Tag: Azure CLI

Apr012021April 1, 2021June 2, 20210 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Az Next – AI-powered interactive assistant Azure CLI

As you know, the Azure CLI already AI-build in with the az find command, and you might have seen a great feature like AI-powered PowerShell module called Az Predictor Module (Azure PowerShell Predictions), which does what the name says, predict PowerShell commands. Now with az next, the team also brought a similar feature to the Azure CLI. The team’s goal with az next is to guide users through their scenarios or sequence of jobs-to-be-done in tool, so that they could remain focused and avoid unnecessary external documentation searches.

Az next adopts our latest design guidelines and should help making the Azure CLI more approachable for all users, including beginners.

There are two scenarios in which are currently supported. The first one is a simple walkthrough for the next commands as soon as you execute az next. After that, the Azure CLI will return set of command options, which are highly likely to come after your last command. This is super helpful if you are running a sequence of commands, the Azure CLI will provide you with predictive recommendations.

Here for example, the commands after I ran az login and logged in into my Azure environment, followed by az next.

The second one is the end-to-end scenario walkthrough with the aim to help you achieve a specific scenario in mind. In these case the options show up in form of a summary instead of an explicit command, and the tool will guide you through individual command completion.

Getting started with az next

To get started with az next, you can simply start using the preview by downloading the latest Azure CLI. You can log issues or feature requests in our GitHub repo: GitHub – Azure/azure-cli: Azure Command-Line Interface

Configure az next

The first time you run az next, you will be prompted to install the Azure CLI extension.

If your Azure CLI doesn’t automatically ask to install the extension. you can run the following command:

az extension add -n next

Now you can configure az next, to switch between the different modes and experiences.

Set a non-interactive experience:

az config set next.execute_in_prompt = False

Set the options to be more elaborated with parameters

az config set next.show_arugments = True

For additional customization

az next –-help

Learn more

To learn more, check out the full announcement blog for the az next command here on Tech Community.

If you want to learn more about the Az Predictor Module and PowerShell Predictive IntelliSense, check out my blog posts:

Feb112021February 11, 2021February 11, 20212 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

How to check the available VM Sizes (SKUs) by Azure Region

Posted in Microsoft Azure

Do you want to know which Azure VM (virtual machine) sizes are available in an Azure region? Here are some simple ways like the Azure product page, the Azure portal, the Azure CLI, or a simple Azure PowerShell command to list the Azure VM sizes per Azure region. As you know Microsoft Azure has different Azure Regions available around the world. While the teams are working hard to make services available in these regions, it can happen that certain Azure services and virtual machine sizes (SKUs) are not available in some of the regions.

If you want to know more about Azure Regions, check out our Azure geographies.

Available VM Sizes (SKUs) by Azure Region Product Page

Now to check which services are available in your preferred Azure region, I recommend that you check out the Products available by region page on Azure.com. If you search for virtual machines, you will find a list of Azure VM sizes available per region.

Products and services available by Azure region

Azure Portal

When you deploy an Azure VM directly from the portal, you can see the available Azure VM SKUs for the region you have selected.

Available VM Sizes (SKUs) by Azure Region CLI and PowerShell

Now if you are using the command line while working with Azure, might don’t want to always open a web browser, you can simply use the Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell.

Azure CLI

With the Azure CLI you can run the following command. If you haven’t set the default output format to table in your Azure CLI, you can use the -o “table” parameter.

az vm list-sizes --location "eastus"

Azure PowerShell

With Azure PowerShell, you can use the following command

Get-AZVMSize -Location "eastus"

You can also us PowerShell to simply filter for different sizes, suing the Where-Object.

Get-AzVMSize -Location "eastus" | Where {$_.NumberOfCores -gt 128}

Conclusion

I hope this short guide helps you to easily list the find the available Azure VM sizes per region. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

Nov102020November 10, 2020March 8, 20214 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Azure VM Run Command Run PowerShell Script

How to Run Scripts in your Azure VM using Run Command

Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows Server

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.

