Dear Customers,

The 15th cumulative update release, “CU15”, for SQL Server 2012 SP2 is now available for download at the Microsoft Downloads site. Please note that registration is no longer required to download Cumulative updates.

To learn more about the release or servicing model, please visit:

• CU#15 KB Article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3205416
• Understanding Incremental Servicing Model for SQL Server
• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 SP2 Latest Cumulative Update: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50731
• Update Center for Microsoft SQL Server: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/sqlserver/ff803383.aspx

Notes:

CU15 was also released as a SQL Server Security Bulletin on 11/8/2016, KB3194725. Please see MS16-136 for details. As a result of this, you may already have CU15 installed as part of that security bulletin release and installation of this CU is unnecessary. If you do attempt to install CU15 after MS16-136, you may receive the following message:  There are no SQL Server instances or shared features that can be updated on this computer. This message indicates that CU15 is already installed and no further action is required.

Additionally, note the package name for CU15 (SQLServer2012-KB3194725-x64.exe) contains the security update MS16-136 KB number (3194725), not the CU15 KB number (3205416). This can be ignored as a single package services both release channels.

SfB サポートチームのワトソンと李です。

Outlook 2015 までは、予定表が RTF 形式に固定されておりました。
Outlook 2016 からは、予定表アイテムの指定形式が Outlook の指定メール形式と同様になりました。

そのため、Skype の会議アドインから送信されるリクエストについても同様に Outlook の指定形式の設定が反映されます。

指定メール形式をテキストに設定している場合、Outlook 2016 で作成した会議の招待リクエスト内にございます、
ハイパーリンクが消えてしまう現象が発生します。

■ Outlook の設定で、[次の形式でメッセージを作成する] で、テキスト形式が選択されている。

■ 上記の形式設定の場合、会議招待のメールでハイパーリングが消え、さらに、URL もないため、受け取ったユーザーは参加不可

＊ なお、リボン内にございます、[Skype 会議への参加] をクリックする事により、参加自体は可能でございます。

[回避方法]
Outlook 2016 の 9 月更新以降より、オプション画面で設定するメールのデフォルトの形式とは別に、
予定表アイテムの書式の設定をする事が可能となりました。

こちらは UI 上からは設定ができなく、以下のレジストリーを追加する必要がございます。

– 手順

1. レジストリ エディターを開きます。
2. 以下のレジストリを追加します。

レジストリ キー : HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice16.0OutlookOptionsCalendar

値の名前 : CalendarEditorPreference

値の型 : DWORD

値 : 各書式に該当する値を 16 進数で入力します。

– 0x00030000 (リッチテキスト形式)
– 0x00020000 (HTML 形式)
– 0x00010000 (テキスト形式)

上記のレジストリ―を追加していただき、0x00030000 を DWORD に設定する事で、
以後、おつくりになられた、会議招待については、ハイパーリンクが記載されます。

ただし、レジストリーを設定する前に作った会議招待については再度発行していただく必要がございます。

■ レジストリーの設定を追加

■ もう一度、会議リクエストを作り、予定表からアイテムを開くと、ハイパーリング有になっている

– 参考情報

MS16-107: Description of the security update for Outlook 2016: September 13, 2016

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3118293

Update enables administrator to specify the default editor format for calendar items in Outlook 2016

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3118318

引き続き Skype for Business をよろしくお願いします。

Are you preparing for Microsoft Exam 70-345? If yes, then have a look at this eBook. It helps you to demonstrate your real-world mastery of Exchange Server 2016 planning, deployment, migration, management, and troubleshooting. As you aware the Exam Ref is the official study guide for Microsoft certification exams. Featuring concise coverage of the skills measured by the exam, challenging thought Experiments, and pointers to more in-depth material for the candidate needing additional study, exam candidates get professional-level preparation for the exam.

help demonstrate your real-world mastery of Exchange Server 2016 planning, deployment, migration, management, and troubleshooting.

The Exam Ref helps candidates determine their readiness for the exam, and provides Exam Tips to help maximize their performance on the exam.

Now i see that you can get it for 50% of the list price. You can buy it from here https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/buy.aspx?isbn=1509302204.

Hope this helps

As much as I enjoy coding I must constantly decide whether there is more value in writing a custom piece of code or taking one off the shelf that is supported and has had more eyes on it. A great example of this can be seen in the next few building blocks starting with this one on Dependency Injection. I will say that I have always been a little hesitant on using the mainstream dependency injection frameworks as they often have too much reflection associated costs with them for the value I found they brought in a high scale system.

I recently started to reflect more on this and began to change my stance due to:

1. The ease of substituting stubbed in classes during testing
2. The logical extensibility points it represents
3. Centralization of the instances lifetime control

Up until now I had not used the new Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection framework but from my research I like its approach to allowing substitution other DI frameworks and what appears to be a lighter touch. Let’s start by discussing the basics of what it is for anyone that has not used it in the past.

Dependency Injection is a technique used to resolve references to an instance of a type using factories, typically to enable the Inversion of Control (IoC) pattern.

A great time to use DI is with logging frameworks. In my experience this seems to be a common point of change within a solution due to developer, performance or operations requirements. If you did not use a DI style approach, custom or through a common framework, you would have to go back through most your code to make these changes. Through DI you can make the change easily in one or at most a handful of changes, saving cost and risk.

Let’s use look at a simple example of a message generator that will be created using the DI framework. The first thing we need to do once we create our application is to add the NUGET package. The Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection package installs the entire DI framework while the Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions package provides the minimal interfaces as seen here.

Next I will define the IMessageGenerator interface that defines the contract my instance will use regardless of the concrete implementation.

To transform this console application so it uses simple DI is done with a few simple steps.

1. Add a reference to the framework
2. Create an instance of the service collection
3. Add the instances with the appropriate lifetime constructs (I will talk more about this shortly)
4. Build the dependency injection frameworks service provider
5. Request an instance of the object

As you can see here in the final transformation it appears to be a lot more work but it really only a few additional lines but the flexibility it provides is worth it.

  using System;
  using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

  class Program  
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var serviceCollection = new ServiceCollection();
      serviceCollection.AddSingleton<IMessageGenerator>(new SimpleMessageGenerator());
      var serviceProvider = serviceCollection.BuildServiceProvider();


      var generator = serviceProvider.GetService<IMessageGenerator>();
      Console.WriteLine(generator.GetMessage());
    }
  }

Running this program again we see the DI version of the program produces the same output.

