r/AZURE

got the bill yesterday. another surprise.

we migrated our phone system to Azure 3 months ago. I did the math. I calculated everything. compute, storage, network, the works. or so I thought.

turns out I completely missed the cost of monitoring logs. application insights. I didn't even think about it. and now it's like 15% of our monthly bill. 15%. for logs I barely even look at.

I'm starting to understand why people complain about cloud pricing. it's not that it's expensive it's that it's impossible to predict every month there's something new.

I've started using the cost management tools more. trying to be better about tagging resources and setting budgets. but I still feel like I'm one wrong configuration away from a 5000 surprise.

anyone else feel like Azure pricing is designed to confuse you. or am I just bad at math

Hello everyone,

I am in the process of migrating a windows file share server to azure files, This consists of 1 share drive with about 60 folders inside. This entire share has about 1.5TB of data which is primary files from different departments. This share is also mounted on all the computers in the organization. We will be using storage mover for this.

The idea behind this migration is that we decommission the on-prem file server and access will be directly to azure primarily via the mounted drive on the end-users computer.

While the cost is minor for this amount of storage I am still on the fence between HDD (Standard) and SDD (Premium).

We currently have site-to-site to all of our locations for other azure resources so I was also wondering what the best method here would be? Private-Endpoint or something else?

Any other tips would be much appreciated.

I was in the process of creating an Azure SQL Managed Instance for our CIS dept (I work at a College). The cost estimate came out to $1,400/month - which is too much. Any way around that?

I regularly read nonfiction books and try to expand my knowledge in various subject areas. Since I’m self-employed, I also read books on business and related topics. But I also work a lot with Azure and would like to read a well-researched book on the subject. Ideally, one that isn’t 10 years old.

I know that things change quickly in this field, but there are still fundamental aspects of cloud architecture (concepts, patterns, etc.). Of course, I could just go through Microsoft Learn, but I’m really looking for a well-structured book. If it also covers aspects related to entrepreneurs and businesses, that would be even better.

If anyone here can recommend any books, I’d really appreciate it!

I’m looking to connect with others who are learning or already working in cloud engineering. Whether you’re looking for someone to build projects with, share knowledge, or you’re experienced and willing to mentor, I’d love to connect.

I currently work in IT and I’m working toward transitioning into cloud engineering. I have my AZ-900 and AWS Cloud Practitioner certifications, and I’m currently studying for the AZ-104.

Outside of work, I’ve been building hands-on Azure projects in my home lab. I’m using Terraform for IaC for infrastructure deployments. I’ve also been using AI to generate realistic tickets and business scenarios, then trying to design and implement the solutions myself to get experience with real cloud engineering work.

If anyone else is learning Azure/Terraform, already works in cloud, wants to collaborate on projects, or is willing to offer some guidance, feel free to comment or PM me. I would love to connect to pick your brain or even work together to make some cool stuff.

Hi All,

We have a 10 file servers and 15 SQL servers, 70 Apps servers

We have a production subscription.

And planning to put any production servers over there.

SQL and Apps are for Dev/Sit so

Do we setup dev/test subscription?

Planning on lift and shift.

We have 50TB Archive files but need to access time to time. What is the solution for that?

Hi. I have seen multiple references of using pipelines for IaC (BICEP, terraform) but I can't understand how it could used in real scenarios.

For context, I am familiar with deploying code through pipeline and stages. I am new to Azure and infra-as-Code. I joined a company where I am creating templates to deploy repeatable environments for our customers, but I do that with Azure CLI.

What are advantages of deploying with pipelines? How have you used it? How do you run infra changes? You use it purely to deploy and update existing services? How to manage removal of resources?

Thank you.

Trying to move a several running VMs from a regular Azure subscription into Azure Government — there's no native way to just "move" it, so the standard trick is to use Azure Site Recovery and treat the VM like a physical server being replicated in.

That approach used to work fine, but it was built around Site Recovery's old "Classic" setup, which got retired this past March. Now that everyone's forced onto the newer "Modernized" architecture, the tool seems to notice the source is an Azure VM and just... skips the actual setup step. It reports success, but never actually configures anything, so the agent can't connect to anything and nothing starts.

Two questions for the group:

1. Anyone else run into this specific silent-skip behavior, and found a way around it?
2. Has anyone actually pulled off a live move from commercial Azure into Gov since Classic went away, or is this basically a dead end right now?

Wanted to see if anyone's cracked this before I give up on it. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

I recently graduated with a degree in systems science, which is somewhat similar to compsci, but with less coding and more focus on theory, systems, business and how IT fits into organizations.

A few months ago I started as a system administrator trainee at a company. During the interview, I was told that there was a plan for my onboarding and that I would have a mentor who could guide me through the trainee period.

Now that a few months have passed, I’ve started feeling pretty lost.

I don’t have a technical background in the traditional sense and I’m also the first trainee they’ve hired for this type of role. Over time, I’ve realized that they probably weren’t quite sure themselves how to structure the onboarding, which I completely understand. It’s a new situation for them too.

The problem is that I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to be doing or where I should start.

Most of my days have consisted of trying to teach myself things. I can of course ask my coworkers for help, and they are very nice and willing to help when they can, but they’re also very busy and have their own responsibilities. I’ve tried asking for smaller or easier tasks that I could take ownership of and learn from, but I haven’t really been given many yet.

