My first blog of the new born year 2020 and first of all Happy new year! Wish you all have a great time with your family and friends .

So here i am again just concluded an awesome 2019, and over the last two years I've done a "Year in Review" blog post and I want to do another for this year. Some pretty awesome stuff happened to me in the year 2019. 

Summary of the year 2019​

• Recieved Tech Leadership Award at 99X Technology
• Joined Microsoft's APAC OCP Team
• Delivered 20+ Sessions, 5+ Workshops and attended 5 conferences
• Wrote 20+ blogs on Azure and Angular
• Contributed to OpenFaaS
• Attended First ever Microsoft Ready, Google IO, Google Developer Expert Summit
• Completed 3 Microsoft Certifications and Became a Microsoft Certified Trainer
• Achieved 150,000 Reputation on Stackoverflow
• Reviewed a book on Angular named "Angular Projects"
• Created tool named Azure 360 to support new beginners on Azure

Career​

I started off 2019 continuing as a Senior Tech Lead at 99X technology and in January i recieved the "Technology Leadership award" and it was a proud moment in my career. However in March I made the switch to join the Microsoft APAC One Commercial Partner team as a Technology Evangelist . It was one of the best career decision i've made as it is a totally different role from what i've been doing earlier. Within 10 months at Microsoft, I managed to complete 3 certifications including Microsoft Azure Solution Architect, Microsoft Azure Developer Associate and Microsoft Certified Trainer respectively. I love how I‘m constantly challenged, knowing I have full support of my manager and my team at this role.

Blogging​

Last year i migrated my blog from blogspot to wordpress and since then i have been actively writing new posts on Angular and Azure atleast once a month, this year it's around about the 50 mark. I have got totally 15000 views in this year and around 50 new followers which is a great thing which eventually made my blog as one of the top Azure site to follow in 2020.

Sessions,Workshops and conferences​

2019 has been the best year for me in terms of speaking opportunities and attending conferences. I almost visited 7 different countries in 2019 while i attended my first ever Microsoft Ready in July, Google IO in May and Google Developer Expert Summit in October. Apart from that i have spoken at 20+ meetups on various topics, 4 conferences including Google DevFest and Azure bootcamp in India,Nepal and Pakistan. Also visited to Nepal,Indonesia to conduct workshops, Trainings on Azure. One of the highight in 2019 was that as a organizer i managed to organize the first ever Angular conference in Srilanka with over 400+ participants.

Publications,Stackoverflow and Github Contributions​

Last year i managed to work on 2 books on Angular as a technical reviewer namely Angular 8 and Angular Projects which eventually became the best selling book on Packt.com. Also i managed to make it to the top 420 users in the world on stackoverflow as well as reached 150k reputation. Also published around 25+ code samples on Github during 2019.

Year 2019 in one Tweet

I couldn't be more excited about 2020! Happy New Year!

Are you an Azure or Cloud enthusiast? Got a resolution to learn #Azure in 2020?. I recently read a wonderful blog by @ThomasMaurer . Immediately i wanted to create visualization to make all the resouces in one place so that i will be easy for everyone to access. On the following days i created two resources namely,

Azure 360:

It is a simple D3 Force visualization that has all the Resources to learn Azure in a single page

Azure Mind-Map:

It is a github repository which contains all the mind-maps related to Azure resources,technologies and certifications. In general, Creating a best Azure architecture and making sure all aspects of design, development,release and maintainance can be very difficult. Microsoft Azure team have published their own set of best practices and frameworks for building cloud solutions on Azure. I have created/obtained these mindmaps from various resources built by others as well as i have modified few. Source of information used to create the illustrations are the resources of the Azure team.

I will be adding more features to the Azure360 as well as Mindmaps in the coming days. I hope these two resources give you a great hints of how you can start learning Azure and get certified. If you have questions feel free to reach out to me at @kokkisajee and subscribe to my blog to get more updates. Keep Azurifying!

Recently, I managed to acclaim the Azure Solutions Architect badge by completing AZ-300 and AZ-301 exams.

Earning the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification demonstrates skills and knowledge to advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions. Candidates have advanced experience and knowledge across various aspects of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data management, budgeting, and governance – managing how decisions in each area affects an overall solution.

If you are preparing for AZ-301 and AZ-300 EXAMS? Don’t know where to start? This post contains all the resources I used to study for the exam. Also, please share the post within your circles so it helps them to prepare for the exam.

