Lab: Azure Automation

Deploying Configuration Management solutions to Azure

Exercise 1: Deploy compute resources

Task 1: Open the Azure portal

1. In the open browser window, navigate to the Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com).

2. When prompted, authenticate with the user account account that has the owner role in the Azure subscription you will be using in this lab.

Task 2: Open Cloud Shell

1. At the top of the portal, click the Cloud Shell icon to open a new shell instance.

   Note: The Cloud Shell icon is a symbol that is constructed of the combination of the greater than and underscore characters.

2. If this is your first time opening the Cloud Shell using your subscription, you will see a wizard to configure Cloud Shell for first-time usage. When prompted, in the Welcome to Azure Cloud Shell pane, click Bash (Linux).

   Note: If you do not see the configuration options for Cloud Shell, this is most likely because you are using an existing subscription with this course's labs. If so, proceed directly to the next task.

3. Wait for the Cloud Shell to finish its setup procedures before you proceed to the next task.

Task 3: Deploy a Linux VM

1. In the Cloud Shell pane, click the Upload/Download files icon and, in the drop-down menu, click Upload.

2. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the \allfiles\AZ-301T02\Module_03\LabFiles\Starter\ folder, select the linux-template.json file, and click Open.

3. At the Cloud Shell command prompt, type in the following command and press Enter to create a variable which value designates the name of the resource group that will contain the virtual virtual machine:

   RESOURCE_GROUP='AADesignLab1202-RG'

4. At the Cloud Shell command prompt, type in the following command and press Enter to create a variable which value designates the Azure region you will use for the deployment :

   LOCATION='southeastasia'

5. At the Cloud Shell command prompt, type in the following command and press Enter to create a new resource group:

   az group create --name $RESOURCE_GROUP --location $LOCATION

6. At the Cloud Shell command prompt, type in the following command and press Enter to deploy the Azure Resource Manager template with the specified parameters file:

   az deployment group create --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP --template-file ~/linux-template.json --parameters password=Pa55w.rd1234

7. Do not wait for the deployment to complete before you proceed to the next task.

Task 4: Deploy an Azure Automation account

1. In the upper left corner of the Azure portal, click Create a resource.

2. At the top of the New blade, in the Search the Marketplace text box, type Automation and press Enter.

3. On the Everything blade, in the search results, click Automation.

4. On the Automation blade, click Create.

5. On the Add Automation Account blade, perform the following tasks:

   • In the Name text box, type LinuxAutomation.

   • Leave the Subscription drop-down list entry set to its default value.

   • In the Resource group section, select the Create new option and then, in the text box, type AADesignLab1203-RG.

   • In the Location drop-down list, select Southeast Asia.

   • In the Create Azure Run As account section, ensure that Yes option is selected.

   • Click the Create button.

6. Wait for the provisioning to complete before you proceed to the next task.

Review: In this exercise, you created a Linux VM using an Azure Resource Manager template and provisioned an Azure Automation account from the Azure portal.

Exercise 2: Configure Azure Automation DSC

Task 1: Import Linux PowerShell DSC modules

1. In the hub menu of the Azure portal, click Resource groups.

2. On the Resource groups blade, click AADesignLab1203-RG.

3. On the AADesignLab1203-RG blade, click the newly created Azure Automation account.

4. On the LinuxAutomation blade, in the Shared Resources section on the left side of the blade, click Modules gallery.

5. On the LinuxAutomation | Modules gallery blade, perform the following tasks:

   • In the Search text box, type nx and press Enter.

   • In the search results, click the nx module.

6. On the nx blade, click the Import button at the top of the blade.

7. On the Import blade, click the OK button.

8. Wait for the import process to finish before you proceed to the next task. A status message on the nx Module blade will indicate that the module was successfully imported.

   Note: This process should take about 2 minutes.

Task 2: Create Linux DSC Configuration

1. Navigate back to the LinuxAutomation blade.

2. Back on the LinuxAutomation blade, in the Configuration Management section, click State configuration (DSC).

3. On the LinuxAutomation | State configuration (DSC) blade, click the Configurations tab.

4. On the LinuxAutomation | State configuration (DSC) blade, click the + Add button at the top of the pane.

5. On the Import blade, perform the following tasks:

   • Next to the Configuration file field, click the blue button with a folder icon.

