Azure CLI Basics
What's the advantage of using an Azure command-line tool? Azure runs on automation. Every action inside the portal translates to code being executed to read, create, modify, or delete resources. Azure command-line tools automate routine operations, standardize database failovers, and pull data that provide powerful insight. Chose the right Azure Command Line Tool You have two options when it comes to Azure command-lines: Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell. Both are cross-platform, installable on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The most significant difference is that Azure CLI runs in Windows PowerShell, Cmd, Bash, and Unix shells. Azure PowerShell requires Windows PowerShell or PowerShell to run. Choose the tool that uses your experience and shortens your learning curve but use a different tool when it makes sense. Read more about this here How to install the Azure CLI The Azure CLI is available to install in Windows, macOS and Linux environments. It can also be run in a Docker container and Azure Cloud Shell. I personally use Azure CLI in Ubuntu on WSL. Pick whatever option is best for you. View them all here Commands you should know az login Before using any Azure CLI commands with a local install, you need to sign in with az login. If you're using the Azure Cloud Shell, you don't need to login. If a browser is not available for you to sign in, use az login --use-device-code Set your subscription It's important to set the CLI to work within the subscription you want to. When you login, a default subscription is set for you but you can change that using the az account commands. az account set --subscription {subscription-name} : Will set the subscription. You must provide the name. az account list : Will give you a list of available subscriptions. az account show : will display the current set subscription The Anatomy of an Azure CLI command Prefix: All CLIs have prefixes. Azure's is az . Group: Commands are organized into command groups. Each group represents an Azure service. Subgroup: If a service has various types or services, it will have a or various subgroups. Command: An operation on the service. Arguments: Values you provide the command for context. Arguments can be required, optional, and/or global. The words arguments and parameters are often used interchangeably. az config and az init The Azure CLI allows for user configuration for settings such as logging, data collection, and default argument values. The CLI offers a convenience command for managing some defaults, az config, and an interactive option through az init. az init is an extension that is intended to quickly set up global configurations suitable for your current environment. It adjusts the same configuration file as az config and is meant to help simplify the configuration process whereas az config allows you to go a bit deeper. az init You can set defaults for the CLI with the az config set command. This command takes a space-separated list of key=value pairs as an argument. The provided values are used by the Azure CLI in place of required arguments. az config set defaults.location=eastus2 defaults.group=MyResourceGroup Interactive mode You can use Azure CLI in interactive mode by running the az interactive command. The Azure CLI interactive mode places you in an interactive shell with auto-completion, command descriptions, and examples. Finding commands and help To search for commands, use az find . For example, to search for command names containing secret, use the following command: az find secret Globally available arguments There are some arguments that are available for every Azure CLI command. --help prints CLI reference information about commands and their arguments and lists available subgroups and commands. --output changes the output format. The available output formats are Json, Jsonc (colorized JSON), tsv (Tab-Separated Values), table (human-readable ASCII tables), and yaml. By default the CLI outputs Json. --query uses the JMESPath query language to filter the output returned from Azure services. --verbose prints information about resources created in Azure during an operation, and other useful information. --debug prints even more information about CLI operations, used for debugging purposes. If you find a bug, provide output generated with the --debug flag on when submitting a bug report. Persisted Parameters Azure CLI offers persisted parameters that enable you to store parameter values for continued use. Persisted parameter values are stored in the working directory of the Azure storage account used by Azure Cloud Shell. If you are using a local install of the Azure CLI, values are stored in the working directory on your machine. # Reminder: function app and storage account names must be unique. # turn persisted parameters on az config param-persist on # Create a resource group which will store "resource group" and "location" in persisted parameter. az group create --name RGlocalContext --location westeurope # Create an Azure storage account omitting location and resource group. az storage account create \ --name sa1localcontext \ --sku Standard_LRS # Create a serverless function app in the resource group omitting storage account and resource group. az functionapp create \ --name FAlocalContext \ --consumption-plan-location westeurope \ --functions-version 2 # See the stored parameter values az config param-persist show Reference Scope Set Use az config set defaults.= Scoped globally across the CLI Set explicitly using az config set defaults.= Use for settings such as logging, data collection, and default argument values az config param-persist Scoped locally to a specific working directory Set automatically once persisted parameters are turned on Use for individual workload sequential commands. Querying The Azure CLI uses the --query parameter to execute a JMESPath query on the results of commands. JMESPath is a query language for JSON, giving you the ability to select and modify data from CLI output. The --query parameter is supported by all commands in the Azure CLI. Even when using an output format other than JSON, CLI command results are first treated as JSON for queries. CLI results are either a JSON array or dictionary. Arrays are sequences of objects that can be indexed, and dictionaries are unordered objects accessed with keys. Commands that could return more than one object return an array, and commands that always return only a single object return a dictionary. A few examples: # The following command gets the SSH public keys authorized to connect to the VM by adding a query: az vm show --resource-group rg-demo1 --name vm1 --query "osProfile.linuxConfiguration.ssh.publicKeys" # To get multiple values, put expressions separated by commas in square brackets [ ] (a multiselect list) az vm show --resource-group rg-demo1 --name TestVM --query "[name, osProfile.adminUsername, osProfile.linuxConfiguration.ssh.publicKeys[0].keyData]" # To get a dictionary instead of an array when querying for multiple values, use the { } (multiselect hash) operator. az vm show --resource-group rg-demo1 --name TestVM --query "{VMName:name, admin:osProfile.adminUsername, sshKey:osProfile.linuxConfiguration.ssh.publicKeys[0].keyData}" # To access the properties of elements in an array, you do one of two operations: flattening or filtering. Flattening an array is done with the [] JMESPath operator. All expressions after the [] operator are applied to each element in the current array. If [] appears at the start of the query, it flattens the CLI command result. az vm list --resource-group rg-demo1 --query "[].