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Technology keeps evolving and we all know we are in the era of clouds. Many major players in cloud technology like AWS, Azure, and Google with many other names in it. Azure CLI is just a command-line interface provided by Microsoft Azure.
All are providing GUI based platforms to manage your IT infrastructures like Web Portals or you can say consoles.
These are really friendly for most of the IT infrastructure Professionals but there are thousands of professionals from UNIX Linux background who do not feel accomplished if they use GUI tools. They love using commands to get things done and having full command over what exactly they are doing and what is expected results.
Many professionals feel accomplished using command-line utilities and they are really needed to automate things. So come Command Line Interface always referred to as CLI. Azure CLI is the same.
What is Azure CLI?
Azure CLI is Microsoft’s cross-platform command-line for managing Azure CLOUD Resources. Azure CLI designed in a way to make it easy to learn and get started with easily. Azure CLI is a powerful enough great tool for automating the use of Azure Resources. The current version of the Azure CLI is 2.0.81.
Key Features of Azure CLI
-
It is cross-platform can be installed in Windows and Linux environments. -
It can be run in Docker and Azure Cloud Shell. -
It offers command-line flexibility when managing an Azure solution. -
It supports long-running operations. -
It has the ability to use one subscription for all commands, or vary subscriptions per command. -
It has the flexibility to work with multiple clouds. -
It provides configurable settings. -
It is deployed with Azure Resource Manager (ARM) deployment templates.
How to install Azure CLI
Based on your environment this procedure might be a little bit different. In our example, if your environment is connected with Azure you can install Azure CLI in your on-prem servers. Once you install you can start automation related to your Azure Cloud Environment. In the current example, we are looking at the procedure how we can install on Redhat Enterprise Linux.
You need to have python3 running on your Linux server. In the normal Redhat repository, python2.X is getting delivered. Considering more demand for the growing use of python3 in various projects across many technologies red-hat provides support for the same.
1.Validate what version of python is already running on your Linux server using below.
# rpm -qa |grep -i python*
You can easily found which version of python is already running on your server.
2.You can install Python 3 using the below command. It gets installe d with dependencies in linux server. # yum --enablerepo=* install rh-python36.x86_64 ==================================================================================== Package Arch Version Repository Size ==================================================================================== Installing: rh-python36 x86_64 2.0-1.el6 ondemand 3.2 k Installing for dependencies: rh-python36-python x86_64 3.6.3-3.el6 ondemand 54 k rh-python36-python-devel x86_64 3.6.3-3.el6 ondemand 918 k rh-python36-python-libs x86_64 3.6.3-3.el6 ondemand 7.4 M rh-python36-python-pip noarch 9.0.1-2.el6 ondemand 1.8 M rh-python36-python-setuptools noarch 36.5.0-1.el6 ondemand 585 k rh-python36-python-virtualenv noarch 15.1.0-2.el6 ondemand 1.8 M rh-python36-runtime x86_64 2.0-1.el6 ondemand 1.0 M scl-utils x86_64 20120927-29.el6_9 distro 23 k scl-utils-build x86_64 20120927-27.el6_6 ondemand 17 k Transaction Summary ==================================================================================== Install 10 Package(s) Total download size: 14 M Installed size: 54 M Is this ok [y/N]: y You can enquire about installed version of python. [[email protected] ]# rpm -qa |grep rh-python rh-python36-python-setuptools-36.5.0-1.el6.noarch rh-python36-python-3.6.3-3.el6.x86_64 rh-python36-2.0-1.el6.x86_64 rh-python36-python-libs-3.6.3-3.el6.x86_64 rh-python36-python-devel-3.6.3-3.el6.x86_64 rh-python36-runtime-2.0-1.el6.x86_64 rh-python36-python-pip-9.0.1-2.el6.noarch rh-python36-python-virtualenv-15.1.0-2.el6.noarch Once you install Python3 on linux server you need to configure it by creating links so it works as expected because you already have old version in server. # ln -s /opt/rh/rh-python36/root/usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python3.6 # ln -s /opt/rh/rh-python36/root/usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python 3. We have met pre-requirement. Now for installing Azure CLI we will be working over internet so need to make sure your server is connected to internet a nd there is no firewall blocking traffic.If so you can run below command to enable traffic though internet on port 8080.Proxy setting you can use your own based on your environment. # export http_proxy=http://proxy.xxxx.com:8080 # export https_proxy=http://proxy.xxxxx.com:8080 4. Installing Azure CLI Then import microsoft keys using below command. # rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc # umask 022 Setup Azure-cli.repo in /etc/yum.repos.d. # vi /etc/yum.repos.d/azure-cli.repo and add the below contents to the file. [azure-cli] name=Azure CLI baseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/azure-cli enabled=1 gpgcheck=1 gpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc Now change to directory where you want to download rpm package.For example /tmp. # cd /tmp # yumdownloader azure-cli You will have rpm package downloaded in /tmp.Make sure there was no error reported during yumdownloader command.Now you can install rpm with no dependency option. # rpm -ivh --nodeps azure-cli-*.rpm Make sure clean installation of azure-cli package and you are set.
5. Validate Azure CLI Functionality
login to the server as normal id and set proxy as explained above if needed. You can set .profile of your,s to avoid proxy setting every time.
# az –version
command-modules-nspkg 2.0.3
core 2.0.81
nspkg 3.0.4
telemetry 1.0.4
Python location ‘/usr/bin/python3’
Extensions directory ‘/home/user/.azure/cliextensions’
Python (Linux) 3.6.3 (default, Jan 9 2018, 10:18:08)
[GCC 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-16)]
Legal docs and information: aka.ms/AzureCliLegal
Your CLI is up-to-date.
Please let us know how we are doing: https://aka.ms/clihats
$ az account show
{
“environmentName”: “AzureCloud”,
“id”: “AZUREID”,
“isDefault”: true,
“name”: “SUBSCRIPTION”,
“state”: “Enabled”,
“tenantId”: “TENANTID”,
“user”: {
“name”: “[email protected]”,
“type”: “user”
}
}
$ az login
To sign in, use a web browser to open the page https://microsoft.com/devicelogin and enter the code A83BG7Y4V to authenticate.
Once you try to login to azure you will get a message like this. You need to open the device URL mentioned above and need to enter the code and that,s it. You can log in to azure with the defined role you can perform tasks as per the level of role you have.
Below are a few other common commands for reference while working with Azure CLI based on groups. It will have variants.
| Resource type | Azure CLI command group |
| Resource Group | az group |
| Virtual Machines | az vm |
| Storage Accounts | az storage account |
| Key Vault | az keyvault |
| Web Applications | az webapp |
| SQL Databases | az sql server |
| CosmosDB | az cosmosdb |
That,s it as of now all about Azure CLI installation and Uses. I hope you will find it really handy. If you like it request you to share as much as you can and do subscribe to our blog to get instant notification for any new post.