Microsoft Documentation: Does Microsoft follow up on User Feedback for their Documentation (Azure, Docker, ACR)?

Working through the sample code in Tutorial: Deploy and use Azure Container Registry, I noticed that a command prompt (a dollar sign) was included in a script snippet that could be copied from the aforementioned tutorial:

Clicking on the copy button copied the leading $ and the command, docker images:

$ docker images

The above issue is innocuous and most developers would immediately notice the issue when they tried to invoke "$ docket images." Still, the correct text to be copied is:

docker images

At the bottom of each page of documentation Microsoft provides feedback buttons including the This page button to provided feedback on the current page:

I submitted the issue to Microsoft and was pleasantly surprised fives hours later when Bhargavi Annadevara of Microsoft sent an email saying she had submitted a pull request (PR) to fix the issue (see below):

Azure CLI: Resource Groups, Resource Clean Up (Docker, ACR, Kubernetes, AKS)

Overview

In the post, Azure/PowerShell: Resource Groups, Resource Clean Up (Docker, ACR, Kubernetes, AKS), a demonstration on how to clean up Azure resources was given using PowerShell. The current post will present the same strategy (using the removal of an Azure resource group to clean up resources) but instead will use the Azure CLI. Bash accesses Azure using the Azure CLI. The concepts introduced in the previous post are as follows:

All source code (Azure CLI) is provided in text form in Appendix A: Source Code at the end of this post.

Azure CLI

Like Azure PowerShell, the Azure CL can be accessed using Cloud Shell which can be launched using the url, https://shell.azure.com.

Using Cloud Shell and Azure CLI a resource group can be created as follows (in location West US 2 with name rgdockerkubernetes00) using Azure CLI's az group create:

 

The code to remove the resource group is as follows using Azure CLI's az group delete:

It should be noted in the previous examples that the resource group was created at line 7 and the resource group removed at line 33. Any Azure objects (such as am ACR or AKS) created after line 7 and before line 33  for the same resource are cleaned up when the resource group is removed.

The code to create an ACR associated with resource group, rgdockerkubernetes00, is as follows using Azure CLI's az acr create:

 

The ACR will be removed when the resource group is removed.

The code to create an AKS associated with resource group, rgdockerkubernetes00, is as follows using Azure CLI's az aks create (line 17 and line 23):

 

The AKS will be removed when the resource group is removed. After line 29 code could be added in order experiment with Docker/Kubernetes. The ultimate invocation of Azure CLI's az group delete would insure that all Azure resources are cleaned up for the resource group.

A bit of explanation is needed of the above code. A Kubernetes cluster internally uses Linux virtual machines. These virtual machines require an SSH key in order to be accessed. Line 16 above detects if the key exists. If the key does not exist then Azure CLI's az aks create is invoked with the generate-ssh-keys parameter. When this parameter is specified no user response is required as the SSH keys are automatically created. The following text is generated when az aks create is invoked with the generate-ssh-keys parameter:

The generate-ssh-keys parameter was useful given this was a sample script. A more real world approach would be to create the SSH key backup the SSH key before creating the AKS. The following link from Microsoft, Quick steps: Create and use an SSH public-private key pair for Linux VMs in Azure., demonstrates how to create an SSH key.

Since the Azure CLI's az group delete cleans up the ACR and AKS resources, there is no need to explicitly invoke az acr delete or az aks delete.

Appendix A: Source Code

The Azure CLI source code for this post is as follows:

#!/bin/bash -x

resource_group_name='rgdockerkubernetes00'

acr_name='crdockerkubernetes00'

aks_name='ksdockerkubernetes00'

node_count=2

az group create \

     --name $resource_group_name \

     --location 'West US 2'

az acr create \

    --resource-group $resource_group_name \

    --name $acr_name \

    --sku Basic

if [ -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa ]; then

    az aks create \

        --resource-group $resource_group_name \

        --name $aks_name \

        --node-count $node_count \

        --attach-acr $acr_name

else    

    az aks create \

        --resource-group $resource_group_name \

        --name $aks_name \

        --node-count $node_count \

        --attach-acr $acr_name \

        --generate-ssh-keys

fi

# Manipulate Azure resources here

az group delete \

    --name $resource_group_name \

    --yes

Azure: Toggling Cloud Shell between PowerShell and Bash

Azure Cloud Shell, https://shell.azure.com, supports both PowerShell and Bash but just not both at the same time. When Cloud Shell is invoked, there is a dropdown in the upper left corner that identifies the current scripting environment. Below (see upper left) the scripting environment for Cloud Shell is PowerShell:

The term PowerShell above is a dropdown. Clicking on the dropdown allows the supported scripting of Cloud Shell to be changed to Bash (see below):

Azure/PowerShell: Resource Groups, Resource Clean Up (Docker, ACR, Kubernetes, AKS)

Overview

Developers and DevOps engineers should be conscious of the resource they create under Azure as these resources come at a cost. Engineers with MSDN subscription receive a $150 per-month in Azure credit and engineers who sign up for Azure receive a $200 credit for their first month (Create your Azure free account today) can quickly burn up their complimentary allotment. A simple approach to controlling Azure costs is to:

• Create a new Azure resource group
• Perform a development/devops task using Azure resources associated with the newly created resource group
• Delete the newly created resource group

By deleting the resource group the resources are released and hence Azure will no longer charge for said resources. 

