deployment Archives

Winsage

July 3, 2025

Confused by a mysterious update that’s suddenly appeared on your Windows 10 PC? Don’t panic – here’s what you need to know

Windows 10 PCs are receiving an update identified as KB5001716, which is part of Microsoft's strategy to prepare users for the eventual end of Windows 10. This update is being rolled out to PCs running Windows 10 versions 22H2 and 21H2, with the latter already having reached its end of support. Users may receive notifications about issues that could affect Windows Update's ability to keep their devices secure, including alerts that their version of Windows is nearing the end of its support lifecycle. The official end of Windows 10 is set for October of this year. Microsoft is managing notifications to minimize disruption to users. If users experience issues with the update, they can resolve it by uninstalling the existing KB5001716 from Windows Update.

Tech Optimizer

July 3, 2025

Running high-performance PostgreSQL on Azure Kubernetes Service

PostgreSQL supports 36% of all database workloads on Kubernetes, an increase of 6 percentage points since 2022. Managing PostgreSQL workloads on Kubernetes involves complexities related to StatefulSets, deployments, and performance optimization. Two deployment options for PostgreSQL workloads are available: Azure Container Storage for low-latency, high-IOPS requirements using local NVMe, and Premium SSD v2 for price-performance optimization. Azure Container Storage is a managed solution that dynamically provisions storage backed by local NVMe drives. Benchmark results show PostgreSQL can achieve nearly 15,000 transactions per second (TPS) with low latency using Standard_L16s_v3 VM, and up to 26,000 TPS with larger VMs. Premium SSD v2 supports up to 80,000 IOPS and 1,200 MB/s per volume. Benchmark tests indicated local NVMe achieved 14,812 TPS at 4.321 milliseconds latency, while Premium SSD v2 recorded 8,600 TPS at 7.417 milliseconds latency. The CloudNativePG operator simplifies high availability PostgreSQL deployment on Azure Kubernetes Service, offering built-in replication, automated failover, and application-consistent backups.

Tech Optimizer

July 2, 2025

CompTIA State of the Tech Workforce 2025 released, Meta joins Kotlin Foundation, Percona launches Transparent Data Encryption for PostgreSQL

CompTIA's State of the Tech Workforce 2025 report shows a 1.2% growth in the tech workforce in 2024, totaling 5.9 million professionals, with projections of reaching 6.1 million by 2025. California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Virginia are the leading states in tech employment, while Texas, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, and Tennessee have seen the most growth. Major cities with advancements in tech job opportunities include New York City, Orlando, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, and Baltimore. Meta has joined the Kotlin Foundation to promote Kotlin within its development ecosystem and will contribute to a grants program for open-source library authors. Percona has launched an open-source Transparent Data Encryption extension for PostgreSQL, allowing organizations to secure data at rest without licensing fees or vendor lock-in. The extension supports deployment without application changes, multi-tenant environments, control over encryption strategies, and centralized key management.

Tech Optimizer

July 1, 2025

Fluent Commerce’s approach to near-zero downtime Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL upgrade at 32 TB scale using snapshots and AWS DMS ongoing replication

Fluent Commerce utilizes Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible Edition as its OLTP database engine to manage complex customer search queries. The company migrated to AWS Graviton instances to enhance performance and cost-efficiency, requiring a major version upgrade from Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible 10.14 to 12.4 or higher. The migration involved upgrading over 350 production databases, some as large as 32 TB, using AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) and various upgrade strategies to minimize downtime. The migration process included configuring replication slots, creating snapshots, and validating data between source and target databases. AWS DMS was chosen for its cost-effectiveness, seamless integration with AWS services, and capabilities for ongoing data replication with minimal downtime. The cutover process involved updating application configurations, managing sequence numbers, and ensuring optimal performance through vacuuming and analyzing tables.

Tech Optimizer

July 1, 2025

Percona Launches First-Ever Open Source Transparent Data Encryption for PostgreSQL

Percona has launched its Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) extension for Percona for PostgreSQL, enabling organizations to secure sensitive data at rest and comply with regulations without incurring licensing fees or vendor lock-in. The TDE extension provides automatic and transparent encryption of data, supports compliance with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, and PCI DSS v4.0, and offers features such as open-source availability, stronger data protection, granular user-controlled encryption, seamless integration, centralized key management, minimal performance impact, and trusted support services. The pg_tde extension is now part of the Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL, enhancing security for customers needing encryption compliance.

