Infrastructure as Code (IaC) – Cloud Marathoner's Journey

August month updates from Azure Bicep

Hi friends,

This month we have awesome updates from Azure bicep team that I am happy to share with all of you (Azure community, Deployment Automation, Resource management and Governance geeks 🙂

The following list are August month updates:

Bicep Linter, Snippets, Scaffolding
Right click build
Deployment Stack updates
Bicep roadmap plans (v0.5 and eventually v1.0)
Bicep registry
OCI Artifact standardizations
Module registry functionality
Module Reference Syntax
Parameter Improvement options

Bicep Linter updates

The yellow squiggly lines indicate the Linter violations and complains where best practices are violated. Like, password param should not be checked into the code repository. Another one is using string concat function instead of string interpolation.

Right click build

The right click build on bicep file is a new convince feature that was also added on new build.

You can also use a shortcut keys Ctrl+Shift+B as an alternative way to build your JSON files from bicep files.

Scaffolding feature

This feature also arrived on a v0.4.6 build that provides required-properties to be auto populated to speed up your Azure resource coding. It is derived from a resources swagger spec and auto-populated for you. Yay!

New Code Snippets

You will love to discover that bunch of new snippets has been added.

Just type res- and you will scroll over all those starter boilplet code. Just imagine how much time you will be saving. It is Huge!!!

Bicep Roadmap annoncements

Well, Bicep team annonced that next build will bring the v0.5 and they do target v1.0 by th end of the year. What does it mean is – there will be no API level breaking changes starting from the version v1.0.

What is Next?

Keep tuned for upcoming v0.5 version. The Module registry updates and syntax updates on OCI Artifacts are going to be next Huge things, as they will add into the maturity of this AWESOME tool in Azure!

Check out for more @ GitHub – Azure/bicep: Bicep is a declarative language for describing and deploying Azure resources

Stay tuned for more Azure automation & Security related posts.

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴍᴇ 🎯 ᴀɴᴅ become ᴀ #cloudmarathoner ⛅🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓 👍

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How to check and update Azure CLI version on your workstation?

Hello friends,

I was prompted to update my CLI and wanted to share this easy experience with everyone.

There is an easy straightforward process to check & update your favourite Azure CLI in a few minutes without leaving the command line tool of your choice.

There are 2 commands that you would ever need going forward, assuming that your version of CLI is already “2.x”.

Check your az cli version

Just run the az version --help command first.

Running update on AZ CLI

Next, run the az upgrade command and press key Y when prompted to continue.

And finally, check the updated version and its extensions if needed.

In case your AZ CLI is up to date, you could always run az bicep upgrade command and get the job done.

Stay tuned for more Azure automation & Security related posts.

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴍᴇ 🎯 ᴀɴᴅ become ᴀ #cloudmarathoner ⛅🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓 👍

581 Reads

What is new in Azure Bicep v0.4?

Hello Cloud Marathoners,

I hope everyone getting a chance to enjoy the summer and spend some time with loved once.

That said – Azure Bicep team does not seem slowing down, and I love it!
New features and capabilities have been added to Azure Bicep product v0.4 version, and we will review those innovations on this post.

What is Azure Bicep?

Azure Bicep is a domain-specific language (DSL) that significantly simplifies the Azure resource authoring. It makes representation of your Azure digital estate concise with clean syntax by adding reliable type safety and code-reuse.

A typical Azure Bicep language code for an Azure storage account declaration will look as simple as the following code below – which basically explains why Bicep is called a DSL.

Why would you need it?

There are number of benefits in using Infrastructure-as-Code approach. Azure Bicep might be the right tool for you to use for Azure deployments, especially if you are trying to modernize and simplify the Azure deployment process.

Let’s look into scenarious where Bicep is the right tool to use:

✔️ Want to use language native to Azure?
✔️ Looking for fully integrated templates withing Azure platform?
✔️ Looking for fully supported product with Microsoft?
✔️ Don’t want to keep or worry about your resource state information
✔️ Looking to modernize and easy transition from JSON

Well, if your response is YES for above statements/questions then Bicep will be right tool for your solution.

