Tag: Linux

Jul102019July 10, 2019July 10, 20193Commentsby Thomas Maurer
PowerShell 7 Installer

How to Install and Update PowerShell 7

Posted in Microsoft, PowerShell, Software, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Work

Currently, you can install the cross-platform version PowerShell Core 6 on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Early April the PowerShell team announced the next release called PowerShell 7. PowerShell 7 is built on .NET Core 3 and brings back many APIs required by modules built on .NET Framework so that they work with .NET Core runtime. While PowerShell Core 6 was focusing on bringing cross-platform compatibility, PowerShell 7 will focus on making it a viable replacement for Windows PowerShell 5.1 and bringing near parity with Windows PowerShell. Here is how you can install and update PowerShell 7 (preview) on Windows and Linux using a simple one-liner.

If you want to know more about the roadmap, check out Steves blog post.

One great example of how cross-platform PowerShell can work, check out my blog post: How to set up PowerShell SSH Remoting.

Install PowerShell 7 (Preview)

As mentioned PowerShell 7 is currently in preview. You can download and install it manually from GitHub. However, the easiest way to install it is to use the following one-liners created by Steve Lee (Microsoft Principal Software Engineer Manager in the PowerShell Team). You can also use the same one-liners with different parameters to install the current GA version of PowerShell 6.

If you are installing the PowerShell 7 Preview, this will be a side by side installation with PowerShell 6. You can use the pwsh-preview command to run version 7.

One-liner to install or update PowerShell 7 on Windows 10

Install and Update PowerShell 7

You can use this single command in Windows PowerShell to install PowerShell 7. The difference between the installation of version 6 versus version 7 is the -Preview flag.

iex "& { $(irm https://aka.ms/install-powershell.ps1) } -UseMSI -Preview"

There are additional switches to, for example, install daily builds of the latest PowerShell previews.

-Destination
The destination path to install PowerShell Core to.

-Daily
Install PowerShell Core from the daily build.
Note that the ‘PackageManagement’ module is required to install a daily package.

-Preview
Install the latest preview, which is currently version 7. This will

-UseMSI
Use the MSI installer.

-Quiet
The quiet command for the MSI installer.

-DoNotOverwrite
Do not overwrite the destination folder if it already exists.

-AddToPath
On Windows, add the absolute destination path to the ‘User’ scope environment variable ‘Path’;
On Linux, make the symlink ‘/usr/bin/pwsh’ points to “$Destination/pwsh”;
On MacOS, make the symlink ‘/usr/local/bin/pwsh’ points to “$Destination/pwsh”.

One-liner to install or update PowerShell 7 on Linux

Install PowerShell 7 on Linux

You can use this as a single command to install PowerShell 7 on Linux

wget https://aka.ms/install-powershell.sh; sudo bash install-powershell.sh -preview; rm install-powershell.sh

Depending on your distro you are using, this will register Microsoft’s pkg repos and install that package (deb or rpm).

You can also use the following switches:

-includeide
Installs VSCode and VSCode PowerShell extension (only relevant to machines with a desktop environment)

-interactivetesting
Do a quick launch test of VSCode (only applicable when used with -includeide)

-skip-sudo-check
Use sudo without verifying its availability (hard to accurately do on some distros)

-preview
Installs the latest preview release of PowerShell side-by-side with any existing production releases

To currently run the PowerShell Preview, you can run the following command:

pwsh-preview

After Installing

After you have installed PowerShell 7, also make sure to update PowerShellGet and the PackageManagement module.

Remember PowerShell 7 is still currently in preview, if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.


Jun262019June 26, 2019June 26, 20190Commentby Thomas Maurer
Ubuntu VM on Windows 10

How to create an Ubuntu VM on Windows 10

Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10

Windows 10 is not just a modern desktop operating system, and it also has some great IT Pro and Developer related features build in. One of them is client Hyper-V. This is the same hypervisor which powers virtualization in Windows Server and the Microsoft Azure datacenters. With Hyper-V, you can create virtual machines running on Windows 10, without the need for third-party software. You can not just run Windows virtual machines, and you can also run Linux virtual machines. In this blog post, I am going to show you how you can create an Ubuntu VM on Windows 10 using Hyper-V.

If you want to know more about Hyper-V on Windows 10, check out the Microsoft Docs.

