Articles
101 tutorials, investigations, and practical notes on Azure, Sitecore, DevOps, security, identity, and infrastructure.
101 articles found
With Azure Managed Identity it is possible to eliminate the need for developers to manage passwords and credentials, keeping communication secure between services. If you still don’t know what Azure…
Password and credential management has always been a challenge for developers, especially for service-to-service communication. Although it is possible to use Azure Key Vault to securely store such information, services need a way to access it.
As you may have seen in my article about what Dev Box is, Dev Box is a pre-configured computer created through a self-service portal, which provides autonomy to your team of developers and accelerates integration to projects…
I've discussed Azure Bastion in other posts here on the blog (here and here), and, for those who don't know, it's a Platform as a Service that provides secure RDP and SSH connectivity to protect your…
Have you ever thought it would be possible to access a portal where you could create a machine in Azure, accessible from anywhere in the world and from any device? This is already possible with Azure Dev Box What is…
Last Thursday, June 6, I received excellent news: I was recognized as a Most Valuable Professional by Microsoft. And after getting to this point, I decided to express my GRATITUDE once again!
I recently swapped out two monitors connected to my laptop for a larger monitor. I ended up dividing the screen into four parts to be “more productive,” and everything was going well until I noticed a bug in the…
There are several ways to transfer a bacpac from an Azure SQL Database to storage. However, you should take some precautions to ensure the export is transactionally consistent. Transactionally…
Until recently, Azure Service Bus only had the Standard tier optimized for low-throughput environments and for developers. The Premium Tier provides dedicated resources per namespace, ensuring predictable latency and higher throughput at a fixed price, optimized for production environments and high throughput.
Today I’ll show how to grant access to a Virtual Machine using Azure Bastion. Azure Bastion As you may have seen in my article about Improving Security with Azure Bastion, Azure Bastion is…
I was participating in a project that would migrate several resources from one _Subscription_ to another, within the same _Tenant_. I even wrote an article about Resource migration between…
Are you looking for a new way to improve security when connecting to your virtual machines in Azure? You should check out Azure Bastion. In the past, to ensure RDP connectivity and…
Recently I had to resolve an issue with an Azure Function deployment, using _Bicep_ with the following message: Unable to find the storage account associated with the Function App.
When creating a Routing Rule in Azure Application Gateway, there are two options Basic and Path-Based, but how can you modify it? When configuring the Application Gateway, you will need to create a default rule, which will be associated with the _Listener_, _Backend Pool_, and the _HTTP settings_.
Today’s article will cover Removing Unused Disks and is part of the series of posts that help save money when using resources in Azure. I once heard, and have used ever since, this analogy: using cloud resources is like using electricity—the more you use, the more expensive it gets. But you can also save money if you apply to the cloud what you currently do with electricity.
I was participating in a project that would migrate various resources from one Subscription to another, within the same Tenant. The idea was to use Azure Resource Mover so that the process would occur quickly and simply…
Azure App Service is a Platform as a Service (or PaaS), meaning there is a shared responsibility between the customer and the cloud provider, so the customer—in this case, you—do not have the same level of unrestricted access as you had in your own on‑premises environment.
Everyone has been frustrated with slow applications and there was no way to figure out what might be happening, since, apparently, everything seemed normal. Have you considered performing a performance analysis in Azure…
On March 5, 2024, the Public Preview of the Change Actor feature was announced, aiming to facilitate identifying who made changes to Azure resources. Now with Change Analysis, you can see who started the change and which client was used, for all your Tenants and Subscriptions.
Network latency is considered one of the factors for your application's performance success, and in Azure there are several options to reduce it. Latency, in short, is the time between the moment you perform an action and the moment you see the result…
Recently I had to perform some experiments related to an Azure Application Gateway and use certificates that were in an Azure Key Vault. In short, I needed to configure an Application Gateway…
A while ago I needed to modify a parameter of the Application Settings on more than 50 Azure Web Apps, and it should be fairly simple with PowerShell, since I would test on a Web App, validate it, and be able to replicate with a few lines of code…
Using Cost Analysis in the Azure Portal, you can easily check the prices of Elastic Pool, Standalone databases, and SQL Server. In the image above, you can determine the cost of the Elastic Pool, of…
Azure Application Gateway is an application-layer load balancer for web applications, directing traffic based on criteria such as IP address and port, differentiating from traditional load balancers that operate at the [transport layer](https://www.alura.com.br/artigos/conhecendo-o-modelo-osi#camada-4---transporte "camada de transporte").
