How to Run Scripts in your Azure VM using Run Command

You can access your Azure IaaS virtual machine (VM) in multiple ways like SSH or RDP, depending on your operating system and configuration. However, if you have issues with the RDP or SSH network configuration, you need to have a way to troubleshoot your virtual machine (VM). Luckily Azure offers you different management tools to work with Azure VMs for automation or troubleshooting. With the Run Command can run a PowerShell or shell script within an Azure VM remotely by using the VM agent. This scenario is especially useful when you need to troubleshoot operating system network configurations or user access configuration. For example, it can be convenient to reset RDP configurations on Windows Server virtual machines.

You use Run Command for Azure VMs through the Azure portal, REST API, Azure CLI, or PowerShell. Here are some examples:

Azure VM Run Command in the Azure Portal

You can run the command directly from the Azure Portal. In the menu of the Azure VM, you can select Run command. Here you can find some predefined scripts to troubleshoot your Azure VM. In the case of a Windows VM, you will find scripts like configuring RDP port or enable PowerShell remoting. But you can also run your custom PowerShell script.

Azure VM Run Command Run PowerShell Script

For Linux VMs, you will find predefined options to run a Linux shell script or ifconfig to list the network configuration.

Azure CLI

Azure CLI az vm run-command invoke

You also run commands directly from the Azure CLI using the following command:

az vm run-command invoke -g myResourceGroup -n myVm --command-id RunShellScript --scripts "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y nginx"

This “az vm run-command” CLI command works with Linux and Windows VMs on Azure. You can find more information about the Azure CLI option here.

You can also run the Azure CLI directly from Cloud Shell. You can learn more about the Azure Cloud Shell on my blog: Mastering Azure with Cloud Shell.

Azure PowerShell

You can also use Azure PowerShell to use the run command capabilities to run PowerShell scripts against the guest agent inside the Azure VM. For that, you can simply use the Invoke-AzVMRunCommand cmdlet from the Az PowerShell module.

Invoke-AzVMRunCommand to Invoke PowerShell script against an Azure VM

You can also run this command directly from Azure Cloud Shell as well.

Invoke-AzVMRunCommand -ResourceGroupName '<myResourceGroup>' -Name '<myVMName>' -CommandId 'RunPowerShellScript' -ScriptPath '<pathToScript>' -Parameter @{"arg1" = "var1";"arg2" = "var2"}

The cmdlet expects the script referenced in the -ScriptPath parameter to be local to where the cmdlet is being run. If you are running it from your local machine, the script will need to be stored on your machine. If you are running the script from Cloud Shell, you will need to have the script available in your Cloud Shell. You can find more information about the Invoke-AzVMRunCommand PowerShell cmdlet option here.

Quick side note, with PowerShell 7, you can also run PowerShell Remoting over SSH.

Conclusion

The Run Command option is a great solution if you need to run scripts inside an Azure VM using the guest agent to troubleshoot network or access configurations. If you want to learn more, you can find more about the Run Command here on Microsoft Docs.

• Az Command Windows VMs
• Az Command Linux VMs

You can also find more information about the Azure Virtual Machine guest agent here:

• Windows Agent
• Linux Agent

I hope this blog post was helpful and provides you a great overview of how you can run commands against your Azure VMs, especially in troubleshooting scenarios. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment. I am always looking for new helpful content, so if you have any ideas of articles or videos, please reach out to  me using the comments and I will see what I can do.