Now to show our dependency injection is working I will change the instance to a complex generator as follows and run it again.

  serviceCollection.AddSingleton<IMessageGenerator>(new ComplexMessageGenerator("test"));

That sample demonstrates a simple singleton version of the service that will continue to hand the same instance out to all clients that ask for an instance. That would be great if all the instance of classes I will every use did not contain state but there are quite a few that will. The following changes modify this class to hand out a different instance each time requested.

  using System;
  using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;


  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var serviceCollection = new ServiceCollection();
      serviceCollection.AddTransient<IMessageGenerator>(ImplementationFactory);
      var serviceProvider = serviceCollection.BuildServiceProvider();

      var generator1 = serviceProvider.GetService<IMessageGenerator>();
      Console.WriteLine($"{ generator1.GetId():N}:{ generator1.GetMessage() }");

      var generator2 = serviceProvider.GetService<IMessageGenerator>();
      Console.WriteLine($"{ generator2.GetId():N}:{ generator2.GetMessage() }");
    }


    private static IMessageGenerator ImplementationFactory(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
    {
      return new SimpleMessageGenerator();
    }
  }

As can be seen before one way to do this is using a factory method that will be invoked each time the instance of the service is requested. Obviously in this case I am using a simple instantiation of the instance in the method but I could replace it with a resource pool or other. Here is the console output proving by the instance id that it creates a new instance with each request.

There are more options and techniques you can use with the DI framework but for our purposes that will most likely be the key areas of interest.

Hopefully by seeing how easy and light this is you can understand why I now feel it is worth taking on. Building this solution using the framework allows me to introduce contracts and make the overall solution easily extensible.

<< Previous    

Do you have a favorite feature from your experience on Outlook for Windows or another email application that you’d like to see in Outlook 2016 for Mac? Use the following forums to let us know:

• https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/293343-outlook-for-mac
• Do you use Outlook for work? If so, please suggest here: https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/335538-outlook-for-mac-business

You don’t need to bookmark these links. You can access this from Outlook itself by using Help > Suggest a Feature. We actively monitor these forums and use this to help prioritize our backlog.

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14971 for PC

ということで、Windows 10 Insider Preview 14971 が PC 用の Fast Ring に公開されました。今回はPC用のみです。

14971 での新機能

Microsoft Edge で EPUB 本を読む：

Windows 10 Creators Update では読書体験も改善されます。PDFファイルの読書体験に加えて、今回はMicrosoft Edge を使ってEPUB file format の電子書籍（プロテクトされていないもの）を読むことが出来ます。Microsoft Edge でプロテクトのかかっていない電子書籍を開くと、書籍の表示設定が開かれフォント変更と、テキストサイズの変更、そしてライト、セピア、ダークの3つのテーマからの選択が出来ます。ブックマークを付けることもできます。ページを移動するために、目次もしくブラウザー下のスライダーを使うことが出来ます。また、単語や一連の言葉を検索したり、コルタナを使って特定の単語を定義することが出来ます。

プロテクトがかかっていない電子書籍はFeedbooks, Project Gutenberg, Free eBooks (要サインイン), ePubBooks (要サインイン), Open Library 、もしくは我々の Microsoft Pressなどからダウンロードすることが出来ます。ぜひMicrosoft Edge で電子書籍を読んでみて、ご意見をお聞かせください。

Paint 3D Preview アプリで誰でも3D：

このビルドからちょっと進んで Paint 3D Preview は Windows 10 の標準アプリとして同梱されることになりました。スタートメニューからペイントを開くと Paint 3D Preview が起動します。ぜひ試していただいて、改善点や追加すべきことなどをお聞かせください。現在、Paint 3D Preview は英語版のみ提供されています（表示言語にかかわらず、アプリ内の文字はすべて英語です）が、ほかの言語も近いうちに対応する予定です。Remix 3D Preview こちらは Paint 3D Preview に対応したコミュニティサイトですが、今回 オーストリア、ベルギー、デンマーク、ドイツ、アイルランド、オランダ、ノルウェー、スウェーデン、そしてスイスの Insider ユーザーも利用できるようになりました。Remix 3D Previewは現在英語版のみですが、ほかの地域や言語も対応するよう勧めています。Paint 3D Preview アプリの中から Remix 3D Preview を見に行くことが出来ます。

シェル内のPowerShell ：

パワーユーザーに最高のコマンドライン環境を提供するために、PowerShell はファイルエクスプローラーからの事実上のコマンドシェルとなっています。Win+X メニュー、ファイルエクスプローラーのファイルメニュー内、ファイルエクスプローラーの空白を右クリックしたときのコンテキストメニューのそれぞれにあるのコマンドプロンプト（cmd.exe）から置き換えられます。ファイルエクスプローラーのアドレスバーで”cmd”もしくは”powershell” とタイプすると、その場所からコマンドシェルを簡単に起動することが出来ますがそれは残っています。もしコマンドプロンプトの方を使いたい方は、設定→個人用設定→タスクバーを開いて ”[スタート］ボタンを右クリックするか Windows キー＋Xキーを押したっと気に表示されるメニューで、コマンドプロンプトをPowerShellに置き換える” のチェックをはずまします。

日本語と中国語のIMEの変換入力の改善：

このビルドではIME周りの数多くの改善が含まれています。以下はその中のいくつかのトピックです。

• 中国語IMEの信頼性の向上：特に、辞書ファイルのダウンロードが不完全だったり壊れていた場合にIMEがクラッシュすることがある問題を修正しました
• 日本語IMEの変換精度の改善：日本語IMEについてもいくつかの問題を修正しましたが、特に予測変換を使っている場合や、文節の変更をしたときの画面上での問題などを修正しました。
• 日本語IMEでの入力時のリソース使用量の改善：IMEをしばらく使っていた後に起きうる、グラフィックの不具合を修正しました。

Get Office (Beta) :

皆様からの Get Office アプリに対するフィードバックを受け、Get Office バージョン 2.0 （アプリのバージョンとしては 17.7614.2377.0）を Fast Ring をお使いの Insider の皆さんにご紹介します。Get Office は主に Ofiice を起動するためのリンク集であったのに対して、新しく改善されたアプリは Office の利用と管理を支援してくれるでしょう。アプリを簡単に探して起動したり、最近使ったすべてのOffice ファイルをまとめて1つの場所に表示してくれます。まだ、ヘルプリンクは残していますが、必要なものを簡単に探せるようなデザインに変更しました。ぜひ新しいアプリを試して、フィードバックを記録してください。我々は皆さんの声を待っています。

