Tag Archives: microsoft
Populating Calendar from an array
I would like to create a monthly calendar view showing milestones for projects based on an array of dates. Can someone suggest the code needed for some pre-fab calendar that will make this simple? Sample data for the calendar would be similar to what is below.
Task 1Task 2Task 3Project A8/1/248/15/248/30/24Project B8/2/248/15/248/29/24Project C8/3/248/16/248/30/24
Output on the calendar would be the Project Name next to the Task name.
I would like to create a monthly calendar view showing milestones for projects based on an array of dates. Can someone suggest the code needed for some pre-fab calendar that will make this simple? Sample data for the calendar would be similar to what is below. Task 1Task 2Task 3Project A8/1/248/15/248/30/24Project B8/2/248/15/248/29/24Project C8/3/248/16/248/30/24 Output on the calendar would be the Project Name next to the Task name. Read More
MS Bookings ignoring existing appointments / calendar availability
I’ve been trying to resolve this issue for one of our Student Support departments all day and can’t seem to find a solution.
At first, their booking calendar was ignoring the existing calendar appointments of all staff members except one. So, we took the following trouble-shooting steps:
Unchecked the ‘Always show time slots in business time zone’ box on in the ‘Bookings Page’ options, as I understand it’s buggy.Had each member of staff select ‘Can view when I’m busy’ from their sharing permissions for ‘People in my organisation’.Ensured all staff members have the same settings in MS Bookings, including the ‘Events of Office calendar affect availability.’
Following this, when inspecting the staff overview in MS Bookings, I was able to see all appointments as ‘busy’ in the MS Bookings Calendar area, however two staff remain bookable from the booking page when they have existing calendar entries in place. There is no discernable reason for this.
Is there something we’re missing? We have to open appointments for learners for the next Academic session, but two members of staff would have their annual leave and lunch breaks and any other appointments within the college ignored.
I’ve been trying to resolve this issue for one of our Student Support departments all day and can’t seem to find a solution. At first, their booking calendar was ignoring the existing calendar appointments of all staff members except one. So, we took the following trouble-shooting steps:Unchecked the ‘Always show time slots in business time zone’ box on in the ‘Bookings Page’ options, as I understand it’s buggy.Had each member of staff select ‘Can view when I’m busy’ from their sharing permissions for ‘People in my organisation’.Ensured all staff members have the same settings in MS Bookings, including the ‘Events of Office calendar affect availability.’Following this, when inspecting the staff overview in MS Bookings, I was able to see all appointments as ‘busy’ in the MS Bookings Calendar area, however two staff remain bookable from the booking page when they have existing calendar entries in place. There is no discernable reason for this. Is there something we’re missing? We have to open appointments for learners for the next Academic session, but two members of staff would have their annual leave and lunch breaks and any other appointments within the college ignored. Read More
Invoke-command Access denied on Windows 11 but works with Windows 10
I’m trying to connect to a remote computer using Invoke-Command while running an elevated Powershell ise. I recently upgraded to Windows 11 and my scripts no longer work and are giving me an Access is denied error. Here is a test script I’ve been using to try and resolve the issue.
$Creds = Import-CliXml -Path “C:InstallPowerCredsCred.xml”
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Computer -Credential $Creds -ScriptBlock {
Test-Path “\networkFileLocation”
This is working just fine on my secondary computer with Windows 10. I cloned my Windows 10 computer to a new computer to test Windows 11 in our environment. I’ve checked all the execution policies and they are set the same as my Windows 10 computer. Trust for Delegation Kerbos Only is turned on for all computers, this was required for Windows 10 to get over the Double-Hop. Does anyone know if there is a setting that is new with Windows 11 that needs to be changed
I’m trying to connect to a remote computer using Invoke-Command while running an elevated Powershell ise. I recently upgraded to Windows 11 and my scripts no longer work and are giving me an Access is denied error. Here is a test script I’ve been using to try and resolve the issue.$Creds = Import-CliXml -Path “C:InstallPowerCredsCred.xml”Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Computer -Credential $Creds -ScriptBlock {Test-Path “\networkFileLocation”This is working just fine on my secondary computer with Windows 10. I cloned my Windows 10 computer to a new computer to test Windows 11 in our environment. I’ve checked all the execution policies and they are set the same as my Windows 10 computer. Trust for Delegation Kerbos Only is turned on for all computers, this was required for Windows 10 to get over the Double-Hop. Does anyone know if there is a setting that is new with Windows 11 that needs to be changed Read More
Determine training compliance with IF/IFS function(s)
Hi, I wonder if someone can help with the following:
I’m trying to determine mandatory training compliance for the first quarter of 24/25 and an excerpt of my massive spreadsheet looks like the below:
Training LevelLatest eLearningLatest Level 1Refresh by:Latest Level 2Refresh by:Latest Level 3Refresh by:Compliance112/09/2023 231/05/202319/01/202119/01/2024 308/12/2020 19/01/202119/01/2024 409/01/2024 21/02/202221/02/2025
We have got four different levels of training, and each employee is allocated to a level according to their role. The spreadsheet references their level of training, the latest date that they attended their relevant session and when they are due to refresh their training (except eLearning which is not refreshed).