I’m also the youngest person and the only woman in my IT department, while most of my coworkers have 30+ years of experience. Sometimes they explain things to me as if I should already know them and I think the huge difference in experience makes me underestimate myself quite a lot and I´ve got too scared to ask when I don’t understand anything because of this.

My team manager keeps telling me to take it easy and not put so much pressure on myself, but that’s easier said than done when I feel like I’m barely making any progress. I really wanna contribute to the team and become good at this but I think it has started affecting my confidence quite a bit.

If you were starting over as a junior/new system administrator, what would you focus on?

Are there any projects you would recommend doing to actually turn the theoretical knowledge into practical skills?

I feel like I have a basic understanding and I’ve also gone through some of the AZ-900 material and learning about Azure, but I’m struggling with the question of "okay, I understand what a VNet/subnet/VM/NSG/etc. is… but what do I actually DO with this knowledge?”.

I think I need to start building and troubleshooting things rather than just reading about them.

If you were in my position, what would you learn first, and what kind of small projects or exercises would you do?

Any advice would honestly be appreciated. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed and could really use some perspective from people who started out in a similar position.

Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone!

I'm looking for ways to get more hands-on practice.

My school gives me access to Azure VMs for specific labs, but I don’t have a proper Azure environment where I can freely deploy resources and experiment. Microsoft Learn is useful, but I’m mainly looking for something similar to the old Azure sandboxes, or any cheap/free alternative where I can practice deploying and managing Azure resources.

I’m currently working through RBAC and using Microsoft Learn and YouTube. I’ve also got the Microsoft Exam Ref books for Azure Fundamentals and Azure Administrator.

What resources did you guys use to prepare for AZ-104? Any good practice labs, exam-style questions, or platforms where I can actually be given tasks like “deploy this VM” or “configure this resource”?

Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated!

We use CrowdStrike primarily for endpoint and EDR, and recently tried leaning on their cloud security module's AI-SPM capabilities for Azure visibility. tbh It felt like an extension of the endpoint product rather than something cloud-native, and it missed a couple of shadow Azure OpenAI deployments we later found manually. not sure if others have had better luck or if this is a known limitation of endpoint-first platforms extending into cloud AI visibility.

Just a little background. I started as Desktop Support, went to QA Desktop Analyst, Front End Developer and now back to Desktop Support.

Im looking to upgrade my salary and change into a field where im projected to make a bit more money. I live in a HCOL (NYC AREA). Currently making $35/hr as a Desktop Support Tech (which is very high end for this field).

When i was doing development i was making $60 then $40. Im really wanting to get into a field where I can get back into $50/hr + as my HCOL is too high and $35 is really not cutting it for me. I have wife and child that i have to support and im just looking for a career that can give me a place to grow to make more money.

Right now Im studying and working on getting Azure MD102 Endpoint Administrator, Azure SC-300 Identity and Access Administrator Associate role & then finish with AZ-104 Azure Administrator.

I just wanted to see what System Admin or any other IT managers perspective was in this path im taking. Im not sure if this path offers much stain or if im going the wrong direction if im trying to hop off Desktop Support and getting into something else.

Any professionals out there in this field or someone who has taken a path out of Desktop Support Into System admin can chime in with any feedback or suggestions for my objective and goal here?

Any help or guidance would be great

I've spent a fair amount of time working with AWS and Azure in enterprise environments, including looking at cloud infrastructure from both the architecture and cost-optimization side.

One thing that keeps bothering me:

Despite all the native recommendations and FinOps tools available today, there still seems to be a huge amount of cloud spend that could be optimized.

And I'm not convinced the problem is simply a lack of visibility.

We already have things like Azure Advisor, AWS Compute Optimizer, Cost Management, Cost Optimization Hub, Reservations/Savings Plans, and a long list of commercial FinOps platforms.

So I'm starting to think about building an open-source GitHub repository focused specifically on actionable cloud cost optimization.

But before I decide what to build, I want to start with a simple question:

If you could have one tool deeply analyze your Azure environment, what would you want it to optimize?

Would it be:

Compute / VM rightsizing?

Managed disks and storage?

Databases?

Network / egress?

Kubernetes?

Reservations / Savings Plans?

Idle resources?

Storage tiers?

Non-prod scheduling?

Something much more specific?

And for those already using Azure Advisor or other FinOps tools:

What do you feel they get wrong, miss, or make difficult to act on?

I wish I had a subscription to these to understand gaps 3rd party FinOps tool have.

I'm particularly interested in the gap between:

"The tool says you could save $X"

and

"Here's why you can actually save $X safely in this specific workload."

I don't want to build another dashboard full of recommendations.

I'd like to build something where the community can contribute optimization rules, workload signals and validation logic over time.

So if you could wave a magic wand and eliminate one category of cloud waste from your environment, what would it be?

I'm going to use the responses here to decide what the first version of the GitHub project should actually solve.

I want to make an app which pulls data from a database and then adds extra rows to the end of an Excel sheet which is hosted in Sharepoint.

I haven't done any Sharepoint / Azure work before. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I want to do this with a system account (Application?) rather than have a user login and run processes.

The app itself isn't the problem, I just need help with where to get information on the Sharepoint interaction.

Thanks

Over the past week, a threat actor operating under the moniker “TheHatman” has flooded cybercrime forums with massive internal employee directories belonging to several Fortune 500 companies. The actor claims these dumps were extracted directly from the organizations’ Azure Tenants.