Automation
Azure Automation allows you to automate the creation, monitoring, deployment, and maintenance of resources in your Azure environment using a highly-available workflow execution engine. Orchestrate time-consuming, error-prone, and frequently repeated tasks against Azure and third party systems to decrease time to value for your cloud operations.
Visit the Automation page to learn more about Automation and how to get started.
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PowerShell cmdlet to get Runbook context.
It would be great if you could use in runbook code something like Get-RunbookContext to retrieve the current ResourceGroup and/or Automation Account the runbook is executing in. Then it would be much easier to locate Automation Account Assets like connections and variables without the need to hard-code them into your Runbook. The PowerShell commands available to retrieve and use assets require you to specify the ResourceGroup and Automation Account the asset is stored under.
137 votesThank you for contributing this idea. We are considering how this can be implemented in our future plans.
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Add support for ADAL SQL library
Currently it is not possible to connect to Azure SQL databases by using the ADAL option, like AD Username and Password.
Please make ADAL SQL available in powershell when running in the cloud.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/39909272/azure-automation-runbook-adal-sql-support
61 votesThank you for the feedback. The product team has noted this suggestion and will consider it if resourcing allows.
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Signed runbooks for Azure cloud platform worker
Please add support to run only signed Runbooks so that we can be sure that no modifications are made for our runbooks.
It should work not only on Hybrid worker as it is now, but also on Azure cloud platform worker.
We should be able to provide our certificates for signature checks (better via KeyVault integration).29 votesReally good feedback, I passed this on to the Automation team to review and consider for future iterations to the service. Please stay tuned.
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PowerShell Cmdlets for Watcher Tasks
No cmdlets are available to interact with watcher tasks (creating, starting, stopping, getting job status, job details, etc.).
There is no way to monitor watcher tasks to check status to ensure the watcher sandbox is running.
21 votes -
Onboard machines for Update Management from Powershell
All the ways of onboarding VMs to Update Mangement and Inventory rely on runbooks and the portal. This isn't very helpful when your environment build is completely automated.
So whilst I can create a SoftwreUpdateConfiguration in Powershell, I can't get the servers in there to be able to run it against.
19 votesYou can onboard machines using Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template, which the recommended method to bulk onboard/changes in Azure – see: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/automation/update-management/enable-from-template
Additionally, PowerShell runbook is also available to automate the onboarding – see: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/automation/update-management/enable-from-runbook
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Use new Azure API version2017-03-03-Preview in Set-AzOperationalInsightsSavedSearch to support new Kusto query
Please use new Azure API version2017-03-03-Preview in Set-AzOperationalInsightsSavedSearch to support new Kusto query instead API version-2015-03-xx. The old API doesn't support new Kusto queries and I receive errors like:
PS C:\Windows\system32> set-AzOperationalInsightsSavedSearch -ResourceGroupName rgvmosupdates -WorkspaceName VM-OS-Updates -DisplayName "TestQuery" -SavedSearchId testquery -Category "Updates" -Query 'Update | where UpdateState in~ ("needed", "not needed")' -Version 1
set-AzOperationalInsightsSavedSearch : This oms query language is not supported on current workspace anymore. The query cannot be converted to new language. Check query syntax.
At line:1 char:1
+ set-AzOperationalInsightsSavedSearch -ResourceGroupName rgvmosupdates ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-AzOperationalInsightsSavedSearch], CloudException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.Rest.Azure.CloudException,Microsoft.Azure.Commands.OperationalInsights.SetAzureOperationalInsightsSavedSearchCommandPortal is…
17 votes -
View or export Modules
The use of modules is very important in PowerShell authoring. Currently in Azure Automation, once you import a module, there is no way to view the current code that is implemented. This is challenging when you want to update a module or are troubleshooting an existing one. You can refer to source control but there is no guarantee that is what's implemented in Prod. Being able to see what is contained in a module or at least export out the zip would be helpful.
Thanks!
Christopher
16 votesThanks for the feedback Christopher! Are you interesting in the global modules or modules that you have imported yourself to Automation?
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Update Azure PowerShell Modules In New Azure Automation Accounts
When provisioning a new Azure Automation I would like to see an option where you can tell the service that you want all the Azure modules updated to their latest version. I believe this would save new users to the service pain when attempting to author Runbooks for the first time. This personally caused me 3 hours of pain. https://jacobbenson.io/index.php/2018/05/16/set-azurermvmcustomscriptextension-object-reference-not-set-to-an-instance-of-an-object/
13 votesThanks for the feedback. We are planning improvements around module management in the Automation account. We will pick up as resourcing allows.
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Powershell Cmdlets to manage Automation Patch Management
Create Powershell Cmdlets to manage Azure Automation Patch Management
12 votes -
Status on Module Import
I would really like to be able to get a status for when a module has been fully uploaded and all cmdlets have been extracted.
Currently I have to make my script sleep for a random time and not be able to extract information whether it has been fully uploaded or not.Either build a -wait property on the new-azurermautomationModule or some other thing.
