At Microsoft Ignite 2018, PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell became generally available. Azure Cloud Shell provides an interactive, browser-accessible, authenticated shell for managing Azure resources from virtually anywhere. With multiple access points, including the Azure portal, the stand-alone experience, Azure documentation, the Azure mobile app, and the Azure Account Extension for Visual Studio Code, you can easily gain access to PowerShell in Cloud Shell to manage and deploy Azure resources.
Improvements
Since the public preview in September 2017, we’ve incorporated feedback from the community including faster start-up time, PowerShell Core, consistent tooling with Bash, persistent tool settings, and more.
Faster start-up
At the beginning of PowerShell in Cloud Shell’s public preview, the experience opened in about 120 seconds. Now, with many performance updates, the PowerShell experience is available in about the same amount of time as a Bash experience.
PowerShell Core
PowerShell is now cross-platform, open-source, and built for heterogeneous environments and the hybrid cloud. With the Azure PowerShell and Azure Active Directory (AAD) modules for PowerShell Core, both now in preview, you are still able to manage your Azure resources in a consistent manner. By moving to PowerShell Core, the PowerShell experience in Cloud Shell can now run on a Linux container.
Consistent tooling
With PowerShell running on Linux, you get a consistent toolset experience across the Bash and PowerShell experiences. Additionally, all contents of the home directory are persisted, not just the contents of the clouddrive. This means that settings for tools, such as GIT and SSH, are persisted across sessions and are available the next time you use Cloud Shell.
Azure VM Remoting cmdlets
You have access to 4 new cmdlets, which include Enable-AzVMPSRemoting, Disable-AzVMPSRemoting, Invoke-AzVMCommand, and Enter-AzVM. These cmdlets enable you to easily enable PowerShell Remoting on both Linux and Windows virtual machines using ssh and wsman protocols respectively. This allows you to connect interactively to individual machines, or one-to-many for automated tasks with PowerShell Remoting.
Watch the “PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell general availability” Azure Friday video to see demos of these features, as well as an introduction to future functionality!
Get started
Azure Cloud Shell is available through the Azure portal, the stand-alone experience, Azure documentation, the Azure Mobile App, and the Azure Account Extension for Visual Studio Code. Our community of users will always be the core of what drives Azure and Cloud Shell.
We would like to thank you, our end-users and partners, who provide invaluable feedback to help us shape Cloud Shell and create a great experience. We look forward to receiving more through the Azure Cloud Shell UserVoice.