Devops Starter – Launch an app running in Azure in a few quick steps

Azure, Devops July 13, 2022 Leave a comment

Now i have entered into the devops realm will try my best to start blogging on the devops technology. Having said that this is going to be my first blog on the devops platform.

We will examine building and modifying CI/CD pipelines using Azure Devops. With that, we can create a sample code project, build a release pipeline, and lastly, after deployment, observe how the sample app is automatically distributed in complete throughout the azure cloud infrastructure.

To create a Azure Devops Project we need to navigate to Azure Devops portal and look for Devops Starter.

In the next screen we are presented with the option about what language we will be using to create this project. In our below example we are going to use .net to create this new web app.Note if we have our own code then there is an option to choose that and point them to our own Repo.

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Utilize Intune endpoint security policies for Account Protection in Windows devices

Endpoint Security, Intune, Security June 19, 2022 Leave a comment

Microsoft has invested a lot of new upgrades in end point security in the last few of years. We can use Intune endpoint security policies for account protection to safeguard users’ identities and accounts, as well as control device built-in group memberships. In the end point security policies we can do the account protection and we will have a look at the settings in this article

To get started navigate to endpoint security and click on account protection. Here we have the opportunity to create an account protection policy.

When creating the new policy at the time of writing this blog we have option to create the policy for the platform Windows 10 and later. And the profile is targeted for two profiles local user group membership or account protection which is in preview state at this moment.

When creating for local user group we have the below options where we can select administrators and other set of user groups as we see below.

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The Power of Data Analytics in Growing Your Business

Data Analytics May 17, 2022 1 Comment

Data is everywhere in today’s world, and businesses are collecting it at an unprecedented rate. And while most companies understand the value of this data, they often don’t know how to harness it to its full potential. That’s a critical part of your responsibilities as a business manager. Understanding your data can help you use it to make decisions about your business. Keep reading to learn more about how data analytics can help your business grow, courtesy of EzCloudInfo.

What Is Data Analytics?

Data analytics is turning data into insights that can help your business make better decisions. By analyzing your data, you can gain insights into your customers, operations, and competition. You can also use data analytics to understand which marketing campaigns work and manage your inventory more effectively. All of these areas of your business can be evaluated through the process of task mining. The data your business creates can be used to refine your operations, saving you both time and money.

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Azure PIM- Create custom RBAC roles for search & delete emails

Azure, AzureAD PIM, RBAC May 12, 2022 Leave a comment

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog article about RBAC roles, especially in relation to Exchange. Because working in Exchange areas was my first job, I had the opportunity to have a sneak peek at this topic when a colleague suggested that we consider providing a scaled down permission level for EXO operations search and remove suspicious emails.

It’s always advisable to give the least amount of authorization for daily operational tasks, such as when an end user reports a suspicious spam email to the security team and helpdesk. There are circumstances when global admin is granted for this operation in this case, because by default there is no direct Azure AD built in roles for instance search & purge roles that is present in the compliance center.

Though there is no direct way to assign the permission via Azure AD roles we have the option to connect it to office 365 security and compliance and add this group to search & purge role. We are going to look out for providing such access via this blog.

We will use PIM to grant just-in-time access to Defender for Office 365 related tasks

In our case in this demo we are going to run this example with a user called Selvam who does not have any access apart from a regular user privilege’s. In our example Selvam will be a SOC Admin who is responsible for searching and deleting suspicious emails when an incident is reported.

The first task is to customize and add some permission entry for Selvam .

Navigate to security reader role in roles and administrator.

And go to role settings and here we need to tweak the activate maximum duration hours settings

In the next pane we can choose the role settings for example the duration hours to be 24 hours.

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Microsoft Teams – Create approvals from work flows to Automate Tasks or repetitive processes

Microsoft Teams, PowerAutomate April 19, 2022 Leave a comment

Teams is a fantastic Solution where it provides opportunity to collaborate and communicate effectively. It makes it more powerful when we utilize the full features of the Teams. For instance ,when we utilize the power platform to automate the recurring tasks, repetitive processes for end users the Teams can become really useful.

In this blog lets look at one example where as an end user we can utilize Microsoft Teams for automating our daily recurring tasks via the new feature released recently with WorkFlows

To get started with in the Teams Client navigate to apps – choose work flows and select the category of your choice. In our example we are going to pick one used case of Approval of a change request when a new change is submitted in the SharePoint List.

In the next screen we will be notified with the below window where we will be notified that all the below apps must have the valid connection for them to work further.

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Teams Rooms – Automate the Logisync agent installation via Intune Apps Policy

Intune, Meeting Rooms, Microsoft Teams February 28, 2022 Comments: 6

In previous article we had a look at how to manage the Logitech Peripherals from the the LogiSync Portal. In a small scale deployment installing them manually from handful of devices will be an easier approach. However when we have more number of devices that needs this installation and if they are present in different locations sharing the local admin passwords to the local support might also be a bit risky approach.

If the devices are Azure AD joined and Intune registered in this case we can benefit the remote installation of this client via Microsoft Intune Apps. Logitech has provided option to install them remotely from an SCCM instance as well which might be beneficial if you have the device managed via SCCM. In this article we will run through the steps that we will be doing to install the LogiSync Agent from the Microsoft Intune.