A specific scenario using a resource group to insure Azure object clean up is:

• Create a new Azure resource group
• Create an Azure Container Registry (ACS) that would be used to manage Docker containers,
• Create an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster
• Perform specific Docker/Kubernetes tasks 
• Delete the Azure resource group thus cleaning up the ACS and the AKS

The post demonstrates the above sequence of tasks using PowerShell. All source code is provided in text form in Appendix A: Source Code at the end of this post.

PowerShell

PowerShell can access Azure from a physical or virtual host but an elegant way to access Azure with PowerShell is to login to the Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com/) and launch Cloud Shell. Once logged into the Azure Portal the button for launch Cloud Shell is highlighted by an ellipse below:

The https://shell.azure.com url brings up Cloud Shell directly.

Using Cloud Shell and PowerShell a resource group can be created as follows (in location West US 2 with name rgdockerkubernetes00) using the New-AzResourceGroup cmdlet:

The code to remove the resource group using Powershell is as follows using the Remove-AzResourceGroup cmdlet:

It should be noted in the previous examples that the resource group was created at line 6 and the resource group removed at line 37. Any Azure objects (such as a container registry or a Kubernetes service) created after line 8 and before line 37 for the same resource are cleaned up when the resource group is removed.

The code to create an ACR associated with resource group, rgdockerkubernetes00, is as follows using the New-AzContainerRegistry cmdlet:

The ACR will be removed when the resource group is removed.

The code to create an AKS associated with resource group, rgdockerkubernetes00, is as follows using the New-AzAksCluster cmdlet (line 17 and line 27):

The AKS will be removed when the resource group is removed. After line 33 code could be added in order experiment with Docker/Kubernetes. The ultimate invocation of Remove-AzResourceGroup would insure that all Azure resources are cleaned up for the resource group.

A bit of explanation is needed for the above code. A Kubernetes cluster internally uses Linux virtual machines. These virtual machines require an SSH Key in order to be accessed. Line 15 above detects if the key exists. If the key does not exist then the New-AzAksCluster cmdlet is invoked with the GeneratesSshKey parameter. When this parameter is specified a user is required to respond to the following two prompts used in creating the SSH key:

Most Azure PowerShell scripts are not meant to be run with user interaction. A practical approach would be to create the SSH key in advance and appropriately backup the SSH keys. Microsoft provides an excellent tutorial on creating an SSH key at Quick steps: Create and use an SSH public-private key pair for Linux VMs in Azure.

Since Remove-AzResourceGroup cleans up the ACR and AKS resources, there is no need to explicitly invoke Remove-AzContainerRegistry or Remove-AzAksCluster.

Appendix A: Source Code

The source code in its entirety is as follows:

[string] $resourceGroupName = 'rgdockerkubernetes00'

[string] $acrName = 'crdockerkubernetes00'

[string] $aksName = 'ksdockerkubernetes00'

[int] $nodeCount = 2

New-AzResourceGroup `

    -Name $resourceGroupName `

    -Location 'West US 2' | Out-Null

New-AzContainerRegistry `

    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `

    -Name $acrName `

    -Sku 'Basic' | Out-Null

if (Test-Path '~/.ssh/id_rsa' -PathType Leaf) {

    Write-Host 'SSH Keys Exist'

    New-AzAksCluster `

        -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `

        -AcrNameToAttach $acrName `

        -NodeCount $nodeCount `

        -Name $aksName

}

else {

    # -GenerateSshKey generates a prompt

    Write-Host 'Generate SSH Keys'

    New-AzAksCluster `

        -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `

        -AcrNameToAttach $acrName `

        -NodeCount $nodeCount `

        -Name $aksName `

        -GenerateSshKey

}

<# code here that uses Docker/Kubernetes #>

Remove-AzResourceGroup `

    -Name $resourceGroupName `

    -Force # | Out-Null

Visual Studio Code: Disabling Code References on OS/X (a.k.a. Disabling CodeLens)

In the post Visual Studio Code: Disabling Code References on Windows (a.k.a. Disabling CodeLens) it was shown how to disable CodeLens on Visual Studio Code running on Windows.The steps required to disable CodeLens on OS/X (a Macintosh) are shown in this post.

The CodeLens feature of Visual Studio Code shows (amongst other things) the number of references to a method or function such as shown below in an excerpt from the post PowerShell: Fibonacci Interview Question: 

In order to disable Visual Studio Code's CodeLens on OS/X select the Code menu from Visual Studio Code and invoke Preferences | Settings:

From the Settings dialog select the Text Editor tab and scroll down to the Code Lens checkbox:

Uncheck the Code Lens checkbox. On OS/X it is necessary to close and reopen VisuaL Studio Code in order to have the CodeLens settings changes recognized.

