If you need a quick and dirty way to give a user the permission to start a VM without giving them access to the Azure Portal, Azure Automation Webhooks might help. You basically create a PowerShell script that starts the VM and then you configure the Webhook. The Webhook contains an URL which triggers the exceution of that script. Note that everyone with the URI is able to start the VM, which is not optimal.

Once you have created the Automation Account (easy), configure a new Runbook that starts the VM:

Disable-AzContextAutosave -Scope Process

$subscriptionID = Get-AutomationVariable -Name 'SubscriptionID'

Connect-AzAccount -Identity

Select-AzSubscription $SubscriptionId

Start-AzVM -ResourceGroupName "rgname" -name "vmname"

Configure the WebHook. You will get an URI. Save that URI somewhere, since you cannot view it after being created.

Afterwards, a user can run this line to start the VM:

Invoke-WebRequest -URI "https://xxxx.webhook.webhook.azure-automation.net/XXX" -Method POST -UseBasicParsing

Note: the automation account needs to have Virtual Machine Contributor rights on the resource group or subscription to start the VM.

References:

https://learnwithlenny.azurewebsites.net/2022/11/04/starting-an-azure-vm-using-webhook-powershell-exe/

Azure VM Sizes are very confusing and there are a lot of them that seem very similar. This website helps you compare VM sizes with each other, showing you price/performance ratio etc.

https://sparecores.com/

This KQL query helps you compute the user’s session duration in the last 30 days.

WVDConnections
| where State in (“Started”, “Connected”, “Completed”) // Filter relevant states
| where TimeGenerated >= ago(30d) // Get records from the last 30 days
| summarize
StartTime = minif(TimeGenerated, State == “Started”), // Earliest time for “Started”
EndTime = maxif(TimeGenerated, State == “Completed”), // Latest time for “Completed”
HasConnected = countif(State == “Connected”) > 0, // Check for “Connected” event presence
SessionHostName = anyif(SessionHostName, State == “Started”) // Capture the server name associated with the session
by CorrelationId, UserName
| extend DurationMinutes = iff(HasConnected and isnotnull(StartTime) and isnotnull(EndTime),
datetime_diff(“minute”, EndTime, StartTime),
-1) // Use -1 as a placeholder for invalid durations
| where DurationMinutes >= 0 // Filter out invalid durations (those set to -1)
| extend SessionDurationHours = DurationMinutes / 60.0 // Calculate duration in hours
| project UserName, CorrelationId, StartTime, EndTime, DurationMinutes, SessionDurationHours, SessionHostName
| order by StartTime desc // Order by StartTime for clarity

The output looks something like this:

Having issue Azure AD joining a Windows 10 or 11 computer and getting error 8018000a? This script might help you. It deletes all keys except Context under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Enrollments

$EnrollmentsPath = “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Enrollments\”
$Enrollments = Get-ChildItem -Path $EnrollmentsPath
$DiscoveryServerFullUrls = @(“https://wip.mam.manage.microsoft.com/Enroll”)
Foreach ($Enrollment in $Enrollments) {
$EnrollmentObject = Get-ItemProperty Registry::$Enrollment
if ($EnrollmentObject.”DiscoveryServiceFullURL” -in $DiscoveryServerFullUrls ) {
$EnrollmentPath = $EnrollmentsPath + $EnrollmentObject.”PSChildName”
Remove-Item -Path $EnrollmentPath -Recurse
& “C:\Windows\System32\deviceenroller.exe /c /AutoEnrollMDM”
}
}

References:

https://jocha.se/blog/tech/azure-ad-mdm-intune-error-8018000a

If you have deleted a user in Exchange Online that is synced from onprem and you need to restore it, you might not want to re-sync the local user. In that case you can restore the deleted user directly in Exchange Online and make a cloud only user.

Get the deleted mailbox by name and Exchange GUI:

Get-Mailbox -SoftDeletedMailbox | Select-Object Name,ExchangeGuid

Create a new cloud only user or shared mailbox and run this command:

Get-Mailbox -Identity <NameOrAliasOfNewTargetMailbox> | Format-List ExchangeGuid

Restore the deleted mailbox/user into the newly created cloud user:

New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceMailbox <SoftDeletedMailboxGUID> -TargetMailbox <NewTargetMailboxGUID> –AllowLegacyDNMismatch

References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/recipients-in-exchange-online/delete-or-restore-mailboxes