An updated release of the Windows Azure Service Management (WASM) Cmdlets for PowerShell is now available. These cmdlets enable developers to effectively automate and manage all services in Windows Azure such as:

• Deploy new Hosted Services
• Upgrade your Services
• Remove your Hosted Services
• Manage your Storage accounts
• Manage your Certificates
• Configure your Diagnostics
• Transfer your Diagnostics Information

Built to meet the demand for an automation API that would fit into the standard toolset for IT professionals and based on PowerShell so they can also be used as the basis for very complicated deployment and automation scripts, these cmdlets make it simple to script out deployments, upgrades, and scaling of Windows Azure applications as well as set and manage diagnostics configurations.

To learn more about these cmdlets, as well as see a few examples of how to use them for a variety of common tasks, read the blog post, “WASM Cmdlets Updated” by Ryan Dunn, technical evangelist for Windows Azure. You can also find more examples and documentation on these cmdlets by typing ‘Get-Help -full’ from the PowerShell cmd prompt.

Every call to the Service Management API requires an X509 certificate and subscription ID for the account.  To get started, you will need to upload a valid certificate to the portal and have it installed locally to your workstation.  If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, you can follow the procedure outlined in “Exercise 2 – Using PowerShell to Manage Windows Azure Applications” on the Windows Azure Channel9 Learning Center.