Category: PowerShell

Sep282020September 28, 2020September 27, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
CloudSkills fm Podcast - Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

CloudSkills.fm Podcast – Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft MVP, PowerShell, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Webinar

Last week I had the honor to speak with Mike Pfeiffer on his CloudSkills.fm post cast, about Azure Archtiecture and much more. This is my second apperance in the CloudSkills.fm podcast, last year I was speaking about Azure Hybrid Cloud Management. In this episode of the CloudSkills.fm podcast, Mike Peiffer and I dive into Azure Architecture. Learn about Enterprise Scale Landing Zones, Azure Bicep, the Well Architected Framework, and more.

CloudSkills.fm podcast Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

Thomas Maurer works as a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. As part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI), he engages with the community and customers around the world to share his knowledge and collect feedback to improve the Azure platform.

In this episode, we talk about…

  • Thomas is working with Azure Architecture to make it easier for clients to operate cloud tech
  • Azure Architecture is made up of three main parts
  • Reasons that people have not heard about Azure Arc
  • Cloud Adoption Framework will assist those looking to build their company with Azure
  • Enterprise Scale Landing Zones help plan and set up Azure environment
  • How the automation for the Visio landing zone operates
  • Azure Bicep makes it easier to write and write ARM templates
  • It is still very early on in the development of Azure Bicep
  • Microsoft Learn helps people learn all about Microsoft, not just Azure
  • Microsoft Build provides a 24/7 video platform as a learning resource
  • Advice for those that want to get into content creation
  • Collaborating with others is incredibly important for growth
  • Well-Architected Framework vs. Cloud Adoption Framework at Microsoft
  • It never helps anyone to act like a jerk; be polite
  • Even bad advice provides value if you look at it correctly

You can listen to the episode here: CloudSkills.fm Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

About CloudSkills.fm

CloudSkills.fm is a weekly podcast with technical tips and career advice for people working with cloud-native technologies. This show is for developers, IT pros, or anyone making a career move into the cloud. Episodes will be short and to the point and will regularly feature experts who share their experiences.

This show is hosted by Mike Pfeiffer, a twenty-year tech industry veteran, entrepreneur, Pluralsight author, and Microsoft Azure MVP. If you enjoy the show and want more tips delivered to your mailbox every week, subscribe to CloudSkills Weekly at cloudskills.io/subscribe.

Conclusion

It is always fun to speak with Mike and I highly recommend his podcast. I hope you enjoyed CloudSkills.fm Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer. If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know in the comments.


Sep102020September 10, 2020September 10, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Automatic VM Guest OS Patching

How to configure Azure Automatic VM guest OS patching

Posted in Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019

If you want to keep your Azure virtual machines (VMs) up-to-date, then there is a service called Azure Update Management, which helps you to manage updates on your Azure VM guest operating system. However, this needed some additional planning and configuration. To make patching of your Azure virtual machines (VMs) easier, there is a new option called Automatic VM guest patching, which helps ease update management by safely and automatically patching virtual machines to maintain security compliance.

Automatic VM guest patching is now available in public preview for Windows virtual machines on Azure.

With Azure automatic VM guest patching enabled, the VM is assessed periodically to check for available operating system patches for that Azure VM. Updates classified as ‘Critical’ or ‘Security’ are automatically downloaded and installed on the VM during off-peak hours. This patch orchestration is managed and handled by Azure and patches are applied following availability-first principles.

In a nutshell, Azure automatic VM guest patching has the following capabilities:

  • Patches classified as Critical or Security are automatically downloaded and applied on the VM.
  • Patches are applied during off-peak hours in the VM’s time zone.
  • Patch orchestration is managed by Azure and patches are applied following availability-first principles.
  • Virtual machine health, as determined through platform health signals, is monitored to detect patching failures.
  • Works for all VM sizes.

Patches are installed within 30 days of the monthly Windows Update release, following availability-first orchestration described below. Patches are installed only during off-peak hours for the VM, depending on the time zone of the VM. The VM must be running during the off-peak hours for patches to be automatically installed. If a VM is powered off during a periodic assessment, the VM will be automatically assessed and applicable patches will be installed automatically during the next periodic assessment when the VM is powered on.

You can find more information on Azure automatic VM guest patching on Microsoft Docs.

How to enable Azure Automatic VM guest OS patching

To enable Azure automatic VM guest OS (operating system) patching, we currently have a couple of requirements.

  • Currently, only Windows VMs are supported (Preview). Currently, Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019 Datacenter SKUs are supported. (and more are added periodically).
  • Only VMs created from certain OS platform images are currently supported in the preview. Which means custom images are currently not supported in the preview.
  • The virtual machine must have the Azure VM Agent installed.
  • The Windows Update service must be running on the virtual machine.
  • The virtual machine must be able to access Windows Update endpoints. If your virtual machine is configured to use Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), the relevant WSUS server endpoints must be accessible.
  • Use Compute API version 2020-06-01 or higher.