その他のPCに対する改善と修正

• First introduced to Insiders in Build 14926, the experimental “Snooze” action on a tab in Microsoft Edge which provides you with a way to set a Cortana reminder on the website you are viewing is no longer available. Based on data we gathered and feedback we received, we decided to remove it from the product and re-evaluate the feature for a future release.
• We’ve improved reliability when using the protractor and inking in Sketchpad.
• We’ve updated some of our desktop wizards (including “map a network drive” and “extract from zip”) to now be proportionally sized when moved across monitors.
• We fixed an issue where Magnifier’s keyboard shortcuts sometimes wouldn’t work on the Lock screen.
• We fixed an issue that could result in sometimes not being able to completely remove files in the Windows.old folder using Disk Cleanup.
• We have enabled OAuth support for Yahoo Mail accounts. This will improve sync reliability for those accounts, and provide a more secure experience in the Outlook Mail app.
• We fixed an issue where trying to shut down the PC while certain Device Manager dialog boxes were open would result in the PC being stuck at the “Restarting…” screen.
• We fixed an issue where, as closing multiple tabs with middle click in Microsoft Edge, the width of the tabs might change, resulting in potentially unexpectedly closing the wrong tab.
• We fixed an issue where the copy link option when right-clicking a hyperlink in Microsoft Edge wasn’t work.
• We fixed an issue where, if you changed the size of the Microsoft Edge window, and then closed the app by closing the final tab, the next time Microsoft Edge is launched it would once again be the default size, rather than retaining the preferred window size.
• We fixed an issue where pinned tabs in Microsoft Edge were not being restored.
• We’ve made a number of translation improvements, including for Chinese speakers fixing a translation error in the dialog that appears when installing multiple fonts at once, as well as one in Settings > System > Battery. If you see any other translations that aren’t as you’d expect, please log feedback – we’re listening!
• We fixed an issue where, if you already hand a notification expanded in the Action Center, clicking the chevron to expand a second notification would result in it expanding then immediately closing.
• We fixed an issue where preferred Start menu width might not be preserved after rebooting.

PCでの既知の問題

• Navigating to Settings > System > Battery will crash the Settings app.
• Using keyboard monitor hotkeys to adjust brightness won’t work as expected. Desired brightness change could be done via the Action Center or by going to Settings > System > Display.
• Apps such as Store, Photos, and People may launch on their own after your PC has been inactive for a period of time. To stop these apps from launching on their own, un-maximize the app before closing it.
• Double-clicking on an Excel document to open it from File Explorer will crash Microsoft Excel. The workaround is to open the document from within Excel.
• Microsoft Studios games like Microsoft Sudoku, Jigsaw, Minesweeper, Taptiles, and Treasure Hunt may freeze at the splash screen on launch.
• As we have previously announced we are working on the Windows Holographic Shell that is going to be included in the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update. In today’s flight you will see the Windows Holographic First Run app. While you will be able to launch the app and walk through the first few screens, it won’t detect any hardware. This app and the Windows Holographic Shell is still under active development here at Microsoft and with our partners.

Team Updates

チーム活動系、この辺は略

次週は新しいビルドは出ない予定です。次週はU.S. のサンクスギビング ホリデーで、多くのチームが家族と休日を祝うために休暇を撮るためです。

If when running Get-Help about_* you see missing helpfiles such as about_Automatic_Variables and all your attempts to update helpfiles by calling Update-Help don’t fix the issue, try calling the following:

Install-AboutHelp.ps1

When we switched over to using the new editor for Outlook 2016 for Mac, we lost the ability to detect languages automatically. We’ve received a lot of feedback, and we recently released the fix in our latest update version 15.28 (Build 161115) released on 11/15/2016.

• Use Help> Check for Updates from any of the Office 2016 apps to get the latest build.
• If for some reason you can’t update via Help, you can manually download and install the new build from this article.

If you are an Office Insider, you might have noticed that this feature is turned on in version 15.29 (Office Insider Fast level). Please note that some Insiders have had trouble seeing this feature and this will be resolved in upcoming 15.29 build.

Lastly, after updating, you may notice that enabling this feature has a different workflow from the previous mail editor.

 To turn on automatic language detection, follow the steps below:

1. Close Outlook if you have it open.
2. Open System Preferences and click the Language & Region icon.
   

3. In the Language & Region dialog box, add your preferred languages
   

4. Open Outlook and start a new email. Then go to Edit > Language> Language… to open the Language dialog box.
   

5. In the Language dialog, check the box next to “Detect language automatically” and click OK
   

6. Compose a new email and language will be automatically detected. Note: You’ll need to type in the full sentence for the language detection to work, such as ending the sentence with a punctuation mark or start the next paragraph.
   

We really appreciate your patience as we roll this out!

Release Notes:

• Confirmation dialog added to resubmit run
• Singleton triggers allowed (can mark a trigger with operationOption of singleton, and new instances will not fire unless all running flows are completed)
• Can now view the raw inputs and outputs of actions with the historical run view
• Performance improvements for spliton (debatch) triggers
• Connection verify in designer for supported connectors

New Connectors (rolling out globally):

• Azure Document DB
• Cognitive Services Face APIs
• Disqus
• Chatter
• Power BI
• Google Calendar
• Google Tasks
• Pinterest
• HipChat
• WordPress

Bug Fixes:

• Margins would sometimes cut off part of the output picker
• Error message improvements on invalid operations
• Message wasn’t shown for actions skipped in a foreach loop
• Accessibility improvements

We’re all about the principle of continuous improvement over here in Azure security.

No matter how good things might seem, they can always be better.

That’s true for engineering processes, technologies, and even the information we put in front of you. It’s our firm belief that if you can’t understand what we have to offer and how to use it, it doesn’t matter how good it is.

With continuous improvement as a driving principle, we’re excited to share with you our new Azure Security Information site. You’ll still be able to find all the critical Azure security information you did in the old site on Azure.com, but now you’ll get a few things that will make your experience even better!

