Halloween is over but the the world is still a scary place. In a continuation of a thought from an article I wrote a few weeks back for Auditing AzureSQL Firewall Policies, I thought I would also include a short function for auditing azure storage accounts that are currently configured for “public” access.
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I recently overhauled a script that I wrote to take advantage of the parallel processing functionality that is included in Microsoft Powershell 7. The results have been excellent with script runtimes being reduced from over an hour down to roughly 5 minutes. Learning the ins-and-outs of using parallel processing was a bit of a chore that I will discuss in a later article, however the first hurdle that had to be mounted was simply getting Powershell 7 installed and figuring out how to make use of it. Quickly getting up and running with Powershell 7 is what this article seeks to address. (more…)
I periodically review Azure PaaS resource edge security. As a part of that process I examine and cleanup AzureSQL firewall rules. Once you have more than a handful of subscriptions and AzureSQL databases, doing this manually starts becoming unfeasible. To that end, Azure Powershell is your friend…
As is typical, you need to install the Powershell AZ module on your workstation, after that you need to run.
Connect-AzAccount
Then supply your Azure credentials (preferably creds that have the ability to view and manage all of your AzureSQL databases and firewall rules, otherwise the rest is moot.
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I work on Azure Tenants that utilize multiple subscriptions in their design. I wanted to centralize my Azure Automation work and use a single Automation account. By default, I found that powershell scripts I fired off from Azure Automation work within the subscription that the Automation account was created within. But business requirements necessitate multiple subscriptions and MY requirements necessitate using a single Automation Account to simplify my life (and the lives of everyone else that I work with). A running joke is that, when it comes to IT, well-intention’d laziness is a virtue… We rebrand laziness as “simplicity,” “automation,” and/or “efficiency,” depending on the context of the conversation of course. I often say somewhat tongue-n-cheek that “you don’t want your IT department to be “busy” all the time.” An all-the-time overly busy IT department typically means that something was poorly planned and/or your network is being held together with spit and frayed ethernet cable. Anyhow, I digress…
With that groundwork laid, the goal is a Powershell automation script that can essentially “hop” subscriptions as needed. I also value modularity. Goodness knows that in the pursuit of laziness we should never do the same work twice except in the most extreme or dire circumstances. To that end, I wrote a simple function I could just drop into any script along with an additional parameter and now said script can be used across subscriptions…
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Continuing on my journey up the Azure Automation mountain, I recently completed a simple AZ PowerShell script that takes several input parameters and scales UP or scales DOWN a given AzureSQL database instance depending on what time of day it is.
Before I go any further, if you are just getting started in Azure Automation, I wrote another article here which may help you avoid some of the headaches I ran into as part of my initial foray:
Azure Automation – Powershell – Getting it Working – Authentication the “Easy” Way -and- Ditching AzureRM
BACKGROUND
Azure has excellent auto-scaling parameters built-in for scaling App Services horizontally (i.e. “out” and “in”… adding or decreasing instance count). However for vertical scaling of AzureSQL services, you are pretty much left to your own devices.
I have an “okay” amount of experience using AZ Powershell to script and get things done in my Azure Subscriptions and with that in mind and the task set in front of me of auto-scaling our AzureSQL databases based on time of day (scale up before the busy hours, scale down when the quiet hours start) I turned to Azure Automation to get the work done.
Being an IT professional of several years, I did what we all do… I turned to Google and searched for scripts I could just steal, modify, and use (I am nodding at you right now…). However, if your want to use “AZ” Powershell instead of the deprecated “AzureRM”… I think the term is… “forgetaboutit.” The templates and examples that I found were either based on Powershell “Workflows” which I didn’t want to mess with and/or used the old AzureRM Powershell syntax. So I then turned to… Powershell ISE… and started writing.
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