> Covering what Azure Runbooks are and how they are wonderful --- ## Overview What is it? *"Azure Automation delivers a cloud-based automation service that supports consistent management across your Azure and non-Azure environments. It includes process automation, configuration management, shared capabilities, and heterogeneous features."* - Microsoft [ ](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/automation/overview) Simpler terms? You can use PowerShell (or python🤮) to automate tasks within your environment. This can be your cloud environment or your on prem environment. On prem requires a bit more work to get working but its fantastic. Here we will be covering cloud specific workflows. --- ## Key Points - How to get started - Configuration - Use case --- ### How to get started This is a bit of a funny one. Well you need Azure. Azure, Azure. Not Entra. Azure the cloud resource tool like AWS. Now if you are a Microsoft shop like we are, it comes "built-in" to your tenant. Now the billing on the other hand is a different beast. When I joined our group this was taken care of by other individuals who no longer work for the department. Essentially, we have a subscription that is configured through our Dell reseller and from that we are able to be charge monthly for the services. Complicated I know. However, if you already deal with a reseller and you are in higher education you are probably use to it. --- ### Configuration Once you have your subscription ready for billing. You can move onto the move important pieces. Configuring the infrastructure. Essentially. You need a resource group: *"A resource group is a container that you use to manage related resources for an Azure solution. Using a resource group can help you to coordinate changes between resources that are related. For example, you can deploy an update to the resource group and have confidence that the resources are updated in a coordinated operation. Or, when you're finished with the solution, you can delete the resource group and know that all of the resources are deleted.*" Within the Resource group, you have the Azure Automation Account. This is where the Azure Runbooks live within. ![[Pasted image 20260320205037.png]] Here is IRL example: ![[Pasted image 20260320210043.png]] ![[Pasted image 20260320210115.png]] There are always two PowerShell scripts that show up every time. As you can see there are two different versions of PowerShell avaliable. These are either 5.1 or 7.2. If you are tackling newer API's or in general newer architecture use 7.2. If you are using for example active directory modules. You will want to use 5.1 and a hybrid worker. Without getting technical. There are some very niche technical things that can happen when running scripts. You will want to stick in one lane when doing things. When working with [[Auto Delete Devices Based on Age]] I strictly stuck with 7.2.