Install Hyper-V

First, you will need to install Hyper-V on your Windows 10 computer. Hyper-V on Windows 10 has the following requirements:

  • Windows 10 Enterprise, Professional, or Education (Home does not have the Hyper-V feature included)
  • 64-bit Processor with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
  • CPU support for VM Monitor Mode Extension (VT-c on Intel CPU’s)
  • Minimum of 4 GB memory

The easiest way to enable Hyper-V on Windows 10 is to run the following PowerShell command as an administrator:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V -All

After you have installed Hyper-V, you need to restart your computer.

Create an Ubuntu virtual machine on Windows 10

To create an Ubuntu virtual machine on Windows 10 Hyper-V, you could download the Ubuntu ISO file and install it like any operating system. However, there is a much easier way, using the Hyper-V Quick Create feature. In the Hyper-V VM Gallery, you will find not just two Windows 10 virtual machines; you will also currently find Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 19.04. These are prepared Hyper-V virtual machines images, ready for you to download and install.

Ubuntu Hyper-V VM Images

Select the Ubuntu version you want to install and click on Create Virtual Machine. This will start downloading the virtual machine image.

Downloading Ubuntu Hyper-V VM Image

After the image is downloaded, you can either connect to the virtual machine and start it, or you can first modify the virtual machine settings.

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Hyper-V VM

Optional: If you click on Edit settings, you will be able to configure the virtual machine hardware settings like vCPU or vRAM. You can also enable Secure Boot. If you enable Secure Boot for a Linux virtual machine, make sure you change the Secure Boot template to Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority.

Ubuntu Hyper-V UEFI Secure Boot Settings

You can now start the Ubuntu VM.

Start Ubuntu hyper-V VM

 

This will boot you in the Ubuntu installation, where you can set up your Ubuntu operating system.

Install Ubuntu VM

All the specific Hyper-V drivers for Ubuntu, are already included in the image. This allows you to use features like Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode, which enables you also to use copy-paste, and others.

Ubuntu VM on Windows 10

I hope this gives you a step-by-step guide, how you can create an Ubuntu VM on Windows 10 using Hyper-V. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.


May282019May 28, 2019May 30, 20190Commentby Thomas Maurer
How to Install AzCopy

How to Install AzCopy for Azure Storage

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Windows, Windows 10, Work

AzCopy is a command-line tool to manage and copy blobs or files to or from a storage account. It also allows you to sync storage accounts and move files from Amazon S3 to Azure storage. In this blog post, I will cover how to install AzCopy on Windows, Linux, macOS, or in update the version in the Azure Cloud Shell.

AzCopy v10 is now generally available to all of our customers and provides higher throughput and more efficient data movement compared to the earlier version of AzCopy (v8). Version 10 also adds additional functionality like sync of blob storage accounts and much more.

Install AzCopy

You can get the latest version of AzCopy from here: Get started with AzCopy

Install AzCopy on Windows

To install AzCopy on Windows, you can run the following PowerShell script, or you can download the zip file and run it from where ever you want. This script will add the AzCopy folder location to your system path so that you can run the AzCopy command from anywhere.

 
#Download AzCopy
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://aka.ms/downloadazcopy-v10-windows" -OutFile AzCopy.zip -UseBasicParsing
 
#Curl.exe option (Windows 10 Spring 2018 Update (or later))
curl.exe -L -o AzCopy.zip https://aka.ms/downloadazcopy-v10-windows
 
#Expand Archive
Expand-Archive ./AzCopy.zip ./AzCopy -Force
 
#Move AzCopy to the destination you want to store it
Get-ChildItem ./AzCopy/*/azcopy.exe | Move-Item -Destination "C:\Users\thmaure\AzCopy\AzCopy.exe"
 
#Add your AzCopy path to the Windows environment PATH (C:\Users\thmaure\AzCopy in this example), e.g., using PowerShell:
$userenv = [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User")
[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", $userenv + ";C:\Users\thmaure\AzCopy", "User")

Install AzCopy on Linux

To install AzCopy on Linux, you can run the following shell script, or you can download the tar file and run it from where ever you want. This script will put the AzCopy executable into the /usr/bin folder so that you can run it from anywhere.

 
#Download AzCopy
wget https://aka.ms/downloadazcopy-v10-linux
 
#Expand Archive
tar -xvf downloadazcopy-v10-linux
 
#(Optional) Remove existing AzCopy version
sudo rm /usr/bin/azcopy
 
#Move AzCopy to the destination you want to store it
sudo cp ./azcopy_linux_amd64_*/azcopy /usr/bin/

Authorize with Azure Storage

When you start working with Azure Storage, you have two options to authorize against the Azure Storage. You can provide authorization credentials by using Azure Active Directory (AD), or by using a Shared Access Signature (SAS) token.

It also depends on which services you want to use.