I need to work out a formula for the ‘compliance’ column to show whether the employee is currently compliant or not. So what I am trying to test is: if the employee is level x and they are due to refresh their training on date y are they compliant on 01/07/2024? For the staff who are designated eLearning only, the formula only needs to take into consideration whether there is a date in the relevant column earlier than 01/07/2024.
I have tried variations of the IF/IFS formula including AND and OR functions and various IF formulas nested into each other, but I can’t seem to be able to write a formula that will differentiate between ‘compliant’ and ‘not compliant’ answers. I keep getting one or the other!
Any suggestions will be very much appreciated, thank you!
Anastasia
Hi, I wonder if someone can help with the following: I’m trying to determine mandatory training compliance for the first quarter of 24/25 and an excerpt of my massive spreadsheet looks like the below:Training LevelLatest eLearningLatest Level 1Refresh by:Latest Level 2Refresh by:Latest Level 3Refresh by:Compliance112/09/2023 231/05/202319/01/202119/01/2024 308/12/2020 19/01/202119/01/2024 409/01/2024 21/02/202221/02/2025 We have got four different levels of training, and each employee is allocated to a level according to their role. The spreadsheet references their level of training, the latest date that they attended their relevant session and when they are due to refresh their training (except eLearning which is not refreshed).I need to work out a formula for the ‘compliance’ column to show whether the employee is currently compliant or not. So what I am trying to test is: if the employee is level x and they are due to refresh their training on date y are they compliant on 01/07/2024? For the staff who are designated eLearning only, the formula only needs to take into consideration whether there is a date in the relevant column earlier than 01/07/2024. I have tried variations of the IF/IFS formula including AND and OR functions and various IF formulas nested into each other, but I can’t seem to be able to write a formula that will differentiate between ‘compliant’ and ‘not compliant’ answers. I keep getting one or the other! Any suggestions will be very much appreciated, thank you! Anastasia Read More
HTTP request to get list items while including image thumbnail links
Hi all,
In Power Automate, if you use the “Get files (properties only)” SharePoint action, the JSON response will include multiple thumbnail URLs (small, medium, large) for each file in the following format:
https://eastus1-mediap.svc.ms/transform/thumbnail?provider=spo&inputFormat=jpg&cs=N2FiNzg2MmMtNDIzFNQ&docid=https%3a%2f%2fmytenant.sharepoint.com%3a443%2f_api%2fv2.0%2fdrives%2fb!XwWFqzfnlvrVjzA9Fk%2fitems%2f01UCDPGRBBQ%3fversion%3dPublished&access_token={long-token-edited-out}&width=800&height=800
If possible, I’d like to be able to select one of those URLs while doing an API call like this:
/_api/Web/Lists/GetByTitle(‘big_document_library’)/Items?$select=ID,FileLeafRef,{something-to-get-thumbnail?}&$top=5000
Does anyone know if this is possible or what would be the best way to get both items and their corresponding thumbnails in bulk? If possible, I’d like to avoid making separate API requests just to get the thumbnails. Thanks!
