Customizing Azure Cloud Shell using a PowerShell Profile

June 12, 2020 #azure #powershell #cloudshell

After creating resources in the wrong subscription during some Azure training, I wrote Setting Subscription used inside Azure Cloud Shell. There I had used the PowerShell Get-AzContext cmdlet to determine my active Azure subscription.

PS /home/kevin> Get-AzContext | Select-Object -Property Name, Subscription, Tenant | Format-List

Name         : Windows Azure  MSDN - Visual Studio Premium (11111111-1111-4000-11111111111111111) - MSI@50342
Subscription : 1111111-1111-4000-11111111111111111
Tenant       : 00000000-0000-4000-00000000000000000

I was recently reminded about PowerShell profiles and found I could use a custom profile inside Azure Cloud Shell. If you create a script and save it under $profile.CurrentUserAllHosts, it will be loaded during every PowerShell based Azure Cloud Shell session.

PS /home/kevin> Write-Output $profile.CurrentUserAllHosts
/home/kevin/.config/PowerShell/profile.ps1

Outputting the Name property from Get-AzContext seemed like and easy way to remind myself of both the Azure subscription name and GUID as soon as I clicked on shell.azure.com

PS /home/kevin> Get-Content $profile.CurrentUserAllHosts
Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility\Write-Verbose -Verbose -Message "Active Azure Subscription = $((Get-AzContext).Name)"

Now, when starting a new Azure Cloud Shell session using PowerShell, I am greeted with a reminder of my active Azure subscription:

Requesting a Cloud Shell.Succeeded.
Connecting terminal...


MOTD: Scripts installed with 'Install-Script' can be run from the shell

VERBOSE: Authenticating to Azure ...
VERBOSE: Loading AllHosts profile ...
VERBOSE: Active Azure Subscription = Windows Azure  MSDN - Visual Studio Premium (1111111-1111-4000-11111111111111111) - MSI@50342
VERBOSE: Building your Azure drive ...
PS /home/kevin>

Notice that I decided to output using Write-Verbose with the -Verbose option to match the style of the other startup messages, instead of using Write-Output or Write-Host. Here is how they each behave.

PS /home/kevin> Write-Output "test output"
test output

PS /home/kevin> Write-Host "test host"
test host

PS /home/kevin> Write-Verbose "test verbose"
PS /home/kevin> Write-Verbose -Verbose "test verbose"
VERBOSE: test verbose
PS /home/kevin> $VerbosePreference
SilentlyContinue
PS /home/kevin> $VerbosePreference = "Continue"
PS /home/kevin> Write-Verbose "test verbose"
VERBOSE: test verbose