AZ-301 Resources:​

AZ-301 Video Content Options:​

AZ-301 Practice Tests​

AZ-301 E-book​

AZ-301 Learning Path (aka.ms/learn)​

1.Determine Workload Requirements (10-15%)​

Gather Information and Requirements​

Gathering Information About Existing Enterprise Architecture in Microsoft Azure

Optimize Consumption Strategy​

Optimizing Consumption Strategy in Microsoft Azure

Design an Auditing and Monitoring Strategy​

Design Auditing for Microsoft Azure

Designing a Monitoring Strategy for a Solution in Microsoft Azure

2.Design for Identity and Security (20-25%)​

Design Identity Management​

Design Identity Management in Microsoft Azure

Design Authentication​

Design Authentication for Microsoft Azure

Design Authorization​

Design Authorization for Microsoft Azure

Design for Risk Prevention for Identity​

Design for Risk Prevention in Microsoft Azure

Design a Monitoring Strategy for Identity and Security​

Design a Monitoring Strategy for Identity and Security in Microsoft Azure

3.Design a Data Platform Solution (15-20%)​

Design a Data Management Strategy​

Design a Data Management Strategy for Microsoft Azure

Design a Data Protection Strategy​

Design a Data Protection Strategy with Microsoft Azure

Design and Document Data Flows​

Design and Document Data Flows with Microsoft Azure

Design a Monitoring Strategy for the Data Platform​

Designing a Monitoring Strategy for the Microsoft Azure Data Platform

4.Design a Business Continuity Strategy (15-20%)​

Design a Site Recovery Strategy​

Designing a Site Recovery Strategy on Microsoft Azure

Design for High Availability​

Designing for High Availability on Microsoft Azure

Design a Data Archiving Strategy​

Designing a Data Archiving Strategy on Microsoft Azure

5.Design for Deployment, Migration, and Integration (10-15%)​

Design Deployments​

Designing Deployments in Microsoft Azure

Design Migrations​

Designing Migrations for Microsoft Azure

Design an API Integration Strategy​

Designing an API Management Strategy for Microsoft Azure

6.Design an Infrastructure Strategy (15-20%)​

Design a Storage Strategy​

Design a Storage Strategy for Microsoft Azure

Design a Compute Strategy​

Design a Compute Strategy for Microsoft Azure

Design a Networking Strategy​

Design a Networking Strategy for Microsoft Azure

Design a Monitoring Strategy for Infrastructure​

Design a Monitoring Strategy for Infrastructure in Microsoft Azure

AZ-300 Resources:​

AZ-300 Video Content Options​

AZ-300 Practice Tests & Labs​

AZ-300 Exam Reference Books (PDF)​

Exam content is as followers,

Deploy and Configure Infrastructure (40-45%)​

Analyze Resource Utilization and Consumption​

Configure diagnostic settings on resources

Linkedin Learning: Configure Diagnostic Setting (check with a free trial)

Create a baseline for resources

LinkedIn Learning: Creating a Baseline for Resources (check with a free trial)

Create and test alerts

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/alerts-metric

Analyze alerts across subscription

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/alerts-managing-alert-instances

Analyze metrics across subscription

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/metrics-charts

Create action groups

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/action-groups

Monitor for unused resources

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/reclaiming-the-unused-and-overallocated-azure-virtual-machines-785283461.html

Monitor Cost

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/billing/billing-getting-started

Report on Cost

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/billing/billing-download-azure-invoice-daily-usage-date

Utilize Log Search query functions

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/log-query/search-queries

View alerts in Azure Monitor logs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/alerts-activity-log

Visualize diagnostics data using Azure Monitor Workbooks

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/usage-workbooks

https://github.com/microsoft/Application-Insights-Workbooks/blob/Visualizations.md

Create and Configure Storage Accounts

Configure network access to the storage account

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-network-security

Create and configure storage account

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-quickstart-create-account?tabs=azure-portal

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-manage

Generate shared access signature

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-dotnet-shared-access-signature-part-1

Implement Azure AD authentication for storage

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-auth-aad-app

Install and use Azure Storage Explorer

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vs-azure-tools-storage-manage-with-storage-explorer

Manage access keys

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-manage

Monitor activity log by using Azure Monitor logs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/resource-group-audit

Implement Azure storage replication

MSDN Blog: Azure Storage Replication Implementation

Implement Azure storage account failover

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-initiate-account-failover?tabs=azure-portal

