Query Azure Resources using Python

an introduction to the easy to use Az.Cli Python interface

Az.Cli is an easy-to-use interface that lets developers and administrators query Azure using Python. If you are already familiar with the Azure CLI you should feel right at home using the Az.Cli Python package API. The interface is providing a way to interact with Azure using the well-known Azure CLI command syntax.

Read More • 14 March 2021 • 2 MIN READ

Configure Log Analytics Kubernetes LogManagement Settings

to save costs and optimize monitoring with OMS

In this post we are going to look into how you can configure your LogManagement data ingestion from Kubernetes. We will configure the OMSAgent of Kubernetes LogManagement to only ingest relevant namespaces into the Log Analytics workspace.

Read More • 31 January 2021 • 5 MIN READ

Create reusable Terraform Modules

with Tests leveraging Gruntworks Terratest

How to use Terratest to test Infrastructure as Code Terraform modules on Azure. A good practice is to use the Terraform module as a collection of Terraform resources that serves a specific purpose. In this blog post, we are going to look into how we can leverage a generic Terratest for all Azure-based Terraform modules.

Read More • 14 October 2020 • 5 MIN READ

Deploy Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using TypeScript

leveraging Cloud Development Kit (CDK) for Terraform

HashiCorp recently announced CDK for Terraform: Enabling Python and TypeScript Support - CDK stands for Cloud Development Kit, CDK enables Cloud Engineers to define their Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using programming languages like TypeScript or Python.

Read More • 23 July 2020 • 7 MIN READ

Investigate Azure Kubernetes Log Analytics Cost Drivers

If you wonder about the usage and estimated costs of your Azure Kubernetes (AKS) service log analytics or the cost for monitoring data retained and data collected seem to be extremely high this blog post will help investigate the cost drivers and help identify the source.

Read More • 7 July 2020 • 3 MIN READ

Clone Service Principal

Use a service principal to create service principals

Have you ever tried to automate the creation of an Azure application registration or service principal object? In this blog post we are going to explore how to automate the creation of Azure AD objects using a Clone Service Principal. The service principal will be able to create other Azure AD service principals.

Read More • 2 April 2020 • 10 MIN READ

Blameless Post-Mortems

What are you going to do after an incident happen? Find the one to blame…? A better idea is to create an environment where failures are accepted and appreciated. You should create an environment of learning and reinforce that failing fast and learning from mistakes is something to strive for.

Read More • 27 August 2019 • 5 MIN READ

Generate Infrastructure as Code Azure Resource Manager documentation using PowerShell

Azure Resource Manager templates are complex JSON structures. The main complaint about these templates is the difficultly to read and work with. The language service shipped with VSCode supports comments and a better syntax highlighting. However, to get a quick idea of the templates content a readable documentation is needed. In this post we are going to have a look how we can address these issue.

Read More • 26 August 2019 • 6 MIN READ

Generate Azure Resource Manager Templates Parameter files using PowerShell

And how to test PowerShell classes

How do you create a Parameter File for your Azure Resource Manager template deployment? In this post we are going to create a Parameter File generator using PowerShell Classes. Furthermore we are looking into testing and validating your PowerShell Classes implementation.

Read More • 26 August 2019 • 7 MIN READ

Publish Azure DevOps Pester Tests using a build in Test-Dashboard

When shifting-left it is important to visualize and share the impact of changes directly to team members. So have you ever wondered how you could publish your test results? Using a specific pipeline task in Azure DevOps we can create a Test Dashboard to display and share our results. We can even create bug tickets directly from our overview!

Read More • 23 August 2019 • 2 MIN READ

Integration Tests for Infrastructure As Code

How can you tell that an Azure Resource Manager template is valid and deployable? We found that you can only safely say a template is tested if you have deployed it once. In this blog post, we are exploring how to write integration tests for Infrastructure as Code.

Read More • 22 August 2019 • 8 MIN READ

Unit Tests for Infrastructure as Code

Static code analysis of Azure Resource Manager templates using Pester

Treat Infrastructure as Code development like a software engineering project. In this article we are building on top of the post “Test Infrastructure as Code”. We are looking into and digging a little deeper on how to unit test Infrastructure as Code.

Read More • 21 August 2019 • 12 MIN READ

Acceptance Tests for Infrastructure as Code

Imaging you are trying to deploy a service to Azure and want to tests whether a given resource implements the specification. In this article we are going to look into how to validate that a resource deployment has the correct settings applied.

Read More • 15 August 2019 • 8 MIN READ

Test Infrastructure as Code

Treat Infrastructure as Code development like a software engineering project. Implement existing software development practices into your infrastructure development. In this article, we are going to look into different practices regarding test implementation in an Infrastructure as Code project.

Read More • 14 August 2019 • 10 MIN READ

Hello World

This is my very first blog post to introduce you to my new site. I am going to publish content around a variety of topics from general IT-Consulting, Cloud Consulting (especially around Azure), as well as Web and Software Engineering topics. You can expect posts on automation and DevOps - focusing on PowerShell, Infrastructure as Code and Azure DevOps.

Read More • 26 July 2019 • 1 MIN READ

Cloud Automation Theory

Cloud-Automation-101

Introduction to Cloud Automation, Azure DevOps, Infrastructure As Code (IaC), PowerShell, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Unit-Testing with Pester, CI/CD Pipeline with Azure DevOps and more!

Read More • 3 October 2018 • 12 MIN READ

Error Handling and Useful Snippets

Error Prioritize Errors List All Error Members Stack Trace of Error Output Error User Output Error Dev ARM Deployment Debug Azure Resource Manager Deployment Azure Resource Manager Outputs Log complex Objects Save Session State Pester Test ScriptAnalyzer

Read More • 4 September 2018 • 3 MIN READ

VSCode Loves PowerShell

Sharing some VSCode settings and little helpers to interact with PowerShell and Azure Resource Manager templates.

Read More • 3 September 2018 • 5 MIN READ

AzureDevOps managing multiple repositories using PowerShell

```powershell function Clone-Repositories { <# .SYNOPSIS Clones a list of repositories to a specific location

Read More • 2 September 2018 • 4 MIN READ