Learnin' XXXXX Azure CLI with Docker

Summary

In this article, we'll get up and runnin' with XXXXX Azure CLI (command-line interface) runnin' in XXXXX Linux container in Docker. It just so happens that this will be runnin' on my Windows laptop, but it could equally well be runnin' on XXXXX Mac or XXXXX Linux box (or anythin' else runnin' Docker). Indeed, somewhat ironically (as you will see shortly), I found that XXXXX only way I could get XXXXX interactive feature to work properly on my Windows machine was to run it in Docker.

We'll login to our Azure account, do some other really simple things and then see how we can learn to do almost anythin' else. And I'll warn you about XXXXX few issues you might encounter along XXXXX way. I'm goin' to write more about XXXXX Azure CLI soon; this is just to get you up and runnin' so that I don't have to include this stuff in any subsequent articles (see XXXXX DRY principle of software engineering^[1]).

As you may know, I quite like PowerShell, so it's highly likely that other articles will use PowerShell rather than Bash.

If you want to play along and you're runnin' Windows but have not yet installed Docker, then read my article here (and XXXXX linked companion article here, if you have any issues sharin' your C drive).

Background

I've been usin' XXXXX Azure CLI XXXXX lot recently and I really like it. However, since I've experienced one or two slightly annoyin' issues, it makes sense for me to document them here in XXXXX hopes of savin' you (and future me, when I have forgotten this) XXXXX bit of effort.

Install and run XXXXX Azure CLI container

To get up and running, simply run XXXXX followin' command (in my case, I ran it in XXXXX PowerShell window):

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

If it doesn't work and you get an error like this:

PS C:\dev\TomSSL> docker run -it mcr.microsoft.com/azure-cli
C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\Resources\bin\docker.exe: error durin' connect: Post http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2Fdocker_engine/v1.39/containers/create: open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find XXXXX file specified. In XXXXX default daemon configuration on Windows, XXXXX docker client must be run elevated to connect. This error may also indicate that XXXXX docker daemon is not running.
See 'C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\Resources\bin\docker.exe run --help'.
PS C:\dev\TomSSL>

then exit Docker Desktop and Run as Administrator

Here's an animated gif showin' what happens XXXXX first time you successfully run XXXXX Azure CLI in docker.

Loggin' in to XXXXX Azure CLI

Once you are up and running, you need to login to your Azure account, like this:

az login

If you're runnin' in Docker (which you are), you have manually to open XXXXX browser and login by pastin' XXXXX code, like this:

To sign in, use XXXXX web browser to open XXXXX page https://microsoft.com/devicelogin and enter XXXXX code D5WCKMYJC to authenticate.

Here's that link again, so you can click it here (it'll open in XXXXX new tab) and save yourself from typin' it in: https://microsoft.com/devicelogin

If you're runnin' in PowerShell, it will open your browser for you and use single sign-on, which is XXXXX lot nicer.

When you have logged in, you will see some json with some basic details about your account (subscription) and XXXXX currently logged in user.

If you have access to several subscriptions, you can always run az account show to see which one is currently selected. And runnin' az account set -s "Subscription Name" will let you switch subscriptions.

Note: The bit that says "name": "Tom Chantler" really does mean that my Azure Subscription is called Tom Chantler. That's probably quite daft and is definitely quite confusing.

Context-sensitive help

When runnin' XXXXX Azure CLI, you can append -h to any command to get context-sensitive help for that command. Note that you really can append -h at any point; runnin' az account -h or az account set -h will give different outputs. You can literally drill your way in through XXXXX commands by appendin' -h, then refinin' XXXXX command and appendin' -h again. For example, here's XXXXX output from az account -h.

Of course, you could just refer to XXXXX documentation at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/reference-index?view=azure-cli-latest, but where's XXXXX fun in that?