The front page now looks like what you see in the figure below. We’ve stripped out the marketing-like motif of the former front page and now make it easy for you to quickly get started with key Azure security concepts such as Azure network security, Azure storage security and Azure virtual machine (compute) security.

When you go to any of the articles in the Azure Security Information site, you’ll see a Comments, Edit and Share button. Just under those buttons you’ll see a Theme drop down list. The default is the light theme (what you see in the figure below), but if you prefer the dark theme (yes, the 1990s wants its dark themes back!), you can choose it from the drop down list.

When you click Comments, it’ll drop you to the bottom of the page where you can make comments or ask questions about the content of the article.

Clicking Edit will take you to the article’s site in Github and you can edit it there. Please make edits! We’ve had wonderful experiences with the edits our Azure security community makes and I always look forward to accept your edits!

The Share button gives you a choice between Facebook and Twitter – please share our article every time you read them

The table of contents is a lot easier to read now too. On the left side of the page you can browse all the Azure security topics with ease – just click the arrows to expand the sections you’re interested in. No pain!

In the figure below check out what the red arrow is pointing to. What is that thing? Not sure what it is, but when you click on it it’ll open a box where you can make a comment on the paragraph next to it – it’s a way for you to make inline commentary, and that commentary is available to everyone! You can use a federated identity (like Facebook), or you can use a LiveFyre identity (LiveFyre is the name of the service that provides this capability)

Of course, I’ve saved the best for last. How many times have you wished that you could have all the information in your area of interest available in a simple PDF file? Maybe a PDF file that you’ll open up in Word later and make your own edits and notes as you study it. How often have you be dismayed, saddened, frustrated and angry because you had to use “caret browsing” and then copy/paste the web site content, only to see the formatting mangled beyond all recognition? Yeah, me too!

Those days are OVER.

See the Download Security Documentation link? CLICK IT! CLICK IT NOW!

What you see is beautiful– a fulfillment of all we ever wanted from Microsoft educational materials – here it is. We start with a complete (and clickable) table of contents.

The table of contents includes all the articles in the Azure Security Information site!

Now let’s see what the articles look like:

Wow. Just WOW. Is that great or what? The formatting is gorgeous, the title page is crisp, it just makes you want to sit down with a big pot of coffee and spend the entire night reading every article we have in the Azure Security Information site – in fact, that’s what I’m going to do tonight (yes, that’s my idea of an exciting Friday night )

We hope you like what you see in the new Azure Security Information site. Keep letting us know what more you want! We never sit on our laurels and you can be sure that the next improvement is just a stand-up away!

Thanks!

Tom

Tom Shinder
Program Manager, Azure Security
@tshinder | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email | Web | Bing me! | GOOG me

Update: Friday, 18 November 2016 23:34 UTC

Our DevOps team continues to investigate issues with packaging service. Root cause is not fully understood at this time. Some customers continue to experience intermittent failures (404) from the command line and the web experience. We are working to establish the start time for the issue, initial findings indicate that the problem began at 18 November 2016  16:00 UTC. We currently have no estimated time for resolution.

• Next Update: Before 01:30 19 November 2016 UTC
  

Sincerely,
Bapayya

We will keep this page updated with HDInsight HBase/ Phoenix related commonly asked questions. You can leave comments/questions on this blog. Also, official channel to provide HDInsight related feedback and make feature requests is here

What is the advantage of using HBase in Azure HDinight?

Azure HDInsight HBase – A NoSql database like no other

Can’t wait , give me a quick link to deploy HBase cluster in HDInsight?

How can I deploy OpenTSDB with HDInsight HBase?

Sure , check this out

So, I just got HBase up and running in HDInsight and want to test the performance without writing any code. How can I “take HBase for a spin”?  

SSH into your cluster , and type
hbase org.apache.hadoop.hbase.PerformanceEvaluation sequentialWrite 1

PerformanceEvaluation tool takes number of parameters and commands , just type hbase org.apache.hadoop.hbase.PerformanceEvaluation for all the options. 

Now go to HBase Shell and type list ,  you will see a new table and you can play with many more options.

Are there free online training’s on HDInsight & HBase

Yes, check this out

Great! I am an enterprise customer and want to secure the cluster inside a virtual network. How can I do that?

Please follow the article Here

I really need to secure the VNET , what IP & ports Azure needs to operate the service

If you need to install HDInsight into a secured Virtual Network, you must allow inbound access over port 443 for the following IP addresses, which allow Azure to manage the HDInsight cluster.

168.61.49.99
23.99.5.239
168.61.48.131
138.91.141.162

Allowing inbound access from port 443 for these addresses will allow you to successfully install HDInsight into a secured virtual network.

Enough with playing , give me few best practices for great HBase performance

Read-

HDInsight HBase: 9 things you must do to get great HBase performance

Watch-

There are some inconsistencies when running “hbase hbck”. Then I want to run “sudo -u hbase<or hdfs> hbase hbck -repair”, it reports access denied to the folders in azure data lake store

Try adding “-ignorePreCheckPermission” as a command parameter

hbase hbck -ignorePreCheckPermission


I have Hive and HBase clusters in same VNET. How can I access HBase table from Hive?

In below example , I have HBase Table’TestTable’ which we will map to Hive Table ‘hive_table’

Step 1 – Open Hive shell with correct parameters as shown below

hive --hiveconf hbase.zookeeper.quorum=zk0-xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.cx.internal.cloudapp.net,zk1-xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.cx.internal.cloudapp.net,zk2-xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.cx.internal.cloudapp.net --hiveconf zookeeper.znode.parent=/hbase-unsecure

Step 2 – Map Hive table to HBase table

hive> CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE hive_table(key int, value string) STORED BY 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.hbase.HBaseStorageHandler' WITH SERDEPROPERTIES ("hbase.columns.mapping" = ":key,info:0") TBLPROPERTIES ("hbase.table.name" = "TestTable");

Step 3 – Get the data

hive> select * from hbase_table;


I am sure you all have heard the exciting news that SQL Server 2016 SP1 supports Common Programming Surface Area (CPSA) across all features. And, YES, that includes columnstore index. Please refer to the following blog for details

Columnstore Index: Standard and Express editions with SQL Server 2016 SP1

Thanks

Sunil Agarwal and Kevin Farlee

There is a huge difference in ordering a baked potato and a loaded baked potato.

