Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s cloud services. Azure can host virtual machines and act as a location to store files. However, Azure can do much more as well, providing an Active Directory instance, provide SQL database access, work with hosted Visual Studio, host web sites or provide BizTalk services. All of these can be managed at https://manage.windowsazure.com.
You can also manage Windows Azure from the command line on Linux, Windows or Mac. To download command line tools, visit http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/downloads/#cmd-line-tools. Once downloaded, run the package installer.
When the package is finished installing, visit /usr/local/bin where you’ll find the azure binary. Once installed, you’ll need to configure your account from the windowsazure.com site to work with your computer. To do so, log into the windowsazure.com portal.
Once logged in, open Terminal and then use the azure command along with the account option and the download verb:
azure account download
This account downloads the .publishsettings file for the account you’re logged in as in your browser. Once downloaded, run azure with the account option and the import verb, dragging the path to your .publishsettings file from https://manage.windowsazure.com/publishsettings/index?client=xplat:
azure account import /Users/krypted/Downloads/WindowsAzure-credentials.publishsettings
The account import then completes and your user is imported into azure. Once imported, run azure with the account option and then storage list:
azure account storage list
You might not have any storage configured yet, but at this point you should see the following to indicate that the account is working:
info: No storage accounts defined
info: account storage list command OK
You can also run the azure command by itself to see some neat ascii-art (although the azure logo doesn’t really come through in this spiffy cut and paste job):
info: _ _____ _ ___ ___________________
info: /_\ |__ / | | | _ \ __|
info: _ ___ / _ \__/ /| |_| | / _|___ _ _
info: (___ /_/ \_\/___|\___/|_|_\___| _____)
info: (_______ _ _) _ ______ _)_ _
info: (______________ _ ) (___ _ _)
info:
info: Windows Azure: Microsoft's Cloud Platform
info:
info: Tool version 0.7.4
help:
help: Display help for a given command
help: help [options] [command]
help:
help: Open the portal in a browser
help: portal [options]
help:
help: Commands:
help: account to manage your account information and publish settings
help: config Commands to manage your local settings
help: hdinsight Commands to manage your HDInsight accounts
help: mobile Commands to manage your Mobile Services
help: network Commands to manage your Networks
help: sb Commands to manage your Service Bus configuration
help: service Commands to manage your Cloud Services
help: site Commands to manage your Web Sites
help: sql Commands to manage your SQL Server accounts
help: storage Commands to manage your Storage objects
help: vm Commands to manage your Virtual Machines
help:
help: Options:
help: -h, --help output usage information
help: -v, --version output the application version
Provided the account is working, you can then use the account, config, hdinsight, mobile, network, sb, service, site, sql, storage or vm options. Each of these can be invoked along with a -h option to show a help page. For example, to see a help page for service:
azure service -h
You can spin up resources including sites, storage containers and even virtual machines (although you might need to create templates for VMs first). As an example, let’s create a new site using the git template:
azure site create --git
Overall, there are a lot of options available in the azure command line interface. The web interface is very simple, with options in the command line interface mirroring the options in the web interface. Running and therefore scripting around these commands is straight forward. I wrote up some Amazon stuff previously at https://krypted.com//commands/amazon-s3cmd-commands, but the azure controls are really full featured and I’m really becoming a huge fan of the service itself the more I use it (which likely means I’ll post more articles on it soon).