Windows Server on Azure

Active Directory, file services, hotpatching and Windows workloads on Azure VMs.

All recipes

Foundations and governance 1/12

GOV-01 Secure a new Azure tenant in the first hour: MFA, break-glass accounts, security defaults
GOV-02 Azure CLI, Az PowerShell and Bicep on Windows and Linux: the toolkit every recipe uses
GOV-03 Management groups and subscriptions for a small organisation
GOV-04 Naming and tagging standard, enforced with Azure Policy
GOV-05 Azure Policy: allowed regions and VM sizes
GOV-06 Resource locks: stop the accidental delete
GOV-07 Least privilege with a custom "VM Operator" role
GOV-08 Privileged Identity Management for Azure roles: just-in-time Owner
GOV-09 Azure Resource Graph: 15 queries every admin needs
GOV-10 A self-cleaning sandbox: expiry tags and a nightly cleanup Function
GOV-11 Azure Landing Zone with the Bicep accelerator, sized for a small tenant
GOV-12 Activity Log in Log Analytics: who deleted what, and when

Identity with Microsoft Entra ID 0/14

ID-01 Users and groups with Microsoft Graph PowerShell
ID-02 Dynamic groups by department and device
ID-03 Conditional Access baseline: MFA for admins, block legacy authentication
ID-04 Passwordless with passkeys (FIDO2 and Microsoft Authenticator)
ID-05 Self-service password reset with on-premises writeback
ID-06 Entra Cloud Sync from an on-premises AD (lab with a Windows Server 2025 DC)
ID-07 App registration with certificate credentials instead of client secrets
ID-08 Managed identities: system-assigned vs user-assigned, hands-on
ID-09 Workload identity federation: GitHub Actions to Azure without secrets
ID-10 B2B guest access with cross-tenant access settings
ID-11 Access reviews for guests and privileged groups
ID-12 Entitlement management: an access package for a project team
ID-13 Sign-in logs in Log Analytics: KQL for suspicious sign-ins
ID-14 Alert when a break-glass account signs in

Networking 0/15

NET-01 VNet, subnets and NSGs: the first network
NET-02 Hub and spoke with VNet peering in Bicep
NET-03 Private Endpoint for a Storage account with Private DNS
NET-04 Azure Bastion: RDP and SSH without public IPs
NET-05 NAT Gateway: one predictable outbound IP
NET-06 Azure Firewall Basic: spokes forced through the hub
NET-07 Private DNS Resolver: hybrid DNS between on-premises and Azure
NET-08 Site-to-site VPN to an on-premises lab (strongSwan on Linux)
NET-09 Point-to-site VPN with Entra ID authentication
NET-10 Standard Load Balancer for two web VMs
NET-11 Application Gateway with WAF in front of App Service
NET-12 Azure Front Door with a custom domain and WAF
NET-13 Azure DNS: host a public zone and move a domain to it
NET-14 VNet flow logs and Traffic Analytics
NET-15 Network Watcher: troubleshooting "it doesn't connect"

Virtual Machines 0/12

VM-01 Windows Server 2025 VM with PowerShell and az CLI
VM-02 Ubuntu 24.04 VM with SSH keys and cloud-init
VM-03 Auto-shutdown, resize and deallocate: stop paying for idle VMs
VM-04 Managed disks: add, expand, snapshot, restore
VM-05 Trusted Launch and Secure Boot
VM-06 Run Command and Custom Script Extension
VM-07 Azure Update Manager: patch Windows and Linux on a schedule
VM-08 Machine Configuration (guest configuration) baselines
VM-09 A custom image with Azure Image Builder and Compute Gallery
VM-10 VM Scale Set with autoscale
VM-11 Spot VMs for batch jobs
VM-12 Serial console and boot diagnostics: rescue a VM that won't boot

Windows Server on Azure 0/8

WIN-01 An Active Directory domain controller on an Azure VM
WIN-02 Join Azure VMs to the domain, with DNS done right
WIN-03 Windows Admin Center in the Azure portal
WIN-04 Hotpatching with Windows Server 2025 Datacenter: Azure Edition
WIN-05 SMB over QUIC: a file server without a VPN
WIN-06 Azure File Sync: a cloud-tiered file server
WIN-07 IIS with a TLS certificate from Key Vault
WIN-08 Universal Print instead of a print server

Linux on Azure 0/7

LNX-01 Sign in to Linux VMs with Entra ID: SSH without keys to manage
LNX-02 Nginx reverse proxy with Let's Encrypt
LNX-03 Azure Monitor Agent and syslog to Log Analytics
LNX-04 Mount Azure Files over NFS and SMB
LNX-05 A Docker host on Ubuntu that pulls from ACR with managed identity
LNX-06 A WireGuard gateway VM
LNX-07 Unattended upgrades vs Azure Update Manager

Azure Virtual Desktop 0/5

AVD-01 A pooled host pool with Entra-joined session hosts
AVD-02 FSLogix profiles on Azure Files with Entra Kerberos
AVD-03 RemoteApp: publish a single application
AVD-04 Scaling plans: session hosts off when nobody works
AVD-05 Windows 365 vs AVD: the same desktop, priced both ways

Storage 0/10

STO-01 Storage account secure baseline: no shared keys, TLS 1.2, private only
STO-02 User delegation SAS: the only SAS worth issuing
STO-03 Blob lifecycle rules: hot to cool to cold to archive, automatically
STO-04 Immutable storage (WORM) for compliance records
STO-05 Azure Files with identity-based access (Entra Kerberos)
STO-06 AzCopy recipes: copy, sync, and move from AWS S3
STO-07 Static website: Storage account vs Static Web Apps
STO-08 Customer-managed keys with Key Vault
STO-09 Data Lake Storage Gen2: folders and ACLs
STO-10 A geo-redundant storage failover drill