In today’s post I’m going to share a challenge I face from time to time when dealing with Azure Portal Timezones. UTC Time Range If you had to guess the timezone you are looking at while using Azure…
In today’s post I am going to show you how to use Diagnose and Solve Problems for App Services to help you with your troubleshooting issues. App Service is a Platform as a Service, and you don’t have access to…
In today’s post I am going to show you how to filtering backups in Azure App Service and keep your application protected. Regardless the App Service Plan tier, the backup cannot exceed 10GB, and this is the…
In today’s post I am going to show you how to Backup an Azure App Service and keep your application protected. Before I start to show you how to backup an Azure App Service, let me explain a couple things…
In today’s post I am going to describe how to check the Application Insights Data Usage and to understand how it could affect your monitoring. Application Insights Application Insights is a powerful resource part of the Azure Monitor toolset that enables you to monitor your application and [designed to help you continuously improve performance and usability](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/app-insights-overview?wt.mc_id=MVP_374008).
Today’s post will cover Reduce Azure App Service Costs and is part of the Azure Savings series that covers ways to save money on Azure. I once heard—and have used since this analogy—that using cloud resources is similar to using electricity: the more you use, the more expensive it will be. However, you can also save money if you apply to the cloud what you currently do for electricity.
This Monday I was surprised by an email saying that my blog has been ranked #23 on the list of top Azure blogs to follow in 2020! And this was only possible because of your interest in the content I am sharing here, so… I really appreciate your interest, and THANKS FOR READING.
Before scaling Sitecore Azure Web App, you should read about the experience I had and plan to share in this post. In Azure Web Apps, you can easily adjust existing resources almost in real time to accommodate business needs, and this also applies to Web Apps where you can Scale Up and/or Scale Out your application.
In today’s post I am going to share about the experience I had recently with the Platform as a Service: Azure Web App Updates Platform as a Service By having the PaaS flavor, a couple things are no longer…
In today’s post I’m going to show the Redeploy Azure Virtual Machine feature and how it can be helpful when you’re facing problems with your Virtual Machine. I often see people having issues with their VMs, and in most cases, the redeploy process resolves the problem and can save hours of troubleshooting.
Today's post covers Delete unattached disks and is part of the Azure Savings series that covers ways to save money on Azure. I’ve heard—and have used since—that the analogy of cloud resources is like electricity: the more you use, the more expensive it becomes. However, you can also save money in the cloud by applying to cloud what you currently do for electricity.
In today’s post, I am going to show you how to grant access to a Virtual Machine using Azure Bastion. Azure Bastion highlights As you probably saw in my Improve Security with Azure Bastion post, Azure…
Are you looking for a new way to improve security to connect to your VMs in Azure? You should check out the feature Azure Bastion. In the past, to secure RDP and SSH connectivity to your Azure Virtual…
Network latency is a key factor in your application's performance, and in Azure there are plenty of ways to reduce it. Network Latency In summary, latency is the time between an action and its result…
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of people asking how they can get started on their Azure Certification Journey, and although I hate to say it this way, here it goes: “it depends”! It depends. It does…
There are several ways to get a bacpac from an Azure SQL Database to storage. However, you should take precautions to ensure the export is transactionally consistent. Transactionally Consistent One thing not to…
Today’s post will cover Scheduled Shutdown and Startup of Virtual Machines and is part of the Azure Savings series of that cover ways to save money on Azure. Once I heard, and used ever since this analogy,…
On Azure Web App Scale Options post, you were introduced how to Scale Up and Scale Out your Web Application, but what happen after scale out completion? In summary, it will add – or remove – a copy of your…
One of the benefits of having your application in the cloud is the possibility to easily change existing resources almost in real time to accommodate a specific situation. And it also applies to Azure Web App…
In today’s post I am going to share an issue I faced a while ago during a login process Error: An error occurred after logging in Sitecore People think IT professionals are fearless but no one knows the…
Lately, when you get a fresh Azure Subscription there are a couple problems you might face, so don’t freak out, especially if you see the following message while provisioning an Azure SQL This location is…
In today’s post I’m going to share how queries in Solr can be helpful, especially during troubleshooting sessions. For those who don’t know, Sitecore uses a search engine for two purposes in a standard installation:
Have you wondered why AZ-900 became the next big thing? And I believe I might have a good explanation to share, keep going… Nowadays, the exam AZ-900 : Microsoft Azure Fundamentals is the entry level for…
People may disagree with me, but no one wants to be the last to know. So you should consider using Azure Alerts for your environment, right? Alerts proactively notify you when important conditions…
In today’s post I’m going to share about Azure Application Insights Live Metrics, and the importance to know what is happening LIVE! Sometimes it is really painful to go after the logs to find an error or…
One of the most frustrating things to see is an Access Denied error, because, usually, you were supposed to have the clearance to perform the action you are being blocked for. This week, I received a…
Part 1 – A user was member of 180 Security Groups and after provide its credentials, it was either redirect to a HTTP 431 error page or a blank page but never to Sitecore Experience Platform. Part 2 – User…
I didn’t expect to write another post about the Sitecore Identity Server and Azure AD Security Groups limit, since I thought that by finding the magic number last time and the workaround of reducing users’ membership would be sufficient.