The potato is the same, but it just becomes so much better will all the add-ons.

So, how would you like your NAV 2017 on Azure?

NAV 2017 on Azure, Loaded please…

of course:-)

This blog post is a visual walkthrough of how to setup NAV 2017 on Azure, Loaded. It consists of a LOT of screenshots explaining what to do…

For assistance on easier navigation, I have added links to the sections here:

1. Setup your NAV 2017 DEMO environment
2. Install the Self Signed Certificate
3. Access NAV 2017 using the Web Client
4. Add NAV 2017 to the Waffle Menu
5. Create a PowerBI dashboard with data from NAV
6. Embedding PowerBI
7. Configure the Outlook/Office Add-in
8. Setup Email
9. Setup Email Logging
10. Do you want to Edit In Excel
11. Create your PowerApps
12. Create a Flow
13. Access NAV 2017 via a SharePoint Portal
14. View a world map of your customers
15. Connect your Phone or Tablet to NAV 2017
16. Access NAV 2017 using the Windows Client
17. Connect to your Virtual Machine
18. That was easy

You can also choose to go through the entire story-like post right here:

Setup your NAV 2017 DEMO environment

Go to http://aka.ms/navdemodeploy

The system will redirect you to the new Azure Portal, and you will be asked to login and fill out a quesionnaire. You need to at least fill out Resource Group, VM Name and the admin password.

In order to get your NAV 2017 Fully Loaded, you also want to fill out the BingMaps Key (get one here), select Yes to ClickOnce, select yes to PowerBI and type in the administrator username (email) and password for the Office 365 where you want to integrate NAV 2017. Also say Yes to allow NAV to create a Portal with NAV 2017 Content.

Accept the terms and check Pin to dashboard.

Now deployment will start and in approx. 10 minutes you will be looking at this:

When Deployment is done, the new Portal will show the deployment and display 1 Succeeded. In the unlikely event it should say 1 Failed, you can click on the link to see what went wrong. It isn’t easy, but you will probably get there. Then remove the Resource Group and try again:

When you click the Public IP line, the portal will show the DNS name. Click the DNS Name and copy it to the clipboard:

Open a new Tab in the browser and navigate to the URL. The browser will probably show you this:

But after you refresh a few times, you should end up having the landing page:

The landing page here tells you that Installation is still running and you can view the installation status by clicking the link on the right:

After around 10-20 minutes, the status should say Installation  Complete:

and your Landing page should now be complete:

Install the Self Signed Certificate

If you are using a self-signed certificate (if you followed the process here, you are), click the Download Certificate link and follow the process for installing the certificate in the trusted root certificate authorities:
    

Note, if you are going to connect to the Virtual Machine with your tablet or your phone, you would need to install the certificate on the device also. You can scan the QR code on the landing page on your device, to navigate to the landing page and download the certificate and the app for your device (link is at the bottom of the landing page).

Access NAV 2017 using the Web Client

On the landing page, in the section with Accessing NAV 2017 using Office 365 authentication, you will find a link to Access Web Client:

You will be redirected to the sign-in page. Enter your Office 365 credentials and press Sign in:

The first time you login, you will be asked to give permissions to sign you into the NAV Web Client with your credentials:

And after that you will open the Web Client:

Add NAV 2017 to the Waffle Menu

If you want to have NAV 2017 in your Waffle Menu in Office 365, click the “Waffle” Menu in NAV 2017, which will navigate to your apps. Click the … menu next to your NAV 2017 app and say Pin to App Launcher:

Create a PowerBI dashboard with data from NAV

Navigate to https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/ and sign in with your Office 365 username and password:

and press Start:

In PowerBI, under Content Pack Library, Services, click Get:

Search for the NAV Content pack and press GET:

Now, for the PowerBI content pack, you will need the OData URL. Open your landing page and click the Get OData Feed Url:

Copy the Feed Url from the dialog and close it:

and in the setup dialog of the PowerBI, you need to paste the URL. Select authentication method Basic and put in your username and password for your admin user. Note: this is NOT your Office 365 username and password, it is the username and password for your NAV user. You can also create a Web Services key in the users dialog in NAV and use that instead of the password.

NOTE: if you are using the UNSECURE endpoint, your username and password will be sent over the wire in clear text and you should never do that with your production system:

After a short while, you will have a PowerBI dashboard based on NAV 2017 Data:

Embedding PowerBI

Now where you have PowerBI, you want to setup embedded PowerBI in NAV 2017. Start your Web Client like described in the section about starting the Web Client. In the Role Center, Click Actions and select Assisted Setup & Tasks.

In the list of Assisted Setup, select Setup Azure Active Directory and go through the Wizard. All values should be pre-populated.

On the Role Center, locate the Power BI Reports at the bottom and click Get Started with Power BI.

Now, click the Power BI Reports selection and you will see a window with your Power BI Reports. The Reports are by default not enabled.

Click the Home menu, Select Edit List

Enable the Report and press OK

And you will now have an embedded PowerBI report on your Role Center

Configure the Outlook/Office Add-in

Start your Web Client like described in the section about starting the Web Client. In the Role Center, Click Actions and select Assisted Setup & Tasks.

Select Set up Outlook for Financials to start the setup wizard:

Go through the wizard, select your mail (or your organization) and type in your Office 365 username and password:
 

Now navigate to Outlook in Office 365 and send and email to yourself to test the NAV 2017 Add-in.

When you click Dynamics NAV the first time, it will ask you to login to NAV 2017 using your Office 365 username and password:

Setup Email

Setting up E-mail from NAV 2017 is really easy. Start your Web Client like described in the section about starting the Web Client. In the Role Center, Click Actions and select Assisted Setup & Tasks.

In the Assisted Setup list, Select Setup Email. This will guide you through a very easy 4-step wizard, which sets up the E-Mail connection. On Step 3, it is recommended that you click Send Test Mail to check your setup.
 

Setup Email Logging

Setting up E-mail Logging from NAV 2017 is really easy. Start your Web Client like described in the section about starting the Web Client. In the Role Center, Click Actions and select Assisted Setup & Tasks.

In the Assisted Setup list, Select Setup Email Logging. This will guide you through an easy 3 step wizard, which sets up Email logging.

Do you want to Edit In Excel

Good news: Everything has already been setup for you. Start your Web Client like described in the section about starting the Web Client. In the Navigation pane on the Role Center, click Customers and select Edit In Excel in the ribbon.