Jun222020June 22, 2020March 28, 20210 Commentby Thomas Maurer

List Azure Arc Machines Agent Version in Azure Cloud Shell

Get the Azure Connected Machine Agent (Azcmagent) Version

Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Windows Server

Azure Arc Enabled Servers just got another update enabling extensions. This also includes an updated version of the Azure Arc agent or Azure Connected Machine Agent (Azcmagent). To get an overview of what Azure Arc Azure Connected Machine Agent is installed on your machines, you can use several different ways. In this blog post, we are going to have a look at how you can get installed Azure Connected Machine Agent (Azcmagent) version for Azure Arc Enabled Servers.

On the Azure Arc Enabled Server

If you want to check the Azure Connected Machine Agent (Azcmagent) version directly on your Azure Arc enabled server, you can simply run the following command in PowerShell.

azcmagent version

This will list the installed version.

Azure Connected Machine Agent azcmagent Version

In the Azure Portal

You can also see the agent version in the Azure Portal. If you browse to your Azure Arc Enabled Server, you can find the agent version on the overview page.

Azure Portal – Azure Arc Enabled Server

However, if you want to see the agent version for your Azure Arc enabled servers at scale, this isn’t an ideal option.

List Azure Connected Machine Agent (Azcmagent) version for all Azure Arc machines

If you want to see the installed Azure Connected Machine Agent (Azcmagent) version for all your Azure Arce enabled servers at scale, you can use Azure Resource Graph Queries.

This query lists all the Azure Arc enabled machines and shows the installed agent version.

List Azure Arc Machines with Agent Version

You can run the following query in the Azure Resource Graph Explorer in the Azure Portal.

 resources
| where type == "microsoft.hybridcompute/machines"
| extend agentversion = properties.agentVersion
| project name, agentversion, location, resourceGroup, subscriptionId
| order by name

You can also run the query directly in Azure Cloud Shell or on your local machine using Azure PowerShell or the Azure CLI.

List Agent Version in Azure Cloud Shell

Azure CLI

az graph query -q "Resources | where type =~ 'microsoft.hybridcompute/machines' | extend agentversion = properties.agentVersion | project name, agentversion, location, resourceGroup, subscriptionId"

Azure PowerShell

Search-AzGraph -Query "Resources | where type =~ 'microsoft.hybridcompute/machines' | extend agentversion = properties.agentVersion | project name, agentversion, location, resourceGroup, subscriptionId"

If you need an overview of what Azure Connected Machine Agents we have installed and which versions do exist in our environment, you can just use the following Azure Resource Graph query.

Azure Resource Graph Explorer Chart

Azure Resource Graph Explorer

 resources
| where type == "microsoft.hybridcompute/machines"
| extend agentversion = properties.agentVersion
| summarize count() by tostring(agentversion)

Azure PowerShell

Search-AzGraph -Query "Resources | where type =~ 'microsoft.hybridcompute/machines' | summarize count() by tostring(properties.agentVersion)"

Azure CLI

az graph query -q "Resources | where type =~ 'microsoft.hybridcompute/machines' | summarize count() by tostring(properties.agentVersion)"

Conclusion

I hope this blog post provides you with a short overview of how you can make sure which agent versions you have installed on your Azure Arc enabled servers. To learn more about Azure Arc for servers, check out Microsoft Docs. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

Jun162020June 16, 2020June 15, 20200 Commentby Thomas Maurer

How to Configure Azure CLI Default Output Format

Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Azure

The Azure command-line interface (Azure CLI) is a set of commands used to create and manage Azure resources. In this blog post, I am going to show you how you can configure the Azure CLI default output format.

If you have used the Azure resources on your machine or in Azure Cloud Shell, you are aware that if you are running a command, the output you get is in the JSON format. This is great if you are building some sort of automation. However, if you are using in in the command line, it might not be the best way to read the output. You can change the output by using --output table or -o table to make it more human-readable.

To install the Azure CLI check out my blog post here.

How to Configure Azure CLI Default Output

You can also configure the Azure CLI default output to always be a specific type like the table format by running the az configure command. The Azure CLI allows for user configuration for settings such as logging, data collection, output format, and default argument values. You can learn more about the Azure CLI configuration on Microsoft Docs.

Azure CLI az configure

With az configure, you can manage Azure CLI configuration with this command is interactive.

Azure CLI az configure default output

Here you can now change the default output format.

Azure CLI Tip – Use AI to find az commands
If you did use the Azure CLI, you might find this tip very handy. I am talking about the az find command. The az find command provides you with example commands based on Azure documentation and usage patterns of the Azure CLI and Azure Resource Manager users.

