Answers to questions about Azure that we often see at Cornell
Basics
How do I request a Cornell Azure subscription?
To request a Cornell Azure subscription, or to migrate an Azure subscription you already have to the Cornell Azure Enterprise Agreement, complete this form: https://cornell.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5nWBzF2mrsHRAwJ
How do I access my Cornell Azure subscription?
Login to https://portal.azure.com with your Cornell NetId credentials. If the login process asks you, choose "school/work account", not "microsoft.com account".
Support
How much does Azure support cost?
Azure support is free at present, whether you seek it directly from Azure or ask the CIT Cloud Team.
How do I get technical support for Azure?
You can request support from Azure directly or from the CIT Cloud Team.
- All Azure subscriptions managed by the CIT Cloud Team have access to Premier-level support (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/). See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-supportability/how-to-create-azure-support-request for your options for creating a support request.
- Email the CIT Cloud Team at cloud-support@cornell.edu. At present the CIT Cloud Team is ramping up expertise in Azure so support is available on a best-effort basis.
Costs & Billing
How am I billed for my Azure charges?
Billing for Azure is handled through CloudCheckr. Invoices are sent out monthly.
What will Azure cost me? Does Cornell get any discounts in Azure?
The list cost for each service at Azure can be seen here : https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/
Cornell does receive a discount by virtue of having an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft. Any subscription that is under our EA automatically receives the discount. The discount percentage is variable based on the service. We don't have a good way to show the exact EA pricing for each Azure service vs. the list pricing that is available above. A member of the Cloud Team can help you with your specific, EA, pricing.
Is there a data egress waiver in Azure, like there is in AWS?
In short, yes there is a data egress waiver. See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-egress-fee-waiver-for-the-academic-community/
The egress waiver is automatic. There is nothing that the customer has to do to receive the benefit.
Networking
Is there private network connectivity between the Ithaca campus and Azure?
Yes. Campus 10 space has been extended to Azure via an ExpressRoute connection.
Authorization and Authentication
Can I use an Active Directory security group to grant permissions to my Azure subscription and/or resources?
Yes! You can use any combination of individual netIDs and/or security groups to meet your need.
I'm working with a researcher at another institution, can I invite them to my Azure subscription to collaborate?
You can as long as they have a Microsoft account. Any person from an institution that is using O365 will have a Microsoft account. Additionally, even personal Microsoft accounts can be invited. You can scope their access as appropriate from the subscription as a whole even down to the individual resource level.
Learning
What training options are there to learn more about Azure?
Microsoft offers a free online learning path for Azure Fundamentals. In addition to that, within the Microsoft Learn training options, there are currently 316 related to "Azure".
Virtual Machines
What are the recommended settings for synchronizing the system clock?
Images from the Azure Marketplace should include default configurations for system clock management. These range from using an emulated real-time-clock within the guest or reaching out to public network time servers around the world.
In cases where you have configured restrictive Network Security Groups (NSG) that limit out-bound traffic, you should confirm that outbound probes to NTP servers are permitted. Typically, this traffic operates on UDP port 123. No special in-bound rules are required, since NSGs at Azure are stateful.
Additional details may be found in Microsoft's published guidelines for clock synchronization when running Linux platforms or Windows platforms in Azure.