Tech Trends and Insights

Azure Role JSON Viewer   As an IT professional working with Azure, it’s important to quickly explore and understand what a role actually contains. With PowerShell you can export the full role definition as JSON and then paste it into the interactive viewer below. This makes it easier to explain role contents in detail and share them with your team or customers. 🚀 📌 Steps to get started: Install and import the Az PowerShell module if not already available. Log in to Azure with sufficient permissions ( Reader or above). Run the script below to export any role as JSON. Copy the JSON output and paste it into the tool further down to view it nicely formatted. 💡 Note: Replace "Any role" with the actual role name you want to inspect (e.g. "Reader" , "Contributor" , "User Access Administrator" ). PowerShell Command # Export any Azure role definition to JSON Get-AzRoleDefin...

  As an IT professional working with Azure, it’s essential to assign the right roles to manage resources efficiently while following the principle of least privilege. My new PowerShell script helps you identify the appropriate Azure roles for managing specific resources (e.g., storage, resource groups) by displaying detailed role information in an interactive window. This tool is perfect for simplifying role assignments and enhancing security. 📌 Key points to consider: The script requires the Az PowerShell module to be installed. You must be logged into Azure with sufficient permissions (e.g., Reader or Contributor) to retrieve role definitions. The output is sorted from least privilege to most privilege, aiding zero trust implementations. 💡 Note: Ensure you’re connected to the correct Azure subscription, as role data depends on your context. Test the script in a non-production environment first! This script is a great way to streamline role management for your...

  Introduction Microsoft has recently updated the default security settings for Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) . As of now, when you create a new host pool , several device redirection features—such as clipboard sharing, drive access, USB devices, and printer redirection—are disabled by default . This change is designed to reduce the risk of data exfiltration and malware injection , making AVD more secure out of the box. However, if your organization requires these features for productivity or workflow reasons, you can easily enable them manually. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to re-enable device redirection using the Azure portal. 🛠️ Step-by-Step: Enable Device Redirection in Azure Portal Log in to Azure Portal Go to portal.azure.com and sign in with your administrator account. Navigate to Your Host Pool In the left-hand menu, search for "Azure Virtual Desktop" and select "Host pools" . Click on the host pool you want to configure. Open RDP Prop...

🛡️ Azure IAM: Report Explicit Role Assignments This PowerShell script collects all explicit role assignments across your Azure environment – including Management Groups, Subscriptions, Resource Groups, and Resources – and generates an easy-to-read HTML report . ✅ What It Does: Skips inherited permissions – only shows direct (explicit) role assignments Lists user/group/service principal roles by scope Exports a local HTML report you can archive or review Explicit IAM Report – PowerShell Connect-AzAccount function Get-ExplicitRoleAssignments { param ([string]$Scope) Write-Host "Fetching role assignments for scope: $Scope" try { $roleAssignments = Get-AzRoleAssignment -Scope $Scope -ErrorAction Stop $explicitAssignments = $roleAssignments | Where-Object { $_.Scope -eq $Scope } return $explicitAssignments } catch { Write-Host "Error fetching assignments...

🔧 Expand Virtual Hard Disks on Azure Windows VMs 🚀 This guide helps you quickly understand how to expand virtual disks for Windows VMs on Azure. ✅ Applies to: Windows VMs Flexible Scale Sets 📌 Key Points: Default OS disk: 127 GiB Max OS disk: 4,095 GiB (limited to 2 TiB if MBR) Use GPT if you need more than 2 TiB on OS disk Cannot shrink existing disks 🕒 Expand Without Downtime (Data Disks Only): Works if disk is already > 4 TiB (Standard or Premium) Use Azure CLI, PowerShell, Portal, or ARM templates Not supported for OS disks or shared disks 📍 Resize via Azure Portal: Go to the VM and click Stop to deallocate (if required) Under Settings , click Disks Select the disk you want to resize Click Size + performance Select a new (larger) size and click Resize 🔄 After Resizing: Extend volume in Windows Disk Management If size is not visible: re...

 Want to protect your Azure virtual machines with a robust, agentless backup solution? This guide walks you through configuring agentless crash-consistent backup for a new Azure virtual machine (VM) with multiple disks and how to switch an existing VM from application/filesystem-consistent to crash-consistent backup. All steps are performed easily via the Azure portal using the Enhanced Policy. What is Agentless Crash-Consistent Backup? Azure Backup supports agentless backups for VMs by creating crash-consistent snapshots across multiple disks. This eliminates the need to install an agent on the VM, simplifying the process. Crash-consistent backups are ideal when application-consistent snapshots fail or when you prefer a streamlined approach. Note that this feature requires the Enhanced Policy , as application/filesystem-consistent backup is the default setting. Note : Check pricing details and supported scenarios before starting, as there may be limitations for certain VM config...