Create and Configure a VM for Windows and Linux​

Configure high availability

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/tutorial-availability-sets

Configure monitoring

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/tutorial-monitoring

Configure networking

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/tutorial-virtual-network

Configure storage

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/managed-disks-overview

Configure Virtual Machine Size

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sizes

Implement dedicated hosts

Deploy and configure scale sets

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/quick-create-portal

Automate Deployment of VMs​

Modify Azure Resource Manager template

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/building-blocks/extending-templates/update-resource

Configure the location of new VMs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/azure-to-azure-tutorial-migrate

Configure VHD template

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/create-vm-specialized

Deploy from template

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/ps-template

Save a deployment as an Azure Resource Manager template

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/download-template

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/ps-template

Deploy Windows and Linux VMs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/linux/create-ssh-secured-vm-from-template

Create Connectivity Between Virtual Networks​

Create and configure Vnet peering

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/tutorial-connect-virtual-networks-portal

Create and configure Vnet to Vnet connections

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/create-routebased-vpn-gateway-portal

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-vnet-vnet-rm-ps

Implement and Manage Virtual Networking

Configure private IP addressing

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-networks-static-private-ip-arm-pportal

Configure public IP addresses

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-public-ip-address

Create and configure network routes

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/tutorial-create-route-table-portal

Create and configure network interface

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-network-interface

Create and configure subnets

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-manage-subnet

Create and configure virtual network

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/manage-virtual-network

Create and configure Network Security Groups and Application Security Groups

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/tutorial-filter-network-traffic#create-a-network-security-group

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/tutorial-filter-network-traffic#create-application-security-groups

Manage Azure Active Directory

Add custom domains

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/add-custom-domain

Configure Azure AD Identity Protection

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/identity-protection/enable

Configure Azure AD Join

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/devices/hybrid-azuread-join-managed-domains

Configure self-service password reset

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/quickstart-sspr

Implement conditional access policies

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/app-based-mfa

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/require-tou

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/app-sign-in-risk

Manage multiple directories

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/users-groups-roles/licensing-directory-independence

Perform an access review

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/governance/access-reviews-overview

Implement and Manage Hybrid Identities

Install and configure Azure AD Connect

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-install-express

Configure federation and single sign-on

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-fed-single-adfs-multitenant-federation

Configure single sign-on

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/manage-apps/configure-single-sign-on-portal

Manage and troubleshoot Azure AD Connect

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-post-installation

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/tshoot-connect-connectivity

Troubleshoot password sync and writeback

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/tshoot-connect-password-hash-synchronization

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/active-directory-passwords-troubleshoot#troubleshoot-password-writeback

Implement solutions that use virtual machines (VM)

Provision VMs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/quick-create-portal

Create Azure Resource Manager templates

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/template-tutorial-create-first-template?tabs=azure-powershell

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/ps-template

Configure Azure Disk Encryption for VMs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/disk-encryption-portal-quickstart

Implement Azure Backup for VMs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-vms-first-look-arm

Implement Workloads and Security (20-25%)

Migrate Servers to Azure

Migrate servers using Azure Migrate

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-in/azure/migrate/tutorial-migrate-hyper-v

Backup and restore data

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/quick-backup-vm-portal

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/tutorial-restore-disk

Configure Serverless Computing

Create and manage objects

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-create-your-first-function-visual-studio

Manage a Logic App resource

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/logic-apps-overview

Manage Azure Function app settings

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-how-to-use-azure-function-app-settings

Manage Event Grid

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/event-grid/overview

Manage Service Bus

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-bus-messaging/service-bus-messaging-overview

Implement Application Load Balancing

Configure application gateway

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/quick-create-powershell

Configure Azure Front Door service

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/quickstart-create-front-door

Configure Azure Traffic Manager

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/traffic-manager/quickstart-create-traffic-manager-profile

Integrate On premises Network with Azure Virtual Network

Create and configure Azure VPN Gateway

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-tutorial-create-gateway-powershell

Create and configure site to site VPN

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-howto-site-to-site-resource-manager-portal

Configure Express-Route

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/expressroute/expressroute-howto-circuit-portal-resource-manager

Configure Virtual WAN

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-wan/connect-virtual-network-gateway-vwan

Verify on premises connectivity

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-verify-connection-resource-manager

Troubleshoot on premises connectivity with Azure

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-troubleshoot-site-to-site-cannot-connect

Implement Multi factor Authentication (MFA)