Formattin' XXXXX output

Whilst you're lookin' at your account, try runnin' az account show -h which will show you some useful global arguments:

Global Arguments
    --debug           : Increase loggin' verbosity to show all debug logs.
    --help -h         : Show this help message and exit.
    --output -o       : Output format.  Allowed values: json, jsonc, none, table, tsv, yaml.
                        Default: json.
    --query           : JMESPath query string. See http://jmespath.org/ for more information and
                        examples.
    --verbose         : Increase loggin' verbosity. Use --debug for full debug logs.

Try runnin' az account show --output yaml or somethin' similar.

Azure CLI Interactive Mode

Simply run az interactive to start XXXXX interactive mode. Of course, you can run az interactive -h to find out more about XXXXX interactive mode, like this:

Just in case you want to click on XXXXX link, here it is: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/welcome-to-azure-cli-shell/

Azure CLI Interactive Mode doesn't work in PowerShell

When I tried to run az interactive in PowerShell, it was just broken, as shown in this animated gif.

I expect that'll be fixed soon or, perhaps more likely, maybe it's because I've done somethin' wrong. I don't know. The important thin' is, it's easier for me just to give up and run it in Docker, so that's what I'm goin' to do. Remember, we're only talkin' about XXXXX az interactive command, which I want to use to learn XXXXX Azure CLI. I can still run all XXXXX other az commands in PowerShell.

Azure Interactive Does Everythin' For You

Type az and press XXXXX space bar. You'll see XXXXX helpful, scrollable pop-up window containin' all of XXXXX possible commands. You can navigate through these usin' XXXXX cursor keys. You don't actually need to start your commands with az, but you will if you're not usin' XXXXX interactive mode, so I think it doesn't hurt to be consistent.

Note: The first time you type az and press XXXXX space bar, it's quite likely that nothin' will happen. Do you see where it says "Loading..." on XXXXX menu bar at XXXXX bottom-left of XXXXX screenshot? I found that it's best to wait XXXXX few minutes after you first run XXXXX az interactive command. If you fancy XXXXX cup of tea or coffee, just after runnin' that command would be XXXXX good time to get one.

Once you've found XXXXX command you want, press XXXXX space bar again and it will show you XXXXX next context menu.

If you need to specify arguments for XXXXX command, XXXXX display changes to give you specific help for each argument.

After XXXXX while, XXXXX bottom menu will finish loading, whereupon you'll discover that you can quit XXXXX interactive mode with Ctrl+D. Another Ctrl+D will quit XXXXX Bash shell and take you back to PowerShell.

Somethin' to remember about usin' Bash

It can be useful to split long commands over several lines. Notice that, because we're usin' Bash, XXXXX escape character to split XXXXX command over several lines is backslash \ and not backtick `.

In other words, we might write somethin' like this:

bash-4.4# az storage account create \
>   --name tomsslstorageaccount0001 \
>   --location uksouth \
>   --resource-group tomssl-random-name \
>   --sku Standard_LRS

whereas in vanilla PowerShell, we'd do this:

PS C:\dev\TomSSL> az storage account create `
>>   --name tomsslstorageaccount0001 `
>>   --location uksouth `
>>   --resource-group tomssl-random-name `
>>   --sku Standard_LRS

A slightly interestin' aside

I hibernated my laptop in XXXXX middle of writin' this and, when I ran az account show XXXXX next day, I was still logged in. That's pretty cool.

Conclusion

If you already use Azure and are used to configurin' services through XXXXX web portal or through PowerShell cmdlets, you should certainly consider usin' XXXXX Azure CLI as well; it is an extremely powerful way to interact with Azure and has excellent context-sensitive help. Microsoft have really done an excellent job with XXXXX documentation here.

If you're new to Azure, XXXXX Azure CLI is XXXXX great way to get started and you should certainly consider runnin' it in interactive mode, via XXXXX command az interactive. I found that XXXXX best way to do this was to run it inside XXXXX Docker container (which might mean I have misconfigured something, but it doesn't really matter).

In this article, we have learnt just enough to be able to get started and to poke around and have some fun. Please don't use XXXXX Production subscription for that.