Now the devil is always in the detail. You might run into issues if Excel is installed with a different Office 365 account. I had to install Excel on a different machine, using the Office 365 credentials used to setup NAV 2017, which was pretty annoying. When Excel opens, you will have to enable editing:

and then sign in to the Excel Add-in:

Like with embedded PowerBI, you will have to sign in and give permissions to the Excel Add-in:
 

and then you can edit your customers in Excel:

Create your PowerApps

So, you want to create PowerApps… – wait no more. Navigate to https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/ and sign in with your Office 365 account:

and start your free trial:

Wait a few minutes…

And now you are ready. Start by adding a New Connection (top right hand corner):

In the new connections dialog, add your UNSECURE OData endpoint. On the landing page you can right click the View UNSECURE OData Web Services and copy the link address to the clipboard.

As the Username and password you use your NAV admin username and the password (NOT your Office 365 credentials). Company name is the Company name from NAV, if you are using W1, the company name is CRONUS International Ltd.

Having created your Connection, it is time to create your first PowerApp. Press New app and select to use PowerApps Studio for web:

In the create an app window, press the white right arrow and locate your data/connection:

Select your connection and your dataset:

and select the Customer table:

and wait…

Voila, your first PowerApp is ready. Press the Play button in the top right corner:

and… here you are – your first PowerApp:

Create a Flow

Flows lives in the same area as PowerApps. In order to create a Flow, you need to have a Connection created and you can find information how to do this in the previous section about PowerApps. Click Flows:

Create a new Flow and select the Template: Dynamics NAV: When a record is created.

Select the Customer table

As the next step, select the send email step:

Specify the reciever of the email and a text. In the text you can embed fields from the connection:

Your new flow is running…

and after creating a customer in NAV 2017, I got this email:

If this was a session with an audience, I would ask: Does anybody knows why the customer name is empty? and if the audience had been working with NAV for more than just a short time, they would all answer: Because the created trigger is invoked when the record is created, not when you have filled out the fields and pressed OK on the customer card. It might have been a better demo to hook on to the customer modified event in Flow.

Access NAV 2017 via a SharePoint Portal

On the landing page, click the link called Access SharePoint Site.

and you will be taken to a SharePoint Portal that looks like this:

In the waffle menu, you will find links to your Apps (PowerApps and Flow are still being setup?)

And in the Web Client you will find a button in the top right corner, which also will take you to your SharePoint portal:

View a world map of your customers

On the landing page, click the link called Show Customer Map.

The browser might ask for permission to use your physical location and then show a customer map centered in your current location.

When you zoom out, you will see all customers and when you hover over a customer, you will get a link for navigating to the customer in the Web Client.

Connect your Phone or Tablet to NAV 2017

In the top left corner of your landing page, you will see a QR code, with the device you want to use, scan that barcode:

Your device will now navigate to your landing page. At the bottom of the landing page, you will find links to download the NAV 2017 app for your device:

Before you open your app and connect to your NAV 2017, you will need to install the self-signed certificate on your device as well. At the top of the landing page, you will find a description on how to do and a link to download the self-signed certificate.

Last, but not least, the easiest way to configure the app on your device to your instance of NAV 2017 is to click the Configure App link on the landing page. It should autoconfigure the app to the URL for NAV 2017.

Note: there are two configure App links. One with Office 365 authentication and one with username/password authentication.

Access NAV 2017 using the Windows Client

The Windows Client is available for ClickOnce deployment on the NAV 2017 environment. On the landing page, click the Install Windows Client link under Office 365 authentication (or under username/password authentication). The system will open a page, on which you need to accept the license terms and press install now.

The Windows Client will now be installed on your PC using ClickOnce. Read more here.
 

When the installation is done, you will be asked to authentication and you will now be running the Windows Client locally against a NAV Service Tier on Azure.

Connect to your Virtual Machine

If you need to connect to your Virtual Machine, then you will find a link to a Remote Desktop connection to your Virtual Machine (server1) on the landing page. Click that and login with your Virtual Machine Administrator username and password.

BTW – if you ever succeeded in setting up all of this without the Gallery image, please write in the comments how much time it took, from start to finish… (or maybe how much time it took to get some of the way:-)) – we can multiply this with a lot of people – to see how much time people actually save by using the NAV 2017 image on Azure.

Enjoy

Freddy Kristiansen
Technical Evangelist

If you encounter a product bug when working with Power BI Desktop, leverage the “Send a Frown” capability to provide Microsoft with the bug details and receive direct feedback from the Power BI product team with information about your problem. This amazing feedback mechanism has now helped me identify and get fixed 10 different product bugs I’ve encountered over the past year.

1. Hit an issue in Power BI Desktop
2. Click “Send a Frown” to send details to Microsoft
3. Receive an update on the bug from the product team

Occasionally when working in Power BI Desktop, you’ll encounter a product bug. In other products, we often get a stack dump or an error message, but no easy way to submit the information to the product team for assessment. This has all changed in Power BI Desktop.

With Power BI Desktop, if you encounter an issue, you’ll see an error message similar to the following dialog box.

When you see this dialog box, you can click on “Copy Details” and paste the message contents into a text editor to view the contents of the error message, including the error message, stack trace, machine version details, Power BI properties/visuals/features, etc. By inspecting this information, you may be able to determine yourself why the error was encountered. I used this trick to help identify an issue with FIPS that one of my customers was hitting a few weeks ago.

At this point, you can easily share your error details with the Power BI Desktop development team by clicking on the “Send a Frown” button. Clicking the button prompts you with an option to select which data to send to Microsoft to allow the option to remove any data you wish to not share.

After making your selection and clicking “OK”, an email will be created containing the details of the error message, allowing you to add any additional notes or remove any contents if needed.

After the message is received by the product team, you will receive an email reply with acknowledgement and a quick assessment either letting you know the problem is a known issue or requesting additional information to help troubleshoot. In my experience, the reply time is between 24-48 hours. With several of my bugs encountered, I have continued the conversation with the Power BI team to provide additional information and receive updates from them as the bug status changes. In one particular case, I included a video showing the steps to repro the bug and received a reply stating that my video had been added to the bug notes to help the appropriate developer debug the issue.

