights: where in the past OpsMgr would be talking to ods.systemcenteradvisor.com , with an upcoming deployment (possibly mid next week, we will update this post closer to the deployment as we have a more specific date) OpsMgr will instead start reporting to <yourworkspaceid>.ods.opinsights.azure.com. We recommend you update your firewall/proxy’s ACLs/rules to allow traffic to the new destination *.ods.opinsights.azure.com or your data would start either queuing up on OpsMgr and/or eventually being dropped if the new destination can’t be reached.

        As the new management packs will be received, the system will start reporting to the new URL, and you can later remove the previous ods.systemcenteradvisor.com entry which won’t be needed any longer.

        We have updated the table with the relevant URLs on our troubleshooting blog post and are updating the MSDN documentation as well.  Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need more information or help.

        Read more on our blog http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2015/02/06/notice-upcoming-url-change-for-opsmgr-reporting-to-opinsights.aspx

      • Link
        Welcome to Azure Log Analytics (aka Operational Insights) Forum!
        Jialin Xin

        Log Analytics is an analysis service that enables IT administrators to gain deep insight across on-premises and cloud environments. It enables you to interact with real-time and historical machine data to rapidly develop custom insights, and provides Microsoft and community-developed patterns for analyzing data. Learn more and try it out at http://www.microsoft.com/oms

        This is a forum to ask question and discuss with the community about your experience with Log Analytics!

        Onboarding issues? Read this troubleshooting guide

        • How do I do XYZ? Try our documentation
        • Customers with Premier support can log support cases via Premier
        • Customers with Azure support agreements can log support cases in the Azure portal

        Note we also have another site to report Feedback, Ideas and Bugs https://feedback.azure.com/forums/267889-log-analytics  (before submitting there, check what other users have already suggested and voted on). You can also reach us on twitter @OpInsights

      Service Bus announcements

      Azure SQL Database announcements

      • Link
        New service update available for SQL Data Sync!
        Shirley Wang [ADF]

        While it has been 3+ years since we last announced an update to SQL Data Sync service, we have been continuously deploying updates to the backend service to address top customer issues.  We are listening to your feedback, and today we are happy to announce the latest update which includes both service changes and a new SQL Data Sync agent install.  This update includes two main enhancements:

        1. Support for synchronizing tables that have column collations:
          • If the selected sync schema tables do not already exist in your hub or member databases, upon deploying the sync group, SQL Data Sync will automatically create corresponding tables and columns in the empty database with the same collation settings as the select sync schema.
          • If the tables to-be-synced are already created in both hub and member databases, SQL Data Sync requires the primary key columns have the same collation between hub/member databases to successfully deploy the sync group.  There is no collation restriction on the non-primary key columns.
        2. Improvements to performance and resilience:
          • We enhanced batch transfer of serialized changes from source to destination, so you should see faster sync throughput.
          • We improved transient error handling logic when reading from the source or writing to the destination.

        The new version of SQL Data Sync agent in the download center.  Please follow the step-by-step instructions here to install a new Data Sync agent.  If you have an existing agent, you can refer to this MSDN article for detailed upgrade procedures.  A previous version of Data Sync agent will continue to work until it expires on 8/18/2015.

      • Link
        Understand Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure VM
        Vinod Ramakrishna

        Microsoft Azure provides you two options when hosting your SQL Server-based data: Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machine. This new article explains how each option fits into the big picture in Microsoft’s Data Platform, and then discusses the common business motivations that might affect your choice. Please take a look at it!

        http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/data-management-azure-sql-database-and-sql-server-iaas/

        Selcin Turkarslan

      StorSimple announcements

      • Link
        StorSimple 8000 series available only in the Azure portal from October 2017
        Anoob Backer

        In July 2017, we announced the general availability of the Microsoft Azure StorSimple 8000 series in the new Azure portal. Beginning October 2017, you need to use the new Azure portal to manage your StorSimple 8000 series devices. The Azure classic portal is no longer supported.

        • Starting October 5, 2017, your classic StorSimple device managers will automatically move to the new Azure portal. This is a phased rollout, and we will update you about the move via email and portal notifications. For more information about the move, see Move your service to Azure portal.
        • The new Azure portal supports devices running Update 3.0 or later. If your device is not up to date, we strongly recommend that you apply Update 5 as soon as possible. For more information, see Install Update 5 on your StorSimple device.
        • The existing Azure Service Management (ASM) PowerShell cmdlets are not supported after the transition to the new portal. Update the scripts to manage your devices through the Azure Resource Manager SDK. For more information, see the script samples that use the Resource Manager SDK.