These requirements might change in the future during the preview phase (for the current requirements check out Microsoft Docs).

During the preview, this feature requires a one-time opt-in for the feature InGuestAutoPatchVMPreview per subscription. You can run the following Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI command.

Azure PowerShell:

# Register AzProvider
Register-AzProviderFeature -FeatureName InGuestAutoPatchVMPreview -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.Compute
 
# Check the registration status
Get-AzProviderFeature -FeatureName InGuestAutoPatchVMPreview -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.Compute
 
# Once the feature is registered for your subscription, complete the opt-in process by changing the Compute resource provider.
Register-AzResourceProvider -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.Compute

Now you can enable automatic VM guest patching for your Azure virtual machines within that subscription. To do that you can currently use the REST API, Azure PowerShell, or the Azure CLI.

With Azure CLI, you can use the az vm get-instance-view .

az vm update --resource-group test-autopatch-rg--name azwinvm01 --set osProfile.windowsConfiguration.enableAutomaticUpdates=true osProfile.windowsConfiguration.patchSettings.patchMode=AutomaticByPlatform

You can see that there are two important parameters for this cmdlet. First the -enableAutoUpdate and secondly the -PatchMode. There are currently three different patch orchestration modes you can configure.

AutomaticByPlatform

  • This mode enables automatic VM guest patching for the Windows virtual machine and subsequent patch installation is orchestrated by Azure.
  • Setting this mode also disables the native Automatic Updates on the Windows virtual machine to avoid duplication.
  • This mode is only supported for VMs that are created using the supported OS platform images above.

AutomaticByOS

  • This mode enables Automatic Updates on the Windows virtual machine, and patches are installed on the VM through Automatic Updates.
  • This mode is set by default if no other patch mode is specified.

Manual

  • This mode disables Automatic Updates on the Windows virtual machine.
  • This mode should be set when using custom patching solutions.

If you need more control, I recommend that you have a look at Azure Update Management, which is already publicly available and also supports Windows and Linux servers running in Azure or on-premises.

To verify whether automatic VM guest patching has completed and the patching extension is installed on the VM, you can review the VM’s instance view.

az vm get-instance-view --resource-group test-autopatch-rg --name azwinvm01

This will show you the following result:

Azure Automatic VM Guest OS Patching Status

Azure Automatic VM Guest OS Patching Status

You can also create the patch assessment on-demand.

Invoke-AzVmPatchAssessment -ResourceGroupName "myResourceGroup" -VMName "myVM"

I hope this provides you with an overview of the new Azure automatic VM guest patching feature. If you want to have some advanced capabilities to manage updates for your Azure VMs and even your servers running on-premises, check out Azure Update Management. This will provide you with some advanced settings and your own maintenance schedules. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.


Aug202020August 20, 2020August 20, 20201Commentby Thomas Maurer
Hyper-V VM Stop-VM failed to change state

Force Hyper-V Virtual Machine VM to turn off

Posted in Containers, Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019

In this blog post, we are going to have a look at how you can force a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM) to turn off using the HCSDiag tool. A couple of days ago I had an issue where I wasn’t able to shut down and turn off a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM). After I tried to shut down the Hyper-V VM using the Hyper-V Manager the VM was in a locked state and I couldn’t really do anything with it. Of course the first thing I tried using the PowerShell Stop-VM cmdlet with the force parameter to turn off the virtual machine.

Hyper-V VM Stop-VM failed to change state

Hyper-V VM Stop-VM failed to change state

But as you can see I had no success. Luckily I remembered a tool called the Hyper-V Host Compute Service Diagnostics Tool (HCSDiag.exe), which provides me with a couple of advanced options when it comes to Hyper-V virtual machine, container, and Windows Sandbox management.

The Hyper-V Host Compute Service Diagnostics Tool (HCSDiag.exe) is available in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 if you have the Hyper-V roles or virtualization features enabled, and can be helpful to troubleshoot Hyper-V containers, virtual machines (VMs), Windows Sandbox, Windows Defender Application Guard, Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 and more.

Hyper-V Get-VM list VMiD

Hyper-V Get-VM list VM ID

HCSDiag allows me to list all the running Hyper-V containers, including virtual machines. With the HCSDiag kill command, I can then force the Hyper-V VM to turn off.

Force Turn Off of Hyper-V virtual machine VM

Force Turn Off of Hyper-V virtual machine VM

I hope this post was helpful if you have a Hyper-V VM which you can’t turn off. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. You can find more information about the HCSDiag tool, how it works with containers and other tools here on my blog.


