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Category: Cloud

Using Filter Based Feature Selection in Text Analytics

Published 2021-07-02 by Kevin Feasel

Dinesh Asanka takes us through a text analytics technique in Azure Machine Learning:

There are two parameters to be defined in the Feature Hashing control. Hashing bitsize will define the maximum number of vectors. 10 hashing bitsize means 1,024 vectors (2^10). 1,024 vectors are more than enough even for the large volume text files. Next, we need to choose N-grams which is 2 as 2 is the optimal number for N-grams for most situations. A detailed description of N-Grams is given in the link given in the reference section.

After the vectors are generated, we do not need other text columns. Apart from the vectors, we need only the dependent attribute or the category column in this example. Therefore, we can remove the unnecessary attributes by Select Columns in dataset control. However, this control will show 1,024 vectors even though it is not available in the previous step, Feature Hashing. Therefore, you need to choose only the available attributes in the Feature Hashing control at the Select Columns in dataset control. In the above example, only 93 vectors were generated.

Click through to learn more.

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Monitoring Power Virtual Agent Chatbots

Published 2021-07-01 by Kevin Feasel

Devin Knight has a video for us:

Power Virtual Agents empowers subject matter experts to build intelligent conversational bots, using a guided, no-code graphical interface. In this video you will learn how to monitor how successful your chatbots are at answering your users questions. Using the monitoring capability you will uncover areas of your chatbot that can be improved.

If I were familiar enough with Latin, I’d try a play on “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” with this.

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Executing Azure Data Factory Pipelines with Power App

Published 2021-06-30 by Kevin Feasel

Rayis Imayev has a plan:

One of my university professors liked to tell us a quote, “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”, in a way to help us, his students, to stay active in our thinking process. I’m not sure if Francisco Goya, had a similar aspiration when he was creating his artwork with the same name.

So, let me explain my reasons to create a solution to trigger Azure Data Factory (ADF) pipelines from a Power App and why it shouldn’t be considered as a monster 🙂

If that’s not an introduction enticing enough to get you to read the whole thing, I don’t know what is.

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Using the Cosmos DB Integrated Cache

Published 2021-06-29 by Kevin Feasel

Hasan Savran makes use of a cache:

We are ready to write some code now. Integrated Cache works only in Eventual Consistency for now. So, we need to send requests in Eventual consistency to test the Integrated Cache. To do that, we need to use requestOptions parameter in SDK. You can change your database consistency level to Eventual too for testing if you like. Don’t forget to change it back later!

Hopefully that limitation changes later, but in the meantime, click through to see how to use the integrated cache in Cosmos DB.

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Moving Artifacts between Folders in Synapse Studio

Published 2021-06-25 by Kevin Feasel

Wolfgang Strasser looks at a recent update:

Another small but very powerful usability extension in Azure Synapse Studio was added at the beginning of June: Move artifacts across folders in Synapse Studio (without extra clicks but with drag&drop)

Once again, the release notes list contained the short sentence that made me curious… hmm… that sound nice… In one of my previous post, I described the “old” way of moving artifacts around in Synapse Studio.

Click through for a demonstration.

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Connecting to Cosmos DB via Dedicated Gateway

Published 2021-06-24 by Kevin Feasel

Hasan Savran introduces us to the Cosmos DB Dedicated Gateway:

Cosmos DB team announced a new way named Dedicated Gateway to connect to Azure Cosmos DB. As you might know there is already a standard gateway to connect to Cosmos DB. Dedicated or Standard gateway means that there is a computer stays between Cosmos DB replica set and your application. Your application request goes to gateway server then goes to Cosmos DB database. The biggest difference between Standard Gateway and Dedicated Gateway is, you do not share the dedicated gateway server with other Cosmos DB customers.

     Dedicated Gateway is totally yours and you are responsible for its costs. Depending on your application size, you can select different size of gateway servers.

Read on to learn how expensive it is and the benefits it brings.

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Using Ola’s Maintenance Solution on RDS

Published 2021-06-24 by Kevin Feasel

Jack Vamvas takes us through a couple of nuances around using Ola Hallengren’s SQL Server Maintenance Solution on Amazon RDS:

I’ve used the Ola Hallengren Maintenance Solution across various SQL Server environments . I was recently asked by a colleague about how adaptable they are to the AWS RDS SQL Server environment. 

I checked the Ola Hallengren FAQ and there is a comment :

Read on to learn the details.

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Loading Data into Power BI Premium Per User vs Azure Analysis Services

Published 2021-06-16 by Kevin Feasel

Gilbert Quevauvilliers continues a series on moving from Azure Analysis Services to Power BI Premium Per User:

I have been working with a customer where I have got data in AAS and in PPU for the same dataset.

What I have found is that when the data is loading it is very similar in terms of how long the data takes to load.

With one of my customers as an example the data was being curated in Asia, whilst the business was running things from Australia. By hosting AAS/PPU where the data was curated meant that the data loading was significantly faster. Yes while the reports would have to access the data across the ocean, this only sends the results, so the performance of the reports was and is still blazingly fast!

Click through for the full story.

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Drain Mode in Azure Functions

Published 2021-06-16 by Kevin Feasel

Rayis Imayev pulls the plug:

As requests to execute Azure Functions increase, then the demand for such compute resources is supported, but only while it is needed (scale-out). As requests fall, any extra resources and application instances drop off automatically (scale-in).

Recently Microsoft enabled a new Drain mode in Azure Functions, that allows for a graceful shutdown of the Azure Function host by completing inflight invocations and stops listening for new events from triggering sources.

Read on for the set of steps it performs, as well as the benefit it provides.

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