New additions to Azure Bicep in version 0.4

There are numbers of enhancement and features has been added from this release. Let’s look at main Highlights of these features below:

✅ Linter MVP – The Bicep linter will inspect your code and catch a customizable set of authoring best practices.
✅ Deprecated parameter modifiers removed – Strip out deprecated parameter modifier syntax
✅ New code snippets – Suggestion with new code snippets added
✅ Bug fixes – Number of bug fixes added, thanks to community support
✅ Bicep Playground fixes – Playground doesn’t load after breaking change.
✅ Documentation and examples update
✅ Support for List method call on Azure resource references
✅ Support for JSON literal string conversion
✅ Support for using local json templates as modules
✅ Support for object body completion snippets

What is next?

There are still number of milestones in-front of Bicep team, as the versioning # of Bicep project indicates. That said, starting from Bicep version 0.3 you can get an official Microsoft support.

Below is the sneak-pick preview on what is cooking for v0.5 – which is expected to be out sometimes around August month this year.

Here is an official reference to next milestone on Azure Bicep v0.5.

Thank you for reading till this point. Stay tuned for more Azure Cloud automation and Bicep related posts.

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴍᴇ 🎯 ᴀɴᴅ become ᴀ #cloudmarathoner ⛅🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓 👍

#microsoftazure
#Bicep
#AzureBicep
#infrastructureascode
#bestpractices
#continuouslearning

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Error on Bicep module – on Azure CLI (2.22.0) for Windows 10

If you are seeing “fromisoformat” error while running az bicep version or any other az bicep command – you are not alone 🙂

Check this open issue reported on GitHub by community member – https://github.com/Azure/azure-cli/issues/17718

After updating to the latest Azure CLI (2.22.0) for Windows 10, I am now seeing the same error as others have reported:

Any command such as “az bicep version” is producing the following error:

The command failed with an unexpected error.
Here is the traceback and detailed error:
type object 'datetime.datetime' has no attribute 'fromisoformat' Traceback (most recent call last): File "D:\a\1\s\build_scripts\windows\artifacts\cli\Lib\site-packages\knack/cli.py", line 231, in invoke File "D:\a\1\s\build_scripts\windows\artifacts\cli\Lib\site-packages\azure/cli/core/commands/init.py", line 657, in execute File "D:\a\1\s\build_scripts\windows\artifacts\cli\Lib\site-packages\azure/cli/core/commands/init.py", line 720, in _run_jobs_serially File "D:\a\1\s\build_scripts\windows\artifacts\cli\Lib\site-packages\azure/cli/core/commands/init.py", line 691, in _run_job File "D:\a\1\s\build_scripts\windows\artifacts\cli\Lib\site-packages\azure/cli/core/commands/init.py", line 328, in call File "D:\a\1\s\build_scripts\windows\artifacts\cli\Lib\site-packages\azure/cli/core/init.py", line 807, in default_command_handler File "D:\a\1\s\build_scripts\windows\artifacts\cli\Lib\site-packages\azure/cli/command_modules/resource/custom.py", line 3294, in build_bicep_file File "D:\a\1\s\build_scripts\windows\artifacts\cli\Lib\site-packages\azure/cli/command_modules/resource/_bicep.py", line 63, in run_bicep_command File "D:\a\1\s\build_scripts\windows\artifacts\cli\Lib\site-packages\azure/cli/command_modules/resource/_bicep.py", line 152, in _load_bicep_version_check_result_from_cache AttributeError: type object 'datetime.datetime' has no attribute 'fromisoformat'

Is there a temp workaround?

One of the workarounds is to uninstalled Azure CLI 2.22.0 , and then install the prior version 2.21.0. You could confirm 2.21.0 version is working for you by running the same command.

Hope this will be helpful for you, as i faced with this issue hours before my demo to #GlobalAzure 2021 😐

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Are you ready to start your Bicep transformation journey in Azure?