Databases 0/8

DB-01 Azure SQL Database with Entra-only authentication
DB-02 Azure SQL behind a private endpoint, with auditing
DB-03 Azure SQL failover group across two regions
DB-04 PostgreSQL Flexible Server with Entra authentication and private access
DB-05 MySQL Flexible Server for a WordPress site
DB-06 Cosmos DB with RBAC and no keys
DB-07 SQL Server on an Azure VM: automated backup and patching
DB-08 Azure SQL serverless: pause when idle

Containers and AKS 0/9

CTR-01 Azure Container Registry with Entra authentication and ACR Tasks
CTR-02 Azure Container Apps: a web app with managed identity
CTR-03 Container Apps jobs: a scheduled job instead of a VM cron
CTR-04 AKS Automatic: the first cluster
CTR-05 AKS with Entra ID and Kubernetes RBAC
CTR-06 AKS workload identity: pods that call Azure without secrets
CTR-07 Ingress on AKS with Application Gateway for Containers
CTR-08 GitOps on AKS with Flux
CTR-09 AKS node auto-provisioning to cut cost

App platform 0/11

APP-01 App Service: deploy a .NET 10 app with deployment slots
APP-02 App Service: custom domain and a free managed certificate
APP-03 App Service with VNet integration and a private endpoint
APP-04 Key Vault references in app settings
APP-05 Azure Functions Flex Consumption with managed identity
APP-06 Durable Functions: a long-running workflow
APP-07 Static Web Apps with Hugo and GitHub Actions
APP-08 Event Grid: react to a new blob
APP-09 Service Bus queues: sessions and dead-lettering
APP-10 API Management (Consumption) in front of Functions
APP-11 Logic Apps Standard: an approval by email

Security 0/10

SEC-01 Key Vault with RBAC: secrets, keys and certificates
SEC-02 Defender for Cloud: enable the plans and take the first secure score wins
SEC-03 Just-in-time VM access
SEC-04 Microsoft Sentinel: the first workspace and data connectors
SEC-05 Sentinel: an analytics rule for impossible travel
SEC-06 Entra ID Protection: risk-based Conditional Access
SEC-07 Disable shared keys across a subscription with Azure Policy
SEC-08 A CIS baseline audit with Machine Configuration
SEC-09 Defender for Identity on a domain controller
SEC-10 Find leaked keys in your repos and rotate them through Key Vault

Monitoring 0/9

MON-01 One Log Analytics workspace or many: a decision recipe
MON-02 Azure Monitor Agent and Data Collection Rules
MON-03 Alerts and action groups: email, SMS, Teams
MON-04 KQL for admins: 20 queries for VMs
MON-05 Application Insights for .NET 10 with OpenTelemetry
MON-06 Workbooks: a VM health dashboard
MON-07 Diagnostic settings at scale with Azure Policy
MON-08 Cut log cost with the Basic and Auxiliary table plans
MON-09 Free uptime monitoring with GitHub Actions

Backup and disaster recovery 0/7

BCK-01 Azure Backup for VMs with a backup policy
BCK-02 Restore a single file from a VM backup
BCK-03 Back up Azure Files and blobs (vaulted backup)
BCK-04 Immutable vault, soft delete and multi-user authorization against ransomware
BCK-05 SQL Server in a VM: workload-aware backup
BCK-06 Azure Site Recovery: a VM replicated to a second region
BCK-07 A DR drill you can run every quarter

Hybrid with Azure Arc 0/5

ARC-01 Onboard an on-premises server to Azure Arc
ARC-02 Azure Update Manager for on-premises servers
ARC-03 Defender for Servers on-premises through Arc
ARC-04 SSH to Arc servers without open ports
ARC-05 Azure Policy and Machine Configuration on non-Azure servers

Infrastructure as Code and DevOps 0/9

IAC-01 Bicep from zero: parameters, modules, outputs
IAC-02 Azure Verified Modules: stop writing every module yourself
IAC-03 Deployment stacks: protect what you deployed
IAC-04 What-if and PSRule for Azure in CI
IAC-05 GitHub Actions to Azure with OIDC, end to end
IAC-06 Azure DevOps pipelines with workload identity service connections
IAC-07 Terraform on Azure with remote state and Entra authentication
IAC-08 Azure Developer CLI (azd): a template from scratch
IAC-09 Bicep vs Terraform: the same small landing zone in both

Cost 0/6

COST-01 Find idle and orphaned resources with Resource Graph
COST-02 Azure Advisor cost recommendations, weekly by email
COST-03 Tag-based cost allocation per project
COST-04 Reservations vs savings plans: a decision with real numbers
COST-05 Start and stop VMs on a schedule
COST-06 Cost exports to a storage account and a simple Excel or Power BI view

Azure AI 0/7

AI-01 Azure OpenAI in AI Foundry: a model deployment behind a private endpoint
AI-02 Call Azure OpenAI with managed identity, no API keys
AI-03 RAG over your own documents with Azure AI Search
AI-04 Azure AI Speech: turn articles into audio
AI-05 Document Intelligence: extract fields from invoices
AI-06 Content Safety in front of a chatbot
AI-07 An AI Foundry agent with tools and managed identity

Migration 0/6

MIG-01 Azure Migrate: discovery and assessment of a small estate
MIG-02 Move a Hyper-V VM to Azure
MIG-03 File shares to Azure Files with Storage Mover
MIG-04 SQL Server to Azure SQL Managed Instance with Database Migration Service
MIG-05 WordPress to a static site on Azure
MIG-06 From shared hosting to Azure: DNS, mail and certificates without downtime