Conclusion

I hope this blog post shows you how to configure the Azure CLI default output format. Are you just getting started with the Azure CLI and want some introduction, check out the get started with Azure CLI Microsoft Docs page. If you have any questions let me know in the comments.

Mar022020March 2, 2020October 13, 202167 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

AZ-104 Azure Administrator Exam Study Guide

AZ-104 Study Guide: Azure Administrator

Posted in Certification, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure

I am currently preparing for the new Microsoft exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator, which was announced to replace the AZ-103 exam. There are many great resources out there to prepare for the exam, that’s why I want to share my AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Exam Study Guide with you. To learn and prepare for the exam, I usually use a couple of online resources, mainly Microsoft Docs and Microsoft Learn, which I am going to share with you. You can find more information about how I prepare for a Microsoft Certification exam on my blog post: How to prepare and pass Microsoft Certification Exam.

Also, check out other Microsoft Azure Certification Exam Study Guides:

Here is my AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Exam Study Guide

It is essential to get familiar with the exam objectives and skills measured first. That is why I recommend reading the description of the exam and the skills measured.

Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator

The Azure Administrator implements, manages, and monitors identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment. The Azure Administrator will provision, size, monitor, and adjust resources as appropriate.

Candidates should have a minimum of six months of hands-on experience administering Azure. Candidates should have a strong understanding of core Azure services, Azure workloads, security, and governance. Candidates for this exam should have experience in using PowerShell, the Command Line Interface, Azure Portal, and ARM templates.

The high-level view of the skills measured in the exam:

Manage Azure identities and governance (15-20%)
Implement and manage storage (10-15%)
Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (25-30%)
Configure and manage virtual networking (30-35%)
Monitor and back up Azure resources (10-15%)

You can find more information on the exam website.

Free Online Microsoft Learn AZ-104 Exam Study Guide resources

Microsoft Learn provides you with free online training and learning paths for different Microsoft technologies. They not just offer reading material, but also control questions and free online labs. Here are some relevant Microsoft Learn modules and learning paths for the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Exam. Microsoft Learn is an important part of my AZ-104 Azure Administrator exam study guide.

The team also just made it easier to prepare with the new AZ-104 related learning paths on Microsoft Learn. I highly recommend that you take these for your AZ-104 exam preparation.

Microsoft Docs AZ-104 study guide resources

One thing I always used to prepare for my Microsoft exams is Microsoft Docs. Here are the relevant Microsoft Docs which I used to prepare and study for the AZ-104 exam.

Nov192019November 19, 2019November 18, 20190 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Run Azure Cloud Shell in Windows Admin Center

Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Windows, Windows Server

As you know Windows Admin Center enables you to not just manage Windows Server machines with a web-based user interface, but also to easily connect Azure Hybrid services to your on-premises Windows Server environment. Windows Admin Center allows you to connect services like Azure File Sync, Azure Update Management, Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery and many more to your Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI environment. With the latest release of Windows Admin Center (WAC) which was announced at Microsoft Ignite 2019, we get another hybrid cloud feature. We get a new Azure Cloud Shell extension in Windows Admin Center. 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. We are able to use Cloud Shell directly from the Azure portal, shell.azure.com, in Visual Studio Code, in the new Windows Terminal or even in the Azure mobile app. Now with the new solution/extension, administrators can also run Cloud Shell directly within WAC.

How to run Azure Cloud Shell in Windows Admin Center

First, you will need to enable and install the new Azure Cloud Shell solution. For that open Windows Admin Center, go to Settings and in the menu click on Extensions.

Extensions

Under available extensions, you will find the new Azure Cloud Shell (Preview) extension. Click on Install, the WAC portal will refresh automatically.

After the page has refreshed, the Cloud Shell option will show up in the top menu.

Start Cloud Shell in Windows Admin Center

If you start Azure Cloud Shell for the first time, you will need to login to Azure.

After that, you can run the PowerShell or Bash experience, depending on what you prefer. You also have access to the clouddrive which comes with Cloud Shell.

Azure Cloud Shell in Windows Admin Center

In that, you can run tools like the Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell and much more. If you want to learn more about Azure Cloud Shell, check out my blog post, Mastering Azure with Cloud Shell. Windows Admin Center is a free download to use with your Windows Servers, you can download Windows Admin Center here. If you want to know more about the Hybrid capabilities, check out my blog post on ITOpsTalk.com.