   • In the Choose File to Upload dialog box, navigate to the \allfiles\AZ-301T02\Module_03\LabFiles\Starter\ folder.

   • Select the lampserver.ps1 file.

   • Click the Open button to close the dialog and return to the Import blade.

   • In the Name text box, accept the default entry lampserver.

   • In the Description text box, type LAMP Server configuration using PHP and MySQL.

   • Click the OK button.

6. Back in the DSC configurations pane, click Refresh and then click the newly created lampserver configuration.

7. On the lampserver Configuration blade, click the Compile button at the top of the blade. In the confirmation dialog box, click Yes to proceed with compiling the configuration.

8. Wait for the compilation task to finish. To determine the status of the compilation task, review the Status column of the Compilation jobs section of the lampserver Configuration blade.

   Note: You may need to close and re-open the blade to see the latest compilation status. This blade does not refresh automatically.

Task 3: Onboard Linux VM

1. Navigate back to the LinuxAutomation - State Configuration (DSC) blade.

2. Back on the LinuxAutomation | State Configuration (DSC) blade, click the Nodes tab.

3. On the LinuxAutomation | State configuration (DSC) blade, click the + Add button at the top of the pane.

4. On the Virtual Machines blade, click the entry representing the Linux virtual machine you deployed in the previous exercise.

5. On the virtual machine blade, click + Connect.

6. On the Registration blade, perform the following tasks:

   • Leave the Registration key setting with its default value.

   • In the Node configuration name drop-down list, select the lampserver.localhost entry.

   • Leave all remaining settings with their default values.

   • Click the OK button.

7. Wait for the connection process to complete before you proceed to the next step.

8. Navigate back to the LinuxAutomation | State Configuration (DSC) blade.

9. On the LinuxAutomation | State configuration (DSC) blade, select in the NODE section the virtual machine you deployed in the previous exercise.

   Note: You may need to refresh the blade.

10. On the virtual machine blade, click Assign node configuration.

11. On the Assign Node Configuration blade, select the node configuration lampserver.host and click the OK button.

12. Back on the LinuxAutomation | State Configuration (DSC) blade, click the Refresh button.

13. In the list of DSC nodes, verify that the Linux virtual machine has the Compliant status.

    Note: You may need to wait for up to 30 minutes for the new status to be updated.

Review: In this exercise, you created a PowerShell DSC configuration and applied the configuration to a Linux virtual machine.

Task 4: Validate Linux VM onboarding

1. In the Azure portal, open a Bash session in the Cloud Shell.

2. In the Bash session of the Cloud Shell run the following to identify installed packages (provide the password Pa55w.rd1234 when prompted):

   RESOURCE_GROUP='AADesignLab1202-RG'
   PUBLIC_IP=$(az network public-ip list --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP --query "[0].ipAddress" --output tsv)
   ssh Student@$PUBLIC_IP
   sudo yum history
   ps -aux | grep httpd
   ps -aux | grep maria
   exit

3. Close the Cloud Shell pane.

Exercise 3: Remove lab resources

Task 1: Open Cloud Shell

1. At the top of the portal, click the Cloud Shell icon to open the Cloud Shell pane.

2. At the Cloud Shell command prompt at the bottom of the portal, type in the following command and press Enter to list all resource groups you created in this lab:

   az group list --query "[?starts_with(name,'AADesignLab12')]".name --output tsv

3. Verify that the output contains only the resource groups you created in this lab. These groups will be deleted in the next task.

Task 2: Delete resource groups

1. At the Cloud Shell command prompt, type in the following command and press Enter to delete the resource groups you created in this lab

   az group list --query "[?starts_with(name,'AADesignLab12')]".name --output tsv | xargs -L1 bash -c 'az group delete --name $0 --no-wait --yes'

2. Close the Cloud Shell prompt at the bottom of the portal.

Review: In this exercise, you removed the resources used in this lab.