As a first step we need to download the Windows Sync Provisioning Bundle by logging into https://sync.logitech.com  System–>Bulk provisioning.

In our case we are choosing windows since we are attempting the automated agent installation via Microsoft Intune.

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Microsoft Teams – Setup your own compact personal productivity assistant Teams Screen for better meeting experience

Displays, Microsoft Teams January 27, 2022 Leave a comment

Smart displays for Microsoft Teams provide better experience to help employees work more efficiently practically from anywhere. This device can efficiently be used for fast, secure and easy hot desking. Employees may get the most out of their workday by using these personal display panels. For example, on a day when we have many back-to-back Teams Meetings, we can dedicate this device solely to Teams Meetings, while simultaneously using our laptops just for our work.

This will help in reducing the computing memory CPU utilization in our laptops if we are using our laptops for any other heavy backend application or tasks that is been used for our daily operations. Having said that there are multiple Microsoft recommended products listed here in this blog we are going to have a look only at the Lenovo Think Smart View.

While unboxing the product the first look of the product looks like below.

It is powered by a 1x Qualcomm Snapdragon 624 Processor, Memory 2G LPDDR3 and 8GB hard drive.
It has only wireless network, with Bluetooth enabled , One 5MP camera and 8.0″ IPS LCD screen and the device is powered by an AC adapter.

Above configuration will be more than sufficient to run Teams APP on this device. The device is powered with the Android version 8.1In addition it has 1.75″ 10W full-range loudspeaker with two passive tweeters. It also has an inbuilt MIC at the top and not sure about the range , however it must be definitely sufficient for using them as a personal device.

Further more at the top it has the volume control & mute buttons. On the right side there is toggle switch to close and open the camera lens.

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Manage Microsoft Teams Room Devices Peripherals from LogiSync Portal

Meeting Rooms, Microsoft Teams January 25, 2022 1 Comment

For Microsoft Teams Rooms Logitech is been one of the preferred solution.
And the Logitech meeting room device peripherals are widely been utilized. It’s critical to remember that the Logitech device peripherals must be updated in order for them to work properly.

Usually when we have the Microsoft Teams Premium service enrolled the best part is these device peripheral updates are delivered via their regular windows update channel. When we run the Teams Room Standard license it is very important to note that the meeting room device peripherals camera, mic and camera updates needs to be performed manually. In those cases managing them from the LogiSync app will be greatly beneficial.

Logisync Portal helps Administrators a lot to manage the Teams Logitech devices completely from the portal. With the Logitech Sync at the moment we have 2 options either to monitor the devices only or to monitor them plus Update the device’s firmware and make any necessary changes to the device settings.

Logitech Sync Setup consists of two parts Sync App and Sync Portal

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Logitech TAP Scheduler for Microsoft Teams

Meeting Rooms, Microsoft Teams January 14, 2022 Comments: 3

Meeting room scheduler makes it simple to locate and reserve the appropriate room. There are lot of meeting room schedulers available in the market which fetches the room availability from Exchange Online or Exchange OnPremise Accounts. These TAP meeting room schedulers usually helps us to see the meeting details at a glance and reserve the room for adhoc or future meetings. This helps the business a lot because most of the time people find it hard to schedule adhoc meeting in a meeting room to check for the free/busy availability in the Calendar.

Having said the benefits of the meeting room panels We’ll look at the Logitech TAP scheduling and how it works with Microsoft Teams.

At first appearance, from the hardware perspective it appears to have a clean and convenient setup, with features such as Easy Installation with Included Mounts, Hide Cabling for a Clean Setup, 10.1″ touchscreen, Anti-fingerprint, robust build, and meeting availability lighting indicators.

The device is powered by the POE cable which makes the cabling and mounting this device on the wall in a very easier manner. When turning on the device we get the below screen which is evident that the device is powered by the Logitech Collab OS.

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Create a QnA maker with no code experience and publish them in Microsoft Teams

Automation, Microsoft Teams December 16, 2021 Leave a comment

QnA maker helps us in building a basic bot that can handle first level of recurring tasks. This benefits the end user in providing the faster response and answer to their question. This benefits the end user in getting a quicker response and answer to their inquiry. We can reduce a lot of repeating chores at the operational level with QnA maker. For example, we may use QnA maker to provide first-level NOC monitoring help, which will benefit both the requestor and the first-line support team significantly.

We had a look through a similar article 2.8 years back how to create a azure web app bot here

Microsoft’s investment in cognitive services has been fantastic, as they have simplified the automation process and integration with Microsoft Teams while requiring little or no coding knowledge. This greatly aids us in building QnA makers and bringing them live in a matter of days providing we keep all of our knowledge bases up to date and accessible.

In this article we will go through the steps that is required to integrate the QnA Maker with Microsoft Teams.

Below are the main requirements to build QnA Maker and integrating them with Teams :

  1. QnA Maker needs to be created.
  2. Bot Framework Composer
  3. A basic bot that is required to handle the interaction
  4. App Package that needs to be created

The first and the foremost thing is to create the QnA maker from the Azure portal. We can create them easily by navigating to https://QnAMaker.ai

Choose the appropriate Subscription, Resource Group and the Pricing Tier.

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