I hope this gives you an overview of how you can run Azure Cloud Shell in Windows Admin Center. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.

Jul302019July 30, 2019July 30, 20192 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

How to Install Azure CLI on Windows (one-liner)

Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows Server

There are many ways you can manage Azure, for example, by using the Azure PowerShell, Cloud Shell, or many other tools. One of them is the Azure CLI, which is a command-line tool providing a management experience for Azure resources. In this blog post, I will show you how you can download, install, and update the Azure CLI on Windows with a simple PowerShell one-liner.

Installation

First, if you want to install the CLI, on Windows, Linux or other platforms, we have some excellent documentation on this on Microsoft Docs.

Install Azure CLI on Windows using a PowerShell One-liner

Install Azure CLI on Windows using PowerShell

Instead of downloading the MSI file manually and install it on your Windows 10 machine, you can run the following PowerShell one-liner to install the Azure CLI. Start PowerShell as administrator and run the following command:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://aka.ms/installazurecliwindows -OutFile .\AzureCLI.msi; Start-Process msiexec.exe -Wait -ArgumentList '/I AzureCLI.msi /quiet'

This will download and install the latest version of the Azure CLI for Windows. If you already have a version installed, it will update the existing version. Reopen PowerShell or the command prompt to start using it, and just type:

az

If you are running behind a proxy, make sure you configure your proxy settings.

Run Azure CLI on Windows using a Docker Container

Run Azure CLI Docker Container on Windows 10

If you have Docker installed, you can also run the CLI in an isolated environment using the mcr.microsoft.com/azure-cli container image and run the following command:

docker run -it mcr.microsoft.com/azure-cli

You can also use the container image as a base for your custom container image. Little fun fact, the container image is based on Linux, and with Linux containers on Windows, it runs great on Windows 10. You can find more information about running the CLI in a Docker container, on Microsoft Docs.

Configuration

After the CLI is installed, you can also configure some default settings.

az configure

One of the settings which I really like to change is the default output from JSON to table. However, you can configure it the way you like it.

az configure

To manage your Azure resources you now need to log in using the login command.

az login

az login

After the login, you will run the commands in the context of the specific user, and start working with your Azure resources.

Azure PowerShell vs. Azure CLI

I often get asked by customers, which one should they use. The short answer is: it depends. I am a long-time PowerShell user, so PowerShell is more natural to me when it comes to scripting. But if someone is using different CLIs in the past, he might prefer the CLI experience. I personally love that PowerShell gives me objects and especially in scripts, this makes things much easier for me. However, when it commands to do something in a one-liner quickly, the Azure CLI experience often works better for me. So it really depends on what you prefer, Microsoft gives you a choice to use whatever works best for you. Yes, not all services are indeed available in both of them. Especially when the service is in preview, it can happen that you only have one of them available. However, the teams are working hard to bring services to both experiences.

By the way, you can always run the latest version in the Azure Cloud Shell. And you can see this runs great if in the newest preview of the new Windows Terminal.

I hope this helps you installing the Azure CLI on Windows if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

Jul222019July 22, 2019July 22, 20190 Commentby Thomas Maurer

SSH Remote Edit File with Visual Studio Code

Remote Edit Files on Azure Linux VMs using VS Code

Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Virtualization, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Windows, Windows Server

There are a lot of different ways to remote manage your Azure virtual machines using various tools and technics. In this blog post, I am going to show you how you can remotely edit files on Azure Linux virtual machines using Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio Code has a new Remote Development Extention which allows you to open any folder in a container, on a remote computer, or in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and take advantage of the VS Code feature set. With the Remote – SSH extensions, you can easily browse and edit files on an Azure VM or any other system where you can connect using SSH.

Installation

As mentioned to edit the files on the Azure Linux virtual machine remotely, we are using the light-weight, cross-platform, opensource editor Visual Studio Code. You can download and install VS Code from the official website.

In addition to Visual Studio code, we need to install the Remote – SSH extension, which comes with Remote Development Extension Pack. This also includes remote extensions for containers or the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

If you are running on a Windows 10 machine, you will also need to install the OpenSSH client on your machine. You can do that going through this blog post, or by running this command.