Aug182020August 18, 2020August 17, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Eject ISO from Hyper-V VM using PowerShell

Eject ISO from Hyper-V VM using PowerShell

Posted in Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019

This is one of these quick and dirty blog posts mostly as a note for myself. Hyper-V offers the capability to add an ISO image to a virtual CD/DVD drive and you can use Hyper-V Manager to do that, or you can also use PowerShell. Here is how you can eject or remove an ISO from a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM) using PowerShell.

This works with Hyper-V on Windows Server and on Windows 10.

Remove or eject ISO from Hyper-V VM using PowerShell

To remove or eject the ISO file from a Hyper-V VM virtual DVD drive, you can use the following PowerShell command:

Find the right DVD drive

Get-VMDvdDrive -VMName "Windows10"

Eject the ISO file from the Hyper-V VM

Get-VMDvdDrive -VMName "Windows10" | Set-VMDvdDrive -Path $null

You can also pipe these commands

Get-VM -VMName "Windows10" | Get-VMDvdDrive | Set-VMDvdDrive -Path $null

If you have multiple DVD drives and controllers on VM, you can also use the following command to be more specific on which ISO to eject.

Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName Windows10 -ControllerNumber 0 -ControllerLocation 1 -Path $null

You can also simply add an ISO to the Hyper-V virtual DVD drive:

Get-VMDvdDrive -VMName "Windows10" | Set-VMDvdDrive -Path "C:\ISO\myisofile.iso"

Be aware that it takes a moment until the ISO file is removed from the virtual DVD drive. You can find more information on the Set-VMDvdDrive cmdlet on Microsoft Docs.

Conclusion

If you want to build some automation around Hyper-V on Windows 10 or on Windows Server, PowerShell is the way to go. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.


Aug112020August 11, 2020August 25, 20202Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Connect Azure Cloud Shell to virtual network vNet

Connect Azure Cloud Shell to Virtual Network vNet

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell

As you know, Azure Cloud Shell is a great management tool to manage your Azure resources. Azure Cloud Shell is an interactive, authenticated, browser-accessible shell for managing Azure resources. It provides the flexibility of choosing the shell experience that best suits the way you work, either Bash or PowerShell. You can learn more about Azure Cloud Shell here. If you wanted to manage Azure resources such as Azure virtual machines (VMs), you needed to connect to a public IP address of a virtual machine, which really didn’t work in all scenarios. With the latest update, you can now connect Azure Cloud Shell to an Azure virtual network (vNet). With the new method, you can now deploy the Azure Cloud Shell container within your virtual network (vNet), which now allows you to use PowerShell remoting, SSH, or other command-line tools such as kubctl using private IP addresses.

Requirements

Before you can use Cloud Shell in your own Azure Virtual Network, you will need to create some resources to support this functionality. 

  • Virtual Network – The virtual network in which the resources are located you want to manage or the network that peers with a virtual network where your Azure resources are.
  • Subnet – In that virtual network you will need a dedicated subnet to host Cloud Shell containers.
  • Network profile
  • Azure Relay – An Azure Relay allows two endpoints that are not directly reachable to communicate.
  • Storage Account – The storage account needs to be accessible from the virtual network that is used by Cloud Shell.

There are also some considerations you need to be aware of, such as currently supported Azure regions during the preview, Azure Relay adds additional cost and slower startup speed of Cloud Shell containers. You can learn more about the requirements here.

Connect Azure Cloud Shell to a virtual network

To make the deployment easy, there are Azure Resource Manager templates available to deploy the necessary network and storage resources. In my step by step guide, I already have a virtual network deployed within my subscription with the resources I manage. If you don’t have that yet, and you want to try this out, you will need to create a resource group and a virtual network.

Simply the deploy the following two templates:

Deploy Azure Cloud Shell Network ARM template

Deploy Azure Cloud Shell Network ARM template

You can get the Azure Container Instance OID by running the following command:

Get-AzADServicePrincipal -DisplayNameBeginsWith 'Azure Container Instance'

Also, make sure that the subnet ranges are part of the address range in your virtual network.

Reconnect Cloud Shell

If you have used Azure Cloud Shell before, you will need to reconnect that to the specific resources. You can simply run the command “cloudrive unmount” or “dismount-cloudrive”.

After that you can reconnect your Cloud Shell and select the isolated network option. Keep in mind this feature is currently in preview, and only available in West US and West Central US.

Connect Azure Cloud Shell to virtual network

Connect Azure Cloud Shell to virtual network

This will then take a moment to deploy.

Requesting a container

Requesting a container

After the Cloud Shell container is deployed within the virtual network, you can now start using private IP addresses within that virtual network or virtual networks that are peered.

SSH into Azure VM with Private IP address from Cloud Shell

SSH into Azure VM with Private IP address from Cloud Shell

I hope this blog gives you a short overview of how you can integrate Cloud Shell in your private Azure virtual network. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.