10 votesWhy can’t you use the ProvisioningState property from the Get-AzureRmAutomationModule cmdlet? ProvisioningState should show as “Creating” until all the cmdlets are extracted.
As a side note since it is somewhat related. We are currently working on providing more detailed feedback in the UX on module import status so it is more apparent that the module is still extracting activities. We are also working on bubbling up underlying errors that caused activities to fail to extract.
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Make it easier to update tag values
Please provide an easier way to update the value of a single tag, on a single resource. ie. a VM
Current Method:
The current method requires you to obtain the entire hash table of tags on a resource (in my case a VM), update the value in the hash table, and then write the entire table back to the resource.Proposed:
New TAG cmdlets allowing simple adding, removing and updating of tags.Benefit:
Simplified dynamic manipulation of tags, allowing for simplified automation scripts. The challenge was that all suggestions online pointed to the tags being in an array, which we…10 votes -
Az module by default for new Automation Accounts - AzureRM is deprecated
Please stop including AzureRM module(s) by default for new Automation Accounts. AzureRM is deprecated, no updates since 2018 (1), and Automation Accounts still haven't jumped to Az module as the new default.
Also, please provide an option to remove everything AzureRM within an existing Automation Account and jump to Az. Maybe a switch back and forth AzureRM <-> Az <-> Both would be the best solution here.
10 votesThis functionality is planned to support Az modules by default considering the deprecation of AzurRM modules.
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Enable Publish-AzureWebsiteProject command in Runbooks
Please add this feature "Publish-AzureWebsiteProject" in future so that we can publish content to website from Runbooks using the package which is in azure storage container or by downloading package from storage container to Worker process locally temporary folder and then execute the command .Currently getting error while performing the option
9 votesThanks for posting this. We have a bug to track this issue.
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set-AzureRmAutomationSchedule set start time
I would like to have the option to set the start time of a schedule in Azure Automation with the CMDlet set-AzureRmAutomationSchedule.
If you create a schedule in OMS Update Management this sets a schedule in Azure Automation, I like to have control over the start time so I can set the date based on input of my script.
This gives me more control when I want to update my environments.8 votes -
Add to child jobs to have a FullLanguage mode like a main job
Currently the Azure Automation uses SQLPAL/Drawbridge technology for isolation. Because of this, only top-level jobs support FullLanguage mode. I wish to ask remove this limitation of having ConstrainedLanguage mode in a child jobs. It affects using very important data types like System.Collections.ArrayList for example and many other things.
7 votes -
Add SupportsShouldProcess (WhatIf) Support
Currently there is no way to utilize the CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess) functionality in runbooks. The current way to add this type of functionality is to create your own [bool]$WhatIf parameter and use if/else statements.
This means that existing scripts must be re-written (going a step backwards), and it adds increased complexity to runbooks.
Please automatically add the WhatIf and Confirm parameters when CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess=$True).
6 votes -
Ability to add tags to extensions
We have a policy that Requires a specific tag to be added to all the resources. When we use New-AZVM or Set-AzureRmVMBginfoExtension it doesn't let us add tag to the extensions and VM creation is failing.
4 votes -
Increase 5MB limit for CheckPoint
Many cmdlets need to be run as InlineScript. And as Checkpoint are not available in InlineScript trying to assign the returned values from an InlineScript to a variable is a solution.... sometimes.
When dealing with larger data sets, e.g. Get-MsolUser with +1000 users this no longer works because of a 5 MB limit for a Checkpoint.4 votesThanks for posting this! How large does the data set get with you are working with a function like Get-MsolUser with 1000 users? Also, how frequently do you rely one PowerShell Workflow functionality in your scripts vs. using PowerShell and making the script idempotent?
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Start/Stop Cloud Services Web/Worker Role using Azure Automation and RunBook
We have many Cloud Service Worker roles running on Dev environment. Dev team does not need them at night and on weekends. It will be awesome to have a RunBook which i could schedule to run at day end to to Stop these Worker Roles. can have another RunBook scheduled early morning to spin them back up.
4 votesRight now, you can stop an entire service using Stop-AzureService and start it using Start-AzureService. If you are looking for a more granular solution, you can delete a role instance (see msdn.microsoft.com/library/azure/dn469418.a..) and wrap this call in PS.
Can you let me know if you are looking for one of these solutions? If you are looking for a specific cmdlet that does not exist either as an Azure cmdlet or in the REST API, then I’ll move this request over to cloud services since they own adding this functionality.
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Possibility to Invoke a PS Command inside Azure VM Operating systems
Include "Invoke-AzRMVMRunCommand" cmdlet to the library, to easily run consistent scripts to stop inside servers services before Deallocating the AzureVM
3 votesThanks for the valid suggestion. Your feedback is now open for the user community to upvote & comment on. This allows us to effectively prioritize your request against our existing feature backlog and also gives us insight into the potential impact of implementing the suggested feature.
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