Configure user accounts for MFA

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/howto-mfa-userstates/enable-azure-mfa-by-changing-user-state

Configure fraud alerts

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/howto-mfa-mfasettings/fraud-alert

Configure bypass options

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/howto-mfa-mfasettings/one-time-bypass

Configure trusted IPs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/howto-mfa-mfasettings/trusted-ips

Configure verification methods

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/howto-mfa-mfasettings/verification-methods

Manage Role based Access Control (RBAC)

Create a custom role

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/tutorial-custom-role-powershell

Configure access to Azure resources by assigning roles

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/role-assignments-portal

Configure management access to Azure

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/role-assignments-portal

Troubleshoot RBAC

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/troubleshooting

Implement Azure policies

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/policy/tutorials/create-and-manage

Assign RBAC roles

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/quickstart-assign-role-user-portal

Create and Deploy Apps (5-10%)

Create Web Apps by Using PaaS

Create an Azure App Service Web App

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-web-get-started-dotnet

Create documentation for the API

https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/azure-app-service-api-configure-swashbuckle/

Create an App Service Web App for containers

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-web-get-started-windows-container

Create an App Service background task by using WebJobs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/webjobs-create

Enable diagnostics logging

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/troubleshoot-diagnostic-logs

Design and Develop Apps That Run in Containers

Configure diagnostic settings on resources

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-get-logs

Create a container image by using a Docker file

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-registry/container-registry-quickstart-task-cli

Create an Azure Kubernetes Service

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/kubernetes-walkthrough-portal

Publish an image to the Azure Container Registry

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-registry/container-registry-get-started-docker-cli

Implement an application that runs on an Azure Container Instance

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-quickstart-portal

Manage container settings by using code

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/resources/samples/container-service-python-manage/

Implement Authentication and Secure Data (5-10%)​

Implement Authentication

Implement authentication by using certificates, forms-based authentication, tokens, or Windows-integrated authentication

https://github.com/Azure-Samples/active-directory-dotnetcore-daemon-v2

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-api/overview/security/forms-authentication

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/overview-authentication-authorization

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-api/overview/security/integrated-windows-authentication

Implement multi-factor authentication by using Azure AD

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/tutorial-mfa-applications

Implement OAuth2 authentication

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/tutorial-v2-asp-webapp

Implement Managed identities for Azure resources Service Principal authentication

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/managed-identities-azure-resources/tutorial-windows-vm-access-arm

Implement Secure Data Solutions

Encrypt and decrypt data at rest and in transit

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Encrypt data with Always Encrypted

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-always-encrypted-azure-key-vault

Implement Azure Confidential Compute

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/blog/azure-confidential-computing/

Implement SSL/TLS communications

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-security-tls

Create, read, update, and delete keys, secrets and certificates by using the KeyVault API

Keys

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/createkey/createkey

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/getkey/getkey

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/updatekey

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/deletekey

Secrets

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/setsecret/setsecret

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/getsecret/getsecret

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/updatesecret

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/deletesecret

Certificates

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/createcertificate/create

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/getcertificate/get

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/updatecertificate/update

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/keyvault/deletecertificate/delete

Develop for the Cloud and for Azure Storage (15-20%)​

Configure a Message-based Integration Architecture

Configure an app or service to send emails

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sendgrid-dotnet-how-to-send-email

Configure Event Grid

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blob-event-quickstart-powershell

Configure Azure Relay Service

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-bus-relay/relay-hybrid-connections-dotnet-get-started

Create and configure a Notification Hub

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/notification-hubs/create-notification-hub-portal

Create and configure an Event Hub

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/event-hubs/event-hubs-create

Create and configure a Service Bus

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-bus-messaging/service-bus-quickstart-portal

Configure queries across multiple products

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/log-query/cross-workspace-query

Develop for Autoscaling

Implement autoscaling rules and patterns (schedule, operational/system metrics)

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/autoscale-get-started

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/autoscale-common-scale-patterns

Implement code that addresses singleton application instances

Check the entire module (Writing Code to Handle Singleton Application Instances) with a free trial

Implement code that addresses transient state

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/best-practices/retry-service-specific

Develop Solutions That Use Cosmos DB Storage

Create, read, update, and delete data by using appropriate APIs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cosmos-db/documents

Implement partitioning schemes

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/how-to-model-partition-example

Set the appropriate consistency level for operations

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/consistency-levels-choosing

Develop Solutions That Use a Relational Database

Provision and configure relational databases

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-single-database-get-started

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-server-level-firewall-rule

Configure elastic pools for Azure SQL Database

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-elastic-pool

Implement Azure SQL Database managed instances

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-managed-instance-get-started

Create, read, update, and delete data tables by using code

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-connect-query-dotnet-core

Hope the resources and the links helps you to get through the exams and make you Azure Solutions Architect. Good luck!

