GitHub Copilot Customization Explained for Beginners: Instructions, Prompt Files, Skills, Agents, and Hooks Introduction If you've recently started using GitHub Copilot, you've probably come across terms like Instructions , Prompt Files , Skills , Agents , and Hooks . At first glance, they all seem to do the same thing—they tell Copilot what to do. So why does GitHub have five different customization features? The answer is simple: each feature solves a different problem. Think of GitHub Copilot as a new developer joining your team. On their first day, you don't just hand them code. You explain your coding standards, give them reusable templates, teach them specialized knowledge, assign them a role, and automate repetitive tasks. That's exactly how GitHub Copilot customization works. In this article, you'll learn what each feature does, when to use it, and how they all work together. By the end, you'll know which feature to start with and which ones can wait un...
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How to restore your deleted Azure App Service?
In this blog post, let's see how to recover an accidentally deleted Azure App Service (Web App). If you hear someone saying they have accidentally deleted any Azure service and want to restore it, it gives an indication they are lacking best practices and patterns in their cloud environment. One such pattern is described in my previous blog post named Resource Lock and if you haven't still read it, highly recommend having a look at it. Within your Azure App Service, you will have multiple hosting capabilities like Web API, Static website, Front end application, Container-based solution. Facts to know: At this point in time, the options to restore your App Service are through PowerShell or Azure CLI, and no option available through Azure Portal. I would recommend going with PowerShell because Azure CLI is still in preview and under development Only sites deleted in the past 30 days can be restored. Restore is not supported if the deleted app was in Free or Shared SKU ...
How to Lock your Azure Resources?
Azure Resource Locking feature helps to prevent deletion and modification of Azure Resources on which the lock is been applied. Now you might be wondering how it's different and advantages compared to Azure RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)? RBAC is used as the first line of defense against restricting access to Azure Resources. Using RBAC you can restrict access to resources and resource actions. RBAC alone will not be sufficient across all environments especially from the Test environment onwards. RBAC and Resource lock doesn't conflict with each other rather they complement and should be applied as standard practice/pattern across all your Azure Subscriptions in your organization. Assume you are an Administrator, which means you have full access to all your resources. With Resource Lock applying it provides a way for administrators to lock down Azure resources to prevent deletion and modification of a resource. Resource lock applies to all users regardless of their roles. Th...
Authenticate Azure Functions - API Keys
In this blog post, we will see one of the ways to secure your Azure Functions using API keys. Security plays a key role as part of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) doesn't matter whether it's exposed to the client/public or even if it's internal. There are multiple ways to secure your Azure Functions like API Keys, Certificate, API Mgmt, App Service Authentication, etc. If you are new to the Cloud and Azure Functions but want to make a start with minimal effort and less setup of Infrastructure, then API Keys is the ideal choice. Azure Functions allows you to secure HTTP-triggered functions by API access key in the request. As part of creating new Azure Functions, we can select the Authorization Level enum value. If we set the Authorisation level to Anonymous, no security applied which means no authentication applied for the endpoint. Authorization Level - Function By setting the Authorisation level to Function each Azure Functions require a specific API key to Au...
Azure App Configuration - How it's different from Azure Key Vault?
Azure App Configuration is a cloud-based managed service that helps developers and infrastructure team members to centralize and manage application configurations and feature flags. Using Azure App Configuration helps to separate application configuration from code. One of the Twelve-Factor App principles states strict separation of config from code with Azure App configuration this can be easily achieved. Azure App Configuration is now generally available as a free or paid service based on the pricing tier you choose as part of provisioning the service. In the modern world, applications often can run in different geographical locations, can be hosted on services like App Services, virtual machines, Serverless functions, Azure Container Instance, AKS, etc. Managing application configuration for all this type of service can be done in a centralized location using App configuration which means your operations and support team members need not...
How to Audit - Azure Key Vault?
In this blog post, we will see how to send logs and metrics for the Azure Key Vault which can be used for auditing. Azure Key Vault Overview Azure Key Vault provides a way to store securely keys, secrets, and certificates in a centralized location. Key Vault greatly reduces the chances of secrets being accidentally leaked, by simplified administration of application secrets. Azure Key Vault solution is not just for Cloud Solutions it can be integrated with on-premise as well. Integration with other Azure services is simplified with a managed identity. Azure Key Vault is not just only for Application secrets (Development) it goes well with Infrastructure team like DevOps where Passwords, Certificate, etc can be managed related to Infrastructure additionally Integration with Azure DevOps makes it more powerful. Things that can go in your vaults are: Application secrets Connection strings API keys Tokens Passwords etc Certificates Encryption Keys Audit Enabling on K...
Cleaning Azure Container Registry (ACR) on demand or schedule
In this blog post, we will see how to purge container images from Azure Container Registry (ACR). Till recent time most of them would have written custom PowerShell or bash script and run it to clean (purge) ACR container images. Recently Microsoft introduced a new preview feature to automatically purge images based on filters, duration, and untagged manifests. Additionally, this new preview feature supports to run on-demand or on a schedule using CRON expression. In my current project, our delivery team is committing code several times a day. This automatically triggers a CI pipeline from which images are automatically built and pushed into ACR. Most of them would be going through the same journey. In this situation using this new preview feature, helps to keep ACR clean and not worrying about the Container registry getting bloated with images. Both on-demand or schedule will make use of acr purge command. ACR purge is designed to run as a container command in ...
Immutable Storage for Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage provides scalable, cost-efficient storage in the cloud. In general, Blob Storage holds organization data like back-ups, unstructured data, files, etc. With the Immutable Storage feature, it allows storing business-related information in the WORM (Write-Once-Read-Many) state. Immutable storage feature is available in all Azure public regions. Immutable storage feature is set at the container level through an Access policy. Policies apply to all the blobs in the container, can be applied either for the new or existing container and supports all blob tiers (hot, cold, and archive). Immutable storage supports two policy type: Time-based retention Legal hold Note: Immutable policy type can be applied either through Azure Portal or Azure CLI. You cannot delete or modify any files within the container when any one of the policy is enabled on the container. Immutable storage - Policy ...
Azure Function in a Docker Container - Part 2
In my previous blog post , we looked at how to run Azure Function in a Docker Container locally using Docker desktop. In this blog post, we will see how to run the Azure Function container in Azure. Steps to run Azure Function in Container Create an Azure Function by choosing the right resource plan, resource group, a region with a storage account, and Application Insights for monitoring support. As part of the provisioning key things to support containerization, you need to choose the " Publish " option with " Docker Container " as shown below. Choose the hosting options based on your requirements like App-service plan or Premium. Once the Azure Function is provisioned navigate to the overview tab then you will be seeing a warning to configure container settings as shown below. Clicking on "Configure container settings" provides options to choose container image from Image source like Azure Container Registry Docker hub Private Registry For our demo, I h...
How to create Azure Function from OpenAPI/Swagger definition?
In my previous blog post , I have illustrated how to setup OpenAPI/Swagger UI for Azure Function. In this blog, post let's see how to create Azure Function from OpenAPI specification. As part of recent updates from the Azure Functions team, there was an announcement for creating Azure Function by importing OpenAPI/Swagger definition. Prerequisites Azure Function VS Code extension or command line autorest (Microsoft's OpenAPI specification generator) npm installed npm install -g autorest Supported languages C#, Java, Python, TypeScript. Steps to create function apps from Swagger definition Install or update VS code with Azure Function extension Navigate to Visual Studio Code à Azure Extension under which you should be able to see the option for creating Function App as shown in the below screenshot. ...
Swagger UI for Azure Function v2 & v3 APIs
In this blog post, we will see how to setup Swagger UI for Azure Function APIs in v2 and v3. Now you might be wondering why Swagger? Swagger is a language-agnostic specification for describing REST APIs, it also referred to as OpenAPI. Swagger UI offers a web-based UI that provides information about your REST APIs service. Prerequisites HTTP trigger Azure function provisioned or created in C# Azure DI enabled on Azure Function, for more details refer here with relevant package version installed based on Azure Function version. Integrating Swagger UI into our Applications 1. Install the appropriate package based on the Azure Function version which you are dealing with from the below table. Unfortunately, it's not a single package for both versions due to Azure function v3 because v3 makes use of ASP.NET Core 3.1 which introduces a new serializer System.Text.Json (STJ) out-of-the-box. Azure Function Version Nuget package v2 ...
How to enable Automatic Guest OS Patching for Windows Azure VMs?
For any organization and project security plays a very important role, towards that Microsoft tries to simplify and eases the effort required by the customer or end-user. One such thing that they recently announced is Automatic Guest OS patching for windows Azure VMs which is now public preview. With Azure Automatic Guest OS patching enabled it helps update management by safely and automatically patching virtual machines to maintain security compliance. Here VMs are checked periodically for available operating system patches. Operating system patches classified as critical or security are automatically downloaded and applied on the VM. If VM is powered off during assessment by the platform for patching, VM will be automatically assessed during the next periodic assessment when it's turned on. Patches are applied within the 30 days of the monthly Windows update release. Automatic VM guest patching has the following capabilities: Patches classified ...
Azure Front Door vs Azure Traffic Manager?
In my previous blog post, we looked in detail Azure Front Door (AFD) . In this blog post, let's compare Azure Front Door (AFD) with another popular Azure service named Azure Traffic Manager (ATM). Prior to AFD most of the applications made use of ATM in their architecture now with AFD being available it's good to understand in which scenarios these individual services are ideal. Azure Front Door (AFD) Azure Front Door Service (AFD) a scalable and secure entry point for the fast delivery of your global applications. Azure Front Door allows you to transform your global (multi-region) applications into robust, high-performance applications, APIs, and content. Azure Traffic Manager (ATM) Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer for geographically distributed Datacenters. Traffic Manager uses DNS to direct traffic to endpoint based on the traffic routing method and health of the endpoints. Similarities between AFD and ATM Both Azure Services support Multi-...
Azure Front Door - Boost Your Web Application
If you are developing a new or an existing web application that is internet facing and can be accessed globally or deploying the new or existing web application in multiple regions then it's high time to consider Azure Front Door in your application architecture. Azure Front Door Service (AFD) a scalable and secure entry point for the fast delivery of your global applications. Azure Front Door allows you to transform your global (multi-region) applications into robust, high-performance applications, APIs. AFD makes use of Microsoft Global Network which provides better network performance and reliability. Azure Front Door is a global service and is not tied to any specific Azure region. Azure Front Door is a globally distributed multi-tenant service. The infrastructure for Front Door is shared across all its customers. Reference Architecture with AFD Image Source: Microsoft Benefits of using Azure Front Door: Accelerate application performance, AFD significantl...
How to secure Azure Container Registry?
Azure Container Registry (ACR) is a managed, private Docker registry service that stores and manages your container images in Azure. Below are the few recommendations for using Azure Container Registry. Image scanning with Azure Security Center With Azure Security Center, you can get automatic scans of your registries for any threats and vulnerabilities of the images. Note if you're on Azure Security Center's standard tier, you can add the Container Registries bundle. This feature is charged per image scan. Whenever an new image is pushed to your registry, Security Center automatically scans that image. Azure Security Center also provide options or recommendations for resolving those vulnerabilities. Enable Content Trust Azure Container Registry implements Docker's content trust model, enabling pushing and pulling of signed images. Content trust helps to verify the source and integrity of the images, ensuring that they are the images we expect. As an im...