We are pleased to introduce Azure CLI v0.9.10 with support for logins via Microsoft Accounts (Live Ids). Azure CLI v0.9.10 is now available on WebPI, Mac, NPM and GitHub.

In previous versions of Azure CLI the only supported authentication schemes used Azure organizational accounts and service principals. Before this release, Azure CLI users were required to login to the Azure management portal, often using their Microsoft Account (Live Id), to create a user within their Azure Active Directory instance simply to login to Azure CLI. This flow offered an opportunity to improve the onboarding of new users to Azure CLI, so in partnership with Azure Active Directory we developed a new authentication flow for Azure CLI which enables the use of Microsoft Accounts.

Let's review the Azure CLI help for the login command:

There are now three authentication flows for Azure CLI:

1. Microsoft Accounts (Live Ids) and Organizational Accounts
   
2. Organizational Accounts (non Multi-Factor Authentication)
   
3. Service Principals (automation accounts within Azure Active Directory)
   

For more information about authentication in Azure Active Directory, please see Dushyant Gill's article, “Developer's Guide to Auth with Azure Resource Manager.”

Again, logging in with Azure CLI is as easy as