Azure Bicep First Look course is released!

Happy Friday friends,

Are you looking for a simpler, more efficient way to author infrastructure resources in Azure?

Azure Bicep First Look course


If so, you’re in luck. Azure Bicep is here to help. Bicep is a new domain-specific language (DSL) for deploying resources in Azure. It’s also a much cleaner, more concise language than ARM JSONβ€”cloud admins and DevOps professionals, rejoice!

Please, let me know if you need any help with my new Azure Bicep First Look course.

I am here to help you in your Cloud journey!
Stay tuned for more Azure content!

What are the good options to manage sensitive info in Azure Bicep?

Hello Cloud Marathoners,

Every seasoned IT professional knows that sensitive information should not be exposed as a clear text on any code. This is especially true for infrastructure-as-code (aka, IaC) scenarios where passwords and keys are part of the deployment.

One way to stay compliant in accomplishing this goal is the integration of an Azure Key Vault service into your deployment code. This Azure security service is primarily intended to store sensitive information like password, keys, certificates, connections, etc.

In this post, we will look into two different ways how we could integrate Azure Key Vault services in our Azure Bicep code.


Option – 1: Using getSecret() function

Our first option is to delegate this important work to a getSecret() function. This option could be used with an existing Azure Key Vault resource that is declared in your Azure Bicep code.

Let’s look into an example where an existing Azure Key Vault service is referenced to provide administrative password for SQL server deployment.

Deploying Azure SQL instance with Azure Key Vault

This sample Bicep code is using sqldb.bicep file as a module, where parameters; such as sqlServerName and adminLogin are passed through with a secret name of ExamplePassword.

The ExamplePassword secret name should be already set and ready in the referenced Key Vault service above. Here is the view of this secret on Azure portal.

Azure Key Vault with secretes in portal

Let’s have a quick view into the sqldb.bicep file, as it is referenced in the main Bicep file.

sqldb.bicep file

Now, let’s deploy these resources with a secret value from Key Vault resource that has a secret name ExamplePassword.

What happened? I am getting an error on my first deployment execution πŸ™

Error on deploying Bicep code with SQL server provisioning

Upon carefully analyzing error, I see the following reason for this error:

At least one resource deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details. Please see https://aka.ms/DeployOperations for usage details.”,”details”:[{“code”:”RegionDoesNotAllowProvisioning”,”message”:”Location ‘East US 2’ is not accepting creation of new Windows Azure SQL Database servers at this time.

Azure deployment error

Based on the error message, we change the location to eastus and re-run the script. Now, we got the following positive result in console and portal:

Deployment results in Azure Portal RG

Next, we will attempt to login into a SQL Server instance.
A successful login will look like the following screen:

Successful login into the SQL instance

Important Note:

If you are getting an error during the login then try to check the following steps:

  • adminLogin name is entered correctly
  • your IP address is added to the SQL server firewall rules
  • grab a cup of coffee and check back in 5 minutes

Description of a typical login error into a SQL server instance is provided below. I checked the firewall rules and made a cup of coffee => before getting a successful log-in πŸ™‚

Requires your location IP activation

Option -2: Referencing as a secretName in parameter

The second option is pretty straightforward, if you have already used it on ARM template deployments.

Note: Please check out the following post – Four parameterization options for your Azure Bicep deployments for detailed information on available options.

We just need to reference Azure Key Vault secret like in the following example:

Using a parameter file and referencing the Key Vault secretName will do the trick in extracting the value and provisioning your resource.

Let’s run the bicep file that deploys multiple RGs and an Azure VM that uses VMPassword secret.

Running deployment with Bicep parameter file

A successful deployment provisions following RG with the VM resources:

Next, we should smoke test our deployment by locating the resource group “rg-demo-vm-1116” and using deployment parameters to RDP into Windows server:

Finally, we are able to see that secret and admin user name pair worked as expected

Azure VM deployed using Key Vault secret

Summary

In this post, we looked into two available options that harden our infrastructure code by removing hard-coded sensitive information and replacing it with Azure Key Vault reference. Thus, avoiding any potential leaks of passwords, secrets, etc.

IMHO, first option is better than the later one, because it does not expose subscription id and other small details.

What will be your choice? Please, share on LinkedIn post comments section.

Thank you for your interest my #cloudmarathoner friends!
Please, check other Azure Bicep posts and let me know your feedback.

What is next?

All code samples and presented Bicep files are placed in “Learn-Bicep” GitHub repo πŸ‘‰ https://lnkd.in/ds-h9VQx

Please, join me to learn more about Azure Bicep πŸ’ͺ on an Omaha Azure User Group meetup scheduled to happen on November 17th.