Hi all, In Power Automate, if you use the “Get files (properties only)” SharePoint action, the JSON response will include multiple thumbnail URLs (small, medium, large) for each file in the following format: https://eastus1-mediap.svc.ms/transform/thumbnail?provider=spo&inputFormat=jpg&cs=N2FiNzg2MmMtNDIzFNQ&docid=https%3a%2f%2fmytenant.sharepoint.com%3a443%2f_api%2fv2.0%2fdrives%2fb!XwWFqzfnlvrVjzA9Fk%2fitems%2f01UCDPGRBBQ%3fversion%3dPublished&access_token={long-token-edited-out}&width=800&height=800 If possible, I’d like to be able to select one of those URLs while doing an API call like this: /_api/Web/Lists/GetByTitle(‘big_document_library’)/Items?$select=ID,FileLeafRef,{something-to-get-thumbnail?}&$top=5000 Does anyone know if this is possible or what would be the best way to get both items and their corresponding thumbnails in bulk? If possible, I’d like to avoid making separate API requests just to get the thumbnails. Thanks! Read More
Quick-Books Open But Not Showing – How Do I Retrieve It?
Hi everyone, I’m encountering an issue with Quick-Books where it seems to be running in the background but isn’t displaying on my screen. When I check Task Manager, it shows that Quick-Books is indeed running. I’ve tried clicking on the icon in the taskbar, but nothing happens. Restarting my computer didn’t resolve the issue either. Does anyone know how I can retrieve the Quick-Books window or force it to appear on my screen? Thanks in advance for your help!
Hi everyone, I’m encountering an issue with Quick-Books where it seems to be running in the background but isn’t displaying on my screen. When I check Task Manager, it shows that Quick-Books is indeed running. I’ve tried clicking on the icon in the taskbar, but nothing happens. Restarting my computer didn’t resolve the issue either. Does anyone know how I can retrieve the Quick-Books window or force it to appear on my screen? Thanks in advance for your help! Read More
Inserting an image (QR Code in form of URL or image within cell) from table into Mail Merge
I’ve seen topics similar to this but I can’t find an exact answer or an answer that has worked for me so far. Basically, I have a table that includes a distinct QR code in a column that I want to add into a mail merge. The QR code can be accessed as a URL or it’s a picture in a cell itself (I have both columns because I don’t know which one is more easily mail merged). I can’t figure out how to set up the mail merge field to pull up the image, I either end up with just the URL text or !VALUE. Thanks!
I’ve seen topics similar to this but I can’t find an exact answer or an answer that has worked for me so far. Basically, I have a table that includes a distinct QR code in a column that I want to add into a mail merge. The QR code can be accessed as a URL or it’s a picture in a cell itself (I have both columns because I don’t know which one is more easily mail merged). I can’t figure out how to set up the mail merge field to pull up the image, I either end up with just the URL text or !VALUE. Thanks! Read More
Announcing Public Preview of Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC for Exchange Online
We are thrilled to announce the Public Preview of Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC, a new capability of Exchange Online that enhances the security of email communications by supporting two security standards: DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) for SMTP and Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC).
The Public Preview for Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC is currently rolling out. Instructions for implementing it in your tenant are at How SMTP DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) secures email communications. PowerShell cmdlets for implementing SMTP DANE are also available in your tenant.
SMTP DANE and DNSSEC
SMTP DANE uses a TLS Authentication (TLSA) DNS record to verify the identity of a destination mail server and provides a secure connection between sending and receiving mail servers that is resistant to both TLS-downgrade attacks and adversary-in-the-middle attacks (a form of eavesdropping where the communication is monitored or modified by a bad actor).
DNSSEC uses cryptographic signatures to ensure that the destination domain’s DNS records are authentic and were not tampered with in transit.
These two standards work together to prevent spoofing, hijacking, and interception of email messages.
Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC benefits
By using SMTP DANE with DNSSEC, you can:
Better protect your email domain(s) from impersonation;
Help ensure your messages are delivered to the intended recipients using encryption and without being altered or redirected; and
Enhance your email reputation by demonstrating compliance with the latest security standards.
Improving Email Security
We released Outbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC in 2022, and we’re excited to begin the Public Preview for Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC. We are including Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC in our enterprise and consumer email offerings at no charge as part of our efforts to improve email security for everyone. We urge other email providers and domain owners to adopt these standards and collectively raise the bar for email security and protect users from malicious actors.