As a user of the product, this experience and direct communication from the Power BI Desktop product team is amazing and is so beneficial for tracking issues. If you haven’t been using this feature, it is time to start. If you leverage this feature and have any experience to share, please leave a comment below.

Thanks,
Sam Lester (MSFT)

During setup of Docker on my laptop, i faced this issue. I tried a few things suggested on the web but could not find out one source of truth to resolve this issue. I am writing this blog so that .

Error: Below is the exact error message that we get in Docker QuickStart Terminal when launched first time.

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine default.                                                                    

Failed to open/create the internal network 'HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #2' (VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND).

Failed to attach the network LUN (VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

A unique key to search about this error on web would be “VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND“. The adapter number given in the above error message may differ for different people depending on number of installation/un-installation they have tried. Anyway, the main question still is “Why do we get this error?”

This error message shows up in Docker QuickStart Terminal after installation. We can see the same error “VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND” in Oracle Virtual Box as well. Launch Oracle VirtualBox and try to start Default VM, you will see the same error there.

Reason:

The reason for this error is that we overlook the fourth option in this given window while installing Docker Tool Box. And because of this, VirtualBox Bridged Networking Driver goes unchecked or sometimes checked but remain uneffective[Potential Bug].

.

Solution:

1. First solution is to uninstall and reinstall Docker Tool Box with shown checkbox as checked.
2. Second solution I have not tried myself but i have heard worked for many people.
   • Open Internet Connections.
   • Select Properties of the connection VirtualBox Host-Only Network #2 [Number can vary]
   • Uncheck and check the checkbox against shown highlighted.
   • Disable and enable the network connection.

I hope this helps. Please don’t forget to write feedback.

Thanks

Gaurav

Update: Saturday, 19 November 2016 20:34 UTC

Our DevOps team continues to investigate issues in South Central Region for Visual Studio Team Services . Root cause is not fully understood at this time. Some customers continue to experience connectivity issues ins South Central Region. We are working to establish the start time for the issue, initial findings indicate that the problem began at 19 Nov 2016  17:30 UTC. We currently have no estimated time for resolution.

• Next Update: Before 21:30 UTC

Sincerely,
Bapayya

It is part of my DNA, that no matter how easy things have become, it can always become easier.

In this post, I have stated, that the easiest way to create a NAV 2017 environment on Azure is using http://aka.ms/navdemodeploy. But what if you want to create the same environment again and again or you need to create an environment in 5 different languages?

Then there is a lot of typing in names, and passwords and a lot of things that can go wrong.

Can’t we automate that part as well?

Of course we can, and the answer is PowerShell.

In the new Azure PowerShell CmdLets there are a set of CmdLets for handling Azure Resource Manager deployments. The following code will produce demo environments with 5 different country versions of NAV:

$VerbosePreference = "Continue"
$ErrorActionPreference = "stop"
Import-Module -Name "AzureRM.Resources"

# Login to your Azure Subscription
Login-AzureRmAccount

# Select subscription
$mysubscriptionID = "<my subscription id>"
Set-AzureRmContext -SubscriptionID $mysubscriptionID

# ARM template
$templateUri = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NAVDEMO/NAV2017/master/deploydemo.json""W1", "DK", "GB", "NA", "DE" | % {
  # Setup parameter array for ARM template
  $country = $_
  $name = "mynav2017$coutry"
  $Parameters = New-Object -TypeName Hashtable
  $Parameters.Add("vmName", $name)
  $Parameters.Add("adminPassword", (ConvertTo-SecureString -String "<my password>" -AsPlainText -Force))
  $Parameters.Add("country", $country)
  $Parameters.Add("clickonce", "Yes")
  $Parameters.Add("powerBI", "Yes")
  $Parameters.Add("bingMapsKey", "<my BingMaps key>")
  $Parameters.Add("Office365UserName", "<my Office 365 admin email>")
  $Parameters.Add("Office365Password", (ConvertTo-SecureString -String "<my Office 365 admin password>" -AsPlainText -Force))
  $Parameters.Add("Office365CreatePortal", "Yes")

  # GO!
  $location = "West Europe"
  $resourceGroup = New-AzureRmResourceGroup -Name $name -Location $location
  $resourceGroup | Test-AzureRmResourceGroupDeployment -TemplateUri $templateUri -TemplateParameterObject $Parameters
  $resourceGroup | New-AzureRmResourceGroupDeployment -TemplateUri $templateUri -TemplateParameterObject $Parameters -Name $name
}

and the following code will remove all 5 environments again:

"W1", "DK", "GB", "NA", "DE" | % {
  # Setup parameter array for ARM template
  $country = $_
  $name = "mynav2017$coutry"
  Remove-AzureRmResourceGroup -Name $name -Force
}

It might not be much faster, but it is a whole lot easier.

Enjoy

Freddy Kristiansen
Technical Evangelist

You might be wondering what actually is happening when you navigate to http://aka.ms/navdemodeploy, so I thought I would lift the hood and show you what is underneath.

Short URL

As you probably know, the aka.ms Short URL’s are just simple redirects and the navdemodeploy is redirecting to:

https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.Template/uri/https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2FNAVDEMO%2FNAV2017%2Fmaster%2Fdeploydemo.json

Looking a little closer, this is actually just asking the Azure Portal to create a deployment based on the Microsoft Template on this Uri:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NAVDEMO/NAV2017/master/deploydemo.json

If you read the blog post about PowerShell from yesterday (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/freddyk/2016/11/19/httpaka-msnavdemodeploy-using-powershell/), you will recognize this as the very same URL as we used as the TemplateUri. This means that launching the Azure Portal and fill out the parameters manually will cause exactly the same deployment as we do with PowerShell and everything below still counts.

Clicking the link, will show you the template definition, which as the extension reveals is just a json file.

You might even notice that the URL smells like github and yes, indeed, on github, under the NAVDEMO organization, there is a repository called NAV2017 and a branch called master:

https://github.com/NAVDEMO/NAV2017

Open Source, No Secrets.

Currently, this branch has only one contributor (me), but I welcome other people to contribute if they would like to make our Azure Deployment better.

What is JSON?

If you don’t speak json, it is about time.

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation and was invented by a guy called Douglas Crockford (Pretty fun guy, read his blog).

You can open http://json.org to understand the syntax or http://json.org/example.html to see some examples and there are a million web sites explaining the difference between json and XML.