Winsage

June 30, 2025

Microsoft warns of Windows update delays due to wrong timestamp

Microsoft has acknowledged a delay in the delivery of the June 2025 Windows security updates due to an incorrect metadata timestamp affecting Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems under quality update deferral policies. The update was released on June 10, 2025, but the timestamp shows June 20, 2025, which may cause devices with deferral settings to receive the update later than expected. Microsoft has provided temporary workarounds for administrators, including creating an expedited deployment policy to bypass deferral settings. The delay only affects the timing of update availability for organizations using these policies and does not impact the quality or applicability of the update. Microsoft will not change the metadata timestamp and has confirmed that the provided workaround is the definitive resolution.

Tech Optimizer

June 30, 2025

Supercharging AWS database development with AWS MCP servers

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) facilitates integration between AI systems and various data sources, including databases, APIs, and business applications. AWS has released open-source MCP servers for Amazon Aurora, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon ElastiCache to enhance developer productivity by allowing AI-assisted tools to access structured metadata. MCP standardizes connections between AI assistants and external environments, enabling intelligent suggestions and context-aware query assistance. Traditional development challenges include time spent on boilerplate queries and context switching between different database technologies, which MCP aims to alleviate. The MCP servers provide secure access to structured metadata and streamline the development process by integrating database context directly into development environments. Developers can utilize these servers to generate tests based on live metadata, monitor database performance, and troubleshoot issues efficiently. The MCP servers are available for local deployment using Docker and can be configured for various AWS database services.

Winsage

June 27, 2025

Windows 11 KB5060829 update released with 38 new changes, fixes

Microsoft has released the KB5060829 preview cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2, featuring 38 enhancements, including an improved taskbar and a new PC-to-PC migration experience. This optional update allows Windows administrators to test bug fixes and features before the next Patch Tuesday release. The update focuses on non-security improvements, with the PC-to-PC migration feature expected to roll out in a future update. Adjustments to the taskbar allow for more app icons to be displayed when space is limited. Users can install the update via Settings > Windows Update or manually from the Microsoft Update Catalog. The update elevates Windows 11 24H2 systems to build 26100.4484 and includes fixes for various issues, such as script delays on SMB shares, unresponsive applications when exiting full-screen games, and problems with Windows Hello certificate renewal. A known issue affects CJK text clarity at 96 DPI in Chromium-based browsers. Windows 11 24H2 is broadly deployed, and the Windows 11 2024 Update is being rolled out to eligible Windows 10 22H2 PCs.

Winsage

June 27, 2025

How to configure multiple DHCP scopes on one Windows server

Administrators use the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service to manage IP address configurations for clients efficiently. Deploying multiple DHCP scopes on a single server is more practical than having separate servers for each subnet. DHCP operates through a four-step lease process: discover, offer, request, and acknowledge. To install a DHCP server, the PowerShell cmdlet Install-WindowsFeature DHCP -IncludeManagementTools is used, and the server must be authorized in Active Directory. A single DHCP server can manage multiple scopes, each with specific configurations for different subnets, such as DevNet, ProdNet, SalesNet, and EngineersNet. Each scope can have unique IP address ranges and settings, and additional scopes can be created by adding network interface cards (NICs) to the server. Server options apply globally, while scope options are specific to individual scopes. Reserved IP addresses can also be configured within each scope.

Winsage

June 26, 2025

The Windows Resiliency Initiative: Building resilience for a future-ready enterprise

Resilience is now a strategic necessity for organizations, prompting Microsoft to launch the Windows Resiliency Initiative (WRI) to integrate resilience and security into the Windows platform. In September 2024, Microsoft held the Windows Endpoint Security Ecosystem Summit (WESES) with endpoint security vendors and government representatives to discuss enhancing resilience. Following the summit, collaboration with Microsoft Virus Initiative (MVI) partners has increased, focusing on improving Windows security and reliability through rigorous testing and safe deployment practices. Next month, Microsoft will begin a private preview of a new Windows endpoint security platform for select MVI partners, allowing security solutions to operate outside the Windows kernel for better reliability. Microsoft has released the Windows Resiliency Initiative e-book to guide organizations in building resilience. Innovative products introduced under the WRI include: - Quick machine recovery (QMR) for faster recovery from unexpected restarts, reducing downtime to approximately two seconds. - Microsoft Connected Cache to enhance bandwidth efficiency during updates by caching content locally. - Universal Print anywhere for secure printing from any location. - Hotpatch updates for critical security updates without requiring a restart. - Windows 365 Reserve for secure access to a temporary Cloud PC during device disruptions.