Azure Cloud Shell

Bash in Azure Cloud Shell

Let us see the working of how to use Bash in Azure Cloud Shell in the Azure portal:

Start Cloud Shell

• Firstly, we will launch the cloud shell from the top navigation of the Azure portal and then select a subscription for creating a storage account and Microsoft Azure Files share.
   

• Select "Create storage"

Select the Bash environment

We will verify that the environment drop-down from the left-hand side of the shell window says Bash.

Set your subscription

• For listing the subscriptions you have access to, we will type the following command in Azure CLI: az account list
• To set your preferred subscription we will type

 

Azure CLI: az account set --subscription 'my-subscription-name'

 

Create a resource group

To Create a new resource group in WestUS named "MyRG", type the following,

Azure CLI: az group create --location westus --name MyRG

 

Create a Linux VM

Create an Ubuntu VM in your new resource group. The Azure CLI will establish SSH keys and set up the VM with them.

Azure CLI: az vm create -n myVM -g MyRG --image UbuntuLTS --generate-ssh-keys

 

SSH into your Linux VM

1. Firstly let us Search for our VM name in the Azure portal search bar.
2. Click "Connect" to get your VM name and public IP address.
    

1. SSH into your VM with the ssh cmd: ssh username@ipaddress

Cleaning up

1. Exit your ssh session by typing: exit
2. To delete your resource group and any resources within it we can use: Azure CLI: az group delete -n MyRG

PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell

Let us now see the working of how to use Powershell in Azure Cloud Shell in the Azure portal:

Start Cloud Shell

• From the top navigation bar of the Azure portal, click on the Cloud Shell button 
   

• From the drop-down, select the PowerShell environment and you will be in Azure drive
   

Run PowerShell commands

Run regular PowerShell commands in the Cloud Shell, as: 

PS Azure:\> Get-Date

 

Output:

Friday, June 26, 2022 7:08:48 AM

 

Interact with virtual machines

You can then locate all your virtual machines under the current subscription via the VirtualMachines directory.

Invoke PowerShell script across remote VMs

Considering you have a VM, MyVM1, we can use Invoke-AzVMCommand to invoke a PowerShell script block on the remote machine.

Code:

Enable-AzVMPSRemoting -Name MyVM1 -ResourceGroupname MyResourceGroup
Invoke-AzVMCommand -Name MyVM1 -ResourceGroupName MyResourceGroup -Scriptblock {Get-ComputerInfo} -Credential (Get-Credential)

 

We can also navigate to the VirtualMachines directory first and run Invoke-AzVMCommand as follows.

Code:

PSAzure:\>cdMySubscriptionName\ResourceGroups\MyResourceGroup\Microsoft.Compute\virtualMachines
PSAzure:\MySubscriptionName\ResourceGroups\MyResourceGroup\Microsoft.Compute\virtualMachines> Get-Item MyVM1 | Invoke-AzVMCommand -Scriptblock {Get-ComputerInfo} -Credential (Get-Credential)         

Interactively log on to a remote VM

You can use Enter-AzVM to interactively log into a VM running in Azure.

PS Azure:\> Enter-AzVM -Name MyVM1 -ResourceGroupName MyResourceGroup -Credential (Get-Credential)

 

You can also navigate to the VirtualMachines directory first and run Enter-AzVM as follows:

PSAzure:\MySubscriptionName\ResourceGroups\MyResourceGroup\Microsoft.Comput

 

Discover WebApps

You can easily navigate your web app resources, by entering into the WebApps directory.

SSH

To authenticate to servers or VMs using SSH, generate the public-private key pair in Cloud Shell and publish the public key to authorized_keys on the remote machine, such as /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys.

Using SSH

Before calling into New-AzVM to kick off the deployment, add the SSH public key to the VM configuration. The newly created VM will contain the public key in the ~\.ssh\authorized_keys location, thereby enabling credential-free SSH session to the VM.

List available commands

Type Get-AzCommand to get context-specific Azure commands.

Alternatively, you can also type Get-Command *az* -Module Az.* to locate the Azure commands that are available. 

Install custom modules

Run Install-Module for installing modules from the PowerShell Gallery.

Get-Help

You can type Get-Help to get additional information or help about PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell.

Azure PowerShell: Get-Help

 

For a specific command, you can still do Get-Help followed by a cmdlet.

Azure PowerShell: Get-Help Get-AzVM

 

Use Azure Files to store your data

You can create a script, and save it to your clouddrive to use it across shell sessions.

Use custom profile

We can also customize our PowerShell environment, by creating PowerShell profile(s). Then save it, so that it can be loaded in every PowerShell in Cloud Shell session.

Use Git

Create a personal access token and utilize it as the username. Once you have the token, clone the repository as follows:

Azure PowerShell: 

git clone https://<your-access-token>@github.com/username/repo.git

 

Exit the shell

Type exit to terminate the session.

Features of Azure Cloud Shell

The most common features are:

Secure automatic authentication

Cloud Shell automatically and securely authenticates account access for the Azure PowerShell and Azure CLI.

$HOME persistence across sessions

To persist files across sessions, Cloud Shell walks you through attaching an Azure file share on the first launch. Once completed, Cloud Shell will automatically attach your storage (mounted as $HOME\clouddrive) for all future sessions.

Azure drive (Azure:)

The Azure drive enables quick discovery and navigation of Azure resources such as Compute, Network, Storage, etc. similar to filesystem navigation. We can use the familiar Azure PowerShell cmdlets to manage these resources regardless of the drive you are currently in. 

Manage Exchange Online

PowerShell in Cloud Shell contains a private build of the Exchange Online module. We can run Connect-EXOPSSession to get our Exchange cmdlets.

Deep integration with open-source tooling

Cloud Shell includes pre-configured authentication for open-source tools such as Ansible, Terraform, and Chef InSpec. 

Tools in Azure Cloud Shell

The most commonly used tools are:

Linux tools

1. bash
2. zsh
3. sh
4. tmux
5. Dig

 

Azure tools

1. Azure CLI 
2. Az Copy
3. Azure Functions CLI
4. Service Functions CLI
5. Service Fabric CLI
6. Batch Shipyard

 

Text editors

1. code (Cloud Shell editor)
2. vim
3. nano
4. Emacs

 

Build tools

1. make
2. maven
3. npm
4. Pip

 

Containers

1. Docker machines
2. Kubectl
3. Helm
4. DC/OS CLI

 

Databases

1. MySQL client
2. PostgreSql client
3. Sqlcmd Utility
4. Mssql-scripter

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Azure?

Microsoft Azure, also called Azure, is a cloud computing service operated by Microsoft for application management via Microsoft-managed data centers.

Where can we use Microsoft Azure?

Azure is  commonly used as a platform for hosting databases in the cloud.

In addition, the platform is frequently used for backup and disaster recovery. Microsoft offers serverless relational databases such as Azure SQL and non-relational databases such as NoSQL.

What do you understand by cloud computing?

It is the delivery of computing services—including databases, servers, storage, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer flexible resources, faster innovation, and economies of scale.

List some services of cloud computing.

There are three main service models of cloud computing – Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

Write some use cases of Azure Cloud Shell.

Some use cases are: Application development, AI, Data and analytics, Hybrid cloud and infrastructure, Internet of Things, Security and governance.

Conclusion

I hope this article provided you with insights about Microsoft Azure, the Azure Cloud Shell, and how to set up bash and PowerShell in azure along with its various tools and features.

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