{Name:name, OS:storageProfile.osDisk.osType, admin:osProfile.adminUsername}" # We can also use filters az vm list --resource-group rg-demo1 --query "[?storageProfile.osDisk.osType=='Linux'].{Name:name, admin:osProfile.adminUsername}" --output table Formatting TSV output format The tsv output format returns tab- and newline-separated values without additional formatting, keys, or other symbols. This is useful when the output is consumed by another command. USER=$(az vm show --resource-group QueryDemo --name TestVM --query "osProfile.adminUsername") echo $USER Table output format The table format prints output as an ASCII table, making it easy to read and scan. Not all fields are included in the table, so this format is best used as a human-searchable overview of data. Fields that are not included in the table can still be filtered for as part of a query. az vm show --resource-group QueryDemo --name TestVM --query "{objectID:id}" --output tableHow Linux Works: A Primer
If you attended my session on How Linux Works, you'll be able to find my notes here. - https://publicnotes.blob.core.windows.net/publicnotes/0-how-linux-works.png Don't forget to sign up for my next session on Linux on Azure talk here https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/18178/Launch your Career: Episode 1 Cybersecurity Engineer
Missed all those certs that Sarah was discussing in today's livestream? I've attached the powerpoint presentation to this thread. I loved when Sarah talked about pursuing free/cheaper resources before you purpose expensive industry certifications. Take a look at the security learning we have Microsoft Learn or start with our Launch your Career Cloud Skills Challenge here: https://aka.ms/launchyourcareerskills Missed the livestream? We'll air a pre-record with live speaker chat Q&A Feb 7th at 9AM PT. Joylynn Kirui, Senior Security Cloud Advocate will be joining us live! https://aka.ms/launchyourcareer Have a question for any of us? Ask it here! 🙂Getting started with WSL: resources and notes
How to Get Started with WSL notes and resources: Prerequisites: Install WSL: https://aka.ms/Feb22InstallWSL1 Install a Linux distro, I recommend: https://aka.ms/Feb22InstallUbuntu1 Notes: What is WSL WSL1 vs WSL2 WSL vs Bare Metal Resources: My Ultimate PowerShell prompt with Oh My Posh and the Windows Terminal - Scott Hanselman's Blog Oh My Zsh - a delightful & open source framework for Zsh Home | Oh My Posh Get started using VS Code with WSL | Microsoft Learn Bash for Beginners - YouTubeLaunch your Career Ep 3 DevOps Engineer
Really loved Liam's demo today using GitHub Actions! Here's the project: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/introduction-to-azure-app-service/?wt.mc_id=blog_liamhampton_webpage_reactor Also we had some streaming tech difficulties during the evening (Pacific Time) airing. Here's the original livestream that was recorded earlier in the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azFK0pZ5tpU And the slides are linked below! Have a question for Liam or I? Share it here! 🙂Launch your Career Ep 5 Web Developer
What a great demo Sara shared on deploying a web app with Codespaces and GitHub Copilot. Here is the links...feel free to drop further questions in the chat too: Codespace template repo (portfolio project) - education/codespaces-project-template-js: Codespaces template for creating and deploying your own React portfolio (github.com) Copy of that repo that I demoed with - bgibbons3/my-portfolio (github.com) Eeployed portfolio that I created the Static Web App for during the demo - Educator JS Codespaces Template (2.azurestaticapps.net) Other links to free and free trial stuff if you want to build your own: https://aka.ms/azure4student GitHub Student Developer Pack - GitHub Education GitHub Copilot docs - https://github.com/features/copilot GitHub Copilot video series on Learn - Introduction to GitHub CoPilot | Microsoft LearnExploring the GitHub certifications
Achieving GitHub certification is a powerful affirmation of your skills, credibility, trustworthiness, and expertise in the technologies and developer tools utilized by over 100 million developers globally. GitHub Foundations (visit the Learning Path): highlight your understanding of the foundational topics and concepts of collaborating, contributing, and working on GitHub. This exam covers subjects such as collaboration, GitHub products, Git basics, and working within GitHub repositories. GitHub Actions (visit the Learning Path) : certify your proficiency in automating workflows and accelerating development with GitHub Actions. Test your skills in streamlining workflows, automating tasks, and optimizing software pipelines, including CI/CD, within fully customizable workflows. GitHub Advanced Security (visit the Learning Path) : highlight your code security knowledge with the GitHub Advanced Security certification. Validate your expertise in vulnerability identification, workflow security, and robust security implementation, elevating software integrity standards. GitHub Administration (visit the Learning Path) : certify your ability to optimize and manage a healthy GitHub environment with the GitHub Admin exam. Highlight your expertise in repository management, workflow optimization, and efficient collaboration to support successful projects on GitHub.DevOps Society Azure AI Agents
Hey everyone! Thanks for joining my session today at the DevOps Society London meetup in the Microsoft Reactor. Here you can find the resources that I have shared during the session and our my link. Liam Hampton LinkedIn Resources The Azure Developer CLI azd AI App Templates Azure OpenAI Assistants Responsible AI Contoso Creative Writer Example Application