A few weeks ago, a user complained that they couldn’t sign in to Sitecore via Azure AD and was getting the following error message: You do not have access to the system. If you think this is wrong, please contact…
Lately, I have been working a lot in Sitecore environments integrated with Azure AD and last week while troubleshooting a permission issue which I couldn’t reproduce using my user. After struggling a bit, I…
One of the most exciting – and easy – things to perform now with Sitecore Identity is the integration with Azure Active Directory (AD) which allows your users authenticate with the same credentials as for…
One of the most exciting – and easy – things to perform now with Sitecore Identity is the integration with Azure Active Directory (AD) which allows your users authenticate with the same credentials as for…
Azure App Services provide plenty of features and options but you probably already know that. One of the things that I like the most is the ability to configure things like Application Settings, Connection…
BAM! Another year starts, and as usual Sitecore announces their MVPs for 2020. And for the 4th time consecutive (2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020) I’ve been awarded as a Sitecore MVP. Let’s make another great year…
During a troubleshoot session with Sitecore, I was asked to rebuild the xDB index and I thought “I should connect to Sitecore and be able to rebuild it, easy peasy”. Sitecore support provided me with the…
I had to set up an integration between Azure Active Directory and Sitecore 9.1, and I was able to accomplish it by following the steps on Derek Correia’s blog. Then, I had to map claims to User Profiles as…
Recently I had to install Sitecore 9.2, and before getting thousands of errors by using my Powershell scripts I decided to have a look in the Installation Guide As you may know, you can provision a Sitecore…
As you probably know Sitecore standards send the content from Master to Web database (or publishing database if you prefer), however, Sitecore also provides a way to add more publishing targets. Do you…
I think at some point you will be at the same scenario as I was today: a brand new Sitecore 9.1, everything looking good, working, fully functional, easy peasy, so you decided to send a quick note to your…
If you’ve already gone through changing the Sitecore license either on‑premises or PaaS, you know how painful it can be, especially for scaled environments. Since Sitecore 9 the license path has changed, so you should be careful to put everything where it belongs.
A couple weeks ago I’ve asked a question in Sitecore Stackexchange explaining that the Sitecore 9.1 PaaS our team has provisioned in Azure was not providing data to the Application Insights. I went through…
I’ve started to work at the Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery part in a Sitecore project. As I am not familiarized with the process, I decided to create my very first Sitecore project/solution in…
WOW! I can’t believe it’s that time of year again when Sitecore announces the 2019 MVPs. I vividly remember how my day looked when I was first awarded as Sitecore MVP back in 2017, and again in 2018…
After configuring valid certificates in MongoDB it is time to establish the communication from Sitecore to MongoDB, and unfortunately Sitecore does not communicate with Mongo using SSL Out of the box. I…
I was told to configure MongoDB for SSL/TLS for a production environment which means I would have to use VALID CERTIFICATES! For production use, your MongoDB deployment should use valid certificates…
A week ago, I was trying to provision a Sitecore 9 Update 1 XP0 topology and everything was great, until the step CreateShardApplicationDatabaseServerLoginSqlCmd As you can see, it complains about sqlcmd is…
Couple days ago, I was installing a new Sitecore 9 XP1 topology and during my post-installations tests I received the following error while accessing the Reporting piece C’mon! You got to be kidding me… and…
A powershell script to “simplify your installation” is provided by the Sitecore 9 Installation Guide, however, you can use a different way where you have to execute every JSON file individually and…
Exactly one year ago, for the very first time, I was receiving the honor to be part of the Sitecore MVP group. Back then, I shared with you about my start, goals and how happy I was in be awarded! Last…
Couple weeks ago I was working on a Sitecore upgrade from 8.2 update 2 to 8.2 update 5 in order to also get EXM updated from 3.4 to 3.5 due Azure requirements. My scenario had a Content Delivery and a…
Last year I wrote a similar blog post about Sitecore 8.2 and I thought everyone would be excited—well, I was WRONG! I didn’t know anything until a couple of weeks ago, when Sitecore 9 had been announced!...