Aug042020August 4, 2020August 4, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Add ISO DVD Drive to a Hyper-V VM using PowerShell

Add ISO DVD Drive to a Hyper-V VM using PowerShell

Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019

Hyper-V offers the capability to add an ISO image to a virtual CD/DVD drive and you can use Hyper-V Manager to do that, or you can also use PowerShell. Here is how you can add an ISO to a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM) using PowerShell. There are two ways of doing it if you already have a virtual DVD drive attached to the VM or if you need to add a virtual DVD drive.

This works with Hyper-V on Windows Server and on Windows 10.

Attach ISO to an existing DVD Drive on a Hyper-V VM using PowerShell

To attach an ISO file to an existing virtual DVD drive on a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM) using PowerShell, you can use the following command:

Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName Windows10 -Path "C:\Users\thoma\Downloads\ubuntu-18.04.4-live-server-amd64.iso"

Add ISO file and DVD Drive to a Hyper-V VM using PowerShell

If your Hyper-V virtual machine doesn’t have a virtual DVD drive attached to it, you can add a virtual DVD drive including the ISO file with the following PowerShell command:

Add-VMDvdDrive -VMName "Windows10" -Path "C:\Users\thoma\Downloads\ubuntu-18.04.4-live-server-amd64.iso"

If you run this command on a virtual machine, which already has a virtual DVD drive attached, you will simply add a second virtual DVD drive to this machine. You can find more information on the Add-VMDvdDrive cmdlet on Microsoft Docs.

Conclusion

If you want to build some automation around Hyper-V on Windows 10 or on Windows Server, PowerShell is the way to go. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.


Jul222020July 22, 2020July 22, 202013Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Microsoft Azure Stack HCI version 20H2

Azure Stack HCI version 20H2 – everything you need to know!

Posted in Azure Arc, Azure Stack HCI, Cloud, Hardware, Hybrid Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows Admin Center, Windows Server

Microsoft just announced the new Azure Stack HCI, delivered as an Azure hybrid service, at Microsoft Inspire 2020. Azure Stack HCI, as a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solution, is expanding the Azure Stack portfolio to offer a comprehensive and flexible lineup of edge infrastructure and hybrid cloud environments. In this blog post, I want you to provide you with an overview of the new Azure Stack HCI, version 20H2.

You can also find the full announcement blog on Azure.com.

What’s Azure Stack HCI

Azure Stack HCI is a hyper-converged cluster solution that runs virtualized Windows and Linux workloads in a hybrid on-premises environment. Some of the most popular use cases are datacenter modernization, Remote/Branch office scenarios, SQL Server based virtual applications, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, and running Kubernetes clusters.

  • Hyperconverged infrastructure stack – The Azure Stack HCI operating system is based on core components from Windows Server, and it is designed and optimized on being the best virtualization host and hyper-converged platform. It is enhanced with software from Azure that includes our latest hypervisor with built-in software-defined storage and networking, that you install on servers you control, on your premises. This provides additional functionally, features and performance.
  • Delivered as an Azure hybrid service – Azure Stack HCI is now delivered as an Azure service with a subscription-based licensing model and hybrid capabilities built-in. You can enhance the cluster with Azure hybrid capabilities such as cloud-based monitoring, site recovery, and backup, as well as a central view of all of your Azure Stack HCI deployments in the Azure portal.
  • Familiar for IT to manage and operate – Runs on your choice of hardware, from your preferred vendor, and continue using the tools and processes your team already knows to manage virtual machines, including Windows Admin Center, System Center, and PowerShell.

This new Azure Stack HCI product takes its name from a program that Microsoft has run for several years with recent versions of Windows Server. That program was very popular, and it’s what inspired this new product.

Azure Stack HCI - Inspired by its popular predecessor

Azure Stack HCI – Inspired by its popular predecessor

Part of the Azure Stack Portfolio

Azure Stack HCI joins the growing family of Azure Stack solutions, which offers a comprehensive and flexible lineup of edge infrastructure. The Azure Stack portfolio ranges from Azure Stack Hub, which is an extension of Azure, bringing the agility and innovation of cloud computing to your on-premises environment, to Azure Stack Edge, which brings Azure compute for AI and machine learning at the edge.

Azure Stack HCI version 20H2 - Part of the Azure Stack portfolio

Azure Stack HCI version 20H2 – Part of the Azure Stack portfolio

You can learn more about the Azure Stack portfolio on Azure.com.

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    Thomas Maurer

    My name is Thomas Maurer. I am a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. I am part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI) and engage with the community and customers around the world. I am located in Switzerland. I am focusing on Microsoft technologies, especially cloud and datacenter solutions based on Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack and Windows Server. Opinions are my own.

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