        If you have any questions, see FAQ: Move to Azure portal. To familiarize yourself with the new Azure portal, please refer to the product documentation.

        Source: https://azure.microsoft.com/updates/storsimple-8000-series-is-available-only-in-the-azure-portal-from-october-2017/ 

      • Link
        Announcing StorSimple 8000 series in the new Azure portal!
        Anoob Backer

        StorSimple 8000 series device management is generally available in the Azure portal. This means that you can use the portal and Azure Resource Manager to unlock deep personalization and role-based access control, and have a single portal to manage all your apps.

         

        What does this change mean for you?

        • Using Resource Manager, you can now manage 8000 series devices.
        • You can leverage the Resource Manager SDK for automating the 8000 series device management.
        • The Azure portal supports devices running Update 3.0 or later.

         

        What actions do you need to take?

        • Your existing StorSimple Physical Device Series resources in the classic portal can be transitioned to the new Azure Portal in the coming weeks. The transition from the classic portal to the Azure portal is quick, easy, and non-disruptive.
        • If your device is not up to date, we strongly recommend that you apply Update 4 as soon as possible.

         

        For more information about the Azure portal experience, please visit the Azure Blog. 

      • Link
        Expanded subscription offers for StorSimple Virtual Array
        Anoob Backer

        To leverage the StorSimple Virtual Array hybrid cloud offering, we are now expanding this solution to customers who are on MSDN, Pay-as-you-go, and other subscriptions.

        For more details, check out Expanded subscription offers for StorSimple Virtual Array.

      • Link
        Transitioning your StorSimple Virtual Array to the Azure portal
        Anoob Backer

        Your existing StorSimple Virtual Device Series managers in the Azure Classic portal will be transitioned to the new Azure portal. Please note this migration is seamless and there will be no downtime to your virtual arrays. Upon completion of this migration, you may still see your StorSimple Virtual Device Series resources within the Classic portal, however you will be directed to manage them within the Azure portal.

         

        More information is available at StorSimple Virtual Device Series transitioning to the new Azure portal.


      • Link
        Managing StorSimple virtual arrays in the new Azure portal
        Anoob Backer

        We’re happy to announce the management of the StorSimple Virtual Device Series is now available in the new Azure portal. You can use the StorSimple extension in the new portal to create Azure Resource Manager based StorSimple managers to manage your virtual arrays.

        For more information, check out Managing StorSimple virtual arrays in the new Azure portal.

      Azure Storage announcements

      • Link
        Azure Ultra disks GA
        DiegoRamirez-MSFT

        With general availability of Microsoft Azure Ultra Disks Storage today, we are delivering the next generation of our highly performant Azure Managed Disk, for data intensive workloads migrating to or running in the cloud. Azure Ultra Disk will help you get maximum extremely scalable performance and sub-millisecond latency for applications and databases like SAP HANA, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, Cassandra, Oracle DB, Postgre SQL, NoSQL, MySQL and many more.

        Azure Ultra Disks will give you access to the best in class IOPS, throughput and latency in the cloud. You can now:

        • Choose from a range of different disks sizes ranging from 4 GiB up to 64 TiB with granular increments
        • Scale performance up to 160K IOPS and 2 GB/s per disk with zero downtime using our flexible innovative design
        • Achieve the optimal performance you need per disk even at low storage capacities 

        Our preview customers have benefited by achieving new levels of performance and scale on Azure for their Virtual Machine and Container workloads. Get started today with Azure Ultra Disk Storage.  Please refer to our how-to-guidefor a deep dive and learn more at https://aka.ms/UltraDiskBlog.


      • Link
        Archived Windows Azure Storage Forum Content
        Brad Calder

        When the forums moved into specialized areas, the original forum content for Windows Azure was left archived at this link:

         

        http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/windowsazure/

         

         

      • Link
        Windows Azure Storage Team Blog
        Brad Calder

        Please see the Windows Azure Storage Team Blog for more information on Windows Azure Storage

         

        http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/

         

      Cloud Services (Web and Worker Roles) announcements

      Azure Backup announcements

      Windows Desktop Sidebar Gadget Development announcements

      Internet Explorer Extension Development announcements

      • Link
        Internet Explorer 11 Preview
        Ryan Bolz

        Please be aware that Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 Preview is now available. Please feel free to post questions or discussions related to IE 11 Preview in this forum.

        Thanks,

        Microsoft Community team

      Internet Explorer Web Development announcements

      • Link
        Welcome!
        Ryan Bolz

        Please be aware that Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 Preview is now available. Please feel free to post questions or discussions related to IE 11 Preview in this forum.

        Thanks,

        Microsoft Community team