I think the biggest difference is, that json is more lightweight and easier human readable/writeable (having said that, I don’t think any of them are easy.

JSON is not just JSON

Like XML, JSON consists of a hierarchy of objects and arrays.  In order for the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Deployment system, the JSON file of course have to adhere to a certain schema, which is described in the beginning of the JSON file.

This schema dictates what needs to be there and how the relationships between things are.

I am not going to make a tutorial on how to build templates for ARM, there are a log of info already out there, which can help:

• Good Starting point: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/resource-manager-template-best-practices
• A number of quickstart templates (samples): https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/templates/
• Nice description about the basics: https://govindkanshi.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/azure-arm-a-journey-to-understand-basics/
• 11 post series about ARM: http://www.ravichaganti.com/blog/building-azure-resource-manager-templates-an-introduction/

It is not easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard

JSON is just a text file and you can of course edit it in notepad, but I wouldn’t recommend that. There are so many tools out there that understands JSON and can help, but only a few that actually understands the ARM template schema.I use Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio 2015.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code natively supports JSON editing and can help you create JSON which is formattet correctly. Moreover, you can install a few extensions for VS Code, which understands the ARM Template Schema:

• armsnippet (from Art of Shell) will give you a number of json snippets to choose between.
• Azure Resource Manager Tools (from Microsoft) will give you warnings if you have unused or unknown variables/parameters and a lot of other good stuff.
  

Visual Studio 2015

Probably the best tool for ARM template editing. Visual Studio has a project template for Azure Resource Group, which will give you all the tools, snippets, expand/collapse etc. – everything you need for editing ARM templates.

Inside the deploydemo.json

Lets look a little closer at the deploydemo.json file. I have collapsed the variables, the resources and the outputs and this lists the parameters. These parameters are the same as you see when you launch the deployment. I have expanded a few of the parameters to give an indication of how the parameters are defined:

{"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json","contentVersion": "1.0.0.0","parameters": {"vmName": ...,"vmAdminUsername": ...,"navAdminUsername": ...,
    "adminPassword": {"type": "securestring","metadata": {"Description": "Specify Administrator Password (for VM and NAV)"
      }
    },"country": ...,"CertificatePfxUrl": ...,"CertificatePfxPassword": ...,"PublicMachineName": ...,"bingMapsKey": ...,
    "clickonce": {"type": "string","defaultValue": "No","allowedValues": [ "Yes", "No" ],"metadata": {"Description": "Install Clickonce Support?"
      }
    },"powerBI": ...,"Office365UserName": ...,"Office365Password": ...,"Office365CreatePortal": ...,
  },"variables": ...,"resources": ...,"outputs": ...
}

Under variables, you will find a list of variables needed for the deployment. Stuff like the StorageAccountName is calculated here based on the name you have specified. The VM Size is hardcoded to be a D2 and the name of virtual networks, security groups etc. are all hardcoded here.

Under resources, you will find all the resources, which will be deployed by the template:

1. StorageAccount for usage by the Virtual Machine
2. Public IP address with a DNS Name
3. Network Security Group with all the necessary endpoints (80, 443, 7046, 7047, 7048, 49000)
4. Virtual Network for the Virtual Machine
5. Network interface for the Virtual Machine
6. Virtual Machine based on the NAV Public Image with diagnostics and perf. counters
7. Virtual Machine PowerShell extension for running the demo scripts on the Virtual Machine.

and under outputs, you will find outputting the url of the landing page.

If we remove resource #7 – then you will basically just deploy the NAV Image on Azure and open the necessary ports.

Microsoft.Compute.CustomScriptExtension

If you navigate to the last resource, you will find the CustomScriptExtension (the PowerShell extension). This extension depends on the Virtual Machine, meaning that it won’t start until the Virtual Machine is complete. The Virtual Machine depends on some of the other artefacts, which basically means that the script will be executed when everything else is done.

{"apiVersion": "2015-06-15","type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions","name": "[concat(variables('server1Name'),'/vmextension1')]","location": "[resourceGroup().location]","tags": {"displayName": "PowerShellScript2"
  },"dependsOn": ["[concat('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/', variables('server1Name'))]"
  ],"properties": {"publisher": "Microsoft.Compute","type": "CustomScriptExtension","typeHandlerVersion": "1.4","autoUpgradeMinorVersion": true,"settings": {"fileUris": ["[concat(variables('ScriptFilePath'), 'initialize.ps1')]"
      ],"commandToExecute": "[concat(variables('ScriptCommandToExecute'),'initialize.ps1',' -PatchPath "',variables('ScriptFilePath'),'" -StorageAccountName "...
    },"protectedSettings": {
    }
  }
}

The script to execute is called initialize.ps1 and it is downloaded from the ScriptFilePath (which is the same folder as the .json file).

You can see the script here: https://github.com/NAVDEMO/NAV2017/blob/master/initialize.ps1

The script

The script will be downloaded to C:PackagesPluginsMicrosoft.Compute.CustomScriptExtension1.8Downloadsinitialize.ps1 and executed from this location with PowerShell. All goodness you think, so why does the script seem so complicated???

Well, there are a few issues.

• The script is running as a SYSTEM user and when it is running.
• The vmadmin user has not been created at the time, when the script is running.
• The script requires a reboot (after installing the new Azure PowerShell CmdLets), we need to find a good way to continue installation after the reboot.

So basically what happens in the script today is, that it will create some scripts and a Task in the Task Scheduler for running these scripts as “NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM”. Then it will reboot and launch the first of these scripts. This script will create a new Task in the Task Scheduler (running as the VM Admin which has been created) and reboot again. Now the remaining installation scripts will be performed and the system will be setup.

Part of the script will also patch some of the demo scripts with newer versions, which supports the embedded PowerBI AAD App and the Edit in Excel AAD App. All of this will go away with CU1 (also the double reboot thing).

Sorry about the complexity, it will be a little simpler in CU1, but still, the job of the initialize script is to do what it takes to make things work, so it is just doing its job – don’t blame it for that…

Contributions welcome

If you have good ideas to what we can add to the NAV Image on Azure – new scripts, other integration areas, new innovations, then please clone the github project, try it out and send a pull request. Just remember, that the NAV Image on Azure supports all 20 country versions and your idea needs to do the same.

Thanks

Enjoy

Freddy Kristiansen
Technical Evangelist