Azure Bicep presentation for Omaha Azure User Group

Hello friends,

I am very excited to see you all in the next Omaha Azure User Group meetup. This time we will speak about the latest advancements and use cases you could apply in your Azure resource authoring toolkit.

This meeting will take place on November 17th, starting at 6 PM CST. Details of the event are posted here: https://lnkd.in/gzh_sF8e and on my LinkedIn post.

Please, make your registration at the meetup website here.


Support & Subscribe toΒ #cloudmarathonerΒ LinkedInΒ tagΒ πŸ‘πŸ‘€
Stay tuned for more Azure, Automation & Security related posts.

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴑ ᴍᴇ 🎯 α΄€Ι΄α΄… become α΄€Β #cloudmarathonerΒ β›…πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈπŸƒβ€β™€οΈ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 π‚πŽπππ„π‚π“ πŸ‘

Microsoft Ignite 2021 – Cloud Skills Challenge is back

Hello Cloud Marathoners,

As it was the case last year,Β Microsoft IgniteΒ is back and held digitally free of charge, during Nov 2-4 πŸŽ‰ πŸŽ‡

Microsoft Ignite is a signature event and held virtually for a global audience across a variety of industries to experience the latest and greatest technologies. It is an event where you could get a sneak peek at new products and services that will be coming in the future.

image
Microsoft Ignite 2021 – Cloud Skills Challenge

Cloud Skills Challenge

This year you could choose from 12 tech challenges and select the one that is right for you. Once you complete that challenge you will earn a free Microsoft Certification exam that can be applied to your choice from a select list of options:

  • Azure Developer Challenge
  • Azure Admin Challenge
  • Identity + Information Protection Challenge
  • Teams Admin Challenge
  • Teams Voice Engineer Challenge
  • Azure Database Admin Challenge
  • Desktop and Device Management Challenge
  • Windows Server Hybrid Admin Challenge
  • Dynamics 365 Sales Consultant Challenge
  • Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Mgmt Challenge
  • Power Platform Developer Challenge
  • Security Operations Analyst Challenge

When does the challenge begin?

The listed challenges will begin on November 2, 2021 and end on November 30, 2021. You can start your registration here to join the challenge.

What happens when I complete my Cloud Skills challenge?

According to the guidelines from official Cloud Skills Challenge website:

If you complete your challenge before it ends, one Microsoft Certification exam will be associated with your Learn profile on December 7, 2021. You will be notified via email when it becomes available.

A Microsoft Ignite Cloud Skills Challenge character displays their awarded medals.

What are the Terms and Conditions?

Check out the Official rules; including Terms and Conditions with FAQ in this web page.

Summary

That’s it friends, buckle up to complete your challenge before Nov 30, 2021 to earn new skills and receive a complementary Azure exam award πŸ†.

Good Luck 🀞 in your new Cloud Skills Challenge !

Festive Tech Calendar 2021 event

Hi Cloud Marathoners,

As you may know, it is that time of a year when great content will be coming to the town! You could enjoy and learn throughout the month of December, as people behind the #festivetechcalendar will be bringing you lots of new content from different communities and people around the globe.

https://festivetechcalendar.com/

This year, I have submitted two sessions and have been nicely surprised yesterday. Both sessions have been accepted and I am looking forward to deliver following sessions for the community:

Session # 1: What you need to know about Azure AD security defaults?

Accepted session – “What you need to know about Azure AD security defaults?


In this session above, we will discuss about how to get started with Azure security on right foot and its challenges. We will focus on importance of a strong Identity and Access in any cloud solution that we are creating for our customers. One simple way to get started is review and adjustment of security default options in Azure AD. We will also look into the set of practices to get you started with Azure AD setup and learn about the benefits of Azure Security Benchmark.

Session # 2: All you need to know about Azure Bicep configurations

Accepted session -“All you need to know about Azure Bicep configurations”

In the second session, we will talk about Azure Bicep – a new language that aims to ease Azure resource authoring and management. This new language comes with a powerful VS Code extension and config file options.
In this session, we will unveil dozens of powerful features in our config file to suit your style of coding on VS Code and cheer up our productivity skills. We will apply our fresh skills by creating several Bicep demos in the process. 

Conclusion

I sincerely hope that these sessions will spark your interest and I am looking forward to see you all during this event. But most importantly, I hope you could have lots of fun during this festive month.

Stay tuned for more Azure AD, Automation & Security related posts.

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴑ ᴍᴇ 🎯 α΄€Ι΄α΄… become α΄€ #cloudmarathoner β›…πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈπŸƒβ€β™€οΈ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 π‚πŽπππ„π‚π“ πŸ‘