We have already implemented inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC for several Outlook email domains, and we will complete the implementation for remaining Outlook domains (including Hotmail) by the end of 2024.
We are eager to see the impact of this feature on the email security landscape and we look forward to continuing to innovate and deliver an email offering with industry-leading security like SMTP DANE with DNSSEC.
Opt-in to the Public Preview Today
You can opt into the Public Preview today and start using inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC by following the enablement steps in this documentation. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for improving this feature, as well.
Email Security Roadmap
Our target dates for upcoming roadmap items are:
August 2024 – Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC and MTA-STS report in the Exchange admin center
October 2024 – General Availability of Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC
End of 2024
Deploying Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC for all Outlook domains
Transition provisioning of mail records for all newly created Accepted Domains into DNSSEC-enabled infrastructure underneath *.mx.microsoft
February 2025 – Mandatory Outbound SMTP DANE, set per-tenant/per-remote domain
Learn more about the provisioning change at Implementing Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC for Exchange Online Mail Flow.
Learn more about .microsoft and its subdomains at Introducing cloud.microsoft: a unified domain for Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Feedback
We welcome your feedback and want to hear from you about your experience with Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC. Please comment on this post if you have any feedback or concerns and we will reply or reach out to you directly as needed.
Microsoft 365 Messaging Team (formerly the Exchange Online Transport Team)
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Quic~kB00ks Unrecoverable Error When Opening Company File
Hi everyone,
I’m encountering a frustrating issue with Quic~kB00ks. Every time I try to open my company file, I receive an “Unrecoverable Error” message. The error codes vary, but it’s making it impossible for me to access my data. I’ve tried restarting my computer and running Quic~kB00ks as an administrator, but nothing seems to work. Has anyone else experienced this issue? What steps can I take to resolve it?
Hi everyone,I’m encountering a frustrating issue with Quic~kB00ks. Every time I try to open my company file, I receive an “Unrecoverable Error” message. The error codes vary, but it’s making it impossible for me to access my data. I’ve tried restarting my computer and running Quic~kB00ks as an administrator, but nothing seems to work. Has anyone else experienced this issue? What steps can I take to resolve it? Read More
Quick~B00ks Automatic Backup Not Working – Help Needed!
Hi everyone,
I’m having an issue with Quick~B00ks where the automatic backup feature isn’t working. I’ve set it up to back up my company files daily, but it seems like it’s not creating any backups at all. I’ve double-checked the settings, and everything seems correct.
Has anyone else encountered this problem? What steps did you take to resolve it? I really need to ensure my data is backed up regularly. Any advice or solutions would be greatly appreciated!
Hi everyone,I’m having an issue with Quick~B00ks where the automatic backup feature isn’t working. I’ve set it up to back up my company files daily, but it seems like it’s not creating any backups at all. I’ve double-checked the settings, and everything seems correct.Has anyone else encountered this problem? What steps did you take to resolve it? I really need to ensure my data is backed up regularly. Any advice or solutions would be greatly appreciated! Read More
Outlook Add-On: Measurably improving meeting effectiveness
Hi everyone,
We have built an add-on that syncs all Outlook calendar data from your organization and turns it into individual & organizational recommendations based on best practices for running effective meetings.
We have two clients and great feedback so far, being able to save 15+ hours/meetings in the first week, reducing average meeting length across the org by 8 min and more.
Looking for more early adopters that are fed up with ineffective meetings.
If this is you, feel free to book time with me directly here or be part of our benchmarking report.
Dm for more info. Appreciate being able to tap into this expert + user network!!