I have been using twitter for the past 10 years and it took nearly 5 years to get those 100 followers. I was not an active user till before 2 years. One great tip i learnt in recent times is that first thing you need to do is to get a really complete and professional profile. Most users look at profiles before following. Another best way is to increase followers on Twitter is being consistent with posting quality content. Automating your posts will help a lot with this. In this blog, i will explain how you could build a simple function and deploy it on Azure to increase your followers count and to be consistent with quality content.

PreRequisites:

• An Azure subscription.
• The Azure Functions Core Tools.
• Visual Studio Code with the Azure Functions extension.

Step 1 : Navigate to https://portal.azure.com/ and search for Function App in the search bar.

Step 2 : Create a Function app with the following settings, make sure you are setting the Consumption Plan and enable Application Insights.

Step 3 : Open Visual Studio Code(Make sure you have already installed the VSCode with the function core tools and extension). Select Ctrl + Shif + P to create a new Function Project and select the language as Python

Step 4 : Select the template as Timer trigger as we need to run every 15 minutes and you need to configure the cron expression (0 */15 * * * *) as well.

Give the function name as twitter_followers,

Step 5 : You will see the project template getting created. Next step is to edit the __init__.py, thats where you are going to add the logic. We will be using Tweepy library to get the data from twitter and to follow the person who is tweeting the tweet. The methods we will use in the function as retweet and create_friendship. Here is the whole logic of the function. As you can see any tweet that has the hashtag #azure will get retweeted and you will automatically follow the user who has tweeted the tweet.

import tweepy, time, datetime, logging, os
from datetime import date
import azure.functions as func
def main(mytimer: func.TimerRequest) -> None:
    utc_timestamp = datetime.datetime.utcnow().replace(
        tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc).isoformat()
    if mytimer.past_due:
        logging.info('The timer is past due!')
    logging.info('Python timer trigger function ran at %s', utc_timestamp)
    auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(os.environ["TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY"], os.environ["TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET"])
    auth.set_access_token(os.environ["TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN"], os.environ["TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET"])
    api = tweepy.API(auth)
    today = str(date.today())
    while True:
        for tweet in tweepy.Cursor(api.search,q="#azure", lang="en", since=today).items(1):
            try:
                api.retweet(tweet.id)
            except:
                pass
            try:
                api.create_friendship(tweet.user.id)
            except:
                pass

Step 6: As you can see there are few environment variables which we are using in the code, we need to add those variables with the values in the local.settings.json file.

{  "IsEncrypted": false, 
   "Values": { 
   "TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY": "",
   "TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET": "",
   "TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN": "",
   "TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET": "",
   "FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME": "python",
   "AzureWebJobsStorage": "UseDevelopmentStorage=true"
 }
}

You need to get those keys from the twitter application you already created. if you dont have one, create from here.

Also you need to add the dependencies which are used in the above code inside the requirements.text file. dependencies.txt would have the following,

azure-functions
tweepy

Step 7 : Now we are done with everything, to publish the app to Azure, just press Ctrl+Shift+P and select Deploy to Funciton App

Step 8 : You can navigate to the function app on the Azure portal and make sure Application Insights is configured and as well as AppSettings are correct.

Now you can start your function and navigate to Monitor section of the function app. You will see the real live telemetries from the app as follows,

All good, you can see the function running and you will see the tweets are automatically retweeted with the particular hasthage in your timeline and also you will see the number of followers increased. Happy Tweeting Folks!

You can get the sourcecode from here.

I have been answering questions on Stackoverflow since 2011, and recently i started answering questions on #Azure. I was amazed to see the growth of Azure in the last 3 years among developers which is almost 200%. More the questions means more are implementing solutions on Azure.

I just checked the growing trends of different cloud provides including #AWS and #GCP , you can see the growth of Azure in the image below.

As i mentioned in the newsletter recently published by Trident(Cloud solution provider) Azure is becoming the Cloud that developers love the most in recent times.

Keep building more solutions and innovate on Azure.