Simpler Azure Management Libraries for .NET

One C# statement to authenticate. One statement to create a virtual machine. One statement to modify an existing virtual network, etc. No more guessing about what is required vs. optional vs. non-modifiable.

https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-net/tree/Fluent

We are announcing the first developer preview release of the new, simplified Azure management libraries for .NET. Our goal is to improve the developer experience by providing a higher-level, object-oriented API, optimized for readability and writability. These libraries are built on the lower-level, request-response style auto generated clients and can run side-by-side with auto generated clients.

Azure Authentication

One statement to authenticate and choose a subscription. The Azure class is the simplest entry point for creating and interacting with Azure resources.

Azure azure = Azure.Authenticate(credFile).WithDefaultSubscription();

Create a Virtual Machine

You can create a virtual machine instance by using a Define() … Create() method chain.

Console.WriteLine("Creating a Windows VM");

var windowsVM = azure.VirtualMachines.Define("myWindowsVM")
    .WithRegion(Region.US_EAST)
    .WithNewResourceGroup(rgName)
    .WithNewPrimaryNetwork("10.0.0.0/28")
    .WithPrimaryPrivateIpAddressDynamic()
    .WithNewPrimaryPublicIpAddress("mywindowsvmdns")
    .WithPopularWindowsImage(KnownWindowsVirtualMachineImage.WINDOWS_SERVER_2012_R2_DATACENTER)
    .WithAdminUserName("tirekicker")
    .WithPassword(password)
    .WithSize(VirtualMachineSizeTypes.StandardD3V2)
    .Create();

Console.WriteLine("Created a Windows VM: " + windowsVM.Id);

Update a Virtual Machine

You can update a virtual machine instance by using an Update() … Apply() method chain.

windowsVM.Update()
     .WithNewDataDisk(10)
     .DefineNewDataDisk(dataDiskName)
          .WithSizeInGB(20)
          .WithCaching(CachingTypes.ReadWrite)
          .Attach()
     .Apply();

Management libraries unleash the power of IntelliSense in Visual Studio

Fluent interface-inspired method chains in combination with IntelliSense deliver a wizard-like developer experience by presenting required and optional methods in the right sequence. For example, once you choose a Windows virtual machine image, IntelliSense will prompt for an admin password and nothing else.

Then, IntelliSense will prompt for a password and nothing else. This will continue until you reach the minimum required to call create().

As another example, if you were to choose a Linux virtual machine image, IntelliSense would prompt for a root user name and then SSH key.

Samples

You can find plenty of sample code that illustrates key management scenarios in Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Storage, Networking, Resource Manager, Key Vault and Batch …

• Service
  • Management Scenario
• Virtual Machines
  • Manage virtual machine
  • Manage availability set
  • List virtual machine images
  • Manage virtual machines using VM extensions
  • List virtual machine extension images
• Virtual Machines – parallel execution
  • Create multiple virtual machines in parallel
  • Create multiple virtual machines with network in parallel
• Virtual Machine Scale Sets
  • Manage virtual machine scale sets (behind an Internet facing load balancer)
• Storage
  • Manage storage accounts
• Network
  • Manage virtual network
  • Manage network interface
  • Manage network security group
  • Manage IP address
  • Manage Internet facing load balancers
  • Manage internal load balancers
• Resource Groups
  • Manage resource groups
  • Manage resources
  • Deploy resources with ARM templates
  • Deploy resources with ARM templates (with progress)
• Key Vault
  • Manage key vaults
• Batch
  • Manage batch accounts

Give it a try

This is a developer preview that supports major parts of Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Storage, Networking, Resource Manager, Key Vault and Batch. You can run the samples above or go straight to our GitHub repo.

Give it a try and let us know what do you think (via e-mail or comments below), particularly –

• Usability and effectiveness of the new management libraries for .NET?
• What Azure services you would like to see supported soon?
• What additional scenarios should be illustrated as sample code?

The next preview version of the Azure Management Libraries for .NET is a work in-progress. We will be adding support for more Azure services and tweaking the API over the next few months.