Hi everyone,We have built an add-on that syncs all Outlook calendar data from your organization and turns it into individual & organizational recommendations based on best practices for running effective meetings. We have two clients and great feedback so far, being able to save 15+ hours/meetings in the first week, reducing average meeting length across the org by 8 min and more. Looking for more early adopters that are fed up with ineffective meetings. If this is you, feel free to book time with me directly here or be part of our benchmarking report. Dm for more info. Appreciate being able to tap into this expert + user network!! Read More
Referencing sheets based on a drop-down option
Hi there guys! Hopefully this question isn’t super complicated, but I am trying to make things simple for my co-workers. We’re making a project hours tracker using excel since our team is too small to need an online project management service. Here’s the gist of what I want to do…
In one workbook, each employee has identical worksheet templates which can be filled in as needed with tasks done during the month. Let’s say we have 3 employees on the team. That means, our workbook contains 3 separate worksheets which act as individual logs for each employee. The name of each worksheet is the name of the employee (‘Employee Name’). In their respective worksheets, employees are to log a work entry by filling in three columns per entry: the project name (drop-down selection), a description of the task, and then the numbers of hours spent on that task.
Also in the workbook, there is a fourth worksheet which is for our supervisor. I would like for him, from a drop down, to select the employee’s name he wishes to make an hours report on. So, when he selects the name…maybe we can say John Smith is the employee…the worksheet essentially fills out a report with the projects John Smith worked on and the total hours for each, then creates a pie chart showing percentages.
Most of the functionality of this idea is working pretty well, but for the tallying of hours in the final report, I’m having trouble getting functions to reference the appropriate worksheet. To tally hours, I’m using a SUMIF formula that looks like this:
=SUMIF(‘Employee Name’!A:A,’Hours Report’!A3,’Employee Name’!D:D)
‘Employee Name’!A:A references the full column of project names in the employee log. ‘Hours Report’!A3 references the cell with the project name being tallied in the final report. ‘Employee Name’!D:D references the column of hours logged by the employee.
The worksheet reference name (‘Employee Name’) needs to be changed based on what employee the final report is about, so it can address the appropriate log to sum hours from. I haven’t a clue how to do thus, and tried things like ADDRESS, VLOOKUP, and others without much luck. Any suggestions, thoughts, or solutions?
Hi there guys! Hopefully this question isn’t super complicated, but I am trying to make things simple for my co-workers. We’re making a project hours tracker using excel since our team is too small to need an online project management service. Here’s the gist of what I want to do…In one workbook, each employee has identical worksheet templates which can be filled in as needed with tasks done during the month. Let’s say we have 3 employees on the team. That means, our workbook contains 3 separate worksheets which act as individual logs for each employee. The name of each worksheet is the name of the employee (‘Employee Name’). In their respective worksheets, employees are to log a work entry by filling in three columns per entry: the project name (drop-down selection), a description of the task, and then the numbers of hours spent on that task. Also in the workbook, there is a fourth worksheet which is for our supervisor. I would like for him, from a drop down, to select the employee’s name he wishes to make an hours report on. So, when he selects the name…maybe we can say John Smith is the employee…the worksheet essentially fills out a report with the projects John Smith worked on and the total hours for each, then creates a pie chart showing percentages.Most of the functionality of this idea is working pretty well, but for the tallying of hours in the final report, I’m having trouble getting functions to reference the appropriate worksheet. To tally hours, I’m using a SUMIF formula that looks like this:=SUMIF(‘Employee Name’!A:A,’Hours Report’!A3,’Employee Name’!D:D) ‘Employee Name’!A:A references the full column of project names in the employee log. ‘Hours Report’!A3 references the cell with the project name being tallied in the final report. ‘Employee Name’!D:D references the column of hours logged by the employee. The worksheet reference name (‘Employee Name’) needs to be changed based on what employee the final report is about, so it can address the appropriate log to sum hours from. I haven’t a clue how to do thus, and tried things like ADDRESS, VLOOKUP, and others without much luck. Any suggestions, thoughts, or solutions? Read More
SharePoint search no longer available for nearly all users
Hello Community,
we currently have a problem with a customers SharePoint site collection.
From all users, only one user account can search for documents on the site collection. No other user can search for documents anymore.
All the users who are searching for documents have the required permissions on both the library and document, when the users navigate manually to the document, they can open it – so there should be no permission problem here.
we also checked if the libraries and lists are searchable (in the library settings), which is positive.
We also triggered a reindex multiple times over the last few days, but that didn’t really help.
I don’t know where the problem is, since one user seems to be able to search for documents but nobody else can.
Can anybody give us some advice on what to check next or what this problem is?
