DSC your workstation to test Windows PowerShell JEA in Azure.

Yesterday I published a step by step guide to testing Windows PowerShell Just Enough Administration, a new solution announced by Jeffrey Snover at TechEd North America.  In the post I outline how you can test JEA in a VM, and I mentioned that the VM could be in Azure.  Well, hold on to your hats.

Calling all Azure fans!  Paid subscriptions, trial accounts, and MSDN SUBSCRIBERS.   Don’t forget, if you have an MSDN subscription you have credit to use for testing in Azure!

What if told you that you can:

  • Automate provisioning a VM to Azure
  • From your workstation
  • Using Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration
  • And the VM would contain the xJEA resource with the demo scripts, ready to test

Pretty cool?  Here is the process in an abbreviated screenshot walk-through.  Check the Building Clouds Blog later this week for Part 4 in the Windows PowerShell DSC series, where we will fully expand on how to work this up yourself.

 


Install the PowerShell module that makes this possible (assuming you have installed the  Azure cmdlets and WMF 5.0 Preview already)

EDIT:  Note that the module name has changed to "xAzure",  The command should now be Install-Module xAzure.

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Next, setup the example scripts and run Create.

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Get status, install a certificate, and create a helper connection script

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Connect remotely.  Experiment with full access and run the demo scripts to create endpoints

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Connect as a JEA Operator and play

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Stay tuned to Building Clouds!