Storage typeSupported method
Blob storageAzure AD and SAS
Blob storage (hierarchical namespace)Azure AD
File storageSAS only

Authenticate using Azure AD

To authenticate with AzCopy using Azure AD, you can use the following command

 
azcopy login

Authenticate using SAS token

To authenticate with AzCopy using a SAS token you can use this command as an example

 
azcopy cp "C:\local\path" "https://account.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer1/?sv=2018-03-28&ss=bjqt&srt=sco&sp=rwddgcup&se=2019-05-01T05:01:17Z&st=2019-04-30T21:01:17Z&spr=https&sig=MGCXiyEzbtttkr3ewJIh2AR8KrghSy1DGM9ovN734bQF4%3D" --recursive=true

To make things easier you can use Azure PowerShell to generate the SAS token for you. I wrote a blog post on ITOPSTALK.com about how you can do that. You can get the SAS token using the following Azure PowerShell command. If you are running Linux or macOS, you can find on this blog post, how to install PowerShell 6.

 
Connect-AzAccount
Get-AzSubscription
 
$subscriptionId = "yourSubscriptionId"
$storageAccountRG = "demo-azcopy-rg"
$storageAccountName = "tomsaccount"
$storageContainerName = "images"
$localPath = "C:\temp\images"
 
Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId $SubscriptionId
 
$storageAccountKey = (Get-AzStorageAccountKey -ResourceGroupName $storageAccountRG -AccountName $storageAccountName).Value[0]
 
$destinationContext = New-AzStorageContext -StorageAccountName $storageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $storageAccountKey
 
$containerSASURI = New-AzStorageContainerSASToken -Context $destinationContext -ExpiryTime(get-date).AddSeconds(3600) -FullUri -Name $storageContainerName -Permission rw
 
azcopy copy $localPath $containerSASURI --recursive

To learn more about SAS tokens, check out Using shared access signatures (SAS).

I hope this helps you to install AzCopy and configure it. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.


Mar122019March 12, 2019June 14, 20196Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Install or Update PowerShell 6 on Windows 10

How to Install and Update PowerShell 6

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019

Today Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 ship with Windows PowerShell 5.1 as the default version. PowerShell Core 6 is a new edition of PowerShell that is cross-platform (Windows, macOS, and Linux), open-source, and built for heterogeneous environments and the hybrid cloud. PowerShell 6 today is a side by side version next to Windows PowerShell 5.1. That means on Windows you cannot just upgrade to PowerShell 6, you will need to install it, same as on Linux and macOS. This blog post shows you how simple you can install PowerShell 6 or update PowerShell 6, if you have already installed it, on Windows 10, Windows Server 2019 or Linux.

One great example of how cross-platform PowerShell can work, check out my blog post: How to set up PowerShell SSH Remoting

Of course, you can find excellent documentation out there on Microsoft Docs. However, Steve Lee (Microsoft Principal Software Engineer Manager in the PowerShell Team) shared some one-liner, which helps you quickly install and update PowerShell 6.

Install PowerShell Core 6

Before showing you the one-liner option to install PowerShell 6, I want to share with you the documentation to install PowerShell Core 6 on different operating systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Read More

Nov122018November 12, 2018June 17, 20194Commentsby Thomas Maurer
WLinux WSL Setup Wizard for Windows 10

WLinux – The best WSL for Windows 10

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Virtualization, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Windows, Windows 10, Work

A couple of Windows 10 releases back, Microsoft delivered the Windows Subsystem for Linux. The Windows Subsystem for Linux allows you to run Linux distros, like Ubuntu, Debian, Suse, and others, on Windows 10. Around the Microsoft Ignite 2018 timeframe, another distro was released to the Windows Store called WLinux. WLinux is a Linux environment for Windows 10 built on work by Microsoft Research and the Debian project. WLinux is a custom Linux distro built from Debian specifically for use on the WSL. While other distros are available for WSL, WLinux is the first optimized for use by users of WSL for WSL. It helps developer run Linux tooling on Windows and integrates into perfectly into Windows.

With the latest Windows 10 Insider builds, you can also run the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2).

WLinux Setup

WLinux WSL Setup Wizard for Windows 10

WLinux comes with a custom setup to prepare your environment in a straightforward and easy wizard. It lets you set up some predefined software and settings and configure integration into Windows.

WLinux WSL Docker Bridge to Windows

WLinux Docker Bridge

If you want to run Docker in the Windows Subsystem for Linux, you can bring the Docker Client to the Windows Docker Engine. This allows you to run Docker directly from WSL and PowerShell at the same time.