A few weeks ago I was working in an installation using Sitecore 8.2 update 2 in a Virtual Machine at Azure. As per you can see in the diagram below, I have 2 Content Delivery behind a Load Balancer to split…
While I was playing around with Sitecore Diagnostics Tool, I faced some problems with a WebDAV error in my Content Delivery node that says WebDAV must be disabled on Content Delivery serverWebDAV is…
This is the next article in a series dedicated to system administrators working with Sitecore. Assuming you have read the first part of this series dedicated to System Administrators, you should now have…
To sum up this article, the answer is: NO! Of course, I won’t make the assertion that cost isn’t a factor in the decision-making process, but I can say that it certainly isn’t the only consideration. You…
Wouldn’t it be great to run an inspection on your Sitecore instance before delivering it to development or in a production environment? Well, a couple weeks ago, while discussing some points about Sitecore instances, my colleague [João Neto](https://twitter.com/netoJoao87) introduced me to the [Sitecore Diagnostics Tool](https://github.com/Sitecore/Sitecore-Diagnostics-Tool), which seems to be a great tool that lets you automatically diagnose Sitecore sites.
1. Access the website and look for Available only as a ClickOnce installer 2. Click Install and Launch 3. Launch the Sitecore.DiagnosticsToolset.WinApp.application file 4. Wait until it asks you to install…
Today, using multiple layers of security to protect your data is no longer a luxury; it is non-negotiable. Furthermore, you need to ensure your Sitecore solution keeps functioning and communicating with your integrated services (e.g., SQL, Mongo, Solr) while maintaining the same level of security.
Yesterday I had to install the Active Directory module in a Sitecore 8.2 instance by following the official documentation and the Best way to setup Active Directory Module in a Sitecore Solution from my…
A few months ago I wrote a post discussing the changes in Sitecore 8.2 from a requirements perspective. At that time, I didn’t know about the support for SQL Server Always On Availability Groups! Microsoft…
Back in 2013 I started my Sitecore journey, and since last year I set a goal to explore this world using my System Administrator skills by writing articles, contributing in the community and being an active…
This is the third part in a series of posts about Using SSL on a Sitecore environment, I hope you enjoy it! On my last two posts (part 1 and part 2), you saw an overview of SSL, how to create a self-signed…
This is the second part in a series of posts about Using SSL on a Sitecore environment, I hope you enjoy it! On my previously post, you saw an overview of SSL, how to create a self-signed certificate and…
Formerly known as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), it has become increasingly important today to keep data protected by establishing an encrypted link between a server and a client. This is the…
In today’s post, I’ll show another tricky way to get the Solr service started, which saved a couple of hours when reinstalling it. The story is pretty similar to my last post where I had a Sitecore instance configured to use Solr that was up and running, but a Solr Server restart caused by a general OS failure.
As you probably know, Sitecore supports the Solr search engine, and I got stuck when its services weren't starting! In this post I'll show how I overcame this and saved myself from a painful rework…
When working on a Sitecore scaled environment or having the Coveo server running separately from the content management server, you need to make sure that your Sitecore instance is available for external access in order for Coveo to work properly.
In the past, the biggest concern was having your wallet stolen, since everything about our life is tied to it, right? And nowadays, what do you think is the biggest one? YOUR DATA BE EXPOSED! Am I right? Based on that, Sitecore provides best practices and recommendations that help you make your installation as secure as possible, and says:
Since I have seen the term CLOUD for the first time, I already heard many assumptions from “in love” to “no supporters” people. Everyone has its own perspective, and who wouldn’t smell a rat when their…
How many Sitecores have you installed? You’ve probably lost count, haven’t you? And you know better than I how automated this process has become, and you practically don’t see what you did, and **DONE** everything…
How many Sitecore instances have you installed already? Have you lost the number, haven’t you? And you know better than me that it becomes an automatic process you almost don’t see what you’ve done, and BAM…
On my previous post, I’ve guided you through the steps you need to take in order to add license.xml into the Data folder based on Sitecore recommendations, which means provisioning /Data folder outside of…
In the previous post, I walked you through every step to add the license.xml file to the Data folder based on Sitecore's recommendations, which means placing the /Data folder at the same level as the main /Website folder.
As you probably know, Sitecore requires a license.xml to run and it is tied to the Sitecore web root’s data folder within a valid license on it, otherwise you won’t be able to run Sitecore at all! However,…
You probably already know that Sitecore needs a file named **license.xml** inside the **Data** folder, otherwise your installation won’t start at all! However, especially…
Let’s assume you have a Sitecore instance running smoothly and a server change is necessary, for whatever reason, and your first thought is “could not be easier, very straight forward process!”. However, I…
Assumindo que você tem uma instância Sitecore rodando e uma mudança de servidor é necessária, por qualquer razão, e o seu primeiro pensamento é “não poderia ser mais fácil, processo extremamente simples”.…