Hello Community, we currently have a problem with a customers SharePoint site collection.From all users, only one user account can search for documents on the site collection. No other user can search for documents anymore.All the users who are searching for documents have the required permissions on both the library and document, when the users navigate manually to the document, they can open it – so there should be no permission problem here.we also checked if the libraries and lists are searchable (in the library settings), which is positive. We also triggered a reindex multiple times over the last few days, but that didn’t really help. I don’t know where the problem is, since one user seems to be able to search for documents but nobody else can. Can anybody give us some advice on what to check next or what this problem is? Read More
Sharepoint List Validation
I have a status column in a SharePoint list. I need to write validation to make sure the statuses go in order. The correct order for all entries should be ” not started” -> ” In Work” -> “Complete”. I also want to make it so that if the list item is a “Material Site transfer” to “XYZ city” it will allow you to choose ” in transit” so the order would be ” not started” -> ” In Work” -> ” in transit” ->”Complete” but only if the Request type = material site transfer and To location = XYZ city. Any help would be appreciated, Im not savvy with coding.
I have a status column in a SharePoint list. I need to write validation to make sure the statuses go in order. The correct order for all entries should be ” not started” -> ” In Work” -> “Complete”. I also want to make it so that if the list item is a “Material Site transfer” to “XYZ city” it will allow you to choose ” in transit” so the order would be ” not started” -> ” In Work” -> ” in transit” ->”Complete” but only if the Request type = material site transfer and To location = XYZ city. Any help would be appreciated, Im not savvy with coding. Read More
Please help
I have been messing with conditional formatting all day and have no idea how to figure this out.
Please help us as this is will greatly help our unit save so much time, thank you so much!!
PS: I manually colored these boxes to show how I wish the formatting would look like after inserting formular/rules.
I have been messing with conditional formatting all day and have no idea how to figure this out.Please help us as this is will greatly help our unit save so much time, thank you so much!!PS: I manually colored these boxes to show how I wish the formatting would look like after inserting formular/rules. Read More
Azure Data Scientist Associate
Hi everyone,
I was wandering if anyone can help me.
I have completed the AI Fundamentals (AI-900) exam, the Data Fundamentals (DP-900) exam and the Azure Data Scientist Associate (DP-100) exam. This has really furthered my knowledge on becoming a data scientist.
What is the next step? How do I apply for jobs and further my knowledge?
Thanks
Josh
Hi everyone,I was wandering if anyone can help me.I have completed the AI Fundamentals (AI-900) exam, the Data Fundamentals (DP-900) exam and the Azure Data Scientist Associate (DP-100) exam. This has really furthered my knowledge on becoming a data scientist.What is the next step? How do I apply for jobs and further my knowledge?ThanksJosh Read More
Can’t manually add booking or edit a booking
Hey! I’m desperate for some help!
For the last couple days, I can’t manually add a booking to my shared calendar nor can I edit one. I’m able to click on the day I want to add a booking and I’m able to click the booking I want to edit but when it comes time to click “create booking” or “edit booking” to publish it on the calendar, the box just blinks and doesn’t do anything. I’ve tried having a coworker add a booking or edit one and he also is having the same problem so it’s not just my computer.
What’s weird is that I can add time off with no problem. That’s the only thing Bookings will let me put on the calendar.
Anyone have any idea what the problem may be?? I’ve tried googling but I can’t find anyone on the problem I’ve been having.
Thank you!
Hey! I’m desperate for some help! For the last couple days, I can’t manually add a booking to my shared calendar nor can I edit one. I’m able to click on the day I want to add a booking and I’m able to click the booking I want to edit but when it comes time to click “create booking” or “edit booking” to publish it on the calendar, the box just blinks and doesn’t do anything. I’ve tried having a coworker add a booking or edit one and he also is having the same problem so it’s not just my computer. What’s weird is that I can add time off with no problem. That’s the only thing Bookings will let me put on the calendar. Anyone have any idea what the problem may be?? I’ve tried googling but I can’t find anyone on the problem I’ve been having. Thank you! Read More
How to Fix Quick~B00ks Abort Error During Company File Access?