# Install the OpenSSH Client
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0

Azure VM connection using SSH

The Remote – SSH extensions currently only supports connecting to x86_64 Linux-based SSH servers using key-based authentication.

Optional: Create Azure Linux VM with key-based SSH authentication using the Azure CLI

If you want to try it out, and you haven’t set up a Linux VM SSH and key-based authentication. This Azure CLI command here helps you to create a new Azure virtual machine and sets up ssh keys as well as an optional unique Azure DNS name.

az vm create --resource-group demosshvm --name tomsVM --image UbuntuLTS --admin-username thomas --generate-ssh-keys --public-ip-address-dns-name tomsazurelinuxvm

In this example, you can use the public IP address or the Azure FQDN to connect to the Azure VM. If you have a VPN or Express Route set up, you can also use private IP addresses and DNS names. If you are using public IP addresses in production, make sure you are using a service like Azure Just in Time VM access.

Connect Visual Studio Code to Azure VM using SSH

After you have installed Visual Studio Code, the Remote – SSH extension, the SSH client and have a VM with key-based authentication, you can now easily connect. Open Visual Studio Code, on the bottom left, you see the Remote connection button. If you press it, you will find the remoting options. Select “Remote-SSH: Connect to Host…”

This will ask you for the username and IP address or DNS name of the virtual machine. In my case, I am going to use the DNS name.

After pressing enter, this will connect your Visual Studio Code environment to the Azure virtual machine.

Remote edit files on Azure Linux VMs using VS Code

You can start opening folders and files on the remote Azure Linux VM and begin browsing the file system. On the bottom left, you see the name or IP address of the machine you are connected with.

You can also open files and start remote edit files on your Azure Linux VM. If you save the changes you made to the file, this is directly saved on the remote Azure virtual machine.

You get all the advanced VS Code features you know from your local Visual Studio Code like syntax-highlighting and more.

I hope this shows you an easy way to remotely edit files on your Azure Linux virtual machines using Visual Studio Code and SSH. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.

Apr302019April 30, 2019May 1, 20190 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Mastering Azure using Cloud Shell Session

Video: Mastering Azure using Cloud Shell, PowerShell and Bash!

Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Office 365, PowerShell, Thomas Maurer

At the NetWork 9 Conference in Neum and at the Global Azure Bootcamp in Switzerland, I presented my session about Mastering Azure using Cloud Shell. Since I got a lot of requests for the session to be online, I recorded my presentation and made it available for everyone. The presentation is a live demo and summary of my blog post “Mastering Azure with Cloud Shell“, which gives you an overview about the Cloud Shell and some of the advanced stuff you can do.

In the session you learn:

Overview about Cloud Shell
Azure PowerShell and Bash experience
Persistent Storage using Azure Files
Azure Drive
Third party tools
Editors
Visual Studio Code integration
Using Git as Source Control
Remote manage Azure virtual machines
Integration of Cloud Shell in Microsoft Docs, Microsoft Learn and more
Cloud Shell in the Azure Mobile App
and more.

I hope you enjoy watching it and let me know what you think in the comments.

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Tag: Azure CLI

Az Next – AI-powered interactive assistant Azure CLI

Getting started with az next

Configure az next

Learn more

How to check the available VM Sizes (SKUs) by Azure Region

Available VM Sizes (SKUs) by Azure Region Product Page

Azure Portal

Available VM Sizes (SKUs) by Azure Region CLI and PowerShell

Conclusion

How to Run Scripts in your Azure VM using Run Command

Azure VM Run Command in the Azure Portal

Get the Azure Connected Machine Agent (Azcmagent) Version

On the Azure Arc Enabled Server

In the Azure Portal

List Azure Connected Machine Agent (Azcmagent) version for all Azure Arc machines

Conclusion

How to Configure Azure CLI Default Output Format

How to Configure Azure CLI Default Output

Conclusion

AZ-104 Study Guide: Azure Administrator

Here is my AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Exam Study Guide

Free Online Microsoft Learn AZ-104 Exam Study Guide resources

Microsoft Docs AZ-104 study guide resources

Remote Edit Files on Azure Linux VMs using VS Code

Installation

Azure VM connection using SSH

Optional: Create Azure Linux VM with key-based SSH authentication using the Azure CLI

Connect Visual Studio Code to Azure VM using SSH

Remote edit files on Azure Linux VMs using VS Code

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