Microsoft Tooling

WLinux Installing Azure CLI

Of course, WLinux brings the usual Linux development tools and easy setup for Ruby, NodeJS, Go, Java, Python, editors like emacs and even different shells. You can also easily add Microsoft tooling by adding Azure CLI, PowerShell Core, and even Visual Studio Code.

Windows Explorer Integration and WSL Utilities (wslu)

It easily lets you set up Windows Explorer integration and brings wslu, a collection of utilities for WSL, preinstalled. Wslu brings the following features to the WSL

  • wslusc This is a WSL shortcut creator to create a shortcut on your Windows 10 Desktop.
  • wslsys This is a WSL system information printer to print out some basic system information.
  • wslfetch This is a WSL Screenshot Information Tool to print information elegantly.
  • wslupath This is a WSL Windows path Converter that can convert Windows path to other styles of path.
  • wslview This is a fake WSL browser that can help you open link in default Windows browser.

WSLfetch

If you want to know more about WLinux, check out the website Whitewater Foundry.

Or download WLinux from the Microsoft Store.

You can also contribute to the project on GitHub.


Aug202018August 20, 2018March 13, 20191Commentby Thomas Maurer
AzCopy Azure and Azure Stack

Sync Azure Blob Storage with Azure Stack Blob Storage

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, PowerShell, Work

There are some scenarios where you want to sync Blob Storage on Azure with Blob Storage on Azure Stack. This easily be done using the AzCopy tool. AzCopy is a command-line utility designed to copy data to and from Microsoft Azure blob and table storage using simple commands with optimal performance. You can copy data from one object to another within your storage account, or between storage accounts in Azure as well as in Azure Stack.

You can get AzCopy on Windows and AzCopy on Linux. You should get at least AzCopy version 7.1.0. In my example I use the version 8.0.0 preview version, which also works fine. Make also sure that you have deployed a supported version of Azure Stack. Check out my blog about updating Azure Stack to get more information.

After the installation you will find the AzCopy.exe in the “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy”

How to Sync and copy files from Azure to Azure Stack

You can use AzCopy with Azure Stack as you would do in Microsoft Azure. To copy and Sync files you can use the following command. Be aware that synchronous data transfer between Azure storage and Azure Stack is not supported. There for you will need to specify the the /SyncCopy or –sync-copy parameter.

 
#Windows
 
AzCopy /Source:https://azcopywithazs.blob.core.windows.net/thomasmaurer /Dest:https://azcopywithazs.blob.azurestack.thomasmaurer.ch/thomasmaurer /SourceKey:key1 /DestKey:key2 /S /SyncCopy
 
#Linux
 
azcopy \
--source https://azcopywithazs.blob.core.windows.net/thomasmaurer/ \
--destination https://azcopywithazs.blob.azurestack.thomasmaurer.ch/thomasmaurer/ \
--source-key key1 \
--dest-key key2 \
--include "tm.txt" \
--sync-copy

Of course this works in both directions and also between two different Azure Stack storage accounts.

You can find more about AzCopy on Azure Stack on the documentation page. If you have any questions feel free to comment on the blog post. There are other great storage tools which work great with the Microsoft Hybrid Cloud environment like Visual Studio or Azure Storage Explorer. These scenarios show perfectly how Microsoft built their hybrid cloud environment. Basically you can use the same tools, processes and knowhow in the Public Cloud as well as in your datacenter.


Jun202018June 20, 2018June 19, 201917Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Create Ubuntu Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine

How to Install Ubuntu in a Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine

Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Work

If you want to install Ubuntu or any other Linux inside a Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine you need to do a simple change to the VM so you can install it from ISO.  If you create a Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine and try to start the Virtual Machine, the Virtual Machine will not boot from ISO. This is because of the Secure Boot feature, which is included in Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machines and applies to all Linux operating systems running on Hyper-V.

How to Install Linux in a Hyper-V Generation 2 VM

Create a new Virtual Machine in the Hyper-V Manager

Create Ubuntu Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine

On the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Generation selection screen, choose Generation 2

Create Ubuntu Hyper-V Generation 2 VM

Attach the Ubuntu ISO Image to the virtual machine

Attach Ubuntu ISO to Hyper-V VM

After you have created the Virtual Machine using the wizard, go into the settings of the virtual machine. Switch to the Security section and choose the Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority Secure Boot Template.

Now the Virtual Machine will boot from the Ubuntu ISO, and you can install Ubuntu.



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    My name is Thomas Maurer. I am a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. I am part of the Azure engineering team 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.
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