Hello friends,

I am getting ready bits and pieces of the presentation and demo code for the #GlobalAzure 2021 event.

This is going to be my second year in a row, presenting at this global event, and I am pumped to contribute with two new sessions this year.

Feel free to check out the details of each session and links here .

Session banner for upcoming presentation on Global Azure 2021

WHY bother to transfrom your exising Azure ARM templates into Bicep?

Easy to understand and maintain code for your Azure infrastructure
Day zero support for all resource types & API versions
Nice transparent abstraction for the underlying platform
Awesome Tooling – VS Code extension for Bicep
Deep integration with other Azure Services
Preflight validation – both Bicep/ARM does preflight validation on entire template
Provides high level of confidence that your code is ‘syntactically valid’ before deploying
Support – starting from v.03, Bicep is 100% supported by Microsoft Support Plans

This time, I am looking forward to share level 200 talk and demos, where we will ALL deep dive into challenges of transforming exisiting ARM templates into Azure Bicep.

We will inspect the ARM JSON decompiler, which comes with Azure Bicep and how to make it work your way.

Stay tunes, i hope to see you all during the event!

241 Reads

Transfrom your Azure ARM into Bicep during the Global Azure 2021

Hello eveyone,
I am very happy to share exciting news with all of you.

Few days ago, i have receieved an email confirming acceptance of my both Azure sessions for the Global Azure 2021 event. I am truely trilled to present on April 16th and 17th following two sesions for eveyone live:

I am looking forward for your participiation, and tune in to learn about latest developments in Microsoft Azure.

In my first session i will share the following new session with you.

Abstract of the presentation as is:

Infrastructure as a Code (IaC) is important strategy to manage your digital estate in any cloud environment. Simplifying management of your infrastructure while re-using code is even better. In Microsoft Azure, we have ARM (Azure Resource Manager) templates that could declaratively define your cloud project infrastructure.
However, it is not easy to author ARM JSON templates and maintain them when your project grows and requires changes. In this demo heavy session, we will introduce the Azure Bicep language and demonstrate how it simplifies authoring ARM templates for your Azure infrastructure. We will author a manageable, readable, and modularized Azure infrastructure code, while using familiar tools.
TheCloudMarathoner 🙂

Please let me know, what topics are you interested in?

356 Reads

GitOps = IaC + MRs + CI/CD

The biggest benefit in using Git and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) is that you can now use continuous integration and deployment. With tools like GitHub actions, you can automatically deploy and/or update infrastructure code and automatically apply it to your cloud environment. Resources that have been added to the infrastructure code are created automatically and made ready for use.

The resources that were changed are updated in your cloud environment and resources that are removed from the infrastructure code are automatically spun down and deleted. This allows you to write code, commit it to your Git repository, and take full advantage of all the benefits of the DevOps process.

GitOps

GitOps uses a Git repository as the single source of truth for infrastructure definitions. Simply put, a Git repository is a “.git” folder in a project that tracks all changes made to files in a project. Infrastructure as code (IaC) is the practice of keeping all infrastructure configuration tracked and saved as code files. The actual desired state may or may not be stored as code, depending your approach and organizational policies.

MRs

GitOps uses merge requests as the change process for all infrastructure updates. The merge request (MR) is where teams can collaborate via reviews and comments. The MR could also have a formal approval for changes to take place. A merge commits to your “main” branch is a potential changelog for a later audit and/or troubleshooting when needed.

CI/CD

GitOps automates infrastructure updates using a Git workflow with continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD). When new code is merged, the CI/CD pipeline enacts the change in the environment. Any configuration drift, such as manual changes or errors, is overwritten by GitOps automation so the environment converges on the desired state defined in the Git.
GitHub actions uses CI/CD pipelines to manage and implement GitOps automation.

GitOps isn’t a black box anymore. It just takes IaC tools you already know and wraps them in a DevOps-style workflow. This approach provides a better revision tracking, fewer costly errors, and quick, automated infrastructure deployments that can be repeated for on any environment.