Hi everyone,
I’m encountering an issue with Quick~B00ks where the program abruptly shuts down with an “Abort Error” message whenever I try to access my company file. This has been happening consistently over the past few days and it’s really affecting my workflow. I’ve tried restarting my computer and updating Quick~B00ks to the latest version, but the problem persists. Has anyone else experienced this issue? What steps can I take to resolve this error?
Hi everyone,I’m encountering an issue with Quick~B00ks where the program abruptly shuts down with an “Abort Error” message whenever I try to access my company file. This has been happening consistently over the past few days and it’s really affecting my workflow. I’ve tried restarting my computer and updating Quick~B00ks to the latest version, but the problem persists. Has anyone else experienced this issue? What steps can I take to resolve this error? Read More
Announcing API Management and API Center Community Live Stream on Thursday, July 25th
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Azure Capacity Reservations with Automatic Consumption
Solving the ask – Automatic Capacity Reservations
Historically, the setting to use a Capacity Reservations Groups must be defined while the virtual machine is being deployed or changed while the machine is deallocated. While this is still the requirement, the drafted Azure Policy (at the bottom of this document) automates the additional setting to be specified even if it wasn’t specified on the VM Creation process.
For example, some solutions, such as Citrix DaaS hosted on Azure, use automation such as recreation of VMs to handle update management or scalability demands. The update process doesn’t have the ability to add this setting without code changes to their process which requires a significant investment of time per cloud provider to update. If this capacity isn’t available for any reason, the scale out or recreation could fail causing the environment to become unhealthy.
What are Azure Capacity Reservations?
Azure Capacity Reservations are a new feature that allows you to reserve compute resources for your virtual machines (VMs) in a specific region and/or availability zone. By using Azure Capacity Reservations, you can ensure that your VMs have guaranteed access to the resources they need, even during periods of high demand or unexpected events.
Reserved Virtual Machine Instance (RI) to on-demand Capacity Reservation work together. You can apply existing or future RIs to on-demand capacity reservations and receive RI discounts. Available RIs are applied automatically to Capacity Reservation the same way they’re applied to VMs.
Azure Capacity Reservation Group (CRG) is a grouping of Capacity Reservations. VM creation targets the CRG and not the specific Capacity Reservation.
How to create Azure Capacity Reservations?
To get started with Azure Capacity Reservations, you need to follow these steps:
Create a capacity reservation group: A reservation group is a logical container that holds one or more reservations. You can assign VMs to a reservation group to use the reserved resources.
Create a capacity reservation: A reservation is a specific amount of compute resources that you reserve for a certain VM size, region, and availability zone. You can create multiple reservations within a reservation group.
How do I use the Capacity Reservations?
To deploy your virtual machines to the capacity that is created, you need to follow either of these options:
Assign VMs to a reservation group: You can assign existing deallocated VMs or new VMs to a reservation group, either individually or as part of a scale set. The VMs will use the reserved resources from the reservation group, as long as they match the reservation criteria.
Leverage Azure Policy (New as of July 2024):
Using Azure policy, you can deploy a policy per subscription that specifying:
VM SKU
Region
Target Capacity Reservation
Is this a zonal deployment
When VMs are created, this policy will automatically add the virtual machine to the Azure Capacity Reservation Group.
How do I use Azure Policy to set the Capacity Reservation?
With the below parameters set via policy per subscription, VMs of the desired SKU and availability will automatically be added based on:
Region
SKU
Multiple SKUs can be targeted with the policy
Zonal – yes or no
Capacity Reservation ID
The Capacity reservation targeted with the policy will need to match the zonal decision or VM Creations will fail.
Using this functionality, it is now possible to specify a minimum quantity of VM Compute that is guaranteed to be available.
What does this look like in production?
Create Capacity Reservation Group with correct quantities
Create the policy definition
Assign the policy to have VMs automatically added
Create Virtual Machines
Create Capacity Reservations with correct quantities
Create the Capacity Reservation Group to hold the specific Capacity Reservations based on regional or zonal alignment. For each SKU, create a capacity reservation with the minimum amount of compute you wish to be reserved per region or zone. Capacity Reservations can be overallocated. If you reserve 3 nodes of E2s_v4 in zone 1, but attempt to deploy 10 VMs, you are guaranteed to have the 3 available for your consumption and the remaining 7 are subject to normal availability within the zone.
