Automating Azure Infrastructure Solutions
The Azure Portal is a great management tool for your Azure resources. People like clean, modern looking, and easy-to-use graphical interface. However, when you start working on more complex Azure infrastructure solutions that involves a number of Azure resources, you will quickly realize that GUI wizards don't scale. Automation is a key to fully embrace what Azure IaaS offers in a consistent and optimal manner. It saves time and increases the reliability of regular administrative tasks. In this course, you will learn how to create and scale the most common IaaS services, and how to automate the manual, long-running, error prone, and frequently-repeated tasks that are commonly performed in a cloud.
In this course we will focus on using Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, Azure Cloud Shell, Azure Automation, Azure Automanage Machine Configuration, ARM and Bicep templates, event-based automation with PowerShell in Azure Functions, and continuous deployment using GitHub Actions.
The course includes a variety of practical exercises after each presentation.
About the instructor, Aleksandar Nikolić
Aleksandar Nikolić is a Microsoft Azure MVP and a co-founder of PowerShellMagazine.com, the ultimate online source for PowerShell enthusiasts.
As a Microsoft Azure Advisor, he provides valuable feedback and insights to the Azure engineering team. He also collaborates with Microsoft Graph and Entra ID teams. With over 18 years of experience in system administration, he is a trusted trainer and speaker who travels the globe to share his knowledge and skills on Azure, Microsoft Graph, and PowerShell. He has spoken at prestigious IT events such as Microsoft Ignite, ESPC, NIC, Techorama, and PowerShell Conference Europe.
You can find him on X/Twitter https://twitter.com/alexandair and LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandair
Audience
This course is intended for IT Professionals and developers who want to automate provisioning and management of Azure infrastructure resources.
Prerequisites
The course assumes that you have basic experience with PowerShell and some familiarity with Azure virtual machines, networking and storage.
IMPORTANT! You should have access to an Azure subscription.
Course objectives
After completion of this course, you will have a solid understanding of how to automate provisioning and management of virtual machines, VM scale sets, set up networking, manage virtual machine storage, and related Azure resources using different automation technologies in Azure.
Course outline
Module 1: Introduction to automation by using an infrastructure as code (IaC)
Module 2: Using Azure Cloud Shell / Visual Studio Code / Windows Terminal
Module 3: Azure command-line tools: Azure PowerShell and Azure CLI
Module 4: Automating Azure Networking
Module 5: Automating Azure Storage
Module 6: Automating Azure Virtual Machines and VM Scale Sets
Module 7: Azure Automation
Module 8: Azure Automanage Machine Configuration
Module 9: Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates and Bicep files
Module 10: Template specs and Deployment stacks
Module 11: Event-based automation with PowerShell in Azure Functions
Module 12: Automating architecture deployments with GitHub Actions