The experts from Azure Functions team has yet again joined us for the monthly webcast. Given the unprecedented time, this webcast happened a bit unusual where the folks joined from their home rather from Channel 9 studio and which made this webcast even more unique and exciting.
In this session, Jeff Hollan, Eduardo and Alex Karcher have joined to give us the picture of the latest happenings in the Azure Functions space.
What’s new?
- New portal UX preview – you can now go ahead and experience the new functions portal UX by just clicking through the Swap button on the top banner
- Custom handlers – Announced the preview of custom handlers! You can now bring your language to Azure Functions!
- Python 3.8 support is now generally available – this enables developing, debugging and deploying Function Apps for production scenarios using the tools of your choice, specifically Visual Studio Code, the Azure portal, Azure Functions Core Tools and Azure CLI.
- Java on Linux/ Java containers – you can now go ahead and run your code on containers to leverage its extensible capabilities.
Networking Improvements
What’s new?
- Private link inbound (Preview)
- VNET trigger support
- +16 more premium regions
- Regional VNET (GA)
- All traffic can be sent to VNET
- NSG + UDR support
- Outbound traffic can reach a private link
What’s coming?
- Storage behind VNET – This allows you to put your app’s primary storage behind the virtual network.
Virtual Network Demo
There are a couple of Function Apps in this demo where the bottom one will act as an interface to the outside world and the Blob Storage will have access to the internet too. But, the top function app and the Service Bus in the architecture will be restricted from public access.
In this demo, we are going to send a request to the front end function app (bottom one) and which will subsequently connect to the virtual network integration and store the message to the service bus.
Then, the other function app (on the top) will use the VNET triggers to access the message in the Service Bus and write it out to the Blob Storage.
You can also take a look at this super helpful tutorial on how to Establish Azure Functions private site access. Also, the functions docs team has updated the article on all the networking options supported by the different plans.
What’s coming?
- Refreshed portal UX
- Scale-out limits per app
- OpenID Connect integration with App service authentication (Easy auth)
- Java 11
- Durable Functions for Python
- Durable Functions for PowerShell
Community Highlights
- Burke Holland – Microsoft Learn: Build API Azure Functions
- Gwyneth Peña S. – Integrated Azure Functions with Azure Keyvault
- Sophia Li and Chloe Condon – Using NASA APIs with Azure Functions 🚀
- Will Velida – Working with CosmosDB and Azure Functions
- Layla Porter – Dependency Injection in Functions with C#
- Troy Hunt – Handling huge traffic spikes with functions and Cloudflare
Azure Functions Team is Hiring!
- Program Managers
- Software Engineers
- Software Engineer Managers
If you are interested check out the link here.
The next podcast has been planned for April 15th at 11 AM PDT.
Question and Answer
- Any news on python 3.8 and Powershell 7?
Python 3.8 has already been GA and PowerShell 7 is on its way in the next month or so. - Is VNET Integration in premium plan GA now?
Yes, it is. - Is there a way to control the timer trigger scheduling in a more ops-friendly way? Like a central dashboard for controlling the CRON expression (or GUI equivalent) for a bunch of Functions.
There is no concrete plans right now, but consider to find a workaround to it. - Is that “auto-obfuscate subscription ID” functionality something built into teams, or some special addon?
You can use the Edge extension for blurring subscription I’d which is something called Azure mask. - Does this mean that Private Link is supported for normal App Service web apps?
It is still in Preview. - PS 5.1 Modules loading in PowerShell Core 7?
if it does then that should work when we have PS 7 support - What is the difference between pricing of API running on app services always-on instance and function with HTTP trigger on 1 instance ? does function also cost for basic plan running 1 instance?
If you are using app service, then yes you pay for the compute. - The Portal preview seems to be pinned to a given Functions app per user, rather than having the option to opt-in for every Function. That’s a lot of clicks.
This is because you start using the new experience but what if you want to go back and that’s why you got to opt-in very often. But soon it will become a default option. - Are there any connectors for O365 apps from Azure functions as like in the Azure logic app?
Yes, the team is working pretty closely to improve on it every day.