By adopting GitOps in your organization, you could improve the developer experience because often-dreaded releases become fully automated. This will allow developers to focus on their code. Teams eliminate or minimize manual steps and make deployments repeatable and reliable.

You could also improve security and standardization by utilizing GitOps.
By practicing GitOps, developers have no need to manually access cloud resources and additional security checks can be put in place at the code level in CI/CD pipelines.

I hope you like the GitOps approach and please let me know, what are you working on. Or how you could relate your work to GitOps?

285 Reads

What is “Cloud native”, how you could define it?

So what is “Cloud Native”? 🤔👀/

My approach is to hit on Re-FRESH ♻ before thinking about Cloud Native; as it is an evolving space that at minimum includes following components:

✔️ Modern Design
✔️ Microservices
✔️ Containers
✔️ Backbone Services
✔️ Automation

By the way, check out the official CNCF definition (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) definition for clarity.

Cloud-native technologies empower organizations to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds. Containers, service meshes, microservices, immutable infrastructure, and declarative APIs exemplify this approach.

These techniques enable loosely coupled systems that are resilient, manageable, and observable. Combined with robust automation, they allow engineers to make high-impact changes frequently and predictably with minimal toil.
CNCF

More on this topic 👉 https://lnkd.in/eUkgs9P #SharingIsCaring❤️

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴍᴇ 🎯 ᴀɴᴅ ꜱᴛᴀʀᴛ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅ ☁ ᴊᴏᴜʀɴᴇʏ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓 👍

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Journey to Azure DevOps Expert with a 3P mindset – People… Processes… Products

Hello my friends!

If you are looking to get some study tips on an Azure DevOps Engineer Expert certification then you landed in a right post 🙂

So why Azure DevOps as a platform for your organization’s digital transformation? Well it is build for any language, and any platform. Yes, that is 100% true statement! Run the OSS (#opensourcesoftware) tools and frameworks on it, anything you want, in addition to Microsoft stack.

This weekend, I got loaded with fresh coffee and sit to wright-down experiences and resources I have used, along the journey to become an Azure DevOps Expert.
This journey brings along a new credential in Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert. However, most importantly, it refreshes your understanding of latest developments in the DevOps ecosystem on Microsoft Azure platform.

Side note: I have been actively using Microsoft DevOps pipelines for the last 2.5 years. Having this experience provided a lot of help in understanding exam objectives and focusing on areas that I never touched.

Overall, Microsoft Expert exams are harder than Azure fundamentals and associate exams. They come with test scenarios, labs and tricky questions where you have to know the order of processes – in one way testing your real-world understanding of the processes and technologies and its interconnected components.

Earning the DevOps Engineer Expert certification demonstrates the ability to combine people, process, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end user needs and business objectives. DevOps professionals streamline delivery by optimizing practices, improving communications and collaboration, and creating automation.
Microsoft Learn

Now, as you may expect, there are tons of material out there on how to get prepared for required two exams that qualifies you to Expert certification. I took a bit stiff hill to climb 🙂 First, I went head-on with AZ-400 “Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions” exam and later focused on Azure Administrator Associate exam.

As an alternative, you could choose a developer path. It applies very well for the case, where you might already have an Azure Developer Associate certification and just need to pass AZ-400 to qualify for the DevOps Expert certification.

Study Materials and references

I primarily used Microsoft Learn – an online and free starting point to cover gaps in my knowledge and skills. by complementing it with Pluralsight videos. I have combined the following list of resources that you might find handy 🙂

In summary, the important once are listed on top. They are all very important, as you would like to keep your knowledge up to date with developments on DevOps world.

In a nutshell, I tried my best to walk you through the process, options and resources that will help you along the way. Hopefully, this brief guide will help you on your journey to prepare and become an Expert DevOps Engineer!

Meanwhile, feel free to answer the following questions:

Comment on your exam preparation approach?
What challenges are you facing or already overcame?
What helped and what did not – in setting up for a DevOps journey?

Thank you and May The 4TH Be With You!

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