Docker: Installing Docker on OS/X (the final step)

The site where the Docker installer for OS/X (a Mac). can be downloaded is Install Docker Desktop on Mac. After the Docker install is run on an OS/X computer Docker is not completely installed. The Docker Desktop actually needs to be run in order to finish installing Docker.

The Docker community forums site, https://forums.docker.com/, has at least one thread on this topic, Docker:command not found after installing Docker desktop on Mac:

PowerShell: Fibonacci Interview Question

The first Fibonacci program I wrote was on my assembly language final in 1984 (PDP-11 assembly). During a DevOps interview I was asked to write an example of a Fibonacci program so I answered the question using PowerShell. The complete source code in text form can be found at the end of this post. 

An example of a Fibonacci number being computed recursively (method Recursive) and sequentially (method Iterative):

The methods, Iterative and Recursive, are hidden. The publicly visible method, Compute, is used to compute the Fibonacci number:

The SequenceRecusrsive method is a hidden method that returns a Fibonacci sequence using a recursive computation:

The SequenceIterartive method is a hidden method that returns a Fibonacci sequence using an iterative computation:

The Sequence method is publicly visible and returns a Fibonacci sequence computed using either an iterative or recursive algorithm: 

The test functions (below) verify the Fibonacci number computed and the Fibonacci sequence computed by comparing the value returned by the iterative implementation to the value returned by the recursive implementation:

Repeatedly invoking the functions TestFibonacci and TestFibonacci (see above) for values of 0, 1, 5, and 10 tests test the iterative against recursive implementations for multiple input values.

Appendix A: Source Code

Set-StrictMode -Version 3.0

class Fibonacci  {    

    hidden static [int] Recursive([int] $n) {

        if ($n -gt 1) {

            return `

              [Fibonacci]::Recursive($n - 1) + 

              [Fibonacci]::Recursive($n - 2)

        }

        else {

            return $n

        }

    }

    hidden static [int] Iterative([int] $n) {

        if ($n -le 1) {

            return $n

        }

        [int] $nMinus2 = 0

        [int] $nMinus1 = 1

        [int] $current = 0

        for ([int] $i = 2; $i -le $n; $i++)  

        {  

            $current = $nMinus2 + $nMinus1 

            $nMinus2 = $nMinus1;  

            $nMinus1 = $current

        } 

        return $current

    }

    static [int] Compute([int] $n, [bool] $isIterative) {

        if ($isIterative) {

            return [Fibonacci]::Iterative($n)

        }

        else {

            return [Fibonacci]::Recursive($n)

        }

    }

    hidden static [int[]] SequenceRecursive([int] $n) {

        [Collections.Generic.List[int]] $sequence = `

            [Collections.Generic.List[int]]::new()

        if ($n -le 1) {

            $sequence.Add($n)

            return $sequence

        }

        for ([int] $i = 0; $i -le $n; $i++) {

            $sequence.Add([Fibonacci]::Recursive($i))

        }

        return $sequence

    }

    hidden static [int[]] SequenceIterative([int] $n) {

        [Collections.Generic.List[int]] $sequence = `

            [Collections.Generic.List[int]]::new()

        if ($n -le 1) {

            $sequence.Add($n)

            return $sequence

        }

        [int] $nMinus2 = 0

        [int] $nMinus1 = 1

        [int] $current = 0

        for ([int] $i = 2; $i -le $n; $i++)  

        {  

            $sequence.Add($nMinus2)            

            $current = $nMinus2 + $nMinus1 

            $nMinus2 = $nMinus1;  

            $nMinus1 = $current

        } 

        $sequence.Add($nMinus2)            

        $sequence.Add($current)            

        return $sequence

    }

    static [int[]] Sequence([int] $n, [bool] $isIterative) {

        if ($isIterative) {

            return [Fibonacci]::SequenceIterative($n)

        }

        else {

            return [Fibonacci]::SequenceRecursive($n)

        }

    }

}

function  TestFibonacci([int] $n) {

    [int] $iterative = [Fibonacci]::Compute($n, $true)

    [int] $recursive = [Fibonacci]::Compute($n, $false)

    if ($iterative -ne $recursive) {

        throw 

            "Fibonacci n = $n " +

            "(iterative $iterative -ne recursive $recursive)"

    }

    return $iterative

}

function TestFibonacciSequence([int] $n) {

    [string] $iterative = [Fibonacci]::Sequence($n, $true)

    [string] $recursive = [Fibonacci]::Sequence($n, $false)

    if ($iterative -ne $recursive) {

        throw 

            "Fibonacci n = $n " +

            "(iterative $iterative -ne recursive $recursive)"

    }

    return $iterative

}

TestFibonacci 0

TestFibonacciSequence 0

TestFibonacci 1

TestFibonacciSequence 1

TestFibonacci 5

TestFibonacciSequence 5

TestFibonacci 10

TestFibonacciSequence 10