In this example, I have created a Capacity Reservation Groups for regional and another for zonal alignment:
Regional: CRGRG1-WUS3-r
Zonal: CRGRG1-WUS3-z
Create the policy definition
To simplify the experience, I have created a single Azure Policy that is able to be referenced for both scenarios.
An example copy of the policy can be found at the bottom of this article.
Assign the policy to have VMs automatically added
Based on the assignment parameters below:
This example for regional:
allowedLocations
westus3
CapacityReservationID
/subscriptions/########-####-####-####-############/resourceGroups/CRGRG/providers/Microsoft.Compute/capacityReservationGroups/CRGRG1-WUS3-r
listOfCRGSKUs
Standard_E2s_v4
Zonal
False
Based on the assignment parameters below (this example for zonal):
allowedLocations
westus3
CapacityReservationID
/subscriptions/########-####-####-####-############/resourceGroups/CRGRG/providers/Microsoft.Compute/capacityReservationGroups/CRGRG1-WUS3-z
listOfCRGSKUs
Standard_E2s_v4
Zonal
True
Create Virtual Machines within the specified context
Based on the above, if a VM is created with the SKU E2s_v4 in availability zone 1, it will automatically be added to CRGRG1-WUS3-z.
Based on the above, if I create a VM with the SKU E2s_v4 without specifying an availability zone, it will automatically be added to CRGRG1-WUS3-r.
The above Azure Policy and assignments added this line of code in the VM Creation template.
“type”: “Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines”,
“location”: “westus3”,
“properties”: {
“capacityReservation”: {
“capacityReservationGroup”: {
“id”: “/subscriptions/########-####-####-####-############/resourceGroups/CRGRG/providers/Microsoft.Compute/capacityReservationGroups/CRGRG1-WUS3-z”
}
}
An example copy of the policy can be found below:
The below policy is a draft and is based on new functionality. It should not be treated as production ready unless deemed so by the appropriate resources at your organization.
{
“mode”: “All”,
“policyRule”: {
“if”: {
“allOf”: [
{
“field”: “type”,
“equals”: “Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines”
},
{
“field”: “location”,
“in”: “[parameters(‘allowedLocations’)]”
},
{
“field”: “Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/sku.name”,
“in”: “[parameters(‘listOfCRGSKUs’)]”
},
{
“field”: “Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/zones”,
“exists”: “[parameters(‘Zonal’)]”
},
{
“field”: “Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/capacityReservation.capacityReservationGroup.id”,
“notequals”: “[parameters(‘CapacityReservationID’)]”
}
]
},
“then”: {
“effect”: “modify”,
“details”: {
“roleDefinitionIds”: [
“/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleDefinitions/9980e02c-c2be-4d73-94e8-173b1dc7cf3c”
],
“operations”: [
{
“operation”: “addOrReplace”,
“field”: “Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/capacityReservation.capacityReservationGroup.id”,
“value”: “[parameters(‘CapacityReservationID’)]”
}
]
}
}
},
“parameters”: {
“allowedLocations”: {
“type”: “Array”,
“metadata”: {
“displayName”: “Specific Region that is covered under this CRG”,
“description”: “The list of locations that resource groups can be created in.”,
“strongType”: “location”
}
},
“listOfCRGSKUs”: {
“type”: “Array”,
“metadata”: {
“displayName”: “Allowed Size SKUs”,
“description”: “The list of size SKUs that can be specified for virtual machines.”,
“strongType”: “VMSKUs”
}
},
“CapacityReservationID”: {
“type”: “String”,
“metadata”: {
“displayName”: “Capacity Reservation ID”,
“description”: “The capacity reservation targets this policy to target. Resource ID should be formatted as: ‘/subscriptions/{SubID}/resourceGroups/{RGName}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/capacityReservationGroups/{CRG Name}.'”
}
},
“Zonal”: {
“type”: “String”,
“metadata”: {
“displayName”: “Is this Zonal?”,
“description”: “If this is Zonal, it will attempt to add to the Zonal Capacity Reservation Groups. If not, it will add to the reginoal Capacity Reservation Groups.”
},
“allowedValues”: [
“true”,
“false”
]
}
}
}
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