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Creating Cosmos DB Resources Using ARM Templates

This week, we saw a significant update to the ARM template for Cosmos DB, which now allows us to create databases and containers. Up until now, we've only been able to create Cosmos DB accounts using templates, we then had to create the databases, containers, tables, etc. through PowerShell or the portal etc.

With this update, we are now able to deploy much more of our Cosmos setup with ARM templates, including databases, containers, graphs, namespaces, and tables. However, there are still some components we can't create with templates yet:

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Export Kubernetes Logs to Azure Log Analytics With Fluent Bit

Every container you run in Kubernetes is going to be generating log data. No one has time to go through and regularly check individual container logs for issues, and so in production environments, it is often required to export these logs to an aggregator for automated analysis.

If you're using Azure, then Log Analytics may be your log aggregator of choice, and so you need a way to export your container logs into Log Analytics. If you are using AKS, you can deploy the Azure Monitor solution which does this for you, however, if you are running your own cluster, or even using another cloud provider and still want to use Log Analytics, then that it's not quite so simple. This is where Fluent Bit can help.

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Enforce Budgets With Azure Automation

Budgets are a feature of the new Azure cost management tool, which is primarily the integration of Cloudyn into the Azure portal. Budgets allow you to set a financial boundary for a subscription or a resource group, which you can monitor through cost management and trigger alerts when you are close to the cost set in your budget.

One thing you cannot do with budgets, and something that many people feel is an obvious requirement, is to stop people spending any more money when they hit the budget. If a subscription or resource group breaches its budget, then it will trigger an alert. However